THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 100a thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission1,

In cooperation with the European Parliament2,

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

Whereas, in order to function, the internal market requires statistical standards applicable to the collection, transmission and publication of national and Community statistics so that undertakings, financial institutions, governments and all other operators in the single market can be provided with reliable and comparable statistical data;

Whereas such information is necessary to enable undertakings to assess their competitiveness, and useful to the Community institutions in preventing distortions of competition;

Whereas only if the Member States use classifications of activities linked to the Community classification will it be possible to provide integrated information with the reliability, speed, flexibility and degree of detail required for the management of the internal market;

Whereas provision should be made for the Member States to be able, in order to meet national requirements, to retain or to insert in their national classifications additional subdivisions based on the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community;

Whereas the international compatibility of economic statistics requires that the Member States and the Community institutions use classifications of economic activities which are directly linked to the United Nations International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC);

Whereas use of the classification of economic activities in the Community requires that the Commission be assisted by the Statistical Programme Committee set up by Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom4 on any issue relating to the application of this Regulation, in particular as regards interpretation of that classification, minor amendments thereto, the drafting and updating of explanatory notes and the establishment of guidelines for the classification of statistical units in accordance with the said classification;

Whereas it is vital that the contents of the various categories of the classification of activities in the European Community be interpreted uniformly in all the Member States;

Whereas the introduction of a new classification requires a transitional period,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: