Regulation (EU) 2023/734 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2023 amending Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union and repealing 11 legal acts in the field of national accounts (Text with EEA relevance)
Regulation (EU) 2023/734 of the European Parliament and of the Councilof 15 March 2023amending Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union and repealing 11 legal acts in the field of national accounts(Text with EEA relevance)THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 338(1) thereof,Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments,Having regard to the opinion of the European Central BankOJ C 218, 2.6.2022, p. 2.,Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedurePosition of the European Parliament of 2 February 2023 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and decision of the Council of 21 February 2023.,Whereas:(1)Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union (OJ L 174, 26.6.2013, p. 1). set up a revised European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) and contains the reference framework of common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules for drawing up the accounts of the Member States for the statistical requirements of the Union, in order to obtain comparable results between Member States.(2)Annex A to Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 provides for the methodology for the drawing up of the accounts of the Member States.(3)During the application of Regulation (EU) No 549/2013, minor textual inconsistencies have been identified in Annex A to that Regulation, and those inconsistencies need to be corrected.(4)Annex B to Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 (the "transmission programme") provides for a set of tables of national accounts data, including related metadata, which Member States are to transmit to the Commission (Eurostat) within specified time limits for the purposes of the Union.(5)The transmission programme should be updated to take into account changing user needs, new policy priorities and the development of new economic activities in the Union.(6)Metadata on structural information to be transmitted should take into account the principles described in Commission Recommendation (EU) 2023/397Commission Recommendation (EU) 2023/397 of 17 February 2023 on reference metadata and quality reports for the European Statistical System, replacing Recommendation 2009/498/EC on reference metadata for the European Statistical System (OJ L 53, 21.2.2023, p. 104).. New metadata transmission requirements should not impose excessive additional costs or excessive administrative burden on Member States.(7)The 49th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission considered and endorsed the revised version of the classification of individual consumption by purpose (Coicop 2018) as the internationally accepted standard. Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 makes reference to the previous version (Coicop 1999) in Annexes A and B thereto, and those references should therefore be updated.(8)Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 should therefore be amended accordingly.(9)Since the implementation of this Regulation will require major adaptations to national statistical systems, the Commission should grant derogations to Member States. Such derogations should be temporary and granted for a maximum duration of three years. The Commission should provide support to the Member States concerned in their efforts to carry out the required adaptations to their statistical systems so that the derogations can be discontinued as soon as possible.(10)Following the entry into force of Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 and of Regulation (EU) 2019/516 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2019/516 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2019 on the harmonisation of gross national income at market prices and repealing Council Directive 89/130/EEC, Euratom and Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1287/2003 (GNI Regulation) (OJ L 91, 29.3.2019, p. 19)., 11 legal acts based on the previous European system of national and regional accounts, established by Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community (OJ L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1). (ESA 95), are no longer relevant. The measures set out in this Regulation will replace those of Regulations (EC) No 359/2002Regulation (EC) No 359/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2002 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 as concerns the use of ESA 95 in the determination of Member States’ payments to the VAT-based own resource (OJ L 58, 28.2.2002, p. 1)., (EC) No 1221/2002Regulation (EC) No 1221/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 June 2002 on quarterly non-financial accounts for general government (OJ L 179, 9.7.2002, p. 1)., (EC) No 1267/2003Regulation (EC) No 1267/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 June 2003 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 with respect to the time limit for transmission of the main aggregates of national accounts, to the derogations concerning the transmission of the main aggregates of national accounts and to the transmission of employment data in hours worked (OJ L 180, 18.7.2003, p. 1)., (EC) No 501/2004Regulation (EC) No 501/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 March 2004 on quarterly financial accounts for general government (OJ L 81, 19.3.2004, p. 1)., (EC) No 1161/2005Regulation (EC) No 1161/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2005 on the compilation of quarterly non-financial accounts by institutional sector (OJ L 191, 22.7.2005, p. 22)., (EC) No 1392/2007Regulation (EC) No 1392/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 with respect to the transmission