THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 213 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission1,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament2,

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee3,

Whereas to carry out the tasks entrusted to it in the context of the common maritime transport policy, the Commission must have at its disposal comparable, reliable, synchronized and regular statistical data on the scale and development of the carriage of goods and passengers by sea to and from the Community, between Member States and for domestic sea transport;

Whereas it is also important for Member States and economic operators to have a good knowledge of the maritime transport market;

Whereas there are currently no comprehensive Community-wide statistics on the transport of goods and passengers by sea;

Whereas Council Decision 93/464/EEC of 22 July 1993 on the framework programme for priority actions in the field of statistical information 1993 to 19974 stressed the need to compile comprehensive statistics;

Whereas the collection of Community statistical data on a comparable or harmonized basis makes it possible to establish an integrated system providing reliable, consistent and up-to-date information;

Whereas the data on the transport of goods and passengers by sea have to be made comparable between Member States and between the different modes of transport;

Whereas the Commission is to submit in due course a report reviewing the operation of this Directive;

Whereas provision should be made for a transitional period in order to enable Member States to adapt their statistics systems to the requirements of this Directive and to initiate a programme of pilot studies on specific problems posed by the collection of certain data;

Whereas the Community should therefore, for the start-up period, make a financial contribution to Member States in respect of the work involved;

Whereas for the application of this Directive, including the arrangements to adapt it to economic and technical developments, recourse should be had to the Statistical Programme Committee set up pursuant to Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom5;

Whereas, in accordance with the principle of subisidiarity, the creation of common statistical standards enabling the production of harmonized information can only be tackled efficiently at Community level; whereas data will be collected in each Member State under the authority of the bodies and institutions in charge of compiling official statistics,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE: