PURPOSE: to establish a common statistical classification of economic activities in the Community “NACE Rev. 2”

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation 1893/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2 and amending Council Regulation 3037/90/EC as well as certain EC Regulation on specific statistical domains.

CONTENT: the purpose of this Regulation is to establish a common statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community to be referred to as “NACE Rev. 2”. This classification system ensures that Community classifications are relevant to economic reality as well as enhancing the comparability of national, Community and international classifications and hence of national, Community and international statistics.

The Commission will be expected to use NACE Rev. 2 for all statistics classified according to economic activities as will Member States’ statistics. In the event of incompatibility between certain NACE Rev. 2 heading and the national economic structure, the Commission may authorise a Member State to use an aggregation of NACE Rev. 2 headings in a specific sector – though the Commission must be provided with information before a request is considered.

In accordance with Parliamentary wishes, implementing measures of a general nature, should be adopted under the regulatory procedure provided for in Article 5 of Council Decision 1999/468/EC.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 19 January 2007. It will apply as from 1 January 2008.

Regulation 2006/1893
OJ L 393 30.12.2006, p. 0001

03651/3/2006

SP(2006)5316/2

Results of vote in Parliament

The European Parliament adopted the resolution drafted by Guntars KRASTS (UEN, LV) and made several mainly technical and drafting amendments to the proposal. (Please see the summary of 12/07/2006.) Parliament added that it was necessary to follow the regulatory procedure with scrutiny as regards measures of general scope designed to amend non-essential elements of the Regulation, inter alia by deleting some of those elements, or by supplementing the Regulation by the addition of new non-essential elements. Accordingly, the following measures will be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny): amendments to NACE Rev. 2 designed to:

- take account of technological or economic developments; and

- align it with other economic and social classification.

T6-0411/2006

A6-0247/2006

A6-0247/2006

The committee adopted the report by Guntars KRASTS (UEN, LV) broadly approving the proposed regulation establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2, subject to a number of mainly technical and drafting amendments under the 1st reading of the codecision procedure.

The committee said that the implementing measures should be adopted under the regulatory procedure provided for in Article 5 of Council Decision 1999/468/EC. Another amendment stipulated that consideration should be given to the principle that the benefits of updating must outweigh its costs and that additional costs and burden should remain within a reasonable limit. Lastly, the report proposed a whole series of technical clarifications to the Annexes.

PE376.334

PE374.094

The ECB welcomes the proposed regulation which intends to establish the common statistical classification of economic activities within the Community (‘NACE Rev. 2’). The ECB objects neither to the new NACE structure nor to its detailed classification.

The ECB supports the principles underlying NACE Rev. 2, namely a) adherence to economic reality (extension of the classification as regards the services industries); and b) comparability with other international classifications, in particular the International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities (ISIC) Rev. 4; and c) continuity vis-a-vis the previous classification.

The ECB further considers that all necessary efforts should be made and all the requisite legal provisions should be introduced to ensure maximum consistency with other international classifications and statistical standards.

In addition, the ECB welcomes the implementing measures in the proposed regulation for key monthly, quarterly and annual statistics. However, these implementing measures as well as the implementation rules for the European System of national and regional accounts in the Community, must be defined to prevent a damaging loss of information e.g. breaks in time series and the consequent unavailability of long time series.

Lastly, for euro area and European Union statistics, which are compiled by using country information as the main source, simultaneous implementation in Member States is crucial. A differentiated implementation schedule of NACE Rev. 2 throughout the EU would have severe adverse consequences on the quality and availability of euro area and EU aggregate statistics until all Member States have fully adopted the new classification and revised their time series accordingly. The ECB therefore suggests strengthening recital 9 and Article 6(c) to ensure fully coordinated implementation of NACE Rev. 2 in Member States and consistency across statistical domains.

CON/2006/0018
OJ C 079 01.04.2006, p. 0031-0032

PURPOSE : to present a proposal on establishing the common statistical classification of economic activities within the Community, to be known as “NACE Rev. 2.”

