Official Journal of the European Communities 523 10.6.72 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 133/57 ® AU D20 ! | ; i COUNCIL DIRECTIVE of 6 June 1972 concerning coordinated annual surveys of industrial activity (72/221/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 proposal from the Commission; Whereas, in order to carry out the tasks entrusted to it under the Treaty, the Commission must have at its disposal up-to-date statistics, comparable as between States, on the structure, importance and development of industry and small craft industries in Membe States; : Whereas, when the industrial census was being prepared in 1963, the Commission found it necessary to draw the attention of the Governments of Member States to the fact that the development of the industrial economy in a common market requires that industrial statistics should provide certain minimum data; whereas the information available in the various Member States is inadequate or insufficiently comparable to serve as a reliable basis for the work of the Commission; Whereas the European Economic Community has in the meantime made substantial progress towards integration; whereas new economic policies and guidelines call for initiatives and decisions based on valid statistics; whereas the statistics available in industry and small craft industries are not yet up to the standards appropriate to this economic situation. Whereas these deficiencies make it difficult to extract from the industrial statistics now available in the various Member States information which could serve as a reliable basis for' the work of the Commission, in particular as regards medium-term economic policy, industrial policy, and competition policy; Whereas comparable information on industrial activity must be obtained from the Member States \r ,4(} i and whereas for that reason it is necessary to carry out surveys which are coordinated as regards content, coverage, concepts and definitions, methods, and breakdown by industrial activity and size of statistical unit, for the purpose of collecting a body of coherent statistics whereby it will be possible to analyse the situation and economic development of the various branches of industry, and the potential for or obstacles to their growth; whereas these statistics will also provide the data necessary for -calculating the contribution of industry and small craft industries to the national product and for other work in the sphere of statistical and economic synthesis; HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE: Article 1 The Member States, in technical cooperation with the Commission, shall take all necessary steps for collecting annual statistical data with a view to drawing up coherent statistics on the structure and productive activity of industry in the Member States. This first collection of data shall be made in 1974, at the latest and shall relate to the preceding year. Article 2 The surveys shall cover all industrial undertakings and small businesses, if any, which employ twenty or more persons and whose principal activity is listed in one of the Divisions of the Nomenclature of Economic Activities in the European Communities (NACE), for industry, including energy and water, and also construction (NACE 1 to §). Surveys shall, at least once in every five years, be extended to cover undertakings employing fewer than 20 persons. The Commission, in agreement with the Member States, shall appoint the years in which the surveys shall be so extended.