Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-07-11-Speech-3-463"
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"en.20070711.37.3-463"2
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"Madam President, Members of Parliament. I would first of all like to thank Mr Becsey and Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs for the excellent report on the Community Statistical Programme for 2008-2012.
This will indeed allow a timely adoption of the legal basis and a smooth start to the programme in 2008. The Community Statistical Programme constitutes the framework for the production of all statistics as well as the financial framework for the production of Community statistics during the programme period. Statistics are a key element for policy-making and, as such, the new programme has indeed focused on the current priorities of the Union, from growth and competitiveness to sustainable development and security. Parliament’s amendments, aimed at strengthening the gender and regional dimensions in statistics and substantiating the reporting obligations, are particularly welcomed by the Commission.
I would therefore like to thank the rapporteur, Mr Becsey, once again, as well as the Committee on Regional Development for their valuable efforts to provide the Community with a solid basis for the production of statistics over the next five years. Regarding fiscal statistics and the oral question by Mr Becsey and Mr Radwan, the Commission certainly agrees that the quality of fiscal data is vital for the correct functioning of Economic and Monetary Union and its budgetary surveillance system as well as for the assessment of the convergence criteria when evaluating the application of a Member State for entry into the euro area.
Fiscal statistics, like any other statistics, are subject to revision. Data are routinely revised when new information on government transactions becomes available or when errors or inconsistencies are identified and corrected. Revision also takes place in a paramount effort to comply better with the accounting rules. For statisticians, data usually become final only after four years at the earliest. Most revisions, in fiscal statistics, are small and have no significant impact on economic analysis and fiscal surveillance.
Unfortunately, there have also been some episodes of large revisions in fiscal statistics that put fiscal surveillance under stress. However, it is important to note that, in most cases, those revisions have not been a surprise. They were indeed preceded by public statements by Eurostat, drawing attention to the fact that the data initially reported by the Member States were not in compliance with the accounting rules and requiring Member States to amend them. Whenever necessary Eurostat has even itself amended data reported by the Member States. In compliance with Regulation 2103/2005, Eurostat has reported – and will report regularly to the European Parliament and to the Council – on the quality of the fiscal data transmitted by Member States.
With regard to forecasts, the Commission regularly assesses the forecasts and projections announced by Member States in their stability and convergence programmes by comparing them with the Commission’s own forecasts. For several Member States, the Commission has publicly noted on some occasions that the fiscal forecasts contained in the stability and convergence programmes were based on optimistic macroeconomic projections.
The Commission has also pointed out cases where the national projections were not compliant with the accounting rules for specific transactions or where the planned policy measures underlying the forecasts had not yet been confirmed. In preparing its own forecasts, the Commission systematically compares its numbers with projections released by the IMF, the OECD and other organisations. Experience shows that the forecasts published by the Commission – both the macroeconomic and the fiscal figures – are not biased and are at least as reliable as those of other forecasters."@en1
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