Progress: Procedure completed
| Role | Committee | Rapporteur | Shadows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead | ECON |
FERREIRA Elisa ( PSE)
|
|
| Committee Opinion | ITRE |
Lead committee dossier:
Legal Basis:
EC Treaty (after Amsterdam) EC 285-p1
Legal Basis:
EC Treaty (after Amsterdam) EC 285-p1Subjects
Events
The Commission presented a report on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on structural business statistics (SBS Regulation).
The report provides an overview of progress in implementing the SBS Regulation based on final data for the reference year 2013 in the following areas: (i) services, (ii) industry, (iii) trade, (iv) construction, (v) business services, (vi) business demography.
Firstly, it provides information on the measures taken by the Commission to ensure that high-quality European structural business statistics are made available, and on the implementation of the SBS Regulation by Member States.
Effectiveness of the Regulation : the report shows that, overall, the data sent by Member States are reasonably complete for all SBS modules.
Data availability was high ( 95% ) for statistics on business services. It increased for medium and small countries, but decreased for large countries.
However, Eurostat considered the share of confidential data across Member States still as very high and therefore they are encouraged to put more effort towards reducing the amount of confidential data in the future.
Overall, compliance with the SBS Regulation with respect to the 2013 data has improved compared to the situation described in the previous report.
Future changes and developments : Eurostat is working with stakeholders in the European Statistical System (ESS) to adapt the statistical production process to major developments in society and the globalised economy using a set of measures as part of the Framework Regulation Integrating Business Statistics (FRIBS) project. The new legal framework for integrating business statistics deals with broader areas.
Proposed amendments to the current SBS requirements are as follows.
divide the SBS population into 3 categories: independent enterprises, domestically-controlled and foreign controlled enterprises; introduce the distinction in SBS as to whether an enterprise is involved in international trade or not; align the methodology for foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign affiliates statistics (FATS); take into account modes of supply (e.g., how services are exchanged between two countries) for a better representation of services; include trade in services according to business characteristics (STEC); establish statistics by business function, since the structure of modern enterprises often depends on the functions of the company; produce statistics on the statistical unit enterprise group.
In cooperation with the Member States, Eurostat is committed to continue working on the issue of variability in the application of the turnover thresholds used for the registration of companies in the various European business registers.
Any changes will be discussed further.
In collaboration with the Member States, Eurostat commits itself to continue working on the issue of variability in the application of turnover thresholds used for the businesses to be registered in the business registers across Europe.
Any eventual amendments will therefore be a matter for further discussion.
The Commission presented a report on the implementation of the Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning structural business statistics (SBS).
This report follows on from the May 2011 report and gives an overview of progress in implementing the SBS Regulation based on final data for 2010, the reference year, as regards structural business statistics on: (i) services; (ii)industry; (iii)trade; (iv) construction; (v) business services; and (vi) business demography.
The main conclusions of the report are as follows:
Completeness of data : on the whole, data sent by Member States are reasonably complete for all SBS modules. The 2010 results for the 27 EU Member States and Norway showed a 5 % increase in data availability as compared with the previous report to the European Parliament and the Council.
Confidentiality : confidentiality rules have reduced data availability. The percentages of data classified as confidential vary from 0 % to 24 %, with higher rates recorded by the medium and small countries due to the rules mentioned above. The report notes that 8.3 % of the aggregated EU results for 2010, the reference year, for statistics on services, industry, trade and construction could not be published for reasons of confidentiality. Around 14 % of the aggregated EU results for business services and business demography have not been made available due to the same reasons.
Accuracy : in order to measure the accuracy of SBSs, Commission Regulation (EU) No 275/2010 requires all Member States to provide Eurostat, on an annual basis, with information on quality indicators such as coefficients of variation : the report shows that the aggregated EU coefficients of variation for the variables are in most cases below 1.5, with the exception of the ‘gross investment’ variable, for which the coefficients are mainly between 0.6 and 2.5. In general, the coefficients of variation are lower for industry and slightly higher for construction, trade and services.
Coherence and compatability : analysing the coherence of SBSs and the other statistical sources revealed a number of differences in both the data and the methodologies used. For any particular statistical source, the methodology will be chosen which best suits the purposes of that source and for this reason there tend to be differences in methodology between sources. Statistics on business services and business demography are comparable from 2008, when the survey became mandatory.
