Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

Article 1 U.K. Subject matter

This Regulation establishes a common framework for the systematic production of Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States.

Article 2 U.K. Definitions

For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

(a)

‘goods’: all movable property, including electric current;

(b)

‘specific goods or movements’: goods or movements which, by their very nature, call for specific provisions, and in particular industrial plants, vessels and aircraft, sea products, goods delivered to vessels and aircraft, staggered consignments, military goods, goods to or from offshore installations, spacecraft, motor vehicle and aircraft parts and waste products;

(c)

‘national authorities’: national statistical institutes and other bodies responsible in each Member State for producing Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States;

(d)

‘Community goods’:

(i)

goods entirely obtained in the customs territory of the Community, without addition of goods from third countries or territories which are not part of the customs territory of the Community;

(ii)

goods from third countries or territories which are not part of the customs territory of the Community, which have been released for free circulation in a Member State;

(iii)

goods obtained in the customs territory of the Community either from the goods referred to exclusively in point (ii) or from the goods referred to in points (i) and (ii);

(e)

‘Member State of dispatch’: the Member State as defined by its statistical territory from which goods are dispatched to a destination in another Member State;

(f)

‘Member State of arrival’: the Member State as defined by its statistical territory in which goods arrive from another Member State;

(g)

‘goods in simple circulation between Member States’: Community goods dispatched from one Member State to another, which, on the way to the Member State of destination, travel directly through another Member State or stop for reasons related only to the transport of the goods.

Article 3 U.K. Scope

1. Statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States shall cover dispatches and arrivals of goods.

2. Dispatches shall cover the following goods leaving the Member State of dispatch for a destination in another Member State:

(a) Community goods, except goods which are in simple circulation between Member States;

(b) goods placed in the Member State of dispatch under the inward processing customs procedure or the processing under customs control procedure.

3. Arrivals shall cover the following goods entering the Member State of arrival, which were initially dispatched from another Member State:

(a) Community goods, except goods which are in simple circulation between Member States;

(b) goods formerly placed in the Member State of dispatch according to the inward processing customs procedure or the processing according to customs control procedure, which are maintained according to the inward processing customs procedure or the processing according to customs control procedure or released for free circulation in the Member State of arrival.

[F1 4. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 13a relating to different or specific rules applying to specific goods or movements.]

5. Some goods, a list of which shall be drawn up in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 14(2), shall be excluded from the statistics for methodological reasons.

Textual Amendments

F1 Substituted by Regulation (EU) No 659/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to trading of goods between Member States as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures, the communication of information by the customs administration, the exchange of confidential data between Member States and the definition of statistical value.

Article 4 U.K. Statistical territory

1. The statistical territory of the Member States shall correspond to their customs territory as defined in Article 3 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92(1) of 12 October 1992 establishing the Community Customs Code.

2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, the statistical territory of Germany shall include Heligoland.

Article 5 U.K. Data sources

1. A specific data collection system, hereinafter referred to as the ‘Intrastat’ system, shall apply for the provision of the statistical information on dispatches and arrivals of [F2 Community] goods which are not the subject of a single administrative document for customs or fiscal purposes.

[F1 2. The statistical information on dispatches and arrivals of goods which are the subject of a single administrative document for customs or fiscal purposes shall be provided directly by customs to the national authorities, at least once a month.]

[F3 2a. The customs administration responsible in each Member State shall, on its own initiative or at the request of the national authority, provide the national authority with any available information to identify the person who carries out dispatches and arrivals of goods covered by the customs procedures of inward processing or processing under customs control.]

3. For specific goods or movements, sources of information other than the Intrastat system or customs declarations may be used.

4. Each Member State shall organise the way Intrastat data is supplied by the parties responsible for providing information. To facilitate the task of these parties, the conditions for increased use of automatic data processing and electronic data transmission shall be promoted by the Commission (Eurostat) and the Member States.

Textual Amendments

F1 Substituted by Regulation (EU) No 659/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to trading of goods between Member States as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures, the communication of information by the customs administration, the exchange of confidential data between Member States and the definition of statistical value.

F2 Deleted by Regulation (EU) No 659/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to trading of goods between Member States as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures, the communication of information by the customs administration, the exchange of confidential data between Member States and the definition of statistical value.

F3 Inserted by Regulation (EU) No 659/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to trading of goods between Member States as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures, the communication of information by the customs administration, the exchange of confidential data between Member States and the definition of statistical value.

