Documents considered by the Committee on 25 February 2015 - European Scrutiny Contents


22 Statistics

Committee's assessment Legally and Politically important
Committee's decisionCleared from scrutiny (by Resolution of the House on 20 January 2014)
Document detailsDraft Regulation to amend the European Statistical Law
Legal baseArticle 338 TFEU; co-decision; QMV
Department

Document numbers

Office for National Statistics

(33844), 9122/12, COM(12) 167

Summary and Committee's conclusions

22.1 Regulation (EC) 223/2009 is the framework legislation for the European Statistical System. All other legislation under which EU statistics are produced must be made in accordance with that Regulation. In April 2012, the Commission proposed amendments to four key features of the framework Regulation and this draft Regulation was cleared from scrutiny after debate in January 2014 in European Committee B.

22.2 Recently we have been alerted by the Government to a new addition to the text of the draft Regulation, about the possibility of inspections by the Commission to investigate whether or not a Member State should be subject to sanction for misrepresenting statistical data. In January, when we last considered the matter, we learnt that the addition was likely to be included in the adopted Regulation. Noting its comment about the possibility of Court of Justice adjudication on the use of this provision in future sectoral legislation, we asked the Government whether it intended to immediately challenge that provision if adopted in the present amending Regulation.

22.3 The Government now confirms that it does not intend to challenge immediately the new provision in the Court of Justice. It also tells us about the probability that the Regulation will be finalised at the European Parliament's March plenary session.

22.4 We are grateful for this information.

Full details of the documents: Draft Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No. 223/2009 on European statistics: (33844), 9122/12, COM(12) 167.

Background

22.5 Regulation (EC) 223/2009 is the framework legislation for the European Statistical System. All other legislation under which EU statistics are produced must be made in accordance with that Regulation. In April 2012, the Commission proposed amendments to four key features of the framework Regulation and this draft Regulation was cleared from scrutiny after debate in January 2014 in European Committee B.[121]

22.6 In December 2014, the Government told us of a new addition to the text of the draft Regulation, which gave cause for concern and which was being put to COREPER for agreement on 19 December 2014. This addition, Article 12.3b, was about the possibility of inspections by the Commission to investigate whether or not a Member State should be subject to sanction for misrepresenting statistical data. The Government held that if any relevant sectoral legislation seeks to create a power to impose fines, that power would be unlawful, and any subsidiary power to investigate which was inseparably linked to it would also be impermissible.

22.7 In January we heard from the Government that, despite criticisms of the new provision by the UK and other Member States, the Presidency decided at the 19 December 2014 COREPER meeting that there was sufficient support for the compromise text to warrant proceeding to a vote on it at an ECOFIN Council early in 2015 and that the Government had tabled a Minute statement against the new provision, supported by three other Member States. We said that we presumed that it was unlikely that the Government would be able to prevent adoption of the compromise text by the ECOFIN Council. But, noting its comment about the possibility of Court of Justice adjudication on the use of Article 12.3b in future sectoral legislation, we asked the Government whether it intended to immediately challenge that provision if adopted in the present amending Regulation.

The Minister's letter of 20 February 2015

22.8 The Minister for Civil Society, Cabinet Office (Mr Rob Wilson) writes to confirm that the Government does not intend to challenge immediately the new provision in the Court of Justice, saying that its view is that a challenge would not be an efficient use of resources at present, particularly as the Court is more likely to rule against a legal text if it has a practical rather than abstract effect.

22.9 The Minister also tells us that:

·  following political approval at the ECOFIN Council on 27 January, it is now considering legal-linguistic revisions to the text;

·  the Presidency intends the Council to finally adopt the new Regulation at first reading on 2 March, following its passage through COREPER again on 25 February; and

·  the Presidency then wishes to transmit the Council position to the European Parliament for its approval during its March plenary session.

Previous Committee Reports

Third Report HC 86-iii (2012-13), chapter 10 (23 May 2012); Nineteenth Report HC 86-xix (2012-13), chapter 9 (7 November 2012); Twenty-seventh Report HC 86-xxvii (2012-13), chapter 5 (16 January 2013); Twenty-ninth Report HC 86-xxix (2012-13), chapter 6 (23 January 2013); Thirty-eighth Report HC 86-xxxvii (2012-13), chapter 5 (26 March 2013); Thirteenth Report HC 83-xiii (2013-14), chapter 5 (4 September 2013); Twenty-eighth Report HC 219-xxvii (2014-15), chapter 18 (7 January 2015) and Twenty-ninth Report HC 219-xxviii (2014-15), chapter 15 (14 January 2015).


121   Gen Co Debs, European Committee B, 20 January 2014, cols 3-10. Back


 
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