L 29622 Official Journal of the European Union 15.11.2007 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1334/2007 of 14 November 2007 amending Regulation (EC) No 1749/96 on initial implementing measures for Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 concerning harmonised indices of consumer prices (Text with EEA relevance) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 of 23 October 1995 concerning harmonized indices of consumer prices (1), and in particular third paragraph of Article 4 and Article 5(3) thereof, Having regard to the opinion of the European Central Bank (3), as required under Article 5(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95, Whereas: Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP) are harmonised inflation figures required by the Commission and the European Central Bank for the performance of their functions under Article 121 of the EC Treaty. HICPs are designed to facilitate international comparisons of consumer price inflation. They serve as important indi- cators for the management of monetary policy. The HICP constitutes a rather complete conceptual framework. Very considerable progress has been made in harmonizing methodologies since the initial imple- menting measures were adopted, but scope for non- comparability remains with regard to sampling, replace- ment, quality adjustment and aggregation procedures. The existing HICP framework provides a definition of the HICP as a Laspeyres-type index concerned with the changing power of money to acquire goods and services for the purposes of directly satisfying consumer needs. This definition reflects the current understanding of consumer inflation in the European Union and the euro zone in particular. () OJ L 257, 27.10.1995, p. 1. Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (O] L 284, 31.10.2003, p. 1). (%) Opinion delivered on 5 October 2007 (O] C 248, 23.10.2007, p. 1). (4) The HICP relates to the prices of all the products purchased by consumers, when they seek to maintain consumption patterns, ie. products defined by elementary expenditure categories (weights). These cate- gories consist of explicitly stated consumption segments distinguishable by consumption purpose. The set of all product-offers in the statistical universe can be exhaus- tively divided into consumption segments. Consumption segments are relatively stable over time although the product-offers comprising a consumption segment will change as markets evolve. The notion of consumption segments by purpose is therefore central to sampling and to the meaning of quality change and quality adjustment. However, an ambiguity in this concept concerns the level of aggre- gation at which it is defined and applied. The range of product-offers will change over time as products are modified or replaced by retailers and manu- facturers. The HICP requires the representation of all currently available product-offers within the consumption segments by purpose selected in the reference period in order to measure their impact on inflation. This applies particularly to new models or varieties of previously existing products. Quality change thus relates to the degree to which available products are fit to serve the purpose of the consumption segment to which they belong. Quality change should be assessed by reference to the specifi- cation of concrete products within a consumption segment. In order to address these issues, a number of clarifi- cations and amendments to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1749/96 of 9 September 1996 on initial imple- menting measures for Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 concerning harmonized indices of consumer prices (}) are necessary for ensuring comparability of HICPs and maintaining their reliability and relevance in accordance with Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95. () OJ L 229, 10.9.1996, p. 3. Regulation as last amended by Regu- lation (EC) No 1708/2005 (O] L 274, 20.10.2005, p. 9).