REPORT on the proposal for a Council regulation on the compilation and transmission of data on the quarterly government debt
(COM(2003) 761 – C5‑0649/2003 – 2003/0295(CNS))

17 March 2004 - *

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
Rapporteur: Astrid Lulling

PROCEDURAL PAGE

By letter of 17 December 2003 the Council consulted Parliament, pursuant to Article 104 of the EC Treaty, on the proposal for a Council regulation on the compilation and transmission of data on the quarterly government debt (COM(2003) 761 – 2003(CNS)).

At the sitting of 18 December 2003 the President of Parliament announced that he had referred the proposal to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs as the committee responsible (C5‑0649/2003).

The committee appointed Astrid Lulling rapporteur at its meeting of 20 January 2004.

It considered the Commission proposal and draft report at its meetings of 16 February and 16 March 2004.

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

The following were present for the vote: Christa Randzio-Plath (chairwoman), Philippe A.R. Herzog (vice-chairman), John Purvis (vice-chairman), Astrid Lulling (rapporteur), Hans Udo Bullmann, Jonathan Evans, Carles-Alfred Gasòliba i Böhm, Robert Goebbels, Lisbeth Grönfeldt Bergman, Christopher Huhne, Christoph Werner Konrad, David W. Martin, Hans-Peter Mayer, Fernando Pérez Royo, Alexander Radwan, Bernhard Rapkay, Mónica Ridruejo, Peter William Skinner, Helena Torres Marques, Bruno Trentin, Bert Doorn (for Othmar Karas), Werner Langen (for Ingo Friedrich), Thomas Mann (for Generoso Andria), José Javier Pomés Ruiz (for José Manuel García-Margallo y Marfil), Ieke van den Burg (for Pervenche Berès), Simon Francis Murphy (for Mary Honeyball).

The report was tabled on 17 March 2004.

DRAFT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION

on the proposal for a Council regulation on the compilation and transmission of data on the quarterly government debt

(COM(2003) 761 – C5‑0649/2003 – 2003(CNS))

(Consultation procedure)

The European Parliament,

–   having regard to the Commission proposal to the Council (COM(2003) 761)[1],

–   having regard to Article 104 of the EC Treaty, pursuant to which the Council consulted Parliament (C5‑0649/2003),

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

–   having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (A5‑0170/2004),

1.   Approves the Commission proposal as amended;

2.   Calls on the Commission to alter its proposal accordingly, pursuant to Article 250(2) of the EC Treaty;

3.   Calls on the Council to notify Parliament if it intends to depart from the text approved by Parliament;

4.   Calls for initiation of the conciliation procedure under the Joint Declaration of 4 March 1975 if the Council intends to depart from the text approved by Parliament;

5.   Asks the Council to consult Parliament again if it intends to amend the Commission proposal substantially;

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

Text proposed by the Commission	Amendments by Parliament
Amendment 1 Article 4, paragraph 1
1.   If the Council decides to amend Regulation (EC) No 3605/93, in accordance with the rules on competence and procedure laid down in the Treaty, the Council shall simultaneously amend this Regulation, so that the definitions of quarterly government debt and of government debt outstanding at the end of the year are kept consistent.	1.   If the Council decides to amend Regulation (EC) No 3605/93, in accordance with the rules on competence and procedure laid down in the Treaty, the Council shall simultaneously amend Article 1 of this Regulation, so that the definitions of quarterly government debt and of government debt outstanding at the end of the year are kept consistent.
Justification If Regulation (EC) No 3605/93 has to be amended, Article 1 of the proposal for a regulation is the only article that will need to be amended in order to ensure consistency between the quarterly and annual definitions of debt.
Amendment 2 Article 4, paragraph 2
2.   If the Commission introduces new references to ESA 95 into Article 1(5) of Regulation (EC) No 3605/93, in accordance with Article 7 thereof, the Commission shall simultaneously introduce the same new references into this Regulation, so that the definitions of quarterly government debt and of government debt outstanding at the end of the year are kept consistent.	2.   If the Commission introduces new references to ESA 95 into Article 1(5) of Regulation (EC) No 3605/93, in accordance with Article 7 thereof, the Commission shall simultaneously introduce the same new references into Article 1 of this Regulation, so that the definitions of quarterly government debt and of government debt outstanding at the end of the year are kept consistent.
Justification If Regulation (EC) No 3605/93 has to be amended, Article 1 of the proposal for a regulation is the only article that will need to be amended in order to ensure consistency between the quarterly and annual definitions of debt.

• [1] Not yet published in OJ.

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

The new proposal for a regulation is dictated by the switch to quarterly compilation of statistical data. Parliament, the Council and the Commission have adopted several legal acts to this effect. With regard to budget statistics, these include Commission Regulation (EC) No 264/2000 implementing Council Regulation (EC) 2223/96 with respect to short-term public finance statistics, and Regulation (EC) No 1221/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council on quarterly non-financial accounts for general government. A further European Parliament and Council Regulation on quarterly financial accounts for general government (COM(2003) 242, COD/2003/0095) is about to be adopted.

The proposed regulation does more than merely harmonise sampling frequency, but is a vital tool in implementing Article 104 of the Treaty. To enable the budgetary situation of the Member States to be monitored more closely, it seeks to introduce a requirement that data on government debt (Maastricht government debt) should be provided quarterly.

Although the formal excessive deficit procedure will continue to be based on annual statistics, as laid down by Council Regulation (EC) No 3605/93 and Commission Regulation (EC) 351/2002, the availability of quarterly economic statistics is of the utmost importance for economic analysis. In particular, it will enable European institutions with special responsibility in this area (in other words the Commission and the ECB, but also the Member States and other actors) to pinpoint emerging budgetary problems much earlier and, conversely, to gain a better understanding of the impact of the efforts made by the Member States.

Essentially, the proposal for a regulation includes what have become standard provisions in legal acts relating to the forwarding of quarterly statistics. Article 2, paragraph 1, stipulates that the deadline for transmitting data is three months after the end of the quarter to which they refer. This is the same time period laid down in Regulations (EC) Nos 264/2000 and 1221/2002 and in the proposal for a regulation on financial accounts (COM(2003) 242, COD/2003/0095) mentioned above. Paragraph 2 fixes the date for the first transmission of the data. Given that the compilation of quarterly data on government debt does not create any particular statistical problems - these statistics are much easier and much less expensive to compile than many other quarterly statistics - the first transmission is scheduled for 30 June 2004. Lastly, Article 3 introduces a requirement to compile backdata so as to provide economists with the long-term statistics they need for their analyses and models.

Needless to say, the quarterly data collected must be consistent with the data on annual debt (i.e. compiled at the end of each year) which the Member States have been drawing up and forwarding to the Commission since 1994 under Regulation (EC) No 3605/93. That is why the definition of government debt set out in Article 1 of the proposal is based on the definition contained in the aforementioned regulation, with the necessary adjustments because of the shorter reference period.

The need for consistency is also behind the provisions of Article 4 of the proposal, which deals with the possibility that the definition of debt given in Regulation (EC) No 3605/93 might be amended. Two amendments have been tabled to Article 4 (Amendments 1 and 2) to reflect the fact that only Article 1 of the new regulation will need to be amended to ensure consistency between the two definitions.