51997AC1202

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the 'Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) concerning short-term statistics` () (98/C 19/32)

On 29 July 1997 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 198 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Economic, Financial and Monetary Questions, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 14 October 1997. The rapporteur working without a study group was Mr Vasco Cal.

At its 349th plenary session of 29 and 30 October 1997 (meeting of 30 October) the Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion with 52 votes in favour and two abstentions.

1. The Economic and Social Committee approves this proposal for a regulation which aims to provide the Community with more reliable, complete, up-to-date, and above all comparable, short-term statistics on businesses, thus facilitating the follow-up of the internal market and the development of the European Union's internal policies, including monetary and social policy.2. The Committee considers that the proposal takes sufficient account of the principle of subsidiarity in requiring the Member States to provide the necessary data whilst leaving to them the choice of collection method.

3. The Committee approves the Commission's desire to ensure that the new measure does not increase the administrative workload of small and medium-sized enterprises. Breaking down the data by company size would over time make it easier to identify the effects of the economic cycle on enterprises of different size.

4. The Committee feels that the proposal should be adapted to reflect the requirements of the employment policies of the Member States and the coordinating role which the European Union is required to play in this field by the provisions of the Treaty of Amsterdam. In particular, statistics on businesses should be more detailed as regards employment, setting out for example the number of hours worked in the commercial and services sectors too, and overtime worked in all these sectors.

5. Moreover, the Committee regrets that the 'other services` sub-sector is not included in the periodic collection of data and hopes that the proposed pilot studies will lead to its inclusion at the earliest opportunity.

6. Finally, the Committee considers it essential that the social partners and the economic and social interest groups should as soon as possible enjoy access to short-term statistics on businesses in order that they may be able to perform their role to the full.

Brussels, 30 October 1997.

The President of the Economic and Social Committee

Tom JENKINS

() OJ C 267, 3. 9. 1997, p. 1.