Fiscal statistics: governance and quality of statistical data in the context of the excessive deficit procedure (amend. Regulation (EC) No 3605/93)

The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Jean-Paul GAUZÈS (EPP-ED, FR) making  some amendments to the proposal. (Please see the summary of 07/06/2005.) Parliament also added in the recitals that the European Statistics Code of Practice, which will be set up jointly by the national statistical institutes and Eurostat, should enhance the principles of professional independence, adequacy of resources and quality of statistical data. 

With regard to the data, Parliament inserted a new clause that if the planned government deficit and debt figures do not use the "common external assumptions", made public by the Commission in the context of the coordination of economic and fiscal policies to make comparisons between Member States, the Member States shall explain in depth the reason for the divergence and calculate the differential between the projections.

Finally, Parliament stipulated that quality of actual data means the compliance with the European System of Accounts 1995 (ESA 95) standards, rather than “accounting rules” as in the original text.