The European Parliament adopted by 569 votes to 6, with 27 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 and repealing 11 legal acts in the field of national accounts.

The European Parliament adopted its position at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure by amending the proposal as follows:

Objective

The objective of the Regulation is to create common statistical standards that allow the production of harmonised national accounts data for general comparability at EU level.

Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which established the revised European System of Accounts (ESA 2010), contains the reference framework for common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules to enable the compilation of Member States' accounts for the statistical requirements of the Union, in order to obtain comparable results between Member States.

The proposed regulation would (i) amend the references to the classification of individual consumption by purpose (COICOP) in Annex A to take account of the 2018 update of COICOP and (ii) update the transmission programme of national accounts data and related metadata (set out in Annex B) should be updated to take into account changing user needs, NextGenerationEU, and new policy priorities, and the development of new economic activities in the Union.

It is also planned to repeal 11 legal acts relating to the previous European System of Accounts (ESA 1995), as these acts are no longer relevant.

Derogations

Since the implementation of this Regulation will require major adaptations to national statistical systems, the Commission should grant derogations to Member States. Such derogations should be temporary and granted for a maximum duration of three years . The Commission should provide support to the Member States concerned in their efforts to carry out the required adaptations to their statistical systems so that the derogations can be discontinued as soon as possible.

Review clause

By 31 March 2024 , the Commission (Eurostat) will submit to the European Parliament and to the Council a report evaluating the progress made on the statistical accounts of the institutions and bodies of the Union, including on the ESA 2010 net lending / net borrowing and the outstanding Maastricht debt liabilities. Based on that report, the Commission may submit, if appropriate, a legislative proposal.

Entry into force and application

The Regulation will apply from 1 September 2024 , coinciding with the agreed timing for harmonised national accounts benchmark revisions in Member States. This does not prevent Member States from compiling their statistics in accordance with the amended Annexes before that general application date.

In order to ensure sufficient time for the adaptation to new transmission requirements, any new obligation to transmit metadata on structural information should apply from 1 September 2025, even though those metadata may already voluntarily be transmitted before that date.

Next generation

In the context of important initiatives taken by the Union, such as NextGenerationEU and the Recovery and Resilience Facility, Union statistics should properly reflect the statistical accounts of the institutions and bodies of the Union. Therefore, technical work should be pursued for that purpose, so that a robust methodology is developed allowing for the compilation and dissemination of statistical accounts by the Commission (Eurostat), including the ESA 2010 net lending / net borrowing and the outstanding Maastricht debt liabilities.

Increasing the availability of more detailed data

The amended text underlines the importance of data on information and communication technologies equipment to support the analysis and the policymaking in the context of priority policies relating to digitalisation and the European Green Deal, which aim to reinforce competitiveness and further development of new technologies. Similarly, data on land underlying buildings and structures are important for the analysis of investment and wealth at Union level.

The Commission (Eurostat) and national statistical authorities should pursue the methodological work undertaken in this area in recent years with a view to increasing the availability of more detailed data in the context of the future revision of the European system of national and regional accounts.

In addition, periodic updates are needed to take into account the interaction between globalisation, the green and digital transitions and national accounts in order to provide decision-makers with the necessary data and knowledge to ensure competitiveness, financial stability, budgetary resilience, sound public finances and fair tax policy.

2025 revision

The revision of the System of National Accounts 2008 in 2025 will provide an opportunity to update the internationally agreed concepts, definitions, classifications and accounting rules in order to address global challenges related to climate change, security, inequality, sustainability and well-being and will be instrumental in supporting policymakers in taking informed decisions to foster economic, social and territorial cohesion, reduce social and gender inequalities and catalyse the green and digital transitions.

The Commission should therefore regularly provide the required information and discuss with the European Parliament and the Council the revision of the System of National Accounts 2008 before its conclusion planned for 2025.

The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs adopted the report by Irene TINAGLI (S&D, IT) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 and repealing 11 legal acts in the field of National Accounts.

The committee responsible recommended that the European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the proposal as follows:

Objective

The objective of the proposal is to create common statistical standards that allow the production of harmonised national accounts data, for the sake of overall consistency.

Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which established the revised European System of Accounts (ESA 2010), contains the reference framework for common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules to enable the compilation of Member States' accounts for the statistical requirements of the Union, in order to obtain comparable results between Member States.

