L 137/32 Official Journal of the European Communities 19.5.2001 COMMISSION DECISION of 15 May 2001 granting to Spain a transitional period of two years to bring its accounting systems into line with Regulation (EC) No 2516/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council (notified under document number C(2001) 1415) (Only the Spanish text is authentic) (2001/387[EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 222396 of 25 June 1996 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community (') (ESA 95), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 2516/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3), Whereas: (1) Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 on ESA 95 contains the reference framework of common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules for drawing up the accounts of the Member States for the statistical require- ments of the Community, in order to obtain comparable results between Member States. (2)  Regulation (EC) No 2516/2000 ensures better compar- ability and transparency among the Member States in the recording of taxes and social contributions in ESA 95 for the excessive deficit procedure. Net lending/net borrowing of general government shall not include amounts of taxes and social contributions unlikely to be collected. (3)  Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 2516/2000 states that Member States may ask the Commission for a trans- itional period of no more than two years in which to bring their accounting systems into line with Regulation (EC) No 2516/2000. (4) By letter dated 10 January 2001, the Spanish authorities requested a transitional period of two years to bring () O] L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1. () O] L 290, 17.11.2000, p. 1. their accounting systems into line with Regulation (EC) No 2516/2000. (5)  For many years Spain has based its national accounts' recording of taxes and social contributions on assess- ment and declarations. It has provided to the Commis- sion sufficient objective evidence of the need to improve its knowledge of the receipts of these amounts in order to bring its accounting systems into line with Regulation (EC) No 2516/2000. (6)  Spain has presented to the Commission a work programme in which all public national authorities concerned are involved, HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: Article 1 In accordance with Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 25162000 the Commission grants to Spain a transitional period of two years in order to bring its accounting systems in line with this Regulation, no later than 7 November 2002. Article 2 This Decision is addressed to the Kingdom of Spain. Done at Brussels, 15 May 2001. For the Commission Pedro SOLBES MIRA Member of the Commission