Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2007)433 - Programme for the Modernisation of European Enterprise and Trade Statistics (MEETS) - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2007)433 - Programme for the Modernisation of European Enterprise and Trade Statistics (MEETS). |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2007)433  |
| date | 19-07-2007 |
- Grounds for and objectives of the proposal
Business and trade statistics are faced with major challenges in the coming years: the strong integration of world markets is changing the structure of the economy and also European integration is progressing further. Statistics have to react to these trends and have to describe new phenomena. At the same time, the administrative burden on businesses must be reduced. These two challenges are not contradictory to each other. The need for new types of indicators can go hand in hand with efforts to modernise the production system. New types of indicators providing the needed information could be obtained by using new sources of information and by linking already existing types of business statistics without the necessity to increase the reporting burden on the enterprises. But an investment is needed to exploit the potential synergies efficiently, this is the main reason for this programme.
- General context
The Commission has made a commitment to ensure a better policy on regulation, to cut unnecessary red-tape and over-regulation. As outlined in the Commission Communication on Better Regulation for Growth and Jobs in the European Union (COM (2005) 97 final of 16 March 2005), simplification of existing EU legislation (and hence a reduction in the burden on business) is one of the core issues of this policy initiative. This commitment was more specifically targeted to statistics in the Commission Communication on the Reduction of response burden, simplification and priority setting in the field of Community statistics (COM (2006) 693 final of 14 November 2006).
European companies operate under conditions of globalisation with an important role for multinational companies. Globalised markets lead to increased international competition on markets for goods and services, but also on factor markets, to which the business sector has to react in order to maintain and strengthen its position. The subject of Europe having to move up a gear economically was recently highlighted in the European Commission's 2006 Annual Progress Report on Growth and Jobs.
Globalisation and the reaction of businesses is closely interconnected and next to the internal efforts of companies to increase their performance it can have the form of relocation of industry, outsourcing of activities, foreign direct investment and other forms of foreign operations.
Economic statistics and business statistics in particular should be able to portray these processes appropriately and to provide timely and high quality statistical information on the structural changes in the European economy and its business sector. These statistics should also be appropriate for monitoring the impact of EU policies. On the other hand, any new statistics should not put any additional burden on business. These targets should be achieved with this programme.
- Existing provisions in the area of the proposal
There are three basic legal acts in this area.
Firstly, the main Regulation concerning business statistics: Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics.
Secondly, the Regulation on business registers: Council Regulation (EEC) No 2186/93 of 22 July 1993 on Community coordination in drawing up business registers for statistical purposes.
Both legislations set out the main principles of business statistics and maybe subject to revision aiming at a more efficient data collection and treatment.
For objective 4, the main reference is the Regulation on Intrastat: European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 of 31 March 2004. The MEETS programme may lead to amendments of this Regulation aiming at simplifications to achieve a less burdensome data collection for enterprises.
- Consistency with the other policies and objectives of the Union
The deepening of European integration in a number of areas, including the Monetary Union and the European Customs System, creates new statistical needs related to the role of the euro in international transactions and leads to the necessity of adjusting the statistical system.
The proposal is consistent with the Commission priorities and the initiative focussed on better regulation, and on cutting unnecessary red-tape and over-regulation which were mentioned above.
- Consultation of interested parties
Consultation methods, main sectors targeted and general profile of respondents There have been intensive consultations in the framework of the European Statistical System on a technical level in the relevant working groups and also on the level of the heads of the Statistical Offices. Secondly, there have been consultations within the Commission with the relevant Directorates General.
Summary of responses and how they have been taken into account Member States face similar problems. First of all, a changing economic environment implies changes of the statistical needs expressed by policy makers. Information on phenomena like globalisation or areas with increased importance like the services sector is highly required by all stakeholders. At the same time Member States face strong restrictions to further increase the burden on business. On the contrary, the burden on business should be lowered. The consequence is that some Member States have already started reforming their business and trade statistics fundamentally. The general response was that synergies should be exploited, coherent approaches should be worked out to avoid inefficient overlapping uncoordinated initiatives on national level which would lead to a differentiation of statistical treatment of the new phenomena rather then to a harmonised approach.
- Collection and use of expertise
There was no need for external expertise.
- Impact assessment
Option 1 (Baseline option, i.e. no Community involvement). To fully exploit the opportunities of providing the EU with better and relevant business and trade statistics and at the same time ensure a reduced burden on businesses emanating from statistics, an investment is needed before a renewed system would become operational. With no Community involvement, only a limited number of countries would make that investment, the comparability of European statistics would be weakened and the opportunities for burden reduction would not be fully exploited.
Option 2 (Community involvement as proposed). The MEETS programme will avoid duplication of efforts. New and more cost-effective data collection systems can be tested in few Member States and become applicable in all. Therefore, sharing experiences and best practices is the core of this programme. Efforts to harmonise, streamline, and regulate can best be initiated at community level at which such projects can be carried out with optimal efficienc.
