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,
Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure,
Whereas:
(1)
As a consequence of the entry into force of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (the ‘Treaty’), the powers conferred on the Commission should be aligned with Articles 290 and 291 of the Treaty.
(2)
In light of the adoption of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council, the Commission has committed itself, by means of a Statement, to reviewing, in light of the criteria laid down in the Treaty, legislative acts which currently contain references to the regulatory procedure with scrutiny.
(3)
Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council confers powers on the Commission in order to implement some of the provisions of that Regulation.
(4)
In order to align Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 with Articles 290 and 291 of the Treaty, implementing powers conferred on the Commission by that Regulation should be replaced by powers to adopt delegated and implementing acts.
(5)
In order to take account of changes in the Customs Code or provisions deriving from international conventions, changes necessary for methodological reasons and the need to set up an efficient system for the collection of data and the compilation of statistics, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty should be delegated to the Commission in respect of:
the adaptation of the list of customs procedures or customs-approved treatment or use,
specific goods or movements and different or specific provisions applicable to them,
the exclusion of goods or movements from external trade statistics,
the data collection referred to in Article 4(2) and (4) of Regulation (EC) No 471/2009,
the further specification of the statistical data,
the requirement for limited sets of data for the specific goods or movements referred to in Article 3(3) of Regulation (EC) No 471/2009, and data provided in accordance with Article 4(2) of that Regulation,
the level of aggregation for partner countries, goods and currencies for statistics on trade by invoicing currency.
It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making. In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States' experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.
(6)
The Commission should ensure that those delegated acts do not impose a significant additional burden on the Member States or on the respondents and that they remain as economical as possible.
(7)
In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 471/2009, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission enabling it to adopt measures relating to:
the codes and their format to be used in respect of the data referred to in Article 5(1) of that Regulation,
the linking of the data on business characteristics with data recorded in accordance with that Article, and
the uniform content and coverage of transmitted statistics.
Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011.
(8)
The Committee on statistics relating to the trading of goods with non-member countries (‘Extrastat Committee’), referred to in Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 471/2009, has provided advice to and assisted the Commission in the exercise of its implementing powers. Under the strategy for a new European Statistical System (‘ESS’) structure aimed at improving coordination and partnership in a clear pyramid structure within the ESS, the European Statistical System Committee (‘ESSC’), established by Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, should have an advisory role and assist the Commission in exercising its implementing powers. To that effect, Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 should be amended by replacing the reference to the Extrastat Committee with a reference to the ESSC.
(9)
To ensure legal certainty, procedures for adopting measures that have been initiated but not completed before the entry into force of this Regulation are not affected by this Regulation.
(10)
Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 should therefore be amended accordingly,
HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: