REPORT on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council regulation on Community statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC)
(COM(2001) 754 – C5‑0679/2001 – 2001/0293(COD))

23 April 2002 - ***I

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs
Rapporteur: Theodorus J.J. Bouwman

PROCEDURAL PAGE

By letter of 13 December 2001 the Commission submitted to Parliament, pursuant to Article 251(2) and Article 285(1) of the EC Treaty, the proposal for a European Parliament and Council regulation on Community statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) (COM(2001) 754 - 2001/0293 (COD)).

At the sitting of 16 January 2002 the President of Parliament announced that he had referred this proposal to the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs as the committee responsible and the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Budgetary Control for their opinions (C5‑0679/2001).

The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs had appointed Theodorus J.J. Bouwman rapporteur at its meeting of 24 January 2002.

The committee considered the Commission proposal and draft report at its meetings of 19 March 2002 and 23 April 2002.

At the latter meeting it adopted the draft legislative resolution unanimously.

The following were present for the vote: Theodorus J.J. Bouwman, chairman and rapporteur; Marie-Hélène Gillig, vice-chairperson; Winfried Menrad, vice-chairman; Marie-Thérèse Hermange, vice-chairperson; Jan Andersson, Elspeth Attwooll, María Antonia Avilés Perea (for Enrico Ferri), Regina Bastos, Ieke van den Burg, Philip Bushill-Matthews, Alejandro Cercas, Luigi Cocilovo, Carlo Fatuzzo, Ilda Figueiredo, Anne-Karin Glase, Marie-Thérèse Hermange, Richard Howitt (for Enrico Boselli), Stephen Hughes, Anne Elisabet Jensen (for Daniel Ducarme), Karin Jöns, Dieter-Lebrecht Koch (for Roger Helmer), Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, Jean Lambert, Elizabeth Lynne, Thomas Mann, Mario Mantovani, Claude Moraes, Manuel Pérez Álvarez, Bartho Pronk, Lennart Sacrédeus, Herman Schmid, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Anne E.M. Van Lancker, Barbara Weiler and Sabine Zissener (for Raffaele Lombardo).

The Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Budgetary Control decided on 22 and 23 January 2002 not to deliver opinions.

The report was tabled on 23 April 2002.

The deadline for tabling amendments will be indicated in the draft agenda for the relevant part-session.

DRAFT LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION

European Parliament legislative resolution on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council regulation on Community statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) (COM(2001) 754 – C5‑0679/2001 – 2001/0293(COD))

(Codecision procedure: first reading)

The European Parliament,

–   having regard to the Commission proposal to the European Parliament and the Council (COM(2001) 754[1]),

–   having regard to Article 251(2) and Article 285(1) of the EC Treaty, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C5‑0679/2001),

–   having regard to Rule 67 of its Rules of Procedure,

–   having regard to the report of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (A5‑0138/2002),

1.   Approves the Commission proposal as amended;

2.   Asks to be consulted again should the Commission intend to amend the proposal substantially or replace it with another text;

3.   Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council and Commission.

