LegalizeCouncil Regulation (EU) No 679/2010 of 26 July 2010 amending Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 as regards the quality of statistical data in the context of the excessive deficit procedure
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular the third subparagraph of Article 126(14) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Central Bank (1),
Whereas:
(1) The credibility of budgetary surveillance crucially hinges upon reliable budgetary statistics. It is of the utmost importance that data reported by Member States under 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 (2) are of high quality and reliability.
(2) The European Union governance framework for fiscal statistics has been further developed and institutional setting updated over the past years, notably with a view to improving the monitoring of the government accounts by the Commission (Eurostat).
(3) The revised governance framework for fiscal statistics has functioned well overall and, in general, has produced a satisfactory outcome in terms of the reporting of relevant fiscal data on government deficit and debt. In particular, the Member States have predominantly demonstrated a solid record of cooperation in good faith and an operational ability to report fiscal data of high quality.
(4) However, recent developments have also clearly demonstrated that the current governance framework for fiscal statistics still does not mitigate, to the extent necessary, the risk of incorrect or inaccurate data being notified to the Commission.
(5) In this connection, and in some exceptional cases (methodological visits), the Commission (Eurostat) should have additional rights of access to a widened scope of information for the needs of data quality assessment, in full compliance with Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics (3) as regards professional independence.
(6) Therefore, in carrying out methodological visits to a Member State whose statistical information is under scrutiny, the Commission (Eurostat) should be entitled to have access to the accounts of government entities at central, state, local and social security levels, including the provision of underlying detailed accounting information, relevant statistical surveys and questionnaires and further related information, respecting the legislation on data protection as well as statistical confidentiality.
(7) Public accounts of individual general government units, as well as of public units classified outside the general government sector, should be the main object of the controls, and the public accounts should be assessed in terms of their statistical use.
(8) Member States should ensure that institutions and officials responsible for the reporting of the actual data to the Commission (Eurostat) and of the underlying government accounts fully respect the obligations related to the statistical principles.
(9) Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 should therefore be amended accordingly,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
Amendments to Regulation (EC) No 479/2009
Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 is hereby amended as follows:
the following Article is inserted:
‘Article 2a “Access” means that relevant documents and other information must be provided when requested, either immediately or as promptly afterwards as is consistent with the time needed to collect the requested information.’;
Article 11 is replaced by the following:
‘Article 11
Article 16 is replaced by the following:
‘Article 16
Article 2
Entry into force
This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 26 July 2010.
For the Council The President S. VANACKERE
(1) OJ C 103, 22.4.2010, p. 1.