Community statistical programme 2008-2012

2006/0229(COD)

The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs adopted the report by Zsolt Laszlo BECSEY (EPP-ED, HU) amending - at first reading of the codecision procedure - the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Community Statistical Programme 2008 to 2012.

The main amendments adopted in the committee are as follows:

- according the committee, the programme shall be guided by the principal Community policy priorities of: (i) prosperity, competitiveness, innovation, and growth; (ii) solidarity and human development; (iii) economic, social and territorial cohesion, sustainable development and demographic challenges.

- in the production and dissemination of Community statistics, efforts should be made to promote convergence in terms of the statistical information gathered and the possibility of scientific treatment thereof;

- national authorities and the Community statistical authority shall : (a) ensure that Community statistics comply with the European quality standards and serve the needs of European Union institutional users, governments, regional and local authorities; (b) ensure that the aggregates compiled

are of a standard that makes community statistics coherent and comparable with world statistics; (c) provide, where requested and warranted, the necessary technical support in the area of statistical organisation, and enable good practice to be shared with other bodies or third countries;

- MEPs specify that the programme shall ensure continued statistical support for decisions and evaluations in current Community policy areas and provide statistical support for any additional requirements arising from new Community policy initiatives, with emphasis being placed on the reliability, quality and comparability of the statistical information;

- when preparing the annual statistical work programmes, the Commission should carry out ex-ante studies of the financial implications of any planned new statistical activities which impose additional burdens on the Member States. The programme shall also guarantee convergence in terms of the quality of the statistical material gathered and the possibility of scientific processing thereof;

- the intermediate progress report due in 2010 shall also be sent to the European Parliament and to the Council. This report shall include:

a) if appropriate, a proposal by the Commission to bring the cycle for the production of the Community Statistical Programme into line with the European Parliament's election cycle by 2014 and in accordance with any future modification of EC Treaty;

b) an analysis of the competitive effects on SMEs brought about by the proposed cuts in the administrative burden, particularly with reference to INTRASTAT data supply;

c) special attention shall be paid as part of the intended review to the issue of necessary datasets, tools and methodologies which will serve as the basis for the production of unbiased and objective analyses of the social and economic impacts of important areas which are in need of constant monitoring and review such as the Financial Perspectives, the internal market, the Common Agricultural Policy and the Stability and Growth Pact;

d) new policy areas such as innovation, energy, migration and fiscal data supply should be incorporated in the intended statistical review in 2010 to produce an unbiased objective dataset serving as a basis for evaluating developments in the new areas in question;

e) financial burden-sharing between the Community and Member State budgets related to the implementation of the programme as well as the institution capacities of the Member States should also be duly analysed taking into account the interests of the Member States that acceded to the European Union in 2004 and 2007.