Education and lifelong learning: production and development of statistics

The European Parliament adopted a legislative resolution based on the report by Nikolaos SIFUNAKIS (PES, EL), and made several amendments to improve and clarify certain aspects of the Commission’s proposal for a regulation concerning the production and development of statistics on education and lifelong learning. The amendments aim to do the following:

- to define “microdata” and “confidential data”, since the proposal did not contain these;

- to specify in Domains 1, 2 and 3 the subjects on which the Member States will collect and transmit statistics;

- to take account of the evolving and changing environment, as policies on education and lifelong learning are formulated, providing for a limited and controlled degree of flexibility in the collection of new statistics;

- to ensure that the development of new statistics and indicators will not impose undue administrative or financial burdens;

- to limit the size of statistical samples at national level to 5000 individuals;

- to propose that the measures required to implement the regulation will be in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny which allows the European Parliament to object to the proposed measures if it considers that they exceed the implementing powers provided in the regulation, are not in line with its aim or its content or are not consistent with the principles of subsidiarity or proportionality;

- to ensure protection of the personal data of the individuals who contribute statistical information to the research, in accordance with Article 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.

Parliament also provided that:

- where appropriate, data shall be systematically broken down by gender;

- pilot studies shall not necessarily lead to corresponding implementing measures;

- if certain measures lead to the requirement for a significant enlargement of existing data collections or for new data collections or surveys, implementing decisions shall be based on a cost-benefit analysis as part of a comprehensive analysis of the effects and implications, taking into account the benefit of the measures, the costs for the Member States and the burden on respondents;

- if necessary, limited derogations and transition periods for Member States, both to be based upon objective grounds, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny.