23.12. 80 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 350/23 (Acts whose publication is not obligatory) COUNCIL COUNCIL DIRECTIVE of 4 December 1980 on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods by rail, as part of regional statistics (80/1177/EEC) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN . COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 213 thereof, Having regard to the draft Directive submitted by the Commission, Having regard to the opinion of the European Par- liament ('), Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (%), Whereas, in order to carry out the tasks entrusted to it under the Treaty, the Commission must have at its disposal consistent, synchronized and regular stat- istical data on the scale and development of the carriage of goods by rail in the Member States; whereas these data must be comparable both as between States and also with the data for other modes of transport and must refer to national, inter- national and transit traffic; Whereas, in view of the economic and environmental advantages of combined transport, the statistical data should distinguish separately such transport; (") OJ No C 85, 8. 4. 1980, p. 75. (*) OJ No C 300, 18. 11. 1980, p. 3. Whereas, in order to secure adequate information on the rail freight traffic market, such statistical data should distinguish between the main traffic relations; Whereas the statistics already available in the different Member States on goods carriage should be ~ further harmonized at Community level; Whereas, in order to facilitate the implementation of the proposed provisions, certain time limits should be laid down for providing the necessary statistical infor- mation; Whereas the Commission should submit a report in order to enable the Council to examine the extent to which the objectives of this Directive can be attained by using the statistical data submitted; whereas it should therefore envisage the possibility of proposing improvements to the methods used in compiling these statistics; whereas the Council, acting on a proposal from the Commission, should decide on the intro- duction of statistics on international traffic between regions and separate statistics on full train loads; Whereas statistical data are necessary for ascertaining the scale and development of the carriage of goods; whereas the Community should therefore, for an initial period, make a financial contribution to Member States in respect of the work involved,