The Council noted the stage reached in the discussions on the proposal for a directive on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea. Basically, the document proposes that Member States produce statistics on shipping that are harmonised across the different countries and coordinated with existing statistics on the carriage of goods by road, rail and inland waterway. By this means the proposal aims to contribute to the development, follow-up, monitoring and evaluation of the internal shipping market. The Permanent Representatives Committee was instructed to expedite its discussions, in the light of the opinion to be delivered by Parliament, so that the Council could adopt the Directive at its next meeting in June 1995.