THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

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

Having regard to the draft Regulation submitted by the Commission,

Whereas in order to carry out the tasks devolving on it from the Treaties, especially with the prospect of the internal market as provided for pursuant to Article 8a of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, the Commission must have full, up-to-date and reliable information on industrial production in the Community;

Whereas companies need such information in order to know their markets; whereas the international dimension of these markets will favour an alignment between production statistics and external trade statistics;

Whereas, if production statistics are to be useful and in order to make such an alignment practicable, they must be drawn up at a level of detail which is close to the first six digits of the combined nomenclature, which also corresponds to the coding used in the Harmonized System;

Whereas the combined nomenclature is a product nomenclature with which companies are already familiar; whereas it is in their interests to refer thereto rather than create a nomenclature specific to production;

Whereas standardized statistics cannot be drawn up with the reliability, speed, flexibility and level of detail required to manage the internal market unless the Member States use survey classification systems derived from the same product list;

Whereas, in order to meet national requirements, Member States may legitimately retain or enter in their national nomenclatures supplementary items not contained in the Community product list,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: