52002SC1067

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council on the adoption of a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Community Statistical Programme 2003 to 2007

1- BACKGROUND

Date of transmission of the proposal to the EP and the Council (document COM(2001) 683 final - 2001/0281 COD): // 28th November 2001.

Date of the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee: // 20th March 2002.

Date of the opinion of the European Parliament, first reading: // 25th April 2002.

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Date of adoption of the common position: // 30th September 2002.

2- OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL

The proposed five-year programme for 2003 - 2007 is the sixth successive medium term programme of work prepared by Eurostat. The aim of each programme has been to provide an overview of the strategies, priorities and work plans foreseen for each planning period. The five-year programmes are supported by annual programmes which provide more detailed work objectives for each year.

The Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 [1] on Community Statistics requires the preparation of a Community statistical programme "which defines the approaches, the main fields and the objectives of the actions envisaged for a period not exceeding five years."

[1] OJ L 52, 22.2.1997, p. 1.

The proposed Decision is now subject to co-decision under Article 285 of the European Community Treaty.

3- COMMENTS ON THE COMMON POSITION

3.1 General Remarks on the Common Position

The changes introduced in the Common position are mainly in the nature of technical clarifications and thus do not pose any particular problem for the Commission.

3.2 Action taken on the European Parliament's first reading

Of the total of 5 amendments, numbers 1, 2, 3 and 5 were acceptable to the Commission as they stand and are included in the Common Position.

Amendment 4 contained 2 separate measures: -

* The first concerned the extension of the 2003 to 2007 programme beyond the current financial perspectives. For this reason, the Commission cannot accept the EP amendment; the replacement text included in the Common Position of the Council is acceptable to the Commission.

* The second concerned an increase in the Operational Budget for the Programme. The Council does not accept this amendment in the Common Position and the Commission agrees with that.

3.3 New provisions introduced by Council and the Commission's position

The amendments introduced by Council were also largely in the nature of technical clarifications as indicated above. The Council rejected an increase in budget for this programme and retained the figure originally proposed by the Commission. The Commission agrees.

4- CONCLUSION

The Commission can accept the Common Position.