Deadline : for reference year 2010, 19 countries delivered their data on time for all SBS areas. Derogations from the provisions of the SBS Regulation were granted to some Member States to allow them to make the necessary adaptations to their national statistical systems. Complete derogations were granted to Estonia and France for statistics on business services.
All SBSs are available free of charge on Eurostat’s website in the area ‘Industry, trade and services’, together with detailed explanations of methodological issues that may be of relevance to users.
Compliance with the SBS Regulation : the overall compliance score for 2010 data shows an improvement on the compliance level recorded in the previous report. Most countries are now delivering data more promptly than was previously the case, although some continue to miss deadlines, which delayed the publication of EU aggregates.
The Commission concludes that compliance was ‘very good’ or ‘good’ for most Member States.
Reduce the burden on businesses : Eurostat works with national statistical institutes (NSIs) on an on-going basis to find ways of reducing the burden on businesses by simplifying the data requirements, whilst at the same time ensuring that the available statistics meet the needs of users.
Following several consultations with the main users of SBSs, both within and outside the Commission, Eurostat has identified a number of possible ways of reducing the burden on NSIs and businesses . These measures relate to the requirements imposed on financial services businesses, the details requested for multiannual datasets and the discontinuation of ‘kind of activity unit’ based datasets.
Further development : ESS is constantly looking to identify ways of responding to new and emerging needs for statistics, whilst at the same time reducing both the burden on respondents and the cost of producing statistics.
Eurostat developed a programme for the modernisation of European enterprise and trade statistics (MEETS) which ran for six years, from 2008 to 2013. Its main outcome was a proposal for practical steps to modernise business statistics , such as developing a target set of indicators and conducting a review of priorities. Implementing this proposal will require significant commitment and investment from ESS in the coming years.
The Commission presents a report on the implementation of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 and of Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 concerning structural business statistics (recast) which repealed and replaced Regulation No 58/97. The report has been prepared partly under the provisions of Article 14(1) of Regulation No 58/97 as regards final data for reference year 2007 and partly under the provisions of Article 13(1) of Regulation No 295/2008 as regards preliminary data for reference year 2008.
Generally, the aim of the report is to provide information on the actions undertaken by the European Commission to ensure that high quality European structural business statistics are made available to users, and also on the manner and extent to which each of the Member
States has implemented the SBS Regulations. Moreover, it provides information on the burden on businesses and the actions taken by Member States in order to reduce that burden.
Compliance : compliance with the SBS Regulation is evaluated on the basis of the punctuality of data transmitted by the Member States, and also on the completeness of the data and the number of versions needed before the final release. Overall, the compliance level for 2007 data has been increased relative to the compliance level recorded in the previous report. A full analysis of all compliance issues, in particular those related to comparability, will not be possible until the renewed quality reports are available in May 2011.
Punctuality has improved generally over the years. However, some countries continue to send their data with some delay, which has influenced the punctuality of the dissemination of EU aggregates. Compared with the previous report, the most notable improvements from the punctuality point of view were made by Belgium, Ireland, Greece and Slovenia. However, Belgium and Greece sent their data with some delay. First data for 2007 were provided by Malta with a major delay.
As far as the completeness of the datasets transmitted by the countries is concerned, when all datasets for the definitive series of Annexes I to IV provided by the EU-27 and Norway are taken together, they make up 90% of the required data. This represents a significant improvement in comparison with the situation described in the previous report provided to the European Parliament and to the Council in 2007, but it is still insufficient.
Several countries are taking action to improve data availability . Preliminary 2008 data were provided by most of the countries before the deadline set in the Regulation. A few countries sent their data with some delay, for instance around 20 days after the deadline in the case of Belgium and Italy, and with a delay of more than one month for Greece and Poland. In general, punctuality has not improved for these data sets compared to last year, but this situation was due to the fact that the 2008 reference year was affected by the implementation of NACE Rev.2. Overall, 94% of the required data is available.
Data for Annexes V to VII were still missing for some series. Overall, 73 % of the required data for financial annexes is available.
Eurostat has carried out actions in order to increase the level of compliance in two areas:
- a compliance report has been submitted to the SBS Steering Group twice yearly and to the Business Statistics Directors once a year. Letters from the Director-General of Eurostat to the Heads of National Statistical Institutes have also been used to address cases of serious non-compliance. In addition to monitoring and reporting, bilateral contacts have been made in order to investigate and resolve shortcomings in compliance;
- Eurostat has tried to find ways to facilitate data transmission, e.g. by simplifying the data transmission formats and by streamlining the data requirements, especially with the new SBS Recast Regulation.
