6.11.2012 Official Journal of the European Union L 306/21 DECISIONS COMMISSION DELEGATED DECISION of 29 June 2012 on investigations and fines related to the manipulation of statistics as referred to in Regulation (EU) No 1173/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the effective enforcement of budgetary surveillance in the euro area (2012/678/EU) THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 1173/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 November 2011 on the effective enforcement of budgetary surveillance in the euro area (), and in particular Article 8(4) thereof, Whereas: Regulation (EU) No 1173/2011 sets out a system of sanctions for enhancing the enforcement of the preventive and corrective parts of the Stability and Growth Pact in the euro area. It applies to Member States whose currency is the euro. The availability of sound fiscal data is essential for budgetary surveillance in the euro area. In order to guarantee sound and independent statistics, Member States should ensure the principle of professional inde- pendence of national statistical authorities in conformity with Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics (3, and as further set out in the European Statistics Code of Practice. Regulation  (EU) No 11732011  empowers the Commission to survey the economic and monetary cooperation with a view to detecting and exposing manipulation of general government deficit and debt data relevant for the application of the multilateral surveillance system and the excessive deficit procedure. For that purpose, the Commission should conduct all necessary investigations to confirm the existence of 306, 23.11.2011, p. 1. 0J L 0] L 87, 31.3.2009, p. 164. () ) O] O] misrepresentations of actual deficit and debt data, as a result of intent or serious negligence, as referred to in Article 8(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1173/2011. It is necessary to establish the detailed rules concerning the procedures for investigations, detailed criteria estab- lishing the amount of the fine, detailed rules guaranteeing the rights of the defence, access to the file, legal repre- sentation, confidentiality, and provisions as to the timing and collection of fines. A decision by the Commission to launch investigations should be justified, and the investigations undertaken should be proportionate so as not to go beyond what is necessary to establish the possible existence of manipu- lation of the relevant deficit and debt data. When undertaking such investigations, the Commission should be able to conduct on-site inspections and request information from any entity to be classified in the general-government sector, whether at central, State, local or social-security level, in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community (), hereinafter referred to as ‘ESA 95" In order to confirm a suspicion following serious indi- cations of misrepresentation of the relevant deficit and debt data, the launch of an investigation should normally be preceded by a methodological visit conducted by the Commission (Eurostat) in accordance with Article 11b of Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 of 25 May 2009 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure annexed to the Treaty establishing the European Community (*). In assessing what constitutes a misrepresentation of deficit and debt data within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 1173/2011, incorrect implementation of ESA 95 accounting rules which is not the result of either L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1. L 145, 10.6.2009, p. 1.