21 Statistics
| (a)
(31518)
8898/10
COM (10) 132
(b)
(31772)
11743/10
COM (10) 346
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Draft Regulation on European environmental economic accounts
Commission Report on the mid-term evaluation of the Community Statistical Programme 2008-2012
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| Legal base | (a) Article 338 TFEU; co-decision; QMV
(b) —
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| Documents originated | (a) 9 April 2010
(b) 30 June 2010
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| Deposited in Parliament | (a) 25 June 2010
(b) 6 July 2010
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| Department | Office for National Statistics
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| Basis of consideration | (a) EM of 15 September 2010
(b) EM of 17 September 2010
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| Discussion in Council | Not known
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
21.1 In order to ensure the consistency and comparability of statistical
information in the EU, Decision No. 1578/2007/EC on the Community
Statistical Programme 2008-2012 established a five-year EU statistical
programme which identifies the approaches, the main fields and
the objectives of the actions envisaged in respect of policy priorities.
The Decision requires the Commission to make an interim report
on the programme no later than June 2010.
21.2 Environmental accounts are "satellite accounts"
to the main National Accounts, that is extensions to the National
Accounts which allow for analysis of the wider impact of economic
change, in this case the interaction of the economy with the environment.
The accounts use similar concepts to those employed in the National
Accounts and reflect the recommended EU and United Nations frameworks
for developing such accounts. The Decision establishing the Community
Statistical Programme 2008-2012 makes a clear reference to the
need for high quality statistics and accounts in the domain of
the environment. Under the annexed main programme initiatives
for 2008 to 2012 the Decision says that 'legal bases will be developed,
where appropriate, for core areas of environmental data collection
not currently covered by legal acts'.
The documents
21.3 The draft Regulation, document (a), would establish
a common framework for the collection, compilation, transmission
and evaluation of the EU environmental economic accounts. The
Regulation would:
- encompass three modules —
air emissions accounts, environmentally related taxes and economy-wide
material flow accounts; and
- operate in place of the current gentlemen's agreement
with National Statistical Institutes, in order to promote provision
of the harmonised, timely and high-quality statistics required
to inform environmental and sustainability policy.
21.4 In its Report, document (b), the Commission
evaluates, in accordance with Decision No. 1578/2007/EC, the first
two years of the Community Statistical Programme 2008-2012. The
Commission says that:
- around 90% of the programme's
objectives are on track and likely to be delivered by the end
of 2012;
- financial constraints affecting EU National Statistical
Institutes may hinder progress in the second half of the programme;
- some matters have already been realised, including
stabling the European Statistical Governance Advisory Board, the
Energy Statistics Regulation and a more user-friendly Eurostat
website;
- other objectives had not started, including the
development of indicators for analysing the performance of logistics
and inter-modal transport, the implementation of an updated classification
system for National Accounts and development of a methodology
for assessing the quality of regional data;
- the European Statistical System had demonstrated
its capacity to deal with the statistical consequences of the
financial crisis in the areas of macroeconomic and social statistics
— this had been achieved through issue of decisions on the
statistical treatment of government interventions and provision
of appropriate economic and labour market indicators;
- a number of cross-cutting initiatives were being
implemented, including building of a multinational enterprise
group register, a Regulation on the exchange of confidential data
between Eurostat and the European System of Central Banks and
efforts to standardise data transmission tools and metadata;
- there had been good work in building relationships
with stakeholders, balancing costs and benefits and monitoring
compliance;
- a number of cross-sectional initiatives were
being implemented, including development of structural indicators
(to support the Lisbon Strategy), sustainable development indicators,
enlargement strategies to build statistical capacity and measuring
the progress of societies;
- it recommends that the second half of the Community
Statistical Programme should focus on a more efficient production
and dissemination method for EU statistics and strengthening of
the European Statistics Code of Practice to improve quality and
trust in EU;
- bringing the Greek statistical system into line
with EU requirements is important;
- it has a number of recommendations for the future,
including building stronger links between multi-annual and annual
programming, balancing demands and resources to shape a workable
vision for the next decade; and
- new needs for statistical information will need
to be defined and these must be delivered appropriately, with
due consideration to a strong partnership in the European Statistical
System, effective cost-burden analysis and prioritisation and
the right resources to implement the programme.
The Government's view
21.5 The Minister for the Cabinet Office (Francis
Maude) says that the Government fully supports adoption of the
proposed Regulation, document (a). He comments that the Government
particularly welcomes the priority given to the regular production
of a core set of accounts and approves the proposal to focus on
three key modules in the first instance — air emissions
accounts, environmentally related taxes and economy-wide material
flow accounts. The Minister adds that these accounts are well
established, have clear policy application and represent no additional
burden and that the UK has well established Environmental Economic
Accounts which are used to inform sustainable development policy,
to model impacts of fiscal or monetary measures and to evaluate
the environmental impacts of different sectors of the economy.
21.6 The Minister says that the Government is content
with the Commission Report on the Community Statistical Programme
2008-2012, document (b), and that there are no direct policy implications
resulting from it. He comments further that the Government:
- welcomes the statement about
needing to keep the right balance between the programme objectives
and the deteriorating resource position of many National Statistical
Institutes;
- would like, however, to see less focus on what
more is to be done and more focus on stopping EU statistical requirements
through effective user consultation and prioritisation of outputs;
- supports the proposed cost-benefit analyses across
each statistical domain and efforts to improve communications
on how EU statistics are being used by the Commission and other
users — it is important that such communications demonstrate
real decision making concerning data use priorities and not just
contain general statements;
- is not convinced that the legislative measures
introduced to reduce the statistical costs of the programme were
as significant as the Report claims — simplification measures
largely resulted in bringing legislation together rather than
realising real savings;
- further improvements could be made to the user-friendly
nature of the Eurostat website;
- is committed to fulfilling its statutory obligations,
including the statistical outputs it is required to produce under
EU legislation; and
- will continue to press for the realisation of
these recommendations through its representation on the European
Statistical System Committee, the Economic and Finance Committee
Sub-committee on Statistics and other EU statistical fora at all
levels.
Conclusion
21.7 Given the importance of both ensuring the
quality of statistical data and avoiding excessive burdens on
those providing such data we draw these documents to the attention
of the House. However they raise no issues that we wish to examine
with the Government and we clear them from scrutiny.
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