Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Change 2

RemovedSHORT JUSTIFICATION

AddedAMENDMENTS BY THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT*

RemovedThe Council position at first reading reflects the agreement reached between Parliament and the Council in interinstitutional negotiations at early second reading stage, after legal-linguistic verification. Since the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), in its vote on 16 January 2025, already confirmed the outcome of those interinstitutional negotiations, as your rapporteur, I propose that ECON recommends that the Plenary confirms the position of the Council at first reading without amending it.

Addedto the Commission proposal

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Added2023/0288 (COD)

AddedProposal for a

AddedREGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

Addedon European Union labour market statistics on businesses, repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 and Regulations (EC) No 450/2003 and (EC) No 453/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council

Added(Text with EEA relevance)

AddedTHE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

AddedHaving regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 338(1) thereof,

AddedHaving regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

AddedAfter transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments,

AddedHaving regard to the opinion of the European Central Bank,

Added▐

AddedActing in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure,

AddedWhereas:

Added(1) Accurate, timely, reliable and comparable data for compiling labour market statistics on businesses in the European Union are required for the design, implementation and evaluation of the Union policies, in particular those addressing economic, social and territorial cohesion, the European employment strategy, the European Pillar of Social Rights and the European Semester.

Added(2) The prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances according to Regulation (EU) 1176/2011 and the monitoring of adequate minimum wages according to Directive (EU) 2022/2041 of the European Parliament and of the Council require accurate information on the evolution of hourly labour costs and wage levels¸ the rate of collective bargaining coverage, the level of the statutory minimum wage and the share of workers covered by it across Member States.

Added(3) The European Central Bank uses European labour market statistics on businesses, in the context of the single monetary policy, in particular those on the evolution of labour costs and wage growth, for monitoring inflation and deflation risks arising from labour costs. Therefore, accurate, timely and comparable Union statistics on the evolution of labour costs are necessary. It is important that this analysis is complemented by the monitoring of inflation and deflation risks arising from profits.

Added(4) It is necessary to extend the coverage of job vacancy statistics and the timeliness of the labour cost index as both indicators are listed among the Principal European Economic Indicators (PEEIs), needed to monitor monetary and economic policies.

Added(4a) It is important for analytical purposes that an appropriate amount of back data is available to be able to assess labour cost indices over time. However, in order to reduce the burden imposed on Member States, the transmission should be limited to back data that at least covers the calendar years 2024 and 2025.

Added(5) A legal basis is necessary to regulate the transmission of the annual gender pay gap for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals under the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations (UN), in particular, goal 5 on Gender Equality.

Added(6) The implementation, monitoring and assessment of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation requires comparable data on wages received by men and women. Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women requires Member States to provide the Commission with up-to-date gender pay gap data annually and in a timely manner, in line with the Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Pay Transparency Directive). This obligation should be complemented by the appropriate necessary statistical frame for compiling and transmitting gender pay gap data.

Added(6a) Following the Social Economy Action Plan as well as goals set in the Strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities 2021-2030, particularly following the objective to create equal opportunities and ensure them equal access to participate in society and economy, timely, comparable and accurate data on participation of persons with disabilities in labour market is needed. Such data will provide much needed assessment of progress in common efforts in reducing employment rate gaps and increasing the employment rate of persons with disabilities.

Added(6b) The implementation of the principle of equal treatment irrespective of racial or ethnic origin requires timely, comparable and accurate data on wages and job characteristics of persons of different racial or ethnic origins. Such data will provide much needed assessment of progress in reducing discrimination in relation to employment and working conditions, including dismissals and pay.

Added(6c) The gender pension gap is the relative difference between average gross pensions earned by women and men. The gap has its roots in different professional careers; those of women are characterised by lower pay, shorter and interrupted careers, and a lower volume of hours worked. As a result, women are at greater risk of poverty in later life than men. The data collected in the context of the labour market statistics on businesses regarding the structure of earnings, the gender pay gap and the structure of labour costs can also contribute to a better understanding of the gender pension gap in the Member States.

Added(7) In order to simplify the existing legislation and foster harmonisation in scope, concepts, definitions and quality reporting, this Regulation should cover all European labour market statistics on businesses.

Added(7a) With the aim of improving labour market statistics on businesses, it is essential that the data meet the quality requirements. Therefore, the Commission (Eurostat) should provide further guidance on managing the data collected from low quality sources.

Added(8) This Regulation should take into account new needs that have emerged with the development and deepening of the Union and the euro area, provided that its provisions do not create a disproportionate burden on respondents or national statistical authorities.

Added(9) To limit the administrative and financial burden on enterprises, in particular on social enterprises, SMEs and micro-enterprises, the national statistical authorities should consider administrative and innovative sources already available to national, regional or local authorities, the main aim of which is not the provision of statistics, as a substitute for or a complement to statistical surveys, subject to the quality requirements for official statistics. The latest technological and digital developments can contribute to this objective. However, it is necessary to limit the number of sources from which data may be collected and transmitted, to what is necessary and proportionate to achieve the objective of this Regulation. Therefore, the Commission should be empowered to adopt delegated acts to specify from which sources, other than survey data and administrative records, data may be collected and transmitted under this Regulation. In any event, any processing of data stemming from those other sources should be without prejudice to Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.

