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European statistical programme 2013-2017

2011/0459(COD)

The European Parliament adopted by 613 votes to 22, with 30 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European statistical programme 2013-2017.

Parliament adopted its position at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure. The amendments adopted in plenary are the result of a compromise reached between the European Parliament and the Council and are as follows:

Value-added of the programme: according to the amended text, statistical information must be friendly and accessible, based on uniform standards and common quality assessment criteria, in particular "relevance", "accuracy", "timeliness", "accessibility", "consistency" and comparability.

Specific objectives of the programme: bearing in mind the available resources both at national and Union level as well as the response burden, the following specific objectives shall be pursued:

  • Objective 1: provide statistical information, in a timely manner, to support the development, monitoring and evaluation of the policies of the Union properly reflecting priorities, while keeping a balance between economic, social and environmental fields and serving the needs of the wide range of users of European statistics, including other decision-makers, researchers, businesses and European citizens in general, in a cost-effective manner without unnecessary duplication of effort ;
  • A new Objective 4 is introduced: ensure that delivery of such statistics is kept consistent throughout the whole duration of the programme, provided that this does not interfere with the priority-setting mechanisms of the ESS.

The objectives of the programme shall be achieved through close and coordinated cooperation in the ESS. The programme shall:

·         include the development of appropriate instruments resulting in enhanced quality, a greater flexibility of the ESS and the increased ability to satisfy users' needs in a timely manner;

·         pioneer the development of reliable indicators able to meet the challenges of the 21st century, namely measuring environmental sustainability, quality of life and social cohesion, and record economic activity in the tertiary sector and the social economy.

Independenceand transparency: European statistics shall be produced in a professionally independent and transparent manner. The national statistical institutes and the Union statistical authority (Commission (Eurostat)) shall ensure that, through their professional independence, European statistics comply with the Code of Practice. They shall:

  • aim to reinforce an institutional and organisational environment which promotes the coordination, effectiveness and credibility of national statistical authorities and the Commission (Eurostat) producing and disseminating European statistics;
  • place emphasis on the needs of users;
  • serve the needs of Union institutional users and seek to develop statistics which serve a wide range of users of European statistics, including other decision makers, researchers, businesses and European citizens in general; and
  • cooperate with statistical bodies at international level in order to promote the use of international concepts, classifications, methods and other standards, in particular, with a view to ensuring more coherence and better comparability at global level.

In line with Members’ wishes, each Member State shall endeavour to ensure that its statistical production processes are set up in a standardised manner and are enhanced, to the extent possible, by audit mechanisms.

In the interest of transparency, the Commission (Eurostat) shall:

  • where appropriate, disclose publicly its assessment on the quality of national contributions to European statistics as part of the quality reporting and compliance monitoring exercise.
  • consider how to make its publications, particularly those which are accessible via its website, more user-friendly to non–professionals, and shall allow easy access to complete data series and include intuitive comparative graphs in order to give more added value to citizens.

Statistical priority-setting: the programme shall ensure statistical initiatives underpinning the development, implementation and monitoring of current Union policies and shall provide statistical support for important requirements resulting from new Union policy initiatives.

Prioritisation shall contribute to the reduction of costs and burdens for new statistical requirements by reducing statistical requirements in existing domains of European statistics and shall be pursued in close cooperation with the Member States.

Financing: the Union financial envelope for the implementation of the programme for 2013 is set at EUR 57.3 million, covered by the programming period 2007 to 2013.

Not later than three months after the adoption of the multiannual financial framework for the years 2014-2020 (‘MFF 2014 to 2020’), the Commission is invited to submit to the European Parliament and to the Council a legislative proposal introducing the financial allocation for the period 2014 to 2017.

Administrative and technical assistance: an amendment stipulates that the programme’s financial allocation may also cover technical assistance and expertise provided to Member States which are unable to produce certain European statistics or statistics of the required quality due to specific circumstances.

Evaluation and review: the Commission shall, after consulting the ESSC, submit an intermediate progress report on the implementation of the programme to the European Parliament and to the Council by 30 June 2015.

No later than 31 December 2016, the Commission may, on the basis of the intermediate progress report referred to in paragraph 1, and after consulting the ESSC, submit to the European Parliament and to the Council a proposal for the extension of the programme for the period from 2018 to 2020, while complying with the MFF 2014 to 2020.