Expiry of the ECSC Treaty: prolongation of the statistics

PURPOSE : to prolong the ECSC steel statistics system after the expiry of the ECSC Treaty. CONTENT : the European Coal and Steel Community is set to expire on 23 July 2002. The termination of the ECSC has implications on the collection of statistics relating to iron and steel in the European Community. In spite of the expiry of the ECSC in July, the Commission policy units, national ministries and industry have sought to ensure that key statistics on steel should continue to be made available. The purpose of the proposed Regulation is thus to continue the collection of data on iron and steel for the period beginning 24 July 2002 - 31 December 2002. This allows for the collection of statistics for the complete year 2002 without a mid-year break. The proposed Regulation covers 22 existing iron and steel statistics questionnaires, of which. fourteen monthly questionnaires covering topics such as, the production of pig iron, crude steel production etc. There will be one quarterly questionnaire on stocks of ingots, semi-finished, flat and long steel products. Lastly, there are seven annual questionnaires covering topics such as the consumption of raw materials for production of crude iron, consumption of raw material in steel works etc. The proposed Regulation has the support of Eurostat's steel statistics committee, national statistical institutes and the large majority of Member States.