EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, 20.1.2023 COM(2023) 31 final 2023/0008(COD) Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on European statistics on population and housing, amending Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and repealing Regulations (EC) No 763/2008 and (EU) No 1260/2013 (Text with EEA relevance) {SEC(2023) 38 final} - {SWD(2023) 11 final} - {SWD(2023) 12 final} - {SWD(2023) 13 final} - {SWD(2023) 14 final} - {SWD(2023) 15 final}



EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM 1.CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL •Reasons for and objectives of the proposal Timely, reliable, detailed and comparable European statistics are needed to develop