REGULATION (EC) No 451/2008 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 23 April 2008

establishing a new statistical classification of products by activity (CPA) and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3696/93

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 285(1) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (1),

Whereas:

(1) Regulation (EEC) No 3696/93 (2) established the statistical classification of products by activity (CPA) in the European Economic Community.

(2) In order to reflect the technological development and structural changes of the economy, an up-to-date CPA should be established.

(3) The structuring of a product classification in accordance with the production activity involved avoids proliferation of unrelated coding schemes, and facilitates the identification by producers of relevant markets.

(4) There is a need to create a reference framework within which statistical data on production, consumption, external trade and transport can be compared.

(5) An up-to-date CPA is central to the Commission's ongoing efforts to overhaul Community statistics; it is expected to convey, through more comparable and relevant data, better economic governance at Community and national level.

(6) In order to function, the internal market requires statistical standards applicable to the collection, transmission and publication of national and Community statistics so that enterprises, financial institutions, governments and all other operators in the internal market can be provided with reliable and comparable statistical data. To this end, it is vital that the various categories of the CPA be interpreted uniformly in all the Member States.

(7) Reliable and comparable statistics are necessary to enable enterprises to assess their competitiveness, and are useful to the Community institutions in preventing distortions of competition.

(8) The establishment of a common statistical classification of products by economic activity does not per se oblige Member States to collect, publish or supply data. Only if the Member States use product classifications linked to the Community classification is it possible to provide integrated information with the reliability, speed, flexibility and degree of detail required for the management of the internal market.

(9) Provision should be made to enable the Member States, in order to meet their national requirements, to integrate into their national classifications additional categories based on the CPA.

(10) The international comparability of economic statistics requires that the Member States and the Community institutions use classifications of products which are directly linked to the Central Product Classification (CPC) Ver. 2, as adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission.

(11) Use of the CPA requires that the Commission be assisted by the Statistical Programme Committee established by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (3) in particular as regards examining problems arising from the implementation of the CPA and incorporating amendments to the CPA.

(12) The establishment of a new statistical classification of products implies a need to amend specifically references to the CPA. It is therefore necessary to repeal Regulation (EEC) No 3696/93.

(13) The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (4). In particular, the Commission should be empowered to amend the CPA in order to take account of technological or economic developments and align it with other economic and social classifications. Since those measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, inter alia, by supplementing it with 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.

(14) Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the establishment of a new CPA, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve that objective.

(15) The Statistical Programme Committee has been consulted,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Subject matter and scope

1. This Regulation establishes a new common CPA within the Community in order to ensure relevance with respect to the economic reality and comparability between national, Community and international classifications and hence national, Community and international statistics.

2. The term ‘product’ shall refer to outputs of economic activities, whether goods or services.

3. This Regulation shall apply to the use of the classification for statistical purposes only.

Article 2

The levels and the structure of the CPA

1. The CPA shall comprise:

(a) a first level, comprising headings identified by an alphabetical code (sections);

(b) a second level, comprising headings identified by a two-digit numerical code (divisions);

(d) a fourth level, comprising headings identified by a four-digit numerical code (classes);

(e) a fifth level, comprising headings identified by a five-digit numerical code (categories); and

(f) a sixth level, comprising headings identified by a six-digit numerical code (subcategories).

2. The CPA is set out in the Annex.

Article 3

Use of the CPA

The Commission shall use the CPA for all statistics classified according to products by activity.

Article 4

National classifications of products by economic activity

1. Member States may use the CPA for aggregated or detailed, national, specific or functional adaptation based on the subcategories of the CPA.

2. Those classifications shall be related to the CPA in accordance with the following rules:

(a) classifications that are more aggregated than the CPA shall comprise precise aggregations of CPA subcategories;

(b) classifications that are more detailed than the CPA shall comprise headings that are wholly contained within CPA subcategories.

The classifications that are derived in accordance with this paragraph may have a different coding.

3. Member States may use a national classification of products by economic activity derived from the CPA. In such a case, they shall forward to the Commission drafts defining their national classification. Within three months after receiving such a draft, the Commission shall verify the conformity of the envisaged national classification with paragraph 2 and shall transmit it to the other Member States for information. The Member States’ national classifications shall include a table of correspondence with the CPA.

Article 5

Commission activities

The Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, shall ensure the dissemination, maintenance and promotion of the CPA, in particular by:

(a) drafting, updating and publishing explanatory notes relating to the CPA;

(b) drawing up and publishing guidelines for the application of the CPA;

(c) publishing tables of correspondence between the new version and the previous version of the CPA; the previous version and the new version of the CPA; and the CPA and the Combined Nomenclature (CN), which is reproduced in Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff (5); and

(d) working to improve consistency with other classifications.

Article 6

Implementing measures

1. The following measures, designed to implement and update this Regulation, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 7(2):

(a) decisions required in case of problems arising from implementing the CPA, including the assignment of products to specific classes; and

(b) technical measures ensuring a fully coordinated transition from the previous version of the CPA.

2. The following measures, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, inter alia, by supplementing it, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 7(3):

(a) amendments to the CPA designed to take account of technological or economic developments; and

(b) amendments to the CPA designed to align it with other economic and social classifications.

3. Consideration is to be given to the principle that the benefits of updating the CPA must outweigh its costs, and to the principle that additional costs and burden remain within a reasonable limit.

Article 7

Committee

1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Statistical Programme Committee.

2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof.

The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months.

3. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5a(1) to (4) and Article 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof.

Article 8

Repeal of Regulation (EEC) No 3696/93

Regulation (EEC) No 3696/93 shall be repealed with effect from 1 January 2008.

Article 9

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the

Official Journal of the European Union

It shall apply from 1 January 2008.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Strasbourg, 23 April 2008.

For the European Parliament

The President

H.-G. PÖTTERING

For the Council

The President

J. LENARČIČ

(1) Opinion of the European Parliament of 10 July 2007 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Council Decision of 14 February 2008.

(2)

OJ L 342, 31.12.1993, p. 1

. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (

OJ L 284, 31.10.2003, p. 1

(3)

OJ L 181, 28.6.1989, p. 47

(4)

OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23

. Decision as amended by Decision 2006/512/EC (

OJ L 200, 22.7.2006, p. 11

(5)

OJ L 256, 7.9.1987, p. 1

. Regulation as last amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 360/2008 (

OJ L 111, 23.4.2008, p. 9

ANNEX

CPA 2008

(n.e.c.: not elsewhere classified; (*): part of)