Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2010)53 - Amendment of Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 as regards the quality of statistical data in the context of the excessive deficit procedure

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dossier COM(2010)53 - Amendment of Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 as regards the quality of statistical data in the context of the excessive deficit ...
source COM(2010)53 EN
date 15-02-2010
The basis for the EU fiscal surveillance system is laid down in the Treaties and further specified in EU legislation, notably through the requirements to the quality of fiscal statistics for the purpose of the excessive deficit procedure (EDP) exercise. Quality of data in the fiscal statistics framework relies primarily on the correct implementation by the Member States of the legal acts relevant in the context of the EDP, such as Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 i (ESA 95) and Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 i establishing the statistical reference system for standards, definitions and accountancy provisions. The Commission has been entrusted with the task of supervising the quality of the reported fiscal data. Article 8 i of Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 sets forth that the Commission (Eurostat) shall regularly assess the quality both of actual data reported by Member States and of the underlying government sector accounts compiled according to ESA 95. Quality of actual data means compliance of such data with accounting rules, as well as completeness, reliability, timeliness, and consistency of the statistical data. Further, according to Article 8 i of Regulation (EC) No 479/2009, Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat), as promptly as possible, with the relevant statistical information requested for the needs of the data quality assessment, without prejudice to the provisions relating to statistical confidentiality.

Following the Greek case in 2004, and a subsequent request by the Council to strengthen the monitoring of the quality of the reported fiscal data, the Commission proposed in 2005 the amendments to the legislation in force, i.e. Council Regulation (EC) No 3605/93, governing the quality of EDP data. The amendments in the Commission’s proposal of 2005 i sought to increase the transparency of the EDP-related statistics, and, to that end, to strengthen the powers of Eurostat with respect to data quality. In particular, the Commission proposed to establish 'in-depth monitoring visits'. Coupled with a general requirement for Member States to provide the Commission (Eurostat) with access to the information required for the purposes of the data quality assessment, the proposal was seeking for strengthened competence related to the quality of data. However, the additional tools provided to the Commission by the Council Regulation (EC) No 2103/2005 i were more limited than initially requested. In particular, there is no general obligation for Member States to provide the Commission (Eurostat) with access to all the information requested for the purposes of the data quality assessment and the scope of the methodological visits (only conducted in one Member State since the adoption of the legislation) is confined to the purely statistical domain.

Recent developments and, in particular, the Greek government deficit and debt statistics notified in October 2009 i, have revealed and made these limitations more acute and have demonstrated that the current system for fiscal statistics does not mitigate, to the extent necessary, the risk of, for instance, incorrect or inaccurate data being notified to the Commission.

Without an action to countervail this weakness, such instances of non-compliance with the rules by individual Member States will hence continue to compromise the reliability of the governance system by its participants at both European and Member States’ levels. For that reason, it is at this stage both appropriate and policy-consistent to propose certain modifications of the governance framework for fiscal statistics. The purpose of the amended regulation is to allow the Commission and Member States to work more effectively together in improving the quality and reliability of government finance statistics, based on a two-pillar approach: first, more frequent and comprehensive regular statistical visits in the context of the standard EDP procedure; second, where a risk-based assessment identifies specific and significant problems, Eurostat may conduct additional methodological visits.

To tackle the existing weaknesses, the Commission, therefore, deems it necessary to propose supplementing the existing rules in order to strengthen data monitoring mechanisms. However, the methodological visits will only be undertaken in cases where substantial risks or potential problems with the quality of the data are identified, as it is also currently the case pursuant to existing legal framework.

Insofar as Eurostat, as a statistical authority, must be able to actually verify the figures provided, there is a need to supplement the current framework in several regards. In particular, there is a need for the recognition of the right for Eurostat to directly examine public accounts where there are substantial doubts about the reliability of the statistical data submitted by a national statistical authority – together with the corresponding obligation of national authorities to keep and make available all of the relevant sources of information. Furthermore, there is a need for Member States to ensure the assistance of experts in national accounting, including for the preparation and undertaking of the methodological visits.