12 Statistics
| (35302)
13516/13
COM(13) 578
| Draft Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No. 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to trading of goods between Member States as regards conferring of delegated and implementing powers upon the Commission for the adoption of certain measures, the communication of information by the customs administration, the exchange of confidential data between Member States and the definition of statistical value
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| Legal base | Article 338 TFEU; co-decision; QMV
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| Department | Office for National Statistics
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| Basis of consideration | Minister's letter of 24 March 2014
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| Previous Committee Report | HC 83-xvi (2013-14), chapter 13 (9 October 2013)
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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
12.1 Regulation (EC) 223/2009, commonly referred
to as the "European Statistical Law", is the framework
legislation for the European Statistical System (ESS), comprising
the Commission's statistical office (Eurostat) and producers of
official statistics in Member States. All other legislation under
which EU statistics are produced must be made in accordance with
the European Statistical Law.
12.2 Regulation (EC) 638/2004 concerns statistics
on the trading of goods between Member States. It contains pre-Lisbon
Treaty provisions about the comitology powers of the Commission.
The Commission's comitology committee for statistics is the European
Statistical System Committee (ESSC), which oversees the full range
of EU statistics and of which the UK's National Statistician is
a member.
12.3 This draft Regulation would replace the comitology
provisions in Regulations (EC) 638/2004 with powers allowing the
Commission to adopt delegated and implementing acts. For statistics,
a delegated act, on which the ESSC advises, can be used to amend
the detail of requirements to ensure that data collected remained
topical and relevant. The proposal includes a clause restricting
the scope of the changes, as follows: "The Commission should
ensure that these delegated acts do not impose a significant additional
administrative burden on the Member States or on the respondent
units." A statistics implementing act is used to ensure a
common approach among Member States to implementing aspects of
the Regulations' requirements. An implementing act can only be
adopted with the agreement of Member States through QMV in the
ESSC.
12.4 The draft Regulation would also make some
additional changes in order to improve the production of intra-EU
trade statistics in respect of quality and coverage, the exchange
of confidential data for statistical purposes only and the comparability
of intra-EU and extra-EU trade statistics.
12.5 When we considered this proposal in October
2013 we heard, in relation to the comitology proposals, that:
· intra-EU and extra-EU trade statistics
are important for national and EU policy making;
· the draft Regulation would allow definitions
to be updated quickly to reflect changing practices in the sectors
and user needs; and
· it would streamline decision-making processes
and allow for better prioritisation across all statistical activities
and strategic oversight by those responsible for the coordination
of all official statistics in Member States (that is the heads
of National Statistical Institutions).
12.6 However, we heard also that:
· there was a risk that the Commission would
use delegated acts to force the UK and other Member States to
collect additional data or in ways which the Government felt to
be unnecessary or at disproportionate cost;
· the Government would, therefore, seek
amendments to the proposals that ensure that any such risks would
be minimised; and
· to this end it would seek to ensure that
the Commission's use of delegated acts would be subject to regular
review and that it would have an obligation to justify the condition
that any proposed delegated acts 'impose no significant extra
burdens on Member States' by presenting information on costs,
based on information from Member States themselves, for review
by the ESSC.
12.7 As for the additional changes to Regulation
(EC) No. 638/2004 proposed in the draft Regulation, we heard that:
· the Government supported the additional
changes proposed as facilitating improvements in the quality and
comparability of intra-EU trade statistics;
· in particular, the proposed amendments
would allow for the exchange of confidential data between Member
States for statistical purposes;
· this would enable discrepancies between
Member States figures to be reduced, as complex trading patterns
could be scrutinised and understood, resulting in improvements
being made to the quality of the statistics; and
· the clause was enabling, rather than a
requirement, which meant the UK would retain its right to withhold
confidential data if it had concerns despite existing EU legal
protections for such data.
12.8 Whilst accepting the Government's case for its
general support for the draft Regulation, we noted its intention
to secure improvements in the text, in order to properly circumscribe
the Commission's use of delegated acts. So we asked to hear, before
considering the proposals further, about the Government's progress
in this regard. Meanwhile the document remained under scrutiny.[66]
The Minister's letter of 24 March 2014
12.9 The Minister for Civil Society, Cabinet Office
(Mr Nick Hurd) writes now about the proposed use by the Commission
of delegated acts, saying that:
· the Government has so far been able to
secure amendments that oblige the Commission to ensure that delegated
acts do not impose a significant additional burden on Member States
or respondents to relevant statistical surveys and to ensure appropriate
consultation with experts in developing any proposed delegated
acts;
· the Council and the European Parliament
will have the right to review the delegated powers after a period
of five years;
· importantly, a key element of Regulation
(EC) No. 638/2004 that the Commission had proposed should be changed
by delegated acts is now to be done by amendment during the current
negotiation process; and
· implementing acts are now proposed for
the full range of technical issues that require decisions by independent
government statisticians, through the ESSC.
12.10 The Minister continues that none of these key
changes are in dispute between the European Parliament and the
Council and they are now set to give final approval to a compromise
based on these key elements in the next few weeks. He asks, on
this basis, that we now clear the proposal from scrutiny.
Conclusion
12.11 We are grateful to the Minister for his
latest account of where matters stand on this proposal and, having
no further questions, now clear the document.
66 See headnote. Back
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