Brussels, 19/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 18 April, the European Parliament took a first step that could result in a small accounting revolution.
Meeting in Strasbourg in plenary session on Thursday 18 April, MEPs adopted an amended proposal on the rules for calculating and compiling population data that could alter the way qualified majority is calculated in Council, thus affecting member states' access to certain European funding.
Although the European Commission was planning to move along these lines, MEPs are today pushing to go still further so that the calculation by member states of their population is harmonised and takes better account of migration and change of residence. No-one is being directly named or shamed but there is a great temptation for some governments to swell their statistics by including citizens in their population numbers despite the fact that those people no longer live in that country. The reason for this is simple - the larger the population, the more clout that country has in Council and the larger the financial support from certain European funds can be.
The solution to this problem of “population fraud” would be to calculate the population that is “usually resident” as exactly as possible in order to cross-check data and thus avoid counting an EU citizen twice if that person no longer lives in his home country. To the Commission's proposal, the Parliament added that, if states cannot find the exact numbers, they must at least estimate those numbers and then make their estimations public “under Commission monitoring”. MEPs, moreover, felt that the Commission should provide information on the impact that these new rules have every five years.
A perfect illustration of what such an upheaval really implies, not only in the lives of chartered accountants and statisticians but also for member states, is the rejection by MEPs of an amendment that aimed to ensure that the new data relating to residency should not be taken into account when calculating the Council's qualified majority. This, moreover, led the Parliament rapporteur on this issue, Csaba Sogor (EPP, Romania), to vote against the text adopted, a Parliament press release states.
In Strasbourg, the situation has not unfolded as initially intended. At the behest of the chairperson of the committee on employment and social affairs, Pervenche Berès (S&D, France), the vote on the legislative resolution was finally deferred in order to open informal negotiations with the Council. (JK/transl.jl)