DECISION No 1578/2007/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 11 December 2007
on the Community Statistical Programme 2008 to 2012
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 285 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1),
After consulting the Committee of the Regions,
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (2),
Whereas:
(1)
Pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community statistics (3), a multiannual Community statistical programme should be established.
(2)
In accordance with that Regulation, the Community should have timely access to statistical information comparable among the Member States and their territorial units, in the light of the constitutional provisions of the Member States, which is up to date, reliable, relevant and produced as efficiently as possible for the formulation, application, monitoring and assessment of its policies.
(3)
In order to ensure the consistency and comparability of statistical information in the Community, there is a need to establish a five-year Community statistical programme which identifies the approaches, the main fields and the objectives of the actions envisaged in respect of the policy priorities.
(4)
The specific method of drawing up Community statistics requires particularly close cooperation within a developing Community statistical system via the Statistical Programme Committee, established by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (4), as regards the adaptation of the system, notably through the introduction of legal instruments necessary to establish the relevant Community statistics. Account should be taken of the burden on respondents, be they businesses, central, regional or local government units, households or individuals.
(5)
The production of Community statistics within the legislative framework of the five-year programme is achieved through the close, coordinated and coherent cooperation between Eurostat and the national authorities. For that purpose, Eurostat should ensure the coordination, in various forms, of the national authorities in a network representing the European Statistical System (ESS) to assure the timely provision of statistics of a standard allowing the necessary comparability among Member States, in support of European Union policy needs.
(6)
In the production and dissemination of Community statistics under this Decision, the national and Community statistical authorities should respect the principles set out in the European Statistics Code of Practice, which was attached to the Recommendation of the Commission of 25 May 2005 on the independence, integrity and accountability of the national and Community statistical authorities. In this process, efforts should be made to promote convergence of the statistical information gathered and the possibility of scientific treatment thereof.
(7)
In the light of the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on reduction of the response burden, simplification and priority-setting in the field of Community statistics, the preparation of the annual statistical work programmes of the Commission should take account of the need for ongoing review of statistical priorities, including the simplification of processes and the reduction of requirements of declining importance, with a view to making the best use of available resources.
(8)
In order to increase the coherence and effectiveness in Community measures for cities and enable reliable comparisons to be made, it is necessary, for Community statistical purposes, to define more accurately what is meant by ‘urban area’ and ‘agglomeration’.
(9)
Since the objective of this Decision, namely the establishment of the Community Statistical Programme 2008 to 2012, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Decision does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.
(10)
This Decision establishes a financial envelope for the entire duration of the programme which is to be the prime reference for the budgetary authority, within the meaning of point 37 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound financial management (5), in the framework of the annual budgetary procedure.
(11)
In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 322/97, the guidelines for establishing that programme have been submitted to the Statistical Programme Committee, the European Advisory Committee on Statistical Information in the Economic and Social Spheres established by Council Decision 91/116/EEC (6) and the Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payment Statistics established by Council Decision 2006/856/EC (7),
HAVE DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:
Article 1
Establishment of the statistical programme
The Community statistical programme for the period from 2008 to 2012 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘programme’) is hereby established. The programme is set out in Annexes I and II.
Annex I specifies the approaches, the main fields and the objectives of the actions envisaged during the duration of the programme. Annex II provides a summary of statistical requirements viewed from the perspective of the policy needs of the European Union.
Article 2
Policy priorities
1. Taking account of the available resources of the national authorities and the Commission, the programme shall be guided by the principal Community policy priorities of:
(a)
prosperity, competitiveness, innovation and growth;
(b)
solidarity and human development;
(c)
economic, social and regional cohesion, sustainable development and demographic challenges;
(d)
security; and
(e)
further enlargement of the European Union.
2. The overall priorities and general objectives for the programme shall be subject to detailed annual planning in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 322/97.
