30.4.2007 Official Journal of the European Union L113/3 REGULATION (EC) No 458/2007 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 25 April 2007 on the European system of integrated social protection statistics (ESSPROS) (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) Article 2 of the Treaty refers to the promotion of a high level of social protection as one of the tasks of the Community. (2)  The Lisbon European Council of March 2000 gave impe- tus to a process of policy exchange among the Member States on the modernisation of social protection systems. (3) A Social Protection Committee was established by Coun- cil Decision 2004/689/EC (?) in order to serve as a vehicle for cooperative exchange between the Commission and the Member States in relation to modernising and improv- ing social protection systems. (4 By communication of 27 May 2003, the Commission out- lined a strategy for streamlining the processes of open coordination in the social policy area with a view to strengthening the position of social protection and social inclusion within the Lisbon strategy. On 20 October 2003 the Council agreed that streamlining would come into effect from 2006 onwards. In this context, an annual Joint Report became the core reporting instrument, with the task of bringing together the key analytical findings and political messages pertaining both to the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) in the different strands where it is applied and to cross-cutting issues in social protection. (5)  The OMC has placed new emphasis on the need for com- parable, timely and reliable statistics in the social policy area. In particular, comparable statistics on social protec- tion are used in the annual Joint Reports. (1) 0] C 309, 16.12.2006, p. 78. (?) Opinion of the European Parliament of 30 November 2006 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Council Decision of 22 March 2007. () OJ L 314, 13.10.2004, p. 8. (6)  The Commission (Eurostat) already collects annual data on social protection from the Member States on a voluntary basis. This practice has become established in the Mem- ber States and is based on common methodological prin- ciples designed to ensure the comparability of data. (7 The production of specific Community statistics is gov- erned by the rules set out in Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community Statistics (*). (8)  The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers con- ferred on the Commission (°). (9)  In particular, power should be conferred on the Commis- sion to decide the first year for which full data should be collected on net social protection benefits. Power should also be conferred on the Commission to adopt measures relating to the detailed classification of data covered, the definitions to be used and the updating of the rules on dissemination. Since those measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation and to supplement it by the addition of new non-essential elements, they should be adopted in accor- dance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny pro- vided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468EC. (10)  Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the creation of common statistical standards that permit the produc- tion of harmonised data, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the prin- ciple of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective. (*) OJL52,222.1997, p. 1. Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 284, 31.10.2003, p. 1). (°) O] L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23. Decision as amended by Decision 2006/512/EC (O] L 200, 22.7.2006, p. 11).