22 Statistics
| Committee's assessment
| Legally and Politically important |
| Committee's decision | Cleared from scrutiny (by Resolution of the House on 20 January 2014)
|
| Document details | Draft Regulation to amend the European Statistical Law
|
| Legal base | Article 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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