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(1) The Commission made a commitment in its Communications of 16 March 2005 on Better Regulation for Growth and Jobs in the European Union and of 24 January 2007 on an Action Programme for Reducing Administrative Burdens in the European Union to ensure a better policy on regulation and to cut unnecessary red tape and over-regulation.

(2) On 14 November 2006, the Commission published a Communication on reduction of the response burden, simplification and priority-setting in the field of Community statistics, which sets out a strategic approach to continuing the reduction of the statistical burden on enterprises.

(3) During the last 15 years, a large number of statistical regulations aiming to describe activities of enterprises and containing data provision obligations for enterprises have emerged to meet the statistical information needs of the Community. An overhaul is needed to ensure, inter alia, the consistency of the scope of, and the concepts and definitions in, those statistical regulations. Insofar as possible, simplification and priority-setting should be a feature of all those regulations.

(4) Enterprise and trade statistics are faced with a major challenge in the coming years. To underpin Community policy initiatives, they have to be capable of reflecting phenomena in the changing Community economy such as globalisation, emerging trends in entrepreneurship, the information society, trade in services, innovation, shifting trade patterns, and competitiveness in the light of the renewed Lisbon strategy.

(5) A key element driving the need for enterprise and trade statistics is the renewed Lisbon strategy, the objectives of which are to foster the competitiveness of the European economy and achieve high and sustainable growth.

(6) The deepening of European integration in a number of economic areas, including the European Monetary Union and the European customs system, creates new statistical needs related to the role of the euro in international transactions and leads to the necessity of adjusting the statistical system. Enterprise and trade statistics should meet those needs appropriately and provide, in a timely manner, high-quality statistical information on the structural changes in the European economy and its business sector.

(7) Enterprise and trade statistics comprise several areas to which improvements should be made, such as structural business statistics, short-term statistics, Prodcom statistics, statistics on information and communication technology, and statistics on trade in goods between Member States (Intrastat).

(8) The authorities responsible for enterprise and trade statistics should re-engineer the methods for the production of statistics so that the burden on enterprises can be reduced and all available sources and new technologies can be used in a fully effective way.

(9) The need for new types of indicators may arise as a result of efforts to modernise the statistical production system. New types of indicators providing the information required could be obtained by linking together existing types of business statistics without the need to increase the reporting burden on enterprises. New sources and electronic access are likely to make data collection less burdensome and, at the same time, provide more information. The potential of business statistics should be exploited in a more efficient way and the quality of statistical information should increase.

(10) National statistical institutes should be closely involved in the modernisation of the statistical production system in order to avoid cost duplication and red tape.

(11) The simplification of the Intrastat system is part of the efforts to reduce statistical requirements and minimise the burden on enterprises. The recent decision to reduce the coverage ratio will contribute to that goal in the short term. In the longer term, other means of simplification should be investigated, including the single-flow system. The possible implementation of those means of simplification in the long term depends on feasibility studies and other actions to be carried out in accordance with this Decision. The quality of the statistics as well as the significant costs involved in any transition should, however, be taken into account.

(12) An ex-ante evaluation has been performed in accordance with the principle of sound financial management, in order to focus the programme established by this Decision on the need for effectiveness in achieving the objectives and in order to incorporate budgetary constraints from the design phase of the programme onwards.

(13) This Decision establishes, for the entire duration of the programme, a financial envelope which constitutes the prime reference, within the meaning of point 37 of the Inter-institutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound financial management , for the budgetary authority during the annual budgetary procedure.

(14) Since the objective of this Decision, namely to establish a programme for the modernisation of European enterprise and trade statistics, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States because uncoordinated modernisation would lead to duplication of efforts, repetition of mistakes and higher costs, and can therefore, by reason of the scale of the statistics involved, 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 Decision does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

(15) The Statistical Programme Committee, established by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom , has been consulted in accordance with Article 3 of that Decision.

(16) Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community Statistics provides a reference framework for the provisions of this Decision.

(17) The measures necessary for the implementation of this Decision 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 ,