Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) amending Articles 6 and 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods by the Community and its Member States with non-member countries
COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES Brussels, 13. 10. 1997 COM(97) 508 final 97/ 0252 (ACQ Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) amending Articles 6 and 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods by the Community and its Member States with non-member countries (presented by the Commission) EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM "| Subject: Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) amending Articles 6 and 9 of Regulation (EC) N° 1172/95 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods by the Community and its Member States with non-member countries 1. The Community rules on the statistics relating to the trading of goods with non-member countries consist of Council Regulation (EC) N° 1172/95© (basic Regulation) and Commission Regulation (EC) N° 840/96 (implementing Regulation). A Commission Regulation which annually lays down the country nomenclature is also part of the legislation governing the above-mentioned statistics. 2. The French overseas departments (DOM) and the Canary Islands have recently been included in the statistical territory of the Community (cf. Council Regulation (EC) N° 476/97©); these territories were previously regarded as non-member countries and for the purposes of external trade statistics were not part of the statistical territory of the European Union. This amendment therefore means that the basic Regulation must be adapted accordingly. 3. Furthermore, some Commission departments have, with the agreement of the Member States, requested that the coding system currently used for the country nomenclature be changed. For the past twenty years or so the countries have been identified by a numerical code, but it is proposed, for practical reasons and in order to align more closely with international conventions, that an alphabetical code in line with the ISO-alpha2 standard be used. Before this new nomenclature, which will be adopted by a Commission Regulation, can be introduced, the necessary adaptations must be made to the basic Regulation. 4. Therefore Articles 6 and 9 of Regulation (EC) N° 1172/95 must be amended in accordance with the proposal presented. © JO N° L 118, 25. 05. 1995, p. 10 © J O N ° L 7 5, 15. 03. 1997, p. 1 <L Proposa! for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No. /. of amending Articles 6 and 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods by the Community and its Member States with non-member countries THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 113 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Whereas following the amendment of the statistical territory of the Community on 1 January 1997 by Council Regulation (EC) No 476/97(0 amending Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods by the Community and its Member States with non-member countries, the references to the former definition of the statistical territory must be deleted; whereas Article 6 (1) of Regulation (EC) No 1172/95(2) must therefore be amended; Whereas from 1 January 1999 the country nomenclature currently used for the statistics relating to the trading of goods will be replaced by an alphabetical nomenclature based on the ISO alpha-2 code; whereas, in this new context and for the sake of harmonisation, all the Member States must use the same nomenclature when compiling statistics and transmitting them to Eurostat; whereas it is therefore necessary to amend Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 by deleting the possibility accorded the Member States of using other country nomenclatures at the collection stage; HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: Article 1 Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 shall be amended as follows: 1. In Article 6(1): a) in subparagraph (a), the second indent is deleted; b) in subparagraph (b), the third indent is deleted; c) subparagraph (c) is replaced by the following: "(c) the goods referred to in Article 4(1), second subparagraph. " 2. In Article 9: a) paragraph 2 is replaced by the following: "2. The code specified in the country nomenclature referred to in paragraph 1 must be given for each country. " b) paragraph 3 is deleted. C1) OJL75of 15. 03. 1997, p. 1 (2) OJL 118 of 25. 05. 1995, p. 10. Q Article 2 This regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities. The provisions of Article 1 (2) shall apply from 1 January 1999. This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Done at Brussels, For the Council 2 ISSN 0254-1475 COM(97) 508 final EN Catalogue number : CB-C0-97-519-EN-C ISBN 92-78-25695-1 Office for Official Publications of the European Communities L-2985 Luxembourg 4