Parliament’s negotiators reached a deal with Council and Commission on two sets of key economic statistics on Monday evening in Strasbourg. One of the regulations concerns the statistics for balances of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment, the other one the harmonised index of consumer prices.
Both regulations are of great importance because they provide the frameworks for the production of key statistical series that are indispensable for policy makers, academics and citizens.
The negotiations were also particularly sensitive for the Parliament from and institutional point of view as a fine balance was to be found regarding the delegation of implementing powers to the Commission and since they are of importance for the cooperation between the European Statistical System and the European Central Bank (ECB).
Harmonized indices if consumer prices (HICP)
Chairman of Parliament’s economic and monetary Affairs Committee and HICP rapporteur Roberto Gualtieri (S&D, IT) was satisfied with the agreement found with the Luxembourgish presidency. „We have struck a fair deal with the Presidency which will ensure that we continue to have very high quality HICP data. As rapporteur, I am particularly happy to have obtained that further efforts will be made to better integrate owner-occupied housing indices with HICP indices. I have also worked to ensure that the Commission gets appropriate delegated powers to do its job in this field“, he said.
Balance of Payment statistics (BoP)
Rapporteur Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, GER) commented: „The agreement reached with the Presidency is ambitious and will enable the users to obtain enhanced Foreign Direct Investment statistics, with improved granularity and transparency: this will allow for more detailed analysis of flows that are essential to a better understanding of the functioning of globalised economies. More specifically on the use of jurisdictions and complex legal constructions as vehicles for channelling funds in an opaque way and without leading to greenfield investments. Eurostat has also agreed to step up efforts to enhance its website for a more user-friendly presentation of the data.“