Regulation (EC) No 450/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 February 2003 concerning the labour cost index (Text with EEA relevance)

• Published date: 13 March 2003
• Subject Matter: informazione e verifiche,disposizioni sociali,informations et vérifications,dispositions sociales,información y verificación,disposiciones sociales
• Official Gazette Publication: Gazzetta ufficiale dell’Unione europea, L 69, 13 marzo 2003,Journal officiel de l’Union européenne, L 69, 13 mars 2003,Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea, L 69, 13 de marzo de 2003

2003R0450 — EN — 07.08.2009 — 002.001

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This document is meant purely as a documentation tool and the institutions do not assume any liability for its contents

►B REGULATION (EC) No 450/2003 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 February 2003 concerning the labour cost index (Text with EEA relevance) (OJ L 069, 13.3.2003, p.1)

Amended by:

		Official Journal
		No	page	date
►M1	REGULATION (EC) No 1893/2006 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 20 December 2006	L 393	1	30.12.2006
►M2	REGULATION (EC) No 596/2009 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 18 June 2009	L 188	14	18.7.2009

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▼B

REGULATION (EC) No 450/2003 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 27 February 2003

concerning the labour cost index

(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 ( 1 ),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee ( 2 ),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Central Bank ( 3 ),

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty ( 4 ),

Whereas:

(1) A range of statistics, of which labour cost indices form an essential part, is relevant for an understanding of the inflationary process and the dynamics of the labour market.

(2) The Community, and particularly its economic, employment and monetary authorities, need to have regular and timely labour cost indices for the purpose of monitoring changes in labour costs.

(3) The Action Plan on Economic and Monetary Union statistical requirements, produced by the European Commission (Eurostat) in close collaboration with the European Central Bank, identifies as a priority the development of a legal basis covering short-term labour cost statistics.

(4) The benefits of collecting, at Community level, complete data on all segments of the economy should be balanced against the reporting possibilities and the response burden on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

(5) The Regulation is in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. The creation of common statistical standards for labour cost indices can only be achieved on the basis of a Community legal act because only the Commission can coordinate the necessary harmonisation of statistical information at Community level, while the collection of data and compilation of comparable labour cost indices can be organised by the Member States.

(6) Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community statistics ( 5 ) provides the general framework for the production of labour cost indices under this Regulation.

(7) 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 ( 6 ).

(8) The Statistical Programme Committee (SPC), established by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom ( 7 ), has been consulted in accordance with Article 3 of that Decision,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Objective

The objective of this Regulation is to establish a common framework for the production, transmission and evaluation of comparable labour cost indices in the Community. Member States shall produce labour cost indices for the economic activities defined in Article 4.

Article 2

Definitions

1. The labour cost index (LCI) is defined as the Laspeyres index of labour costs per hour worked, chain linked annually and based upon a fixed structure of economic activity at ►M1 NACE Rev. 2 ◄ section level, where ►M1 NACE Rev. 2 ◄ is the classification established by Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 of 9 October 1990 on the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community ( 8 ). Further disaggregations of ►M1 NACE Rev. 2 ◄ sections, to be included in the fixed structure, shall be defined in accordance with Article 4(1). The formula to be used for the calculation of the LCI is defined in the Annex to this Regulation.

2. The labour costs are the total quarterly costs incurred by the employer in the employment of labour. The labour cost items and total staff employed are defined by reference to Annex II, Sections A and D (items D.1, D.4 and D.5 and their subcomponents, excluding items D.2 and D.3) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1726/1999 of 27 July 1999 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 concerning structural statistics on earnings and on labour costs as regards the definition and transmission of information on labour costs ( 9 ).

3. The hours worked are defined by reference to Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community ( 10 ), Annex A, Chapter 11, paragraphs 11.26 to 11.31.

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4. The Commission may take measures to redefine the technical specification of the index and revise the weighting structure. Those 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 12(3).

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Article 3

Scope

1. This Regulation shall apply to all activities defined in sections B to S of NACE Rev. 2.

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2. The inclusion of economic activities defined by NACE Rev.2 sections O to S in the scope of this Regulation shall be determined by the Commission, taking into account the feasibility studies defined in Article 10. Those 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 12(3).

Article 4

Breakdown of variables

1. The data shall be broken down by economic activities defined by NACE Rev. 2 sections and by further disaggregations, defined by the Commission, not beyond the level of NACE Rev. 2 divisions (2-digit level) or groupings of divisions, taking account of contributions to total employment and to labour costs at Community and national levels. Those 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 12(3).

Labour cost...