Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96Show full title

Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96

of 25 June 1996

on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community

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 draft Regulation submitted by the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament(1),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Monetary Institute(2),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee(3),

(1) Whereas the implementation and supervision of Economic and Monetary Union require comparable, up-to-date and reliable information on the structure and developments in the economic situation of each country and/or region;

(2) Whereas the Commission must play a part in the administration of Economic and Monetary Union and, in particular, report to the Council on the progress made by the Member States in fulfilling their obligations for the achievement of Economic and Monetary Union;

(3) Whereas economic accounts are a basic tool for analysing the economic situation of a country and/or region on condition that they are drawn up on the basis of a single set of principles that are not open to differing interpretations;

(4) Whereas the Commission must use aggregates of national accounts for Community administrative and, in particular, budgetary calculations;

(5) Whereas in 1970 an administrative document entitled ‘European System of Integrated Economic Accounts’ (ESA) was published, covering the field governed by this Regulation, which had been drawn up solely by the Statistical Office of the European Communities and on its responsibility alone; whereas that document was the outcome of several years' work by the Statistical Office of the European Communities, together with Member States' national statistical institutes, to devise a system of national accounts meeting the requirements of the European Communities' economic and social policy, and whereas it constituted the Community version of the United Nations System of National Accounts which had been used by the Community up to that time;

(6) Whereas in order to update the original text a second edition of the document was published in 1979 (hereinafter referred to as ‘ESA Second edition’)(4);

(7) Whereas the United Nations Statistical Commission adopted in February 1993 the new System of National Accounts (SNA) so that the results in all member countries of the United Nations should be internationally comparable;

(8) Whereas attention should be paid in the case of environmental accounts to the communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council of 21 December 1994 entitled ‘Directions for the European Union on environmental indicators and green national accounting’;

(9) Whereas the Community cooperates with third countries to mutual advantage, particularly those in the European Economic Area (EEA);

(10) Whereas a European System of Accounts must be established to meet the requirements of Economic and Monetary Union and will have to be used for compiling the national and regional accounts provided for by Community legislation;

(11) Whereas the results of the accounts and tables of all the Member States drawn up according to the system set up by this Regulation must be made available by the Commission to users on precise dates, particularly with regard to monitoring the economic convergence and achieving the closest coordination of the Member States' economic policies;

(12) Whereas the system set up by this Regulation is gradually to replace all other systems as a reference framework of common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules for drawing up the accounts of the Member States for the requirements of the Community, so that results that are comparable between the Member States can be obtained;

(13) Whereas these statistical results, must be accessible to citizens in accordance with the principle of transparency;

(14) Whereas the system established by this Regulation, which constitutes a version of the SNA adapted to the structures of the Member States' economies, must follow the layout of the SNA so that the Community's data are comparable with those compiled by its main international partners;

(15) Whereas the dates must be grouped according to broad category of the accounts and tables, and whereas only the information essential to the requirements of the Community must be processed and communicated to the Commission on precise dates;

(16) Whereas, however, in view of the volume and size of the accounts concerned, the level of detail and the geographical coverage, as well as the situation in this respect in the Member States, certain extra periods of time for forwarding data shall be granted exceptionally and temporarily to Member States which objectively are unable to meet the deadlines laid down by this Regulation;

(17) Whereas a decision on how financial intermediation services indirectly measured (Fisim) are to be broken down should be taken at a later date;

(18) Whereas, according to the principle of subsidiarity, the creation of common statistical standards so that comparable information can be produced is a task that can only be dealt with effectively at Community level and whereas such standards will be implemented in each Member State under the aegis of the organizations and institutions responsible for compiling official statistics;

(19) Whereas it is necessary to set up a procedure to adapt and update the provisions of this Regulation in cooperation with the Statistical Programme Committee of the European Community (SPC), established by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom(5); whereas that adaptation procedure will be limited to amendments which do not increase own resources;

(20) Whereas the Statistical Programme Committee and the Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payments Statistics (CMFB), established by Decision 91/115/EEC(6), have declared themselves in favour of the draft of this Regulation;

(21) Whereas Council Directive 89/130/EEC, Euratom of 13 February 1989 on the harmonization of the compilation of gross national product at market prices (GNPmp)(7) stipulates that GNPmp can be comparable only if the definitions and accounting rules of the European System of Integrated Economic Accounts are applied, and whereas Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 1553/89 of 29 May 1989 on the definitive uniform arrangements for the collection of own resources accruing from value added tax(8) provides that, in order to calculate the weighted average rate of VAT, the breakdown of transactions liable to tax shall be effected by means of national accounts prepared in accordance with the European System of Integrated Economic Accounts, and whereas for those instruments, and in the context of Council Regulation (EC) No 3605/93 of 22 November 1993 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure(9), Council Decision 94/728/EC, Euratom of 31 October 1994 on the system of the European Communities' own resources(10) and Council Decision 94/729/EC of 31 October 1994 on budgetary discipline(11), a transitional period for implementing the system set up by this Regulation should be provided,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

(1)

OJ No C 287, 30. 10. 1995, p. 114.

(2)

Opinion delivered on 21. 6. 1995 (not yet published in the Official Journal).

(3)

OJ No C 133, 31. 5. 1995, p. 2.

(4)

Eurostat: ‘European System of Integrated Economic Accounts’ (ESA), second edition, Statistical Office of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 1979.

(5)

OJ No L 181, 28. 6. 1989, p. 47.

(6)

OJ No L 59, 6. 3. 1991, p. 19.

(7)

OJ No L 49, 21. 2. 1989, p. 26. Directive as last amended by the 1994 Act of Accession.

(8)

OJ No L 155, 7. 6. 1989, p. 9.

(9)

OJ No L 332, 31. 12. 1993, p. 7.

(10)

OJ No L 293, 12. 11. 1994, p. 9.

(11)

OJ No L 293, 12. 11. 1994, p. 14.