Added(9a) National statistical authorities should take into account the standard on cost-effectiveness and not entailing excessive burden on economic operators as enshrined in Article 338(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union in their dealings with businesses. Member States should conduct efforts to ensure relevant data is adequately shared between authorities to ensure the reporting burden on enterprises is as small as possible.

Added(9b) The framework governing labour market statistics on businesses should be improved continuously. This includes data quality aspects as well as the reduction of undue economic burdens. However, new methods and procedures should be duly tested before they are incorporated in the day-to-day activities of national statistical institutes. For that purpose, the Commission (Eurostat) and national statistical institutes should conduct feasibility and pilot studies. Such studies should be initiated by the Commission and should be open to the participation of national statistical institutes on a voluntary basis. In order to draw the right conclusions, the results of those studies should be carefully analysed by the Commission and national statistical institutes. That analysis should be made available to the statistical community and the wider public.

Added(10) In order to improve the efficiency of the statistical production processes of labour market statistics and to reduce the statistical burden on respondents, national statistical authorities should have the right to access and use, promptly and free of charge, all national administrative records and to integrate those administrative records with statistics, to the extent necessary for the development, production and dissemination of European Union labour market statistics on businesses, in accordance with Article 17a of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

Added(11) Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 constitutes the reference framework for this Regulation, including as regards the protection of confidential data and the processing and sharing of personal data, including of privately held data.

Added(11a) The use of web scraping techniques to collect data from websites, for their usual nature of an unstructured search on what is public on the internet, might not comply with the data protection principle of accuracy insofar as there is no assessment on the reliability of the sources. The same quality requirements for official statistics (e.g. the principle of statistical accuracy and reliability of source data) might be affected.

Added(12) Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the establishment of a common framework for systematic production of high quality European Union labour market statistics on businesses, cannot be sufficiently achieved by Member States but can rather, for reasons of consistency and comparability, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

Added(13) The European Data Protection Supervisor was consulted in accordance with Article 42(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council and delivered an opinion on 25 September 2023.

Added(14) For the appropriate implementation of this Regulation in Members States, at least 12 months after the date of entering into force are needed before the first data collection. Therefore, it should be applied at the earliest from 1 January 2026.

Added(15) The European Statistical System Committee has been consulted.

AddedHAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

AddedSubject matter

AddedThis Regulation lays down a common legal framework for the development, production and dissemination of labour market statistics on businesses in the Union.

AddedDefinitions

AddedFor the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

Added(1) ‘statistical unit’ means the natural or legal person on which the data are collected or compiled;

Added(2) ‘enterprise’ means a set of legal units as defined in Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93; This includes non-market producers and other institutional units that belong to the general government sector;

Added(2a) ‘social enterprise’ means a private law entity, which can be established in a variety of legal forms, that provides goods and services for the market in an entrepreneurial way and in accordance with the principles and features of the social economy, having social or environmental objectives as the reason for its commercial activity;

Added(3) ‘local unit’ means an enterprise, or a part thereof, situated in a geographically identified place;

Added(4) ‘resident enterprise’, respectively ‘resident local unit’, means an enterprise, respectively a local unit, carrying out economic activities contributing to the gross domestic product (GDP);

Added(5) ‘employee’ means any person irrespective of his/her nationality, residency or how long he/she has worked in the Member State who has a direct employment contract with an enterprise (whether the agreement is formal or informal) and receive remuneration, irrespective of the type of work performed, the number of hours worked (full-time or part-time) and the duration of the contract (fixed or indefinite, including seasonal); the remuneration of an employee can take the form of wages and salaries, including bonuses, pay for piecework and shift work, allowances, fees, commission and remuneration in kind;

Added(6) ‘employer’ means an enterprise or a local unit that has a direct employment contract with an employee (whether the agreement is formal or informal);

Added(7) ‘domain’ means one or several data sets that cover one or several topics;

Added(8) ‘topic’ means the content of the information to be collected about the statistical units in a data collection, with each topic covering several detailed topics;

Added(9) ‘detailed topic’ means the detailed content of the information to be collected about the statistical units related to a topic; each detailed topic covers one or several variables;

Added(10) ‘variable’ means a characteristic of a unit that may assume more than one of a set of values, which can be an absolute figure, a proportion, or a reference to a position in a classification;

Added(11) ‘breakdown’ means a predefined discrete, exhaustive and mutually exclusive set of values which can be assigned to a variable characterising statistical units;

Added(12) ‘microdata’ means data concerning only one statistical unit without a direct identifier;

Added(13) ‘aggregated data’ means data concerning a set of several statistical units;