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Whereas:

(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community(4) (ESA 95) contains the reference framework of common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules for drawing up the accounts of the Member States for the statistical requirements of the Community, in order to obtain comparable results between Member States.

(2) Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 sets out the conditions under which the Commission may adopt amendments to the ESA 95 methodology which are intended to clarify and improve its content.

(3) It is therefore necessary to refer the clarifications concerning the recording of taxes and social contributions in ESA 95 to the European Parliament and to the Council as these clarifications modify basic concepts.

(4) Article 2 of the protocol on the excessive deficit procedure relating to Article 104 of the Treaty states that the government deficit means net borrowing of the general government sector as defined in the European system of integrated economic accounts (ESA).

(5) The Statistical Programme Committee (SPC), set up by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom(5), the Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payments Statistics (CMFB), set up by Council Decision 91/115/EEC(6), and the Gross National Product Committee (GNP Committee) can state their opinion on the country-specific accounting treatment of taxes and social contributions whenever they consider it relevant.

(6) The SPC and the CMFB have been consulted.

(7) The measures necessary for the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 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(7), HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: