Eurostat ESTP course on International Trade in Goods Statistics April 2013 Point 2 of the agenda Legal framework for EU trade statistics

Eurostat Main topics Primary law Secondary law (general; ITGS relevance) Subsidiarity Co-ordination Eurostat - Member States Comitology Effect of the Lisbon Treaty on ITGS-legislation CIRCABC (IT-tool) 2

Eurostat “Hierarchy” Primary law Secondary legislation [ relating to ITGS: Basic acts Implementing provisions] Co-ordination between Member States and Eurostat 3

Eurostat Primary law = The supreme source of law of the EU (it prevails over all other sources of law) It consists mainly of the Treaties of the EU formal and substantive provisions framing the implementation of EU policies determining the division of competences between the EU and the Member States Reference to Statistics: Article 338 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU: “… European Parliament and the Council shall adopt measures for the production of statistics..” 4

Eurostat Primary law (2) Principle of subsidiarity established in Article 5 of the Treaty on the EU fundamental to European decision-making determines when the EU is competent to legislate Three criteria: Does the action have transnational aspects that cannot be resolved by Member States? Would national action or an absence of action be contrary to the requirements of the Treaty? Does action at European level have clear advantages? 5

Eurostat Directive Obliges Member States to achieve a result Leaving MSs the choice how to obtain the result Legislation with view to harmonise national legislations Regulation legislation of general application, binding in their entirety directly applicable in all Member States (Decisions) (Opinions) (Recommendations) Secondary law = Legal instruments based on the Treaties 6

Eurostat Secondary law relating to ITGS Two different domains: Statistics on trade with non-Member countries (Extra-EU trade statistics) Statistics on trade between Member States (Intra-EU trade statistics) “Regulation” as appropriate legal instrument to achieve the required results 7

Eurostat Secondary law relating to ITGS (2) Approach for present legislation on Extra- and Intra-EU trade statistics Basic Regulation Lays down fundamental rules (e.g. scope, basic definitions) Proposed by the Commission (drafted by Eurostat) Decided by European Parliament and Council o right to modify the proposal o common agreement -> adoption o publication in the Official Journal of the EU Provides for possibility to set up Implementing Regulations Provides for Comitology (= formal “cooperation Commission - Member States”) 8

Eurostat Secondary law relating to ITGS (3) Approach for present legislation on Extra- and Intra-EU trade statistics Implementing Regulation Separate act that o Complements or amends the rules of the Basic act o Contains provisions of a more specific or technical nature Proposal by the Commission (drafted by Eurostat) Decided (voted) by the Member States (Comitology) 9

Eurostat Secondary law relating to ITGS (4) Legislation on Extra- and Intra-EU trade statistics 10

Eurostat Secondary law with relevance for ITGS Geonomenclature “2013” Commission Regulation (EU) No 1106/2012; nomenclature of countries and territories for ITGS Statistical Law Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and Council on the European Statistical System Combined Nomenclature Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 927/2012; nomenclature of goods for customs and statistics Community Customs Code and its IPs Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92; (CC) Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 (CCIP) VAT directive Council Directive 2006/112/EC 11

Eurostat Co-ordination Member States / Eurostat Approach for present legislation on Extra- and Intra-EU trade statistics Comitology Committee is established in the Basic Act (-> Intrastat Committee, -> Extrastat Committee) Committee is composed of representatives of MSs Role of the committee o assist the Commission in preparing implementing acts o vote (majority) on the Commission’s proposal for such act Committee has rules of procedure Committees offer a forum for discussion between the Commission and the national administrations of MS with view to seeking the most satisfactory solution 12

Eurostat Co-ordination Member States / Eurostat (2) Approach for present legislation on Extra- and Intra-EU trade statistics Working Group Set up after an agreement of the Committee (Intrastat / Extrastat Committee) It has a clearly defined technical mandate/scope Its role is to report results back to the Committee It is composed of technical experts from Member States’ statistical administrations 13

Eurostat Co-ordination Member States / Eurostat (3) Example of Working Groups 'Linking Trade and Business Statistics‘ Coordination of data collection on trade by enterprise characteristics Methodological development of linking trade and business statistics Coordination of legal framework Methodological framework for trade globalisation indicators ‘Collection and Processing of Foreign Trade’ data validation, data collection, standardisation of messages, data submission to Eurostat 14

Eurostat Co-ordination Member States / Eurostat (4) Example of Working Groups (continued) ‘Methods in Foreign Trade Statistics‘ Preparation of the legal framework for the imple- mentation of the Intrastat and Extrastat systems Development of guidelines for the implementation of Extrastat and Intrastat Regulations Development of best practices and solutions to the problems raised by Member States 'Quality‘ Quality aspects in legislation, quality assessment, monitoring and reporting 15

Eurostat NEW – Lisbon Treaty Treaty of Lisbon.. Entered into force on 1 December 2009 Amended the Treaty on European Union (TEU) Amended the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) Renamed the TEC to Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) 16

Eurostat NEW – Legal norms The Treaty of Lisbon newly introduced a hierarchy of norms within the secondary legislation: Legislative acts Legal acts adopted by European Parliament and Council Delegated acts Non-legislative acts of general application to supplement or amend the legislative act; EP and Council may delegate the power to adopt this type of act to the Commission Implementing acts Acts generally adopted by the Commission under the Comitology procedure 17

Eurostat NEW – ITGS aspects Alignment of ITGS-basic acts to the Lisbon Treaty (~2014) (to reflect the changes in the conferral of power to the Commission) Delegated acts To supplement or amend the basic acts Adopted by the Commission No Comitology, but consultation of MS in expert groups Right of Parliament / Council to revoke empowerment Implementing acts To adopts acts of technical nature (e.g. coding) To be voted under Comitology 18

Eurostat NEW – Consequences on ITGS Replacement of the Extrastat and Intrastat Committees by the ESS Committee (~2014) Extrastat/Intrastat Committees likely to be transformed into a working group New working structure for the co-operation Eurostat-Member States 19

Eurostat Useful practical tool CIRCABC Communication and Information Resource Centre for Administrations, Businesses and Citizens) Open source software Tool used by the European Institutions Internet based For ITGS: closed space to share and exchange information (files / newsgroups) user account required (id and password for ECAS) reflects working structure of Eurostat’s units G4/G5 20

Eurostat 21 Thanks for your attention