PROPOSED ACT : Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

CONTENT : in order to function, the internal market requires statistical standards applicable to the collection, transmission and publication of national and Community statistics so that undertakings, financial institutions, governments and all other operators in the single market can be provided with reliable and comparable statistical data. To this scope, it is vital that the various categories of the classification of activities in the European Community be interpreted uniformly in all the Member States.

Council Regulation 3037/90/EEC on the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community established NACE Rev. 1. A revised version of NACE is proposed, which takes into account the development of the economy during the last 15 years and a major revision of other international classifications of activities. As a result, the proposed NACE Rev. 2 is more relevant with respect to the economic reality and more comparable with other international classifications.

NACE Rev. 2 will include:

- a first level consisting of headings identified by an alphabetical code (sections);

- a second level consisting of headings identified by a two-digit numerical code (divisions);

- a third level consisting of headings identified by a three-digit numerical code (groups);

- a fourth level consisting of headings identified by a four-digit numerical code (classes).

NACE Rev 2 is set out in Annex I.

Provision is made for the Member States to be able, in order to meet national requirements, to insert in their national classifications additional categories based on the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community.

The Commission will be assisted by the Statistical Programme Committee set up by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, in particular as regards the examination of problems arising from implementation of NACE Rev. 2, the smooth transition from NACE Rev. 1 to NACE Rev. 2, as well as the incorporation of amendments to NACE Rev. 2.

It should be noted that Council Regulation 2186/93/EEC established a common framework for setting up statistical business registers with harmonised definitions, characteristics, scope and updating procedures. Since the establishment of a revised statistical classification of economic activities implies the modification of the references to NACE Rev. 1 as well to amend a number of relevant instruments, several Regulations in this field will be amended. In addition, a number of Community instruments need to be amended, according to the specific procedures applicable to them, before transition to NACE Rev. 2. These are listed in the Regulation.

COM(2006)0039
EUR-Lex

PURPOSE : to present a proposal on establishing the common statistical classification of economic activities within the Community, to be known as “NACE Rev. 2.”

PROPOSED ACT : Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

CONTENT : in order to function, the internal market requires statistical standards applicable to the collection, transmission and publication of national and Community statistics so that undertakings, financial institutions, governments and all other operators in the single market can be provided with reliable and comparable statistical data. To this scope, it is vital that the various categories of the classification of activities in the European Community be interpreted uniformly in all the Member States.

Council Regulation 3037/90/EEC on the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community established NACE Rev. 1. A revised version of NACE is proposed, which takes into account the development of the economy during the last 15 years and a major revision of other international classifications of activities. As a result, the proposed NACE Rev. 2 is more relevant with respect to the economic reality and more comparable with other international classifications.

NACE Rev. 2 will include:

- a first level consisting of headings identified by an alphabetical code (sections);

- a second level consisting of headings identified by a two-digit numerical code (divisions);

- a third level consisting of headings identified by a three-digit numerical code (groups);

- a fourth level consisting of headings identified by a four-digit numerical code (classes).

NACE Rev 2 is set out in Annex I.

Provision is made for the Member States to be able, in order to meet national requirements, to insert in their national classifications additional categories based on the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community.

The Commission will be assisted by the Statistical Programme Committee set up by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, in particular as regards the examination of problems arising from implementation of NACE Rev. 2, the smooth transition from NACE Rev. 1 to NACE Rev. 2, as well as the incorporation of amendments to NACE Rev. 2.

It should be noted that Council Regulation 2186/93/EEC established a common framework for setting up statistical business registers with harmonised definitions, characteristics, scope and updating procedures. Since the establishment of a revised statistical classification of economic activities implies the modification of the references to NACE Rev. 1 as well to amend a number of relevant instruments, several Regulations in this field will be amended. In addition, a number of Community instruments need to be amended, according to the specific procedures applicable to them, before transition to NACE Rev. 2. These are listed in the Regulation.

COM(2006)0039
EUR-Lex