PURPOSE: to establish a common framework for the production, transmission, evaluation and dissemination of comparable energy statistics in the Community.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy statistics.

CONTENT: following the agreement reached at 1st reading with the European Parliament, the Regulation establishes a common framework for the production, transmission, evaluation and dissemination of comparable energy statistics in the Community. It shall apply to statistical data concerning energy products and their aggregates in the EU.

The Community needs to have precise and timely data on energy quantities, their forms, sources, generation, supply, transformation and consumption, for the purpose of monitoring the impact and consequences of its policy work on energy. The establishment of a public domain energy forecast model, as called for by the European Parliament in its Resolution of 14 December 2006 on a European Strategy for Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy requires detailed, up-to-date energy data.

Energy statistics have traditionally been focused on energy supply and on fossil energies. In the coming years, greater focus is needed on increased knowledge and monitoring of final energy consumption, renewable energy and nuclear energy. In the coming years, greater attention should be paid to the security of supply of the most important fuels and more timely and more accurate data at EU level is needed to anticipate and coordinate EU solutions to possible supply crises.

The set of annual nuclear statistics shall be established and may be modified in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny.

Every 5 years, Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with a report on the quality of the data transmitted as well as on any methodological changes that have been made.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 04/12/2008.

Regulation 2008/1099
OJ L 304 14.11.2008, p. 0001

03619/2008/LEX

SP(2008)2060

Results of vote in Parliament

The European Parliament adopted, by 619 votes to 18 with 14 abstentions, a legislative resolution amending the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy statistics. The report had been tabled for consideration in plenary by Claude TURMES (Greens/EFA, LU) on behalf of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.

The main amendments - which were adopted in first reading under the codecision procedure - are the result of a compromise between the Council and the Parliament and the Council and are as follows:

Quality of data : Parliament stated that the following quality assessment dimensions shall apply to the data to be transmitted: (a)"relevance" refers to the degree to which statistics meet current and potential needs of the users;(b)"accuracy" refers to the closeness of estimates to the unknown true values; (c)"timeliness" refers to the time lag between the availability of the information and the event or phenomenon it describes;(d)"punctuality" refers to the time lag between the date of the release of the data and the target date when it should have been delivered;(e)"accessibility" and "clarity" refer to the conditions and modalities by which users can obtain, use and interpret data;(f)"comparability" refers to the measurement of the impact of differences in applied statistical concepts and measurement tools and procedures when statistics are compared between geographical areas, sectoral domains or over time;(g)"coherence" refers to the adequacy of the data to be reliably combined in different ways and for various uses.

Every five years, Member States must provide Eurostat with a report on the quality of the data transmitted as well as on “eventual occurred methodological changes.”

Nuclear power : a new Article 8 on Annual Nuclear Statistics is incorporated into the text. Eurostat shall, in cooperation with the nuclear energy sector in the EU, define a set of annual nuclear statistics which shall be reported and disseminated from 2009 onwards, that year being the first reported period, without prejudice to confidentiality, where it is necessary, and avoiding any duplication of data collection, as well as keeping production costs and reporting burden low. The set of annual nuclear statistics shall be established and may be modified in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny. A new recital states that In order for the energy statistics system to assist political decision-making by the EU and its Member States and promote public debate which includes citizens, it must afford guarantees of comparability, transparency, flexibility and ability to evolve. Thus, in the near future, statistics on nuclear energy should be incorporated and relevant data concerning renewable energy (e.g. solar power and wood) should be developed more. Similarly, with regard to energy efficiency, the availability of detailed statistics on habitat and transport would be extremely useful.

Renewable energy and final energy consumption statistics : a new Article 9 states that, with a view to improving the quality of energy statistics, Eurostat, in collaboration with the Member States, shall make sure that these statistics are comparable, transparent, detailed and flexible by:

reviewing the methodology used to generate renewable energy statistics in order to make available additional, pertinent, detailed statistics on each renewable energy source, annually and in a cost effective manner. Eurostat shall present and disseminate the statistics generated from 2010 (reference year) onwards; based on the current state of play, existing studies and feasibility pilot-studies, as well as cost-benefit analysis yet to be conducted, and evaluating the findings of the pilot studies and cost benefit analysis with the view to establishing breakdown keys for final energies by sector and main energy uses and gradually integrating the resulting elements in the statistics from 2012 (reference year) onwards. The set of renewable energy statistics may be modified in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny, and the set of final energy consumption statistics shall be established and may be modified in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny.

Derogations : an amendment to the Annex states that the derogation which France has for reporting the aggregates related to heat shall lapse as soon as France is able to forward the report and, at all events, not more than 4 years after the date of entry into force of the Regulation.

A new recital states that exemptions or derogations may be granted only upon justification which indicates the present situation and the excessive burdens transparently. The period for which they remain in force should be limited to the shortest time necessary.

Dissemination of data : a new clause states that Eurostat shall disseminate yearly energy statistics by 31 January of the second year following the reported period.

T6-0090/2008

Debate in Parliament

PE402.604

A6-0487/2007

A6-0487/2007

The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy adopted the report by Claude TURMES (Greens/EFA, LU) amending, under the 1st reading of the codecision procedure, the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy statistics.

