Commissie presenteert strategie voor verbetering statistieken
The European Commission has adopted a Communication to the Parliament and the Council to enhance the independence, integrity and accountability of the national and Community statistics authorities. The Communication promotes a European Statistics Code of Practice to increase the trust in the statistical authorities and to reinforce the quality of statistics through the use of best international statistical principles and practices. The Commission will implement those principles as concerns Eurostat and recommends the Member States to give their political backing to the Code and to ensure its respect .
The finance ministers Council (Ecofin) in June 2004 affirmed the importance of the integrity, independence and accountability of data compilers as essential for the quality of statistics and invited the Commission to develop minimum European standards.
Following on the invitation, the Commission in December 2004 outlined in a Communication ("Towards a European strategy for fiscal statistics governance" [1] ) its strategy to improve the quality of budgetary statistics, which are key for a smooth functioning of Economic and Monetary Union.
Today's action is the third and last step in that strategy. The second one consisted in the adoption, in March, by the Commission of a draft regulation to reinforce the monitoring powers of Eurostat which is currently under discussion at the Parliament and Council.
The Communication on the "Independence, Integrity and Accountability of the National and Community Statistical Authorities" develops minimum standards for the production and dissemination of statistics as a whole in Europe. Although statistics in Europe are already of high quality when compared with other regions in the world, the system will gain from the general adoption of best principles and practices.
The Commission is hence recommending the Member States to give their political backing to the European Statistics Code of Practice prepared by the national statistics authorities and Eurostat. The self-regulatory code sets 15 principles such as on professional independence, adequacy of resources and the quality of the statistics. It says, for example, that the independence of the statistical authority is best ensured when specified by law and when his/ her head has sufficient hierarchical standing and responsibility for deciding on statistical standards and procedures and on the content and timing of statistical releases.
The Commission commits to ensuring that Eurostat adheres to the principles laid down by the Code. It asks the Member States to recognise in the Code a common set of standards and ensure that the principles set therein are respected. It is proposed to monitor carefully its implementation.
The Communication also outlines a number of principles to guide an ongoing discussion on the rebalancing of statistical priorities in order to better serve users while, at the same time, reduce the burden on respondents.
The Communication and Recommendation will be on the agenda of the Ecofin Council on 7 June 2005, together with the March Regulation on the quality of statistics in the context of the excessive deficit procedure [2] .
The texts of the Communication, Recommendation and Code of Practice are available on the Eurostat website: Eurostat activities / Eurostat news
[1] See IP/04/1530 and Communication COM (2004) 832
[2] See IP/05/234 and Proposal for a Council Regulation COM (2005) 71