EU-lidstaten nu wel voor meer bevoegdheden Eurostat (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU finance ministers have thrown their support behind plans to hand Eurostat i - the bloc's statistics agency - tougher auditing powers, five years after member states first rejected similar proposals.
The political agreement reached in Luxembourg on Tuesday (8 June) highlights recent frustration at the unreliable data coming out of Athens, with the European Commission now signaling it has doubts over the accuracy of the figures coming out of Bulgaria.
EU economy commissioner Olli Rehn i welcomed the member-state decision, and urged the European Parliament to also provide the necessary support so that the draft regulation can become law.
"These audit powers are indeed one essential condition of a solid and effectively functioning Economic and Monetary Union because we need accurate and reliable statistics on national accounts for the EMU to function," Mr Rehn told journalists after the meeting.
At present, Eurostat relies on member states to provide it with accurate and timely data so that it can perform its statistical analyses. Greek government data has repeatedly been insufficiently reliable.
The new powers would allow Eurostat and commission officials to conduct country-specific visits in order to verify data they deem to be dubious, with Mr Rehn suggesting that Brussels already had one destination in mind.
"We have had some concerns regarding the statistical performance of Bulgaria and we are considering sending a mission shortly," said the Finnish politician.
EU officials say the number-crunching visits could have flagged up Greece's problems at a much earlier stage, helping to reduce the uncertainty and market turmoil surrounding the country's debt crisis.
A budget deficit revision of more than four percent last October by the country's newly-elected centre-left Pasok government led to a series of credit rating downgrades and widespread market panic as investors mulled the possibility of a debt default.
This, together with the destabilising effects on the eurozone as a whole, have brought about a change in government attitudes, resulting in Tuesday's deal.
A similar request by the commission in 2005 to upgrade Eurostat's auditing capabilities was rebuffed by member states, who were reluctant to hand over too much power to the Luxembourg-based body.
UK rejection
Separately on Tuesday, the UK appeared to reject the idea of EU member states viewing each others' budgets before they are handed to national parliaments, despite claims by European Council President Herman Van Rompuy i on Monday that a broad agreement had been reached.
"The budget will be presented to parliament first," the UK's financial secretary to the treasury, Mark Hoban, said in a short statement. "There is no question of anyone other than MPs seeing it first."