Text proposed by the Commission	Amendments by Parliament
Amendment 1 Recital 2
The development of the Community and the operation of the internal market increase the need for comparable and timely cross-sectional and longitudinal data on income distribution and on the level and composition of poverty and social exclusion for establishing reliable and relevant comparisons between the Member States, to be used mainly in the context of the “Programme of Community action to encourage co-operation between Member States to combat social exclusion” and as one input to the Commission’s Structural Indicators.	The new open method of coordination in the field of social inclusion and the structural indicators to be produced for the annual synthesis reports increase the need for comparable and timely cross-sectional and longitudinal data on income distribution and on the level and composition of poverty and social exclusion for establishing reliable and relevant comparisons between the Member States.
Justification To refer not just to the Community action programme but also to the wider open method of coordination on social inclusion.
Amendment 2 Article 2 (l)
(l)   "Gross income": means the total income received by the household over a specified 'income reference period', before deduction of income tax, regular taxes on wealth, employees' compulsory social insurance contributions and employers' social insurance contributions, but after taking into account inter-household transfers.	(l)   "Gross income": means the total income received by the household over a specified 'income reference period', before deduction of income tax, regular taxes on wealth, employees' compulsory social insurance contributions and employers' social insurance contributions, but after taking into account inter-household transfers, effective imputed rent and non-cash income from employment or self-employment.
Justification To ensure comparable calculations of gross income (important for indicators of poverty and social exclusion) take account of circumstances of indirect financial value - such as owning a home rather than paying rent; or employment-related income in kind rather than in cash.
Amendment 3 Annex 1, part 1 ("Household information"), column "AREAS"
Basic household data	Basic household data including information on local area
Justification Information on the important link between characteristics of local areas and exclusion would supplement and improve on existing Community data sources. It should be made explicit that EU-SILC will provide this.
Amendment 4 Annex 1, part 1 ("Household information"), column "AREAS"
Gross income components at household level	Gross income components at household level including gross employee and self-employment income (monetary and non-monetary), gross employers' social insurance contributions, inputed rent, property income, current transfers paid/received, other gross income and interest payments
Justification To make more explicit the kind of information to be collected. This amendment corresponds to amendment 2.
Amendment 5 Annex 1, part 1 ("Household information"), column "AREAS"
Arrears	Housing and other arrears
Justification To make more explicit the inclusion of both housing-related arrears (arrears on mortgage or rent payments as well as arrears on utility bills such as gas and electricity) and other arrears e.g. arrears on hire purchase instalments).
Amendment 6 Annex 1, part 1 ("Household information"), column "AREAS"
Non-monetary household deprivation indicators	Non-monetary deprivation indicators including problems in making ends meet, extent of debt and enforced lack of basic necessities
Justification To make more explicit the deprivation information to be collected.
Amendment 7 Annex 1, part 1 ("Household information"), column "AREAS"
Physical and social environment	Physical and social environment (crime, pollution and noise)
Justification To be more explicit as to the kind of information to be collected.
Amendment 8 Annex 1, part 1 ("Household information"), column "AREAS"
Basic housing conditions	Dwelling type, tenure status and housing conditions
Justification To be more explicit as to the kind of information to be collected: infrastructure (i.e. what kind of tenure in what kind of building of what size); and conditions (e.g. leaking roof, rotten window frames...).
Amendment 9 Annex 1, part 2 ("Personal information"), column "AREAS"
Education	Education (ISCED classification)
	Parental education (ISCED classification)
Justification To ensure that the categories of education used are comparable and to create a new primary area that would allow investigation of the intergenerational impact of individuals' educational attainment.
Amendment 10 Annex 1, part 2 ("Personal information"), column "AREAS"
Basic labour information	Basic information on current activity status and on current main job
	Basic information on activity status during income reference period
Justification To be more explicit as to what is covered by the "basic" employment information to be collected for all household members 16 and over; and to avoid mixing current and income reference periods within a single primary area by creating two primary areas.
Amendment 11 Annex 1, part 2 ("Personal information"), column "AREAS"
Second job	Other current job(s)
Justification To be clearer as to the information to be collected.
Amendment 12 Annex 1, part 2 ("Personal information"), column "AREAS"
Health	Health (overall status and chronic illness or condition)
Justification To be more explicit as to the information to be collected.

• [1] Not yet published in OJ

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

This proposal for a Regulation would set up from 2003 a new instrument for Community statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) to replace, after eight years, the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) (1994-2001).

There are several reasons for this development. Most importantly, this is an opportunity to adapt the content and timeliness of data production in the social area to new political needs - particularly since the Lisbon and Nice European Councils of March and December 2000 which established EU activities in respect of the eradication of poverty and social exclusion. Other objectives are to address various operational difficulties encountered with ECHP and to increase overall efficiency through better integrating the EU instrument with national statistical systems.

EU-SILC will include:

• ∙as the first priority, from 2003, cross-sectional data collected annually at national level and covering household and personal information regarding income, labour, demography, housing, education and health;
• ∙a longitudinal dimension, also updated annually and covering household and personal information, but restricted both in terms of content (income, labour and some non-monetary deprivation factors) and time span (a minimum period of four years).

EU-SILC micro data will generally be released two years after the data collection. Input harmonisation will be a priority to ensure the comparability and quality of the data produced. Member States will be able to use other sources of information (e.g. existing national surveys or a combination of register and survey information) for some parts of EU-SILC, in which case output harmonisation of data will be important.

Technical piloting will take place in all Member States in 2002 and some modifications may then be made before the launch of the full survey.

Rapporteur's position

The amendments covered in this draft Report generally go in the direction of making more explicit the kind of information to be collected and calculated under the "primary areas" of the survey as set out in Annex I of the proposed Regulation. Given the topicality and the political interest in the various initiatives that will need to make use of this data, greater clarity and transparency in this respect is highly desirable.

In addition, the European Parliament considers it to be of the utmost importance that the continuity between the ECHP and EU-SILC is maximised. In view of the urgent need for reliable and comparable data in this field, as well as their availability in meaningful time series, it is to be regretted that there will be a year - 2002 - which is not covered by either instrument; any further incompatibility or gap between the two data sets would be a cause of considerable concern. In this context, it will also be important that Member States collect as much of the data as possible from the outset of EU-SILC, even if calculations of certain indicators may not take place in the first phase. Any delay in the collection or calculation of particular areas of data should be kept to a minimum and should be specified clearly in the main text of the Regulation.