BETA

10 Amendments of Philippe LAMBERTS related to 2012/0084(COD)

Amendment 16 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 2
(2) SomGrave weaknesses have, however, recently been identified, in particular with regard to the statistical quality- management framework.
2012/11/19
Committee: ECON
Amendment 38 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 13 a (new)
(13 a) The Commission (Eurostat) website should allow easy access to complete, user-friendly data series and should include easily comprehensible, comparative, coloured graphs. This should apply to all data sets, and equal representation of those sets should be guaranteed. Where possible, periodic updates should provide year-on-year and month-on-month information on each Member State.
2012/11/19
Committee: ECON
Amendment 56 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – point 4
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009
Article 6 – paragraph 2
2. At Union level, the Commission (Eurostat) shall act independently in ensuring the production of European statistics according to established rules and statistical principles. In this respect, it shall have the solekey responsibility for deciding on processes, statistical methods, standards and procedures, and on the content and timing of statistical releases, without prejudice to legislative guidance in accordance with Article 12(2).
2012/11/19
Committee: ECON
Amendment 59 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 4 a (new)
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009
Article 6 a (new)
(4a) the following Article is inserted: "Article 6a Director-General of the Commission (Eurostat) 1. The statistical office of the Commission (Eurostat) shall be headed by a Director- General. The Director-General shall be appointed by the Commission, for a non- renewable term of office of seven years, in accordance with the procedure specified in paragraph 2. 2. The Commission shall publish a call for applications in the Official Journal of the European Union no later than six months before the end of the term of office of the Director-General in office. The procedure for the recruitment of the Director-General shall be transparent and based only on professional criteria. After a favourable opinion has been given by the European Statistical Governance Advisory Board (ESGAB) on the selection procedure applied by the Commission, the Commission shall draw up a list of suitably qualified candidates, containing at least one candidate of each gender. The Commission shall appoint the Director- General after consulting the European Parliament and the Council. 3. The Director-General shall have the sole responsibility for deciding on processes, statistical methods, standards and procedures, and on the content and timing of statistical releases and publications for all statistics produced by the Commission (Eurostat). The Director- General shall be empowered to decide on all matters regarding the internal management of the Commission (Eurostat). When carrying out these tasks, the Director-General shall act in an independent manner and shall neither seek nor take instructions from any government or any institution, body, office or agency. If the Director-General considers that a measure taken by the Commission calls his or her independence into question, he or she shall immediately inform the ESGAB. 4. The Director-General shall be accountable for the statistical activities and budget execution of the Commission (Eurostat). He or she shall appear annually in the framework of a Statistical Dialogue before the relevant committee of the European Parliament to discuss matters pertaining to statistical governance, methodology, statistical innovation, and express comments on budget allocation issues related to the statistical activities of the Commission (Eurostat). 5. Before imposing any disciplinary penalty on the Director-General, the Commission shall consult the ESGAB. The imposition of any disciplinary penalty on the Director-General shall be the subject of a reasoned decision, which shall be submitted, for information, to the European Parliament, the Council and the ESGAB."
2012/11/19
Committee: ECON
Amendment 61 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 4 b (new)
Regulation (EC) No 233/2009
Article 7 b (new)
(4b) the following Article is inserted: "Article 7b Fine for manipulation of statistics 1. Unless Council objects with a qualified majority, the Commission may impose a fine on a Member State that intentionally or, by gross negligence, seriously misrepresents statistical data. 2. In order to establish the existence of an infringement referred to in paragraph 1, the Commission may conduct all necessary investigations. The Commission may decide to initiate an investigation when it finds that there are clear indications of serious misrepresentations of data. The Commission shall conduct its investigation taking into account any comments submitted by the Member State subject to investigation. In order to carry out its tasks, the Commission may request that the Member States subject to investigation provide information. The Commission may also conduct on-site inspections and have access to all data produced by an NSI at national, regional and local level. If required by the law of the Member State subject to investigation, authorisation by a judicial authority shall be obtained before any on site inspection. Upon completion of its investigation, and before submitting any proposal to the Council, the Commission shall give to the Member State subject to investigation the opportunity of being heard on the matters being investigated. The Commission shall base its proposal to the Council only on facts on which the Member State has had the opportunity to comment. The rights of the defence of the Member State subject to investigation shall be fully respected during the investigation. 3. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 26a concerning: (a) detailed criteria establishing the amount of the fine; and (b) detailed rules on the procedure for the investigations referred to in paragraph 2, associated measures and reporting, including detailed rules of procedure aimed at guaranteeing the rights of the defence and relating to access to the file, legal representation, confidentiality, time limits, and the collection of fines. 4. The Court of Justice of the European Union shall have unlimited jurisdiction to review decisions whereby the Council has fixed a fine in accordance with paragraph 1. It may annul, reduce or increase the fine imposed."
2012/11/19
Committee: ECON
Amendment 62 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 4 c (new)
Regulation (EC) No 233/2009
Article 7 c (new)
(4c) the following Article is inserted: "Article 7c Transmission and quality of data In case the data flow from NSIs to Eurostat, or the quality of the data, is not to the satisfaction of the Commission, the Commission shall send a public warning to the Member State concerned, publish it on the Eurostat website, and include a reference to it in the corresponding data set. If within six months the problems have not been remedied, the Commission may impose fines in accordance with article [to be inserted, article 7b new on fine for manipulation of statistics]."
2012/11/19
Committee: ECON
Amendment 64 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – point 5
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009
Article 11 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 1
3. Member States shall take all necessary measures to implement the Code of Practice in order to maintain confidence in their statistics. To this effect, each Member State, represented by its government, shall sign and implement a “Commitment on Confidence in Statistics” whereby specific policy commitments are made to implement the Code and to establish a national quality assurance framework, including self-assessments and improvement actions. The Commitment shall be counter-signed by the Commission, published on the website of the NSI and Eurostat, and be accompanied by a "Citizen's" summary.
2012/11/19
Committee: ECON
Amendment 69 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – point 5
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009
article 11 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 2
These commitments shall be regularly monitored by the Commission on the basis of annual reports sent by Member States. The Commission shall report to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of these commitments within 3 years of the entry into force of this Regulation. If demonstrated that serious problems persist, the Commission shall propose legislation to render the commitment binding.
2012/11/19
Committee: ECON
Amendment 70 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – point 5
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009
Article 11 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 2a (new)
The Commission shall devise a template for and encourage peer review and best practice exchanges amongst NSIs.
2012/11/19
Committee: ECON
Amendment 72 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – point 6
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009
Article 12(2)
Specific quality requirements, such as target values and minimum standards for the production of statistics, and guidance on methodology, may be laid down in sectoral legislation. Where sectoral legislation does not so provide, the Commission may adopt, by means of delegated acts in accordance with Article 26a, such specific quality requirements and guidance on methodology.
2012/11/19
Committee: ECON