20.12.2007 Official Journal of the European Union L 336/1 (Acts adopted under the EC Treaty/Euratom Treaty whose publication is obligatory) REGULATIONS REGULATION (EC) No 1445/2007 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 11 December 2007 establishing common rules for the provision of basic information on Purchasing Power Parities and for their calculation and dissemination (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EURO- PEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Commu- nity, and in particular Article 285(1) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1), Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (%), Whereas: (1) In order to obtain a direct comparison of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in volume terms between Member States, it is essential for the Community to have Purchasing Power Parities (hereinafter referred to as ‘PPPs’) which eliminate the differences in the level of prices between Member States. (20 The Community PPPs need to be produced in accordance with a harmonised methodology, consistent with Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the Euro- pean system of national and regional accounts in the Com- munity (}) which lays down a framework for the construction of national accounts in the Member States. (1) O] C 318, 23.12.2006, p. 45. (?) Position of the European Parliament of 26 April 2007 (not yet pub- lished in the Official Journal) and Council Decision of 13 November 2007. (®) OJ L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regula- tion (EC) No 1267/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Coun- cil (O] L 180, 18.7.2003, p. 1). (3)  Member States are encouraged to produce data for regional PPPs. (4)  Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 of 11 July 2006 laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund (%) provides that the regions eligible for funding from the Structural Funds under the convergence objective are to be regions corresponding to level 2 of the common classification of territorial units for statistics within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) (°). The GDP per capita of such regions, measured in PPPs and calculated on the basis of Community figures for the period 2000 to 2002, is less than 75 % of the average GDP of the EU-25 for the same reference period. In the absence of regional PPPs, national PPPs should serve to establish the list of regions which could benefit from the Structural Funds. National PPPs can also be used to determine the amount of funds to be allocated to each region. (5)  Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 provides that the Member States eligible for funding from the Cohesion Fund are to be those whose gross national income (GNI) per capita, measured in PPPs and calculated on the basis of Commu- nity figures for the period 2001 to 2003, is less than 90 % of the average GNI of the EU-25 and which have a pro- gramme for meeting the economic convergence conditions referred to in Article 104 of the Treaty. () OJL 210, 31.7.2006, p. 25. Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC) No 1989/2006 (O] L 411, 30.12.2006, p. 6). (°) OJ L 154, 21.6.2003, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Commis- sion Regulation (EC) No 105/2007 (OJ L 39, 10.2.2007, p. 1).