PURPOSE: to adapt Regulation (EC) No 1172/98 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road to the regulatory procedure with scrutiny as regards the implementing powers conferred on the Commission.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EC) No 399/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/98 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road, as regards the implementing powers conferred on the Commission.

CONTENT: following a first reading agreement with the Parliament, the Council adopted this Regulation which recasts legislation on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road. Implementing powers conferred on the Commission will be exercised in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC as amended by Council Decision 2006/512/EC which introduced the regulatory procedure with scrutiny for the adoption of measures of general scope and designed to amend non-essential elements of a basic instrument adopted in accordance with the codecision procedure. Accordingly, the Commission will adopt certain implementing measures in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny.

The Commission is here empowered to adapt the data collection characteristics and the contents of the Annexes and to lay down the minimum precision requirements for the statistical returns transmitted by the Member States and the implementing procedures for that Regulation, including measures for adapting it to economic and technical progress. Since those measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of that Regulation they will be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 10/06/2009.

The European Parliament adopted, by 604 votes to 12 with 6 abstentions, a legislative resolution amending the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/98 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road as regards the implementing powers conferred on the Commission – Adaptation to the regulatory procedure with scrutiny. The report had been tabled for consideration in plenary by Georg JARZEMBOWSKI (EPP-ED, DE) on behalf of the Committee on Transport and Tourism.

The main amendment – adopted under 1 st reading of the codecision procedure – was the deletion of Article 9, since it considered that Article 9 was a repetition of Articles 3 to 6, although a somewhat different wording is used. Parliament considered Article 9 to be redundant.

The Committee on Transport and Tourism adopted a report drafted by Georg JARZEMBOWSKI (EPP-ED, DE) and made some amendments to the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/98 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road as regards the implementing powers conferred on the Commission – Adaptation to the regulatory procedure with scrutiny. -

The committee deleted Article 9, since it considered that Article 9 was a repetition of Articles 3 to 6, although a somewhat different wording is used. In particular in the opening sentence refers generally to the procedures for implementing the Regulation, including the measures for adapting it to economic and technical progress. The Committee considered this confusing or even redundant and therefore deleted Article 9.

PURPOSE: adaptation to the regulatory procedure with scrutiny of Regulation (EC) No 1172/98 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road as regards the implementing powers conferred on the Commission (comitology).

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

CONTENT: the purpose of the adaptation is to introduce the new regulatory procedure with scrutiny in Regulation (EC) No 1172/98, as provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC as amended (reform of comitology procedures).

The Commission has carefully examined all the instruments adopted under the codecision procedure in order to identify those which permit the Commission to adopt measures of general scope designed to amend non-essential elements of the basic instrument in question. The Commission has identified more than 200 instruments that should be adjusted. Some of these instruments come under the Commission's codification programme. Among these is Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/98 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road.

In this connection, under Regulation (EC) No 1172/98 the Commission is authorised to adapt the data collection characteristics and the contents of the Annexes and to lay down the minimum precision requirements for the statistical returns transmitted by the Member States and the implementing procedures for that Regulation, including measures for adapting it to economic and technical progress. Since these measures of general scope are designed to amend non-essential elements of the Regulation in question or to supplement it by the addition of new non-essential elements, they must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC.