COMMUNITY STATISTICS ON THE STRUCTURE
AND ACTIVITY OF FOREIGN AFFILIATES (7578/05)
Letter from John Healey MP, Financial
Secretary, HM Treasury to the Chairman
I am writing to update you on the position of
the above proposal of the European Parliament (EP) and of the
Council on Community Statistics on the structure and activity
of foreign affiliates, with regard to the EP first reading amendments.
Along with mainly textual clarifications to
the regulatory proposal, the EP first reading amendments concern
which implementing measures are to be taken under the regulatory
procedure and which under the regulatory procedure with scrutiny.
Agreement with the EP has not yet been reached on the application
of the regulatory procedure with scrutiny to matters concerning
quality. On all other aspects agreement has been reached.
Quality criteria and standards are defined in
a detailed way in the Quality Framework for European Statistics
and concern matters of a professional and scientific nature. The
European Statistics Code of Practice; promulgated in the Commission
Recommendation of 25 May 2005 on the independence, integrity and
accountability of the national and Community statistical authorities
and endorsed by EU Economic and Finance Ministers in November
2005, calls for professional independence; including that statistical
authorities should have sole responsibility for deciding on statistical
methods, standards and procedures. It is over this issue that
divergence of opinion between the Council Working Group on Statistics
and the EP has arisen as to the application of the regulatory
procedure with scrutiny for quality matters. This issue affects
other legislative proposals concerning statistics currently progressing
under co-decision.
The medium term aim of the current Presidency
is to establish a standardised approach to the treatment of quality
matters in legislative proposals concerning statistics (eg a standardised
article) and, longer-term, for the integration of general quality
standards and precise definitions of terms used in quality discussions
into a revised Regulation on Community Statistics. This approach
would remove ambiguity and is supported by the UK. In the short-term
the Presidency will continue negotiation with the Parliament to
determine scope for re- drafting of the articles in the FATS regulation.
The UK supports the Presidency's current efforts. In this context
I note that the EP voted in plenary on the regulation COM(2006)
11 on integrated social protection statistics, approving text
that measures relating to the "criteria for measurement of
quality" should be taken through the "normal" regulatory
procedure, highlighting the importance of ensuring a consistent
approach to the treatment of quality measures in statistical regulations.
I will keep you updated on progress.
8 February 2007
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