Further development: the European Statistical System is constantly looking to identify ways of dealing with new and emerging needs for statistics, whilst at the same time making great efforts to reduce both the burden on respondents and the costs of producing statistics.
Moreover, given the increasing importance of European statistics - at EU level - for the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of EU policies, the Commission (Eurostat) has issued a Communication on the production method for EU statistics - a vision for the next decade. This Communication offers a vision for reforming the way in which European statistics are produced.
Lastly, the MEETS programme for the modernisation and better integration of enterprise and trade statistics is taking practical steps to implement this vision.
PURPOSE: to establish a common framework on structural business statistics.
LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning structural business statistics.
CONTENT: this revised Regulation on structural business statistics is adopted with a view to extending the framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community.
The Regulation responds to the increased need for statistical data to underpin policy making and monitoring, and will improve the current regulation by increasing coverage of service activities, by adding annexes on business demography and business services and by introducing a new tool to respond to emerging user needs.
The regulation repeals Regulation No 58/97 and Article 20 of Regulation No 1893/2006.
The Regulation establishes a common framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community.
The purpose of the compilation of statistics will be, in particular, to analyse:
a) the structure and evolution of the activities of businesses;
b) the factors of production used and other elements allowing business activity, competitiveness and performance to be measured;
c) the regional, national, Community and international development of businesses and markets;
d) business conduct;
e) small and medium-sized enterprises; and
f) specific characteristics of enterprises related to particular breakdown of activities.
Report: the Commission will, by 29 April 2011 and every three years thereafter, submit a report on the statistics compiled and in particular on their quality and the burden on business.
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 29/04/2008
The European Parliament adopted the resolution drafted by Elisa Ferreira (PES, Portugal) and made several amendments to the proposal concerning structural business statistics. The key amendments are as follows:
- a new part recital states that special attention should be paid to the impact on business caused by Community energy and environmental policies, such as Regulation 1907/200/EC . Cooperation and the exchange of best practices between national statistical institutes should be encouraged in order to ensure a more efficient use of administrative data sources;
- on comitology, Parliament felt that certain aspects of the legislation should be updated and amended in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny laid down in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC. These include updating the list of characteristics in the Annexes; establishing the frequency of the compilation of the statistics, rules for submitting data as "contributions to European totals only" (CETO), the first reference year for the compilation of statistics and the breakdown of results and the classifications to be used and the combination of the size classes; updating the periods of time for the transmission of data; adapting the breakdown of activities and of products to amendments or revisions of the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE) and classification of products by activity (CPA); adopting measures on the basis of the evaluation of pilot studies, and changing the lower limit of the reference population in Annex VIII;
- the scope of the Regulation must cover all market activities in Sections B to N and P to S of the statistical classification NACE Rev. 2;
- in order to limit the burden on businesses and the costs to the Member States, the size of the data collection will be restricted to a maximum of 20 enterprise characteristics or questions, to a maximum of 25 000 respondent enterprises across the Eu, and to a maximum average individual respondent input of 1.5 hours. Ad hoc data collection shall include a representative number of Member States. When only results at European level are needed, the Commission may set up a European sampling approach to ensure a minimum burden and costs. The Commission shall also specify the need for the information and the impact of the data collection on the burden on businesses and the costs to the Member States.
- a series of pilot studies shall be instituted by the Commission and carried out by Member States on a voluntary basis as specified in the Annexes;
- wherever feasible, appropriate administrative data shall be used to meet the reporting requirements of this Regulation.
- Parliament made some amendments to the time limits of the transmission of results as well as adding measures to minimise the burden on businesses and the costs to the national statistical authorities. It felt that this regulation must be fully compatible, in practical terms, with the ongoing revision of NACE, since it will come into force before NACE rev. 2. Compatibility between the two proposals (the present one and NACE Rev.2) entails the need to clarify the timeframe for implementation. The Commission proposal, which states 2006 as the initial implementation year was seen as outdated, and was replaced with the year following adoption of this legislation. Regulation 58/1997/EC would then continue to apply until that date.
- the first reference year for new variables is moved 2 years forward to 2008;
- a mendments were made to the various Annexes, with particular emphasis on revising activity breakdowns for manufacturing, and information on sectoral requirements. Environmental data requires s pecific breakdown on compliance with the Kyoto Protocol.
