(fra europaparlaments- og rådsforordningen)

(1) Accurate, timely, reliable and comparable labour market statistics on businesses in the Union are required for the design, implementation and evaluation of Union policies, in particular those addressing economic, social and territorial cohesion and the European employment strategy, and in the context of the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR). Those statistics are also relevant in the context of the European Semester, the EPSR action plan and the social economy action plan. They are also important for the Union to fulfil its tasks under the Treaties.

(2) The prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 1176/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) and the monitoring of adequate minimum wages pursuant to Directive (EU) 2022/2041 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) require accurate information on the evolution of hourly labour costs and wage levels, on the coverage of collective pay agreements and on the share of workers covered by a minimum wage across Member States.

(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. Therefore, accurate, timely, reliable and comparable Union statistics on the evolution of labour costs are necessary.

(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 in the Commission Communication of 27 November 2002 on eurozone statistics ‘towards improved methodologies for eurozone statistics and indicators’, needed to monitor monetary and economic policies.

(5) 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.

(6) In order to operationalise the definition of social enterprise, it is important to initiate feasibility and pilot studies with the aim of having specific data on social enterprises.

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

(8) The implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation, as described in Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (5), requires comparable data on wages received by men and women. In order to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women, Article 31 of the Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6) requires Member States to provide the Commission with up-to-date gender pay gap data annually and in a timely manner. That obligation should be complemented by the appropriate necessary statistical frame for compiling and transmitting gender pay gap data, that should include the detailed topics, the periodicity of the data provision, the reference periods and the deadline for data transmission.

(9) The concept of the gender pay gap is defined in Directive (EU) 2023/970. That definition should be adapted for the purpose of compiling and transmitting gender pay gap data under this Regulation. In particular, the term ‘employee’ is to cover workers in an employment relationship, including paid trainees and apprentices.

(10) To complement the picture on pay differences, the Commission (Eurostat) should compile statistics regarding the total annual and monthly earnings, covering all their components, for male and female employees every 4 years, based on the structure of earnings data.

(11) The gender pension gap is the relative difference between average gross pensions earned by women and men. This 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. 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.

(12) 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. Therefore, it is appropriate to repeal Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 (7) and Regulations (EC) No 450/2003 (8) and (EC) No 453/2008 (9) of the European Parliament and of the Council and replace them by this Regulation.

(13) It is essential that statistics collected under this Regulation meet the quality criteria set out in Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council (10). Statistical precision is an important measure of quality for data coming from samples. It is therefore necessary to specify precision targets that should be aimed at when sampling schemes are defined in Member States. In addition, for the purposes of quality reporting, the Commission (Eurostat) should include in its quality reporting guidance on how to further improve the quality of the statistics compiled under this Regulation. Member States might use innovative techniques to collect data, such as web scraping to collect data from websites. The data collected with those techniques should comply with the applicable quality requirements.

(14) This Regulation should take into account new needs that have emerged with the development of the Union and the euro area, provided that its provisions do not impose a significant additional cost or burden on respondents or national statistical authorities.

(15) To limit the administrative and financial burden on enterprises, in particular on social enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro-enterprises, the national statistical authorities should consider all available administrative, innovative and other sources, 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 that objective.

(16) National statistical authorities should take into account the principles of cost-effectiveness and non-excessive burden on economic operators. Member States should conduct efforts to ensure that relevant data is adequately shared between authorities without prejudice to statistical confidentiality in order to ensure that the reporting burden on enterprises is as small as possible.

(17) Reducing response burden is equally important as incorporating new data needs into the production of European statistics. The Commission (Eurostat) should regularly review the use and usability of data and discontinue variables and detailed topics when they are no longer justified by relevant user need.

(18) The framework governing labour market statistics on businesses should be continuously improved. That 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 authorities. For that purpose, the Commission (Eurostat) and national statistical authorities should conduct feasibility and pilot studies. Such studies should be initiated by the Commission and should be open to the participation of national statistical authorities 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 authorities. That analysis should be made available to the statistical community and the wider public.

(19) 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 data, privately held data and other sources, and to integrate those data with statistics, to the extent necessary for the development, production and dissemination of European Union labour market statistics on businesses, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 223/2009.

(20) Privately held data refers to the vast amount of data held by private data holders obtained as a result of their activity, which could be used by statistical authorities to produce official statistics. It might include data held by civil society organisations, among others.

(21) Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 constitutes the reference framework for this Regulation, including as regards the protection of confidential data including personal data.

(22) 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, by 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.

(23) The power to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) should be delegated to the Commission to amend the list of the detailed topics required to be covered by labour market statistics data on businesses and to supplement this Regulation for the temporary production of additional data for the purpose of addressing additional statistical data needs that cannot be otherwise fulfilled. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making (11). In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States’ experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.

(24) In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Regulation, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission to specify the elements for each topic required to be covered by labour market statistics data on businesses. Likewise, power should be conferred on the Commission to adopt implementing acts to set out the practical arrangements for the quality reports and their content, and to grant derogations to Member States where the application of this Regulation, or the delegated or implementing acts adopted pursuant to it, require major changes to be made to a Member State’s national statistical system. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (12).

(25) 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 (13) and delivered an opinion on 25 September 2023.

(26) In order to ensure the appropriate implementation of this Regulation in Member States, a period of at least 12 months after the date of entering into force is needed before the first data collection.

(27) This Regulation is without prejudice to Regulations (EU) 2016/679 (14) and (EU) 2018/1725 and Directive 2002/58/EC (15) of the European Parliament and of the Council. Within their respective scopes of application, those Regulations and that Directive are to apply to the processing of personal data under this Regulation. In order to guarantee the safeguards adopted under Article 89 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 13 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, it is preferable that anonymised or pseudonymised data be used for the processing, sharing and archiving of personal data for statistical purposes under this Regulation.

(28) The European Statistical System Committee has been consulted,