Considerations on COM(2022)329 - Amendment of Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 as regards introducing new environmental economic accounts modules - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2022)329 - Amendment of Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 as regards introducing new environmental economic accounts modules. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2022)329  |
| date | July 11, 2022 |
(2) Article 10 of Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council 13 provides that the Commission is to report on the implementation of that Regulation to the European Parliament and the Council and, if appropriate, taking into account the findings of the pilot studies referred to in Article 4(2) of Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 to propose the introduction of new environmental economic accounts modules, such as environmentally related transfers (subsidies), forest accounts and ecosystem services accounts.
(3) The new modules are to contribute directly to Union’s policy priorities of green growth and resource efficiency.
(4) The United Nations Statistical Commission adopted the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (‘SEEA’) central framework as an international statistical standard at its 43rd session in February 2012 and the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting (chapters 1 to 7 describing the accounting framework and the physical accounts) at its 52nd session in March 2021. The new modules set out by this Regulation are fully in line with the SEEA.
(5) In order to carry out its tasks under the Treaties, especially those related to the environment, sustainability and climate change, the Union should have relevant, comprehensive and reliable information. Evidence‐based decision‐making requires statistics that meet high‐quality criteria, as set out in Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council 14 , in accordance with their objectives.
(6) In order to better monitor progress towards a green, competitive and resilient circular economy and to monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals in a Union context, additional data is required.
(7) The conclusions of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council on European statistics held on 6 November 2020 encourage the European statistical system to respond to the emerging information demands set out by the European Green Deal, including those related to the review and enlargement of the programme of European environmental economic accounts.
(8) In 2019, the European Court of Auditors published a special report No 2019/16 entitled “European Environmental Economic Accounts: usefulness for policymakers can be improved”. 15 That report points to a need for more complete data on forests and ecosystems and for full implementation of forest accounts.
(9) Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 lists the sources that Member States may use to estimate the environmental economic accounts. In order to ensure flexibility and to reduce the administrative burden on respondents, National Statistical Institutes and other national authorities, Member States should be allowed to use innovative approaches. Member States should always inform the Commission and provide details as regards the quality of those approaches for the Commission to assess the quality of the data.
(10) As the Union currently consists of 27 Member States, it is appropriate to refer to ‘EU-27’.
(11) The list of possible future European environmental economic accounts listed in Article 10 of Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 needs to be updated to align them to the current policy priorities of the Union.
(12) The European System of Accounts 1995 (ESA95) was replaced by the European System of Accounts 2010 (‘ESA 2010’) set up by Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council 16 .
(13) ‘ESA 2010’ contains the reference framework of common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules for drawing up the accounts of the Member States for the statistical requirements of the Union.
(14) In order to take into account the current state of development of methodologies to value ecosystem services, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in order to supplement the Regulation by establishing for which of the ecosystem services already included in the reporting tables in section 5 of Annex IX monetary values should be reported, the first reference year as well as a list of acceptable methods for establishing those monetary values. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during the preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations are conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Inter-institutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making 17 . In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States’ experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.
(15) Since the objectives of this Regulation, namely the introduction of new environmental accounts modules into the current legal framework for European statistics on EEEA, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of consistency and comparability, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on the European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.
(16) The European Statistical System Committee has been consulted,