Considerations on COM(2006)655 - New statistical classification of products by activity (CPA) and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) N° 3696/93

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dossier COM(2006)655 - New statistical classification of products by activity (CPA) and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) N° 3696/93.
document COM(2006)655 EN
date April 23, 2008
 
table>(1)Regulation (EEC) No 3696/93 (2) established the statistical classification of products by activity (CPA) in the European Economic Community.
(2)In order to reflect the technological development and structural changes of the economy, an up-to-date CPA should be established.

(3)The structuring of a product classification in accordance with the production activity involved avoids proliferation of unrelated coding schemes, and facilitates the identification by producers of relevant markets.

(4)There is a need to create a reference framework within which statistical data on production, consumption, external trade and transport can be compared.

(5)An up-to-date CPA is central to the Commission's ongoing efforts to overhaul Community statistics; it is expected to convey, through more comparable and relevant data, better economic governance at Community and national level.

(6)In order to function, the internal market requires statistical standards applicable to the collection, transmission and publication of national and Community statistics so that enterprises, financial institutions, governments and all other operators in the internal market can be provided with reliable and comparable statistical data. To this end, it is vital that the various categories of the CPA be interpreted uniformly in all the Member States.

(7)Reliable and comparable statistics are necessary to enable enterprises to assess their competitiveness, and are useful to the Community institutions in preventing distortions of competition.

(8)The establishment of a common statistical classification of products by economic activity does not per se oblige Member States to collect, publish or supply data. Only if the Member States use product classifications linked to the Community classification is it possible to provide integrated information with the reliability, speed, flexibility and degree of detail required for the management of the internal market.

(9)Provision should be made to enable the Member States, in order to meet their national requirements, to integrate into their national classifications additional categories based on the CPA.

(10)The international comparability of economic statistics requires that the Member States and the Community institutions use classifications of products which are directly linked to the Central Product Classification (CPC) Ver. 2, as adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission.

(11)Use of the CPA requires that the Commission be assisted by the Statistical Programme Committee established by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (3) in particular as regards examining problems arising from the implementation of the CPA and incorporating amendments to the CPA.

(12)The establishment of a new statistical classification of products implies a need to amend specifically references to the CPA. It is therefore necessary to repeal Regulation (EEC) No 3696/93.

(13)The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (4). In particular, the Commission should be empowered to amend the CPA in order to take account of technological or economic developments and align it with other economic and social classifications. Since those measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, inter alia, by supplementing it with new non-essential elements, they must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC.

(14)Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the establishment of a new CPA, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve that objective.

(15)The Statistical Programme Committee has been consulted,