Article 3
Statistical governance and quality
The programme shall be implemented in accordance with the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice with a view to producing and disseminating high-quality, harmonised Community statistics disaggregated by gender, where appropriate, and ensuring the proper functioning of the European statistical system as a whole. National authorities and the Community statistical authority shall:
(a)
establish an institutional and organisational environment which promotes the effectiveness and credibility of national and Community statistical authorities producing and disseminating official statistics, including regional statistics based on the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS);
(b)
observe European standards, guidelines and good practices in the processes used by the national and Community statistical authorities to organise, collect, process and disseminate official statistics and strive for a reputation for good management and efficiency to strengthen the credibility of those statistics;
(c)
ensure that Community statistics comply with the European quality standards and serve the needs of European Union institutional users, governments, regional authorities, research institutions, civil society organisations, enterprises and the public generally;
(d)
cooperate with statistical bodies at international level in order to promote the use of international concepts, classifications and methods in line with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics adopted by the UN Statistical Commission on 14 April 1994, in particular with a view to ensuring more coherence and better comparability between statistics at a global level;
(e)
provide, where requested and warranted, the necessary technical support in the area of statistical organisation, and enable good practices to be shared with other bodies or third countries; and
(f)
place emphasis on the quality of the statistical information, in particular its reliability and comparability, taking due care to ensure the chronological continuity of the data collected and the possibility of scientific processing thereof.
Article 4
Prioritisation, efficiency and flexibility
1. The programme shall ensure continued statistical support for decisions and evaluations in current Community policy areas and provide statistical support for important additional requirements arising from new Community policy initiatives.
2. The Commission shall, in the preparation of the annual statistical work programmes, take account of the cost-effectiveness of the statistics produced and ensure an ongoing review of statistical priorities, with a view to making best use of available resources of the Member States and the Commission and to minimising the burden imposed on respondents. Prioritisation shall aim at balancing additional costs and burdens for new statistical requirements by reducing statistical requirements in existing domains of Community statistics and shall take place in close cooperation with the Member States.
3. When preparing the annual statistical work programmes, the Commission may carry out ex-ante studies of the financial implications of any planned new statistical activities which impose significant additional burdens on the Member States.
4. The programme shall ensure the development of instruments to re-prioritise statistical activities, increase the flexibility of the European Statistical System and improve its ability to respond in a timely manner to changing user needs.
5. The programme shall ensure transparency, with account being taken, inter alia, of Article 1(1) and (2) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1104/2006 of 18 July 2006 amending Regulation (EC) No 831/2002 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 on Community Statistics, concerning access to confidential data for scientific purposes (8).
Article 5
Financing
1. The financial envelope for the implementation of this programme for the period 2008 to 2012 is hereby set at EUR 274 200 000.
2. The annual appropriations shall be authorised by the budgetary authority within the limits of the financial envelope.
Article 6
Reports
1. The Commission shall, after consulting the Statistical Programme Committee, present an interim progress report and shall submit it to the European Parliament and the Council no later than June 2010. That report shall address, in particular, the period of the second half of the current programme and the issue of the period to be covered by the next multiannual statistical programme, taking into account the term of office of the European Parliament. In relation to the implementation of the programme, the Commission shall also provide a preliminary analysis of the competitive effects on small and medium-sized enterprises brought about by the proposed cuts in the administrative burden, and of the financial burden-sharing between Community and Member State budgets. The Commission shall also pay special attention to the issue of necessary datasets, tools and methodologies which shall serve as the basis for the production of unbiased and objective analysis of the social and economic impacts of important areas which are in need of constant monitoring and review such as the common agricultural policy, the services in the internal market and the next multiannual financial framework.
2. At the end of the period covered by the programme, the Commission, after consulting the Statistical Programme Committee, shall present an evaluation report on the implementation of the programme, taking into account the views of independent experts. That report shall be completed by the end of 2013 and subsequently submitted to the European Parliament and the Council.
3. Reporting on the outcome of reprioritisation, including estimations of costs and burdens for statistical projects and fields covered by this statistical programme, as well as an assessment of emerging statistical needs, in particular for new Community policies, shall form part of the intermediate progress report and the final evaluation report.
Article 7
This Decision shall enter into force on the third day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Done at Strasbourg, 11 December 2007.