Strasbourg, 10/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - By following its rapporteur, the German Social Democrat Christa Randzio-Plath, the European Parliament approved last week in first reading (codecision) the draft regulation concerning the quarterly non-financial accounts of public administrations. In its explanatory memorandum, the rapporteur notes that the proper functioning of EMU entails an efficient coordination of economic policies, which in turn require the establishment of a vast information system and an improvement of statistical information on the finances of the Member States. A special "statistics" working group established in 1998 in order to identify the key sectors where improvements were considered necessary before underlining the need to grant priority to the establishment of up to date quarterly accounts of public finances, recalls Mrs Randzio-Plath, who notes that the Commission proposal aims to recommend to the Member States to establish short-term non-financial accounts concerning the public administrations in the three months following the end of the quarter they refer to. According to the rapporteur, this proposal represents a significant move forward towards the establishment of a reliable framework that will permit to measure economic development in the countries of the Euro zone.