22/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - Last Friday's Ecofin Council noted without debate the special report from the Court of Auditors on Commission control of reliability and comparability of data from European Union Member States on their GNP. The Council welcomed in this context the major efforts of harmonisation made since 1989 by the Member States and was pleased to note that the improvements made have "practically settled all the problems identified by the Commission". The Council also welcomes the intention of the European Commission to continue monitoring this process, and supports the recommendations made by the Court of Auditors to the Commission so that it might improve the transparency of this process. The Council, moreover, considers that the introduction, from the year 2002, of the European ESA 95 system for calculating GNP will improve the comparability and reliability of data.