[F1 Article 6 U.K. Reference period

The reference period for the information to be provided in accordance with Article 5 shall be:

(a)

the calendar month of dispatch or arrival of the goods;

(b)

the calendar month during which the chargeable event occurs for the Community goods on which VAT becomes chargeable on intra-Community acquisitions and supplies; or

(c)

the calendar month during which the declaration is accepted by customs where the customs declaration is used as data sources.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Substituted by Regulation (EU) No 659/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to trading of goods between Member States as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures, the communication of information by the customs administration, the exchange of confidential data between Member States and the definition of statistical value.

Article 7 U.K. Parties responsible for providing information

[F4 1. The parties responsible for providing the information for the Intrastat system shall be:

(a) the taxable person as defined in Title III of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax (2) , in the Member State of dispatch, who:

(i)

has concluded the contract, with the exception of transport contracts, giving rise to the dispatch of goods or, failing that;

(ii)

dispatches or provides for the dispatch of the goods or, failing that;

(iii)

is in possession of the goods which are the subject of the dispatch;

or its tax representative in accordance with Article 204 of Directive 2006/112/EC; and

(b) the taxable person as defined in Title III of Directive 2006/112/EC, in the Member State of arrival, who:

(i)

has concluded the contract, with the exception of transport contracts, giving rise to the delivery of goods or, failing that;

(ii)

takes delivery or provides for delivery of the goods or, failing that;

(iii)

is in possession of the goods which are the subject of the delivery;

or its tax representative in accordance with Article 204 of Directive 2006/112/EC.]

2. The parties responsible for providing information may transfer the task to a third party, but such transfer shall in no way reduce the responsibility of the said party.

3. Failure by any party responsible for providing information to fulfil his/her obligations under this Regulation shall render him/her liable to the penalties which the Member States shall lay down.

Textual Amendments

F4 Substituted by Regulation (EC) No 222/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States.

Article 8 U.K. Registers

1. National authorities shall set up and manage a register of intra-Community operators containing at least the consignors, upon dispatch, and the consignees, upon arrival.

2. In order to identify the parties responsible for providing information referred to in Article 7 and to check the information which is provided, the tax administration responsible in each Member State shall furnish the national authority:

[F4 (a) at least once a month, with the lists of taxable persons who have declared that, during the period in question, they have supplied goods to other Member States or acquired goods from other Member States. The lists shall show the total values of the goods declared by each taxable person for fiscal purposes;]

(b) on its own initiative or at the request of the national authority, with any information provided for fiscal purposes which could improve the quality of statistics.

The arrangements for the communication of the information shall be determined in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 14(2).

This information shall be treated by the national authority in accordance with the rules applied to it by the tax administration.

3. The tax administration shall bring to the attention of VAT-registered traders the obligations which they may incur as parties responsible for providing the information required by Intrastat.

Textual Amendments

F4 Substituted by Regulation (EC) No 222/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States.

Article 9 U.K. Intrastat information to be collected

1. The following information shall be collected by the national authorities:

[F4 (a) the individual identification number allocated to the party responsible for providing information in accordance with Article 214 of Directive 2006/112/EC;]

(b) the reference period;

(c) the flow (arrival, dispatch);

(d) the commodity, identified by the eight-digit code of the Combined Nomenclature as defined in Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff(3);

(e) the partner Member State;

(f) the value of the goods;

(g) the quantity of the goods;

(h) the nature of the transaction.

[F1 Definitions of the statistical data referred to in points (e) to (h) are laid down in the Annex. The Commission shall adopt, by means of implementing acts, the arrangements to collect that information, in particular the codes and the format to be employed.

Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 14(2).]

2. Member States may also collect additional information, for example:

(a) the identification of the goods, at a more detailed level than the Combined Nomenclature;

(b) the country of origin, on arrival;

(c) the region of origin, on dispatch, and the region of destination, on arrival;

(d) the delivery terms;

(e) the mode of transport;

(f) the statistical procedure.

Definitions of the statistical data referred to in points (b) to (f) are given in the Annex. Where necessary, the arrangements for the collection of this information, particularly the codes to be employed, shall be determined in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 14(2).

Textual Amendments

F1 Substituted by Regulation (EU) No 659/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to trading of goods between Member States as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures, the communication of information by the customs administration, the exchange of confidential data between Member States and the definition of statistical value.

F4 Substituted by Regulation (EC) No 222/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States.

