Structural business statistics: inclusion of insurance sector

OBJECTIVE: the proposal for a Council Regulation aims at complementing Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) concerning structural business statistics with a detailed module for structural statistics in insurance. SUBSTANCE: the proposal seeks to require Member States to provide Eurostat with comparable statistical data relating to the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the insurance sector at European level. It should be noted that it is Member States that are responsible for the data collection, not the Commission. The Regulation lays down the norms and standards necessary for producing comparable statistics within the Union. �