Lastly, pilot studies should be carried out for clarification of concepts and comparability of labour market and productivity statistics.
PURPOSE : to revise the Regulation on structural business statistics with a view to extending the framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community.
PROPOSED ACT : Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.
CONTENT : Council Regulation 58/97/EC, Euratom of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics, which is the common framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community, has been amended four times.
Since further amendments are to be made, it should be recast in the interests of clarity. The recast regulation aims to continue with the existing statistical support for decisions in current policy areas and to satisfy the additional requirements arising from new Community policy initiatives, and from the ongoing review of statistical priorities and the necessity of the statistics produced – all this with a view to making best use of available resources and minimising response burden.
In order to be able to give substantial policy recommendations for the support of entrepreneurship, harmonised data on business demography, i.e. data on enterprise births, survivals and deaths and their respective impact on employment are required. A flexible tool is needed enabling timely response to newly emerging statistical needs due to changing economic or technical conditions. Currently there is no legal text setting up a common framework for the systematic production of statistics on business services, business demography and ad hoc data collection.
Wherever possible, the recast regulation proposes simplifications and alleviation of burden to balance the new requirements.
For further information concerning the financial implications of this measure, please refer to the financial statement.
PURPOSE : to revise the Regulation on structural business statistics with a view to extending the framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community.
PROPOSED ACT : Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.
CONTENT : Council Regulation 58/97/EC, Euratom of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics, which is the common framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community, has been amended four times.
Since further amendments are to be made, it should be recast in the interests of clarity. The recast regulation aims to continue with the existing statistical support for decisions in current policy areas and to satisfy the additional requirements arising from new Community policy initiatives, and from the ongoing review of statistical priorities and the necessity of the statistics produced – all this with a view to making best use of available resources and minimising response burden.
In order to be able to give substantial policy recommendations for the support of entrepreneurship, harmonised data on business demography, i.e. data on enterprise births, survivals and deaths and their respective impact on employment are required. A flexible tool is needed enabling timely response to newly emerging statistical needs due to changing economic or technical conditions. Currently there is no legal text setting up a common framework for the systematic production of statistics on business services, business demography and ad hoc data collection.
Wherever possible, the recast regulation proposes simplifications and alleviation of burden to balance the new requirements.
For further information concerning the financial implications of this measure, please refer to the financial statement.
Documents
- Follow-up document: COM(2021)0067
- Follow-up document: EUR-Lex
- Follow-up document: COM(2017)0419
- Follow-up document: EUR-Lex
- Follow-up document: COM(2014)0243
- Follow-up document: COM(2011)0242
- Follow-up document: EUR-Lex
- Final act published in Official Journal: Regulation 2008/295
- Final act published in Official Journal: OJ L 097 09.04.2008, p. 0013
- Draft final act: 03643/2007/LEX
- Commission response to text adopted in plenary: SP(2007)1901/2
- Decision by Parliament, 1st reading: T6-0092/2007
- Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A6-0062/2007
- Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading: A6-0062/2007
- Amendments tabled in committee: PE382.631
- Committee draft report: PE378.877
- Economic and Social Committee: opinion, report: CES1156/2006
- Legislative proposal: COM(2006)0066
- Legislative proposal: EUR-Lex
- Legislative proposal published: COM(2006)0066
- Legislative proposal published: EUR-Lex
- Legislative proposal: COM(2006)0066 EUR-Lex
- Economic and Social Committee: opinion, report: CES1156/2006
- Committee draft report: PE378.877
- Amendments tabled in committee: PE382.631
- Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A6-0062/2007
- Commission response to text adopted in plenary: SP(2007)1901/2
- Draft final act: 03643/2007/LEX
- Follow-up document: COM(2011)0242 EUR-Lex
- Follow-up document: EUR-Lex COM(2014)0243
- Follow-up document: COM(2017)0419
- Follow-up document: COM(2021)0067 EUR-Lex
Activities
- Hannes SWOBODA
Plenary Speeches (2)
- 2016/11/22 Structural business statistics (vote)
- 2016/11/22 Structural business statistics (vote)
- Alejo VIDAL-QUADRAS
Plenary Speeches (2)
- 2016/11/22 Structural business statistics (vote)
- 2016/11/22 Structural business statistics (vote)
- Elisa FERREIRA
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2016/11/22 Structural business statistics (vote)
- Reinhard RACK
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2016/11/22 Structural business statistics (vote)
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