[F3 Article 9a U.K. Exchange of confidential data

The exchange of confidential data, as defined in Article 3(7) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) , may take place for statistical purposes only, between the national authorities responsible in each Member State, where the exchange serves the efficient development, production and dissemination of European statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States or improves their quality.

National authorities that have obtained confidential data shall treat that information confidentially and shall use it exclusively for statistical purposes in accordance with Chapter V of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009.]

Textual Amendments

F3 Inserted by Regulation (EU) No 659/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to trading of goods between Member States as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures, the communication of information by the customs administration, the exchange of confidential data between Member States and the definition of statistical value.

Article 10 U.K. Simplification within the Intrastat system

1. In order to satisfy users' needs for statistical information without imposing excessive burdens on economic operators, Member States shall define each year thresholds expressed in annual values of intra-Community trade, below which parties are exempted from providing any Intrastat information or may provide simplified information.

2. The thresholds shall be defined by each Member State, separately for arrivals and dispatches.

[F4 3. The thresholds below which parties are exempted from providing any Intrastat information shall be set at a level that ensures that the value of at least 97 % of the total dispatches and at least [F5 93 %] of the total arrivals of the relevant Member State's taxable persons is covered.

[F1 The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 13a to adapt those Intrastat coverage rates to technical and economic developments whenever it is possible to reduce them, while maintaining statistics which meet the quality indicators and standards in force.] ]

4. Member States may define other thresholds below which parties may benefit from the following simplification:

(a) exemption from providing information about the quantity of the goods;

(b) exemption from providing information about the nature of the transaction;

(c) possibility of reporting a maximum of 10 of the detailed relevant subheadings of the Combined Nomenclature, that are the most used in terms of value, and regrouping the other products in accordance with rules determined in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 14(2).

[F1 The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 13a to specify the conditions for defining those thresholds.]

[F1 5. Member States may, under certain conditions that meet quality requirements, simplify the information to be provided for small individual transactions provided that such simplification has no detrimental effects on the quality of the statistics. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 13a to specify those conditions.]

6. The information on the thresholds applied by the Member States shall be sent to the Commission (Eurostat) no later than 31 October of the year preceding the year to which they apply.

Textual Amendments

F1 Substituted by Regulation (EU) No 659/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to trading of goods between Member States as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures, the communication of information by the customs administration, the exchange of confidential data between Member States and the definition of statistical value.

F4 Substituted by Regulation (EC) No 222/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States.

F5 Substituted by Commission Regulation (EU) No 1093/2013 of 4 November 2013 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1982/2004 as regards the simplification within the Intrastat system and the collection of Intrastat information.

[F4 Article 11 U.K. Statistical confidentiality

Only where the party or parties that have provided information so request shall the national authorities decide whether statistical results which may make it possible to identify the said provider(s) are to be disseminated or are to be amended in such a way that their dissemination does not prejudice statistical confidentiality.]

Textual Amendments

F4 Substituted by Regulation (EC) No 222/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States.

Article 12 U.K. Transmission of data to the Commission

1. Member States shall transmit to the Commission (Eurostat) the monthly results of their statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States no later than:

[F1 (a) 40 calendar days after the end of the reference month for the aggregated data to be defined by the Commission. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 13a to define those aggregated data. Those delegated acts shall take into account the relevant economic and technical developments.]

(b) 70 calendar days after the end of the reference month in the case of detailed results including the information referred to in Article 9(1), first subparagraph, points (b) to (h).

As regards the value of the goods, the results shall include the statistical value only, as defined in the Annex.

Member States shall transmit to the Commission (Eurostat) the data which are confidential.

[F1 2. Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with monthly results which cover their total trade in goods by using estimates, where necessary. The Commission shall by means of implementing acts, determine the breakdown for such estimates. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 14(2).]

3. Member States shall transmit the data to the Commission (Eurostat) in electronic form, in accordance with an interchange standard. The practical arrangements for the transmission of data shall be determined in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 14(2).

[F6 4. Member States shall transmit to the Commission (Eurostat) annual statistics on trade by business characteristics, namely economic activity carried out by the enterprise according to the section or two-digit level of the common statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE), as established by Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council (5) , and size-class measured in terms of number of employees.

Those statistics shall be compiled by linking data on business characteristics recorded according to Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 February 2008 establishing a common framework for business registers for statistical purposes (6) with the statistics referred to in Article 3 of this Regulation.

[F1 The Commission shall adopt, by means of implementing acts, technical provisions for compiling those statistics in the most economical way.

Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 14(2).] ]

Textual Amendments

F1 Substituted by Regulation (EU) No 659/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to trading of goods between Member States as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures, the communication of information by the customs administration, the exchange of confidential data between Member States and the definition of statistical value.

F6 Inserted by Regulation (EC) No 222/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States.

[F4 Article 13 U.K. Quality

1. For the purposes of this Regulation, the following quality criteria shall apply to the statistics to be transmitted:

(a) ‘ relevance ’ , which refers to the degree to which statistics meet current and potential needs of the users;

(b) ‘ accuracy ’ , which refers to the closeness of estimates to the unknown true values;

(c) ‘ timeliness ’ , which refers to the period between the availability of the information and the event or phenomenon it describes;

(d) ‘ punctuality ’ , which refers to the delay between the date of release of the data and the target date (the date by which the data should have been delivered);

(e) ‘ accessibility ’ and ‘ clarity ’ , which refer to the conditions and modalities by which users can obtain, use and interpret data;

(f) ‘ comparability ’ , which refers to the measurement of the impact of differences in applied statistical concepts, measurement tools and procedures where statistics are compared between geographical areas, sectoral domains or over time;

(g) ‘ coherence ’ , which refers to the adequacy of the data to be reliably combined in different ways and for various uses.

2. Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with an annual report on the quality of the statistics transmitted.

3. In applying the quality criteria laid down in paragraph 1 to the statistics covered by this Regulation, the modalities and structure of the quality reports shall be defined in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 14(2).

The Commission (Eurostat) shall assess the quality of the statistics transmitted.

[F1 4. The Commission shall adopt, by means of implementing acts, any measures necessary to ensure the quality of the statistics transmitted in accordance with the quality criteria, avoiding excessive costs for the national authorities.

Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 14(2).] ]

Textual Amendments

F1 Substituted by Regulation (EU) No 659/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to trading of goods between Member States as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures, the communication of information by the customs administration, the exchange of confidential data between Member States and the definition of statistical value.

F4 Substituted by Regulation (EC) No 222/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States.

[F3 Article 13a U.K. Exercise of the delegation

1. The power to adopt delegated acts is conferred on the Commission subject to the conditions laid down in this Article.

2. When exercising the power delegated in Article 3(4), Article 10(3), (4) and (5) and point (a) of Article 12(1) of this Regulation, the Commission shall act in accordance with Article 14(3) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009, ensuring, inter alia, that the delegated acts do not impose a significant additional burden on the Member States and on the respondents.

It is of particular importance that the Commission follow its usual practice and carry out consultations with experts, including Member States’ experts, before adopting those delegated acts.

3. The power to adopt delegated acts referred to in Article 3(4), Article 10(3), (4) and (5) and point (a) of Article 12(1) shall be conferred on the Commission for a period of five years from 17 July 2014 . The Commission shall draw up a report in respect of the delegation of power not later than nine months before the end of the five-year period. The delegation of power shall be tacitly extended for periods of an identical duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension not later than three months before the end of each period.

4. The delegation of power referred to in Article 3(4), Article 10(3), (4) and (5) and point (a) of Article 12(1) may be revoked at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council. A decision to revoke shall put an end to the delegation of the power specified in that decision. It shall take effect the day following the publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the European Union or at a later date specified therein. It shall not affect the validity of any delegated acts already in force.

5. As soon as it adopts a delegated act, the Commission shall notify it simultaneously to the European Parliament and to the Council.

6. A delegated act adopted pursuant to Article 3(4), Article 10(3), (4) and (5) and point (a) of Article 12(1) shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or the Council within a period of three months of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. That period shall be extended by three months at the initiative of the European Parliament or the Council.]

Textual Amendments

F3 Inserted by Regulation (EU) No 659/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to trading of goods between Member States as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures, the communication of information by the customs administration, the exchange of confidential data between Member States and the definition of statistical value.

[F1 Article 14 U.K. Committee procedure

1. The Commission shall be assisted by the European Statistical System Committee established by Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. That committee shall be a committee within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (7) .

2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Substituted by Regulation (EU) No 659/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to trading of goods between Member States as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures, the communication of information by the customs administration, the exchange of confidential data between Member States and the definition of statistical value.

Article 15 U.K. Repeal

1. Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 is hereby repealed.

2. References to the repealed regulation shall be construed as being made to this Regulation.

Article 16 U.K. Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from 1 January 2005.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.