This Regulation establishes a common framework for the systematic production of Community statistics on the structure and activity of foreign affiliates.
Regulation (EC) No 716/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2007 on Community statistics on the structure and activity of foreign affiliates (Text with EEA relevance)
Regulation (EC) No 716/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2007 on Community statistics on the structure and activity of foreign affiliates (Text with EEA relevance)
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 285(1) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Central Bank(1),
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty(2),
Whereas:
(1) Regular and good quality Community statistics on the structure and activity of foreign affiliates in the whole economy are essential for an adequate assessment of the impact of foreign-controlled enterprises on the European Union economy. This would also facilitate the monitoring of the effectiveness of the internal market and the gradual integration of the economies in the context of globalisation. In this context, multinational enterprises are playing a leading role, but small and medium-sized enterprises can also be concerned by foreign control.
(2) The implementation and review of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and of the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPs) as well as the current and future negotiations on further agreements call for the relevant statistical information to be made available in order to assist the negotiations.
(3) For the preparation of economic, competition, enterprise, research, technical development and employment policies in the context of the liberalisation process, statistics on foreign affiliates to measure direct and indirect effects of foreign control on employment, wages and productivity in particular countries and sectors are necessary.
(4) The information provided under existing Community legislation or available in Member States is insufficient, inadequate or insufficiently comparable to serve as a reliable basis for the work of the Commission.
(5) Regulation (EC) No 184/2005(3) establishes a common framework for the systematic production of Community statistics on balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment. As balance of payments statistics cover only partially the data included in the GATS, it is essential that detailed statistics on foreign affiliates be produced regularly.
(6) Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics(4) and Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 of 15 March 1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community(5) established a common framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of Community statistics on the structure and activity of businesses in the Community.
(7) The compilation of national accounts according to the Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community(6) requires comparable, complete and reliable business statistics on foreign affiliates.
(8) Collectively, the Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services of the United Nations, the Balance of Payments Manual (fifth edition) of the International Monetary Fund, the Benchmark Definition on foreign direct investment and the Handbook on Economic Globalisation Indicators of the Organisation for the Economic Cooperation and Development establish the general rules for compiling international comparable statistics on foreign affiliates.
(9) The production of specific Community statistics is governed by the rules set out in Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community Statistics(7).
(10) Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the creation of common statistical standards for the production of comparable statistics on foreign affiliates, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale or effects of the action, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve that objective.
(11) The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission(8).
(12) In particular, power should be conferred on the Commission to adapt the definitions in Annexes I and II and the level of detail in Annex III as well as to make any consequential changes to Annexes I and II, to implement the results of the pilot studies and to define the proper common quality standards and the contents and periodicity of the quality reports. Since those measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of, or to supplement, this Regulation by the addition of new non-essential elements, they should be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny laid down in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC.
(13) The Statistical Programme Committee, established by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom(9), and the Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payments Statistics, established by Council Decision 2006/856/EC(10), have been consulted,
HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1 Subject matter
Article 2 Definitions
For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:
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‘foreign affiliate’ shall mean an enterprise resident in the compiling country over which an institutional unit not resident in the compiling country has control, or an enterprise not resident in the compiling country over which an institutional unit resident in the compiling country has control;
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‘control’ shall mean the ability to determine the general policy of an enterprise by choosing appropriate directors, if necessary. In this context, enterprise A is deemed to be controlled by an institutional unit B when B controls, whether directly or indirectly, more than half of the shareholders’ voting power or more than half of the shares;
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‘foreign control’ shall mean that the controlling institutional unit is resident in a different country from the one where the institutional unit over which it has control is resident;
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‘branches’ shall mean local units not constituting separate legal entities, which are dependent on foreign-controlled enterprises. They are treated as quasi-corporate enterprises within the meaning of point 3(f) of the Explanatory notes to Section III (B) of the Annex to Regulation (EEC) No 696/93;
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‘statistics on foreign affiliates’ shall mean statistics describing the overall activity of foreign affiliates;
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‘inward statistics on foreign affiliates’ shall mean statistics describing the activity of foreign affiliates resident in the compiling country;
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‘outward statistics on foreign affiliates’ shall mean statistics describing the activity of foreign affiliates abroad controlled by an institutional unit resident in the compiling country;
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‘ultimate controlling institutional unit of a foreign affiliate’ shall mean the institutional unit, proceeding up a foreign affiliate's chain of control, which is not controlled by another institutional unit;
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‘enterprise’, ‘local unit’ and ‘institutional unit’ shall each have the same meaning as in Regulation (EEC) No 696/93.
Article 3 Submission of data
Member States shall submit to the Commission (Eurostat) data on foreign affiliates in respect of the characteristics, the economic activities and the geographical breakdown as referred to in Annexes I, II and III.
Article 4 Data sources
1.
Member States shall, while complying with conditions as to quality referred to in Article 6, collect the information required under this Regulation using all the sources they consider relevant and appropriate.
2.
Natural and legal persons required to supply information shall, when responding, comply with the time limits and definitions set by the national institutions responsible for the collection of data within the Member States in accordance with this Regulation.
3.
Where the required data cannot be collected at a reasonable cost, best estimates, including zero values, may be transmitted.