The main amendments were as follows :

Nuclear power : a new Article 7a on Annual Nuclear Statistics is incorporated into the text. Eurostat shall, in cooperation with Member States and the nuclear energy sector in the EU, define a set of annual nuclear statistics which shall be collected and disseminated from 2009 onwards, that year being the first reported period, without prejudice to confidentiality, where it is necessary, and avoiding any duplication of data collection. The set of annual nuclear statistics may be modified in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny. A new recital states that, in order for the energy statistics system to assist political decision-making and promote public debate, it must afford guarantees of comparability, transparency, flexibility and ability to evolve. Thus, in the near future, statistics on nuclear energy should be incorporated and relevant data concerning renewable energy (e.g. solar power and wood) should be developed more. Similarly, with regard to energy efficiency, the availability of detailed statistics on habitat and transport would be extremely useful.

Renewable energy and final energy consumption statistics : a new Article 7b states that, with a view to improving the quality of energy statistics, Eurostat, in collaboration with the Member States, shall make sure that these statistics are comparable, transparent, detailed and flexible by: a) reviewing the methodology used to generate renewable energy statistics in order to make available additional, pertinent, detailed statistics on each renewable energy source, annually and in a cost effective manner. Eurostat shall present and disseminate the statistics generated from 2010 onwards; (b) reviewing and determining the methodology used at national and Community level to generate final energy consumption statistics (sources, variables, quality) based on the current state of play, existing studies and feasibility pilot-studies yet to be conducted, with the view of establishing breakdown keys for final energies by sector and main energy uses and gradually integrating the resulting elements into the statistics from 2011 onwards. The set of renewable energy statistics and final energy consumption statistics may be modified in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny.

Derogations : an amendment to the Annex states that the derogation which France has for reporting the aggregates related to heat shall lapse as soon as France is able to forward the report and, at all events, not more than 4 years after the date of entry into force of the Regulation. Furthermore, any exchange of biofuel which has not been aggregated with transport fuels (for example in their pure form) should be reported in the questionnaire on renewables.

A new recital states that exemptions or derogations should be granted only upon submission of an impact assessment setting out the present situation and any excessive burdens transparently and in the required degree of detail. The period for which they remain in force should be limited to the shortest time necessary. The fact and substance of exemptions or derogations should be taken into account in assessing compliance on the part of Member States with Community obligations and should be indicated when communicating the relevant statistical data.

Comitology : additional exemptions or derogations may be granted by the Commission in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny (rather than the regulatory procedure) for those parts of the national statistics for which the collection would lead to excessive burden on respondents. In addition, methodological specifications designed to ensure the quality of the data transmitted may be developed and later updated in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny (rather than the regulatory procedure.)

Deadline for transmission of data : the Committee has changed this 31 October of the year following the reported period (rather than 30 November). It states that this deadline strikes a balance between the requests of the Member States and the time which Eurostat requires in order to process the data with a view to disseminating them before the Spring Council.

A new clause states that Eurostat shall disseminate yearly energy statistics by 31 January of the second year following the reported period.

Annexes : lastly, the Committee made some amendments to the end use table in Annex B.

PE396.716

PE396.473

PE391.951

PURPOSE: to establish a common framework for the production, transmission, evaluation and dissemination of comparable energy statistics in the Community.

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

BACKGROUND: the development of Community policy and legislation on energy highlights the need for comprehensive and comparable European statistics on a range of energy related issues. Directives with clear quantitative targets and deadlines on energy in the EU implicitly require the need of monitoring the energy situation in order to verify if and how well such goals are met. The Kyoto protocol imposes high quality requirements on the inventory data of greenhouse gasses, for which energy consumption is extensively responsible. The EU policies on intelligent energy and on renewable energy require detailed quantitative monitoring to measure progress towards targets.

At the Hampton Court Summit the Heads of State called for a European Energy Policy. In response to that the Commission prepares a package of measures as they are highlighted in the recent green paper on energy. The availability of timely and reliable data on the energy situation in the EU is of paramount importance for succeeding in this objective. This importance justifies a stable, institutional basis for the collection of energy data which is at present still undertaken by voluntary agreements.

CONTENT: the objective of this proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council is to establish a common framework for the collection and compilation of Community statistics on energy production, imports and exports, transformation and consumption. This framework makes extensive use of the existing data collection and also of the cooperation at international level with other relevant organisations, so that a methodological uniformity and data comparability are guaranteed. The objective is therefore not to open a new statistical domain, but rather to provide a helpful legal basis for an existing, quite important effort of making reliable data available in a timely manner for Community policy on energy.

The subject proposal also takes attention to minimize the burden on enterprises : although this regulation does not reduce the existing burden, it does not add new obligations nor increase the existing scope of energy data collection in the EU. The objective of the proposed Regulation is therefore not to modify the statistical work that is already being done, but to provide a legal framework for it.

This legal framework is proposed at a time when Member States experience more and more difficulties in the subject data collection. The liberalisation of the energy market resulted i.a. in the appearance of large numbers of energy producers and resellers which made the data collection far more complex. This put the resources allocated to energy data collection under pressure, particularly since energy has remained one of the few unregulated statistical domains.

The fact that this market liberalisation also causes issues with commercial confidentiality makes it more difficult for Member States officials to perform their statistical work on the basis of a gentlemen's agreement.

In recent years, a general decline of the statistical quality (completeness, accuracy, timeliness) is being noticed. It is considered appropriate that initiatives be taken to underline the essential needs of reliable energy data i.a. by providing a regulated confirmation of the requirement for such important data collection work.

The significant recent increases of the energy prices have increased the awareness of the European citizens and policy makers on the complexity of our energy situation. Insight in this energy situation requires availability of accurate, timely and complete statistical data on energy.

Lastly, this proposal also takes into full consideration the cooperation of the Commission with the International Energy Agency (IEA) on energy statistics: the proposed data collection covers entirely the part that is shared with the IEA in the context of this cooperation.

COM(2006)0850
EUR-Lex