of national accounts data (OJ L 324, 10.12.2007, p. 1). and (EC) No 400/2009Regulation (EC) No 400/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community as regards the implementing powers conferred on the Commission (OJ L 126, 21.5.2009, p. 11). of the European Parliament and of the Council, Council Regulation (EC) No 1222/2004Council Regulation (EC) No 1222/2004 of 28 June 2004 concerning the compilation and transmission of data on the quarterly government debt (OJ L 233, 2.7.2004, p. 1)., Commission Regulation (EC) No 264/2000Commission Regulation (EC) No 264/2000 of 3 February 2000 on the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 with respect to short-term public finance statistics (OJ L 29, 4.2.2000, p. 4). and Commission Decisions 98/715/ECCommission Decision 98/715/EC of 30 November 1998 clarifying Annex A to Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community as concerns the principles for measuring prices and volumes (OJ L 340, 16.12.1998, p. 33). and 2002/990/ECCommission Decision 2002/990/EC of 17 December 2002 further clarifying Annex A to Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 as concerns the principles for measuring prices and volumes in national accounts (OJ L 347, 20.12.2002, p. 42).. Those acts should therefore be repealed.(11)This Regulation should apply from 1 September 2024 to coincide with the agreed timing for harmonised national accounts benchmark revisions in Member States. This does not prevent Member States from compiling their statistics in accordance with the amended Annexes before that general application date. In order to ensure sufficient time for the adaptation to new transmission requirements, any new obligation to transmit metadata on structural information should apply from 1 September 2025, even though those metadata may already voluntarily be transmitted before that date.(12)With a view to mitigating the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis and in order to reinforce the resilience of Member States’ economies and social structures, the Union has taken major initiatives, in particular NextGenerationEU and the Recovery and Resilience Facility established by Regulation (EU) 2021/241 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2021/241 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2021 establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility (OJ L 57, 18.2.2021, p. 17).. Against that background, Union statistics should properly reflect the statistical accounts of the institutions and bodies of the Union. Therefore, technical work should be pursued for that purpose, so that a robust methodology is developed allowing for the compilation and dissemination of statistical accounts by the Commission (Eurostat), including the ESA 2010 net lending / net borrowing and the outstanding Maastricht debt liabilities. By 31 March 2024, the Commission (Eurostat) should submit a report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the progress made in that regard.(13)Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the creation of common statistical standards that permit the production of harmonised national accounts data to achieve overall comparability at Union level, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of its scale and effects, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.(14)Data on information and communication technologies equipment are essential to support the analysis and the policymaking in the context of priority policies relating to digitalisation and the European Green Deal, which aim to reinforce competitiveness and further development of new technologies. Similarly, data on land underlying buildings and structures are important for the analysis of investment and wealth at Union level. The Commission (Eurostat) and national statistical authorities should pursue the methodological work undertaken in this area in recent years with a view to increasing the availability of more detailed data in the context of the future revision of the European system of national and regional accounts.(15)Periodic updates are needed to take into account the interaction between globalisation, the green and digital transitions and national accounts in order to provide decision-makers with the necessary data and knowledge to ensure competitiveness, financial stability, budgetary resilience, sound public finances and fair tax policy. Furthermore, the 51st session of the United Nations Statistical Commission has already requested the Intersecretariat Working Group on National Accounts to develop a roadmap for the revision of the System of National Accounts 2008. The revised version of the System of National Accounts is planned to be adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission in 2025.(16)The update of international manuals on national accounts is necessary, in particular with regard to well-being and sustainability, given that so much of the activity affecting economic well-being of the population occurs beyond the production frontier.(17)The revision of the System of National Accounts 2008 in 2025 will provide an opportunity to update the internationally agreed concepts, definitions, classifications and accounting rules in order to address global challenges related to climate change, security, inequality, sustainability and well-being and will be instrumental in supporting policymakers in taking informed decisions to foster economic, social and territorial cohesion, reduce social and gender inequalities and catalyse the green and digital transitions. The Commission should therefore regularly provide the required information and discuss with the European Parliament and the Council the revision of the System of National Accounts 2008 before its conclusion planned for 2025.(18)The European Statistical System Committee has been consulted,HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: