8.2.2005 Official Journal of the European Union L 35/23 REGULATION (EC) No 184/2005 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 12 January 2005 on Community statistics concerning balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EURO- PEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Commu- nity, and in particular Article 285(1) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Having regard to the opinion of the European Central Bank, deliv- ered in accordance with Article 105(4) of the Treaty (1), Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (2), Whereas: (1) The Treaty requires the Commission to submit reports to the Council in order to enable the Council to monitor eco- nomic developments in each of the Member States and in the Community as well as the consistency of economic policies with certain broad guidelines. (2)  According to the Treaty, the Commission must submit proposals to the Council for implementing the common commercial policy and the Council must authorise the Commission to open the necessary negotiations. (3)  The implementation and the review of trade agreements, including the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) (3) and the Agreement on Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) (4), as well as the current and future negotiations on further agreements, call for the relevant statistical information to be made available. (1) 0 C 296, 6.12.2003, p. 5. (%) Opinion of the European Parliament of 30 March 2004 (not yet pub- lished in the Official Journal) and Council Decision of 13 December 2004. () OJL 336,23.12.1994, p. 191. () OJ L 336,23.12.1994, p. 214. (4)  Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European System of national and regional accounts in the Community (°) (ESA 95) contains the reference frame- work of common standards, definitions, classifications, and accounting rules for drawing up the accounts of the Member States for the statistical requirements of the Com- munity, in order to obtain comparable results between Member States. (5)  The Action Plan on EMU Statistical Requirements pre- sented to the Council in September 2000 and the 3rd, 4th and 5th Progress Reports, also supported by the Council, provide for quarterly European accounts by the institu- tional sector within 90 days. The timely provision of quar- terly balance-of-payments figures is a prerequisite for the compilation of these quarterly European accounts. (6)  Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 of 20 Decem- ber 1996 on Structural Business Statistics (¢), established a common framework for the collection, compilation, trans- mission and evaluation of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community and sets out the characteris- tics which should be collected in this area. (7)  Regulation (EC) No 2560/2001 of the European Parlia- ment and of the Council of 19 December 2001 on cross- border payments in euro (7), had a direct impact on the collection of statistics; an increase in the threshold pro- vided for in that Regulation would have a significant impact on the reporting burden of undertakings and on the quality of balance of payments statistics of Member States, especially in the Member States that have collection systems based on settlements. (°) OJ L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regula- tion (EC) No 1267/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Coun- cil (O] L 180, 18.7.2003, p. 1). (6) OJ L 14,17.1.1997, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 284, 31.10.2003, p. 1). () OJ L 344, 28.12.2001, p. 13.