Contents
- Summary of the proposed action
Firstly, it will be important to identify and agree on the new areas that are to be portrayed. Together with all stakeholders, target sets of indicators need to be defined and underpinned by methodological agreements, so that comparable data can be produced. It goes without saying that a changing environment does not only create new requirements, but also the need for a permanent review of old requirements.
Secondly, all statistics related to business should be streamlined, i.e. efforts are needed to enforce the integration of concepts and methods in business statistics. In addition, the focus might shift from a national perspective to a European perspective. This integration will include: co-ordination of the legal acts, harmonisation of the methodologies, work on the further integration and linking of statistical classifications, work on the further integration and linking of business registers and related sources, the appropriate inclusion of multinational enterprise groups into the business register and the set up of the reporting on multinational enterprise groups.
Thirdly, on the side of data collection and treatment, integration is needed as well. By either integrating all collected data into a single system, or by techniques of micro-data linking, a much more effective use of already existing information will be possible. The second pillar of the reform of the production system is the support of the use of administrative data. Governments collect quite a number of data for all kinds of purposes, tax reasons, labour market policy etc. It would be highly efficient if statistical offices did not need to collect the same data again. But a considerable effort is needed to guarantee data quality, because very often the administrative data are not available in the form needed. The third issue is to make sure that the data that still needs to be collected can be obtained easily from the company accounts. The harmonisation of the accounting standards will help to achieve this target. Finally, standard estimation techniques have to be developed to lessen the burden on business wherever possible, e.g. these techniques could be applied to estimate the information needed for the SMEs, without burdening them. To provide comparable data, a set of standards and conventions is necessary.
Fourthly, some statistical areas were already identified where simplifications are necessary. An example is Intrastat. Simplifications to the Intrastat system will continue to be carried out along the traditional lines (thresholds, ICT improvements, nomenclatures etc.). Furthermore the potential will be investigated of switching to a single flow system. This could reduce the burden considerably, while at the same time maintaining the most important information. To make sure that such a transition is carried out in the most effective way and that quality of statistical information is ensured, a careful steering of this transition is needed. The effects of such a change and its full implementation in Member States should therefore also be one of the objectives of the new programme.
- Legal basis
Article 285 EC Treaty.
- Subsidiarity principle
The subsidiarity principle applies insofar as the proposal does not fall under the exclusive competence of the Community.
The objectives of the proposal cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States for the following reason(s).
Some Member States would have invested in the modernisation of business and trade statistics in an uncoordinated way producing results that are not comparable to other EU Member States and where the aggregation to European aggregates would be problematic. Some Member States would not have taken appropriate actions, lagging behind in modern developments in areas like globalisation, and would therefore be missing in the European picture. Efforts would be duplicated, similar exercises would be carried out in several Member States, mistakes would be repeated. If some Member States had successfully modernised their system of business and trade statistics, the marginal costs to implement the same system in other Member States are much smaller than developing a completely new system, an uncoordinated approach would result in a situation, where potential savings were not realised.
Community action will better achieve the objectives of the proposal for the following reason(s).
To fully exploit the opportunities of providing the EU with better and relevant business and trade statistics and at the same time ensure a reduced burden on businesses emanating from statistics, an investment is needed before a renewed system would become operational. The MEETS programme will avoid duplication of efforts. New and more cost-effective data collection systems can be tested in few Member States and become applicable in all. Therefore, sharing experiences and best practices is the core of this programme. Efforts to harmonise, streamline, and regulate can best be initiated at community level at which such projects can be carried out with optimal efficiency.
The main purpose of this programme is that an investment is needed such that new statistical requirements can be taken on board with less burden on enterprises by a more efficient use of data and processes. The adaptation of the statistical requirements to both new and to outdated needs of EU statistics indicates the achievement of the first aspect. In some areas of trade and business statistics there are already burden measurements available. EU wide indicators would show the decrease of the burden ceteris paribus.
The proposal is limited to exploiting synergies and avoiding double, and therefore inefficient efforts. The regular statistical data production will be not be supported by this programme, but the 're-engineering' of business and trade statistics will be supported to guarantee a co-ordinated and efficient approach.
The proposal therefore complies with the subsidiarity principle.
- Proportinality principle
Proportionality principle The proposal complies with the proportionality principle for the following reason(s).
The proposed Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council is providing a framework for the main objectives and the actions related to the programme. The concrete annual work programme will be voted upon by Member States via comitology. In many cases the support of the individual actions will be given in form of grants to Member States, therefore Member States have control of the actions.
There is the financial burden on the Community as indicated in the budget of the programme, there will be administrative burden on Commission services and national statistical offices. There is no additional burden on business foreseen. At the end of the programme statistical data should be collected in an even less burdensome way.
Proposed instruments: other.
Other means would not be adequate for the following reason(s). The programme should have as basis a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council, setting the framework. The annual work programme will be adopted by the Commission after being subject to comitology.
The following amounts will be used during the programme (in million EUR): 2008 (5.00), 2009 (6.50), 2010 (11.50), 2011 (9.00), 2012 (6.50), 2013 (4.00). Over 2008-2013 the programme will have a budget of 42.50 million €.
European Economic Area The proposed act concerns an EEA matter and should therefore extend to the European Economic Area.