L 34076 Official Journal of the European Union 19.12.2008 DECISIONS ADOPTED JOINTLY BY THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL DECISION No 1297/2008/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 16 December 2008 on a Programme for the Modernisation of European Enterprise and Trade Statistics (MEETS) (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 285 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (1), Whereas: 1 The Commission made a commitment in its Communi- cations of 16 March 2005 on Better Regulation for Growth and Jobs in the European Union and of 24 January 2007 on an Action Programme for Reducing Administrative Burdens in the European Union to ensure a better policy on regulation and to cut unnecessary red tape and over-regulation. On 14 November 2006, the Commission published a Communication on reduction of the response burden, simplification and priority-setting in the field of Community statistics, which sets out a strategic approach to continuing the reduction of the statistical burden on enterprises. During the last 15 years, a large number of statistical regulations aiming to describe activities of enterprises and containing data provision obligations for enterprises have emerged to meet the statistical information needs of the Community. An overhaul is needed to ensure, inter alia, the consistency of the scope of, and the concepts and definitions in, those statistical regulations. Insofar as possible, simplification and priority-setting should be a feature of all those regulations. Enterprise and trade statistics are faced with a major challenge in the coming years. To underpin Community policy initiatives, they have to be capable of reflecting phenomena in the changing Community (') Opinion of the European Parliament of 9 July 2008 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Council Decision of 18 November 2008. economy such as globalisation, emerging trends in entre- preneurship, the information society, trade in services, innovation, shifting trade patterns, and competitiveness in the light of the renewed Lisbon strategy. A key element driving the need for enterprise and trade statistics is the renewed Lisbon strategy, the objectives of which are to foster the competitiveness of the European economy and achieve high and sustainable growth. The deepening of European integration in a number of economic areas, including the European Monetary Union and the European customs system, creates new statistical needs related to the role of the euro in international transactions and leads to the necessity of adjusting the statistical system. Enterprise and trade statistics should meet those needs appropriately and provide, in a timely manner, high-quality statistical information on the structural changes in the European economy and its business sector. Enterprise and trade statistics comprise several areas to which improvements should be made, such as structural business  statistics, short-term statistics, Prodcom statistics, statistics on information and communication technology, and statistics on trade in goods between Member States (Intrastat). The authorities responsible for enterprise and trade statistics should re-engineer the methods for the production of statistics so that the burden on enterprises can be reduced and all available sources and new tech- nologies can be used in a fully effective way. The need for new types of indicators may arise as a result of efforts to modernise the statistical production system. New types of indicators providing the information required could be obtained by linking together existing types of business statistics without the need to increase the reporting burden on enterprises. New sources and electronic access are likely to make data collection less burdensome and, at the same time, provide more infor- mation. The potential of business statistics should be exploited in a more efficient way and the quality of statistical information should increase.