European system of national and regional accounts in the European Community (ESA 95)

When presenting the amendments adopted by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, the rapporteur pointed out that the most important amendments related to: greater emphasis on transparency, the ending of additional time periods for the transfer of data by Member States beyond 1 January 1995, and measures designed to prevent normal rules of confidentiality from standing in the way of the objectives of comparability and compatibility of statistical data for the ESA. In her response Commissioner Bjerregaard emphasised that the harmonisation of statistics would improve information and the comparability of data. As that would make it easier to assess the coordination of economic policies, it would also help to prepare for Economic and Monetary Union. Moreover, she felt that it would be difficult to depart from the timetable in the initial proposal. She stated the Commission had reservations about most of the amendments.