The proposed regulation would (i) amend the references to the classification of individual consumption by purpose (COICOP) in Annex A to take account of the 2018 update of COICOP and (ii) update the transmission programme of national accounts data and related metadata (set out in Annex B) should be updated to take into account changing user needs, NextGenerationEU, and new policy priorities, and the development of new economic activities in the Union.

The amended text stressed that periodic updates are needed to take into account the interaction between globalisation, the green and digital transitions and national accounts in order to provide decision-makers with the necessary data and knowledge in order to ensure competitiveness, financial stability, budgetary resilience, sound public finances and fair tax policy.

NextGenerationEU

In the context of launching initiatives such as NextGenerationEU, the statistical accounts of the EU institutions and bodies should be properly reflected in EU statistics. Technical work should be pursued for that purpose, so that a robust methodology is developed allowing for the compilation and dissemination of those accounts by the Commission (Eurostat) with regular reports on the progress made, in particular to the Council and the European Parliament.

Eurostat should make relevant information on Union institutions and bodies available as soon as possible, including information on deficit and debt.

Revision of the system of national accounts in 2025

The revision will provide an opportunity to update the internationally agreed concepts, definitions, classifications and accounting rules in order to address global challenges related to climate change, security, inequality, sustainability and well-being and will be instrumental in supporting policymakers in taking informed decisions to foster economic, social and territorial cohesion, reduce social and gender inequalities and catalyse the green and digital transitions.

The Commission should therefore consult the European Parliament on the Union position with regard to the revision of the international System of National Accounts before its conclusion in 2025.

Review clause

By 1 January 2024 at the latest, the Commission should assess the inclusion of the accounts of the Union institutions and bodies and present, if appropriate, a legislative proposal to that effect.

Lastly, it is planned to repeal 11 legal acts relating to the previous European System of Accounts (ESA 1995), as these acts are no longer relevant.

PURPOSE: to amend Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 in order to maintain the relevance of the revised European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) as regards its conceptual basis and transmission programme and thus create common statistical standards allowing the production of harmonised national accounts data.

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council 6 , which established the revised European System of Accounts (ESA 2010), contains the reference framework of common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules for drawing up the accounts of the Member States for the statistical requirements of the Union, in order to obtain comparable results between Member States.

Annex A to Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 defines the methodology for compiling Member States' accounts. Annex B of the Regulation (the ‘transmission programme’) provides for a set of tables of national accounts data to be transmitted within certain deadlines for EU purposes.

Since the introduction of ESA 2010 in 2014, there has been an evolution in a key statistical classification upon which it is based (a new Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose, or COICOP) and also an evolution in the needs of users for national accounts data.

The Commission therefore believes that it is appropriate to amend Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 to update references to the COICOP classification and to update the transmission programme to reflect new user needs.

In addition, the Commission believes that it is opportune to repeal 11 legal acts relating to the previous European System of Accounts (ESA 1995) 3 , as these acts are no longer relevant.

CONTENT: the proposal relates to an amendment of Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 in two respects:

Amendments to Annex A (the conceptual basis of ESA 2010)

The Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP), was updated in 2018 and the references in Annex A to COICOP must be amended to reflect the updated classification. It is also proposed to update Annex A to correct minor textual inconsistencies that have been identified during its implementation in Member States.

Amendments to Annex B (ESA 2010 transmission programme)

In order to take account of the evolving needs of these users, the proposal has the following objectives:

- to expand the availability of Government Finance Statistics, notably in respect of interactions with the institutions and bodies of the EU and the structure of government debt.

- to provide an updated legislative basis for the transmission of quarterly non-financial accounts for general government at t+3 months delay. The data is being transmitted by Member States on a voluntary basis.

- to improve the timeliness of the transmission of some tables, for example the transmission of annual financial accounts at t+4 months delay and the transmission of COFOG data at t+11 months delay. The latter is expected to facilitate its use in policy processes.

- to strengthen the consistency across tables, notably by amending the deadline arrangements for transmission of quarterly non-financial sector accounts data.

- to provide a legislative basis for the voluntary transmission of statistics which had been transmitted by Member States on a gentlemen’s agreement basis in the past, for example GDP and employment flash estimates at t+30 and t+45 days delay.

The proposal also provides for the improvement of the availability of metadata accompanying national accounts data, and to strengthen the consistency of data between tables, particularly for quarterly data.

Lastly, the proposal takes the opportunity to repeal 11 legal acts which relate to the former European System of Accounts (ESA 1995) and are no longer relevant since ESA 2010 has been implemented.

The Regulation would apply from 1 September 2024.