The European Parliament adopted by 569 votes to 6, with 27 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 and repealing 11 legal acts in the field of national accounts.
The European Parliament adopted its position at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure by amending the proposal as follows:
Objective
The objective of the Regulation is to create common statistical standards that allow the production of harmonised national accounts data for general comparability at EU level.
Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which established the revised European System of Accounts (ESA 2010), contains the reference framework for common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules to enable the compilation of Member States' accounts for the statistical requirements of the Union, in order to obtain comparable results between Member States.
The proposed regulation would (i) amend the references to the classification of individual consumption by purpose (COICOP) in Annex A to take account of the 2018 update of COICOP and (ii) update the transmission programme of national accounts data and related metadata (set out in Annex B) should be updated to take into account changing user needs, NextGenerationEU, and new policy priorities, and the development of new economic activities in the Union.
It is also planned to repeal 11 legal acts relating to the previous European System of Accounts (ESA 1995), as these acts are no longer relevant.
Derogations
Since the implementation of this Regulation will require major adaptations to national statistical systems, the Commission should grant derogations to Member States. Such derogations should be temporary and granted for a maximum duration of three years. The Commission should provide support to the Member States concerned in their efforts to carry out the required adaptations to their statistical systems so that the derogations can be discontinued as soon as possible.
Review clause
By 31 March 2024, the Commission (Eurostat) will submit to the European Parliament and to the Council a report evaluating the progress made on the statistical accounts of the institutions and bodies of the Union, including on the ESA 2010 net lending / net borrowing and the outstanding Maastricht debt liabilities. Based on that report, the Commission may submit, if appropriate, a legislative proposal.
Entry into force and application
The Regulation will apply from 1 September 2024, coinciding with the agreed timing for harmonised national accounts benchmark revisions in Member States. This does not prevent Member States from compiling their statistics in accordance with the amended Annexes before that general application date.
In order to ensure sufficient time for the adaptation to new transmission requirements, any new obligation to transmit metadata on structural information should apply from 1 September 2025, even though those metadata may already voluntarily be transmitted before that date.
Next generation
In the context of important initiatives taken by the Union, such as NextGenerationEU and the Recovery and Resilience Facility, Union statistics should properly reflect the statistical accounts of the institutions and bodies of the Union. Therefore, technical work should be pursued for that purpose, so that a robust methodology is developed allowing for the compilation and dissemination of statistical accounts by the Commission (Eurostat), including the ESA 2010 net lending / net borrowing and the outstanding Maastricht debt liabilities.
Increasing the availability of more detailed data
The amended text underlines the importance of data on information and communication technologies equipment to support the analysis and the policymaking in the context of priority policies relating to digitalisation and the European Green Deal, which aim to reinforce competitiveness and further development of new technologies. Similarly, data on land underlying buildings and structures are important for the analysis of investment and wealth at Union level.
The Commission (Eurostat) and national statistical authorities should pursue the methodological work undertaken in this area in recent years with a view to increasing the availability of more detailed data in the context of the future revision of the European system of national and regional accounts.
In addition, periodic updates are needed to take into account the interaction between globalisation, the green and digital transitions and national accounts in order to provide decision-makers with the necessary data and knowledge to ensure competitiveness, financial stability, budgetary resilience, sound public finances and fair tax policy.
2025 revision
The revision of the System of National Accounts 2008 in 2025 will provide an opportunity to update the internationally agreed concepts, definitions, classifications and accounting rules in order to address global challenges related to climate change, security, inequality, sustainability and well-being and will be instrumental in supporting policymakers in taking informed decisions to foster economic, social and territorial cohesion, reduce social and gender inequalities and catalyse the green and digital transitions.
The Commission should therefore regularly provide the required information and discuss with the European Parliament and the Council the revision of the System of National Accounts 2008 before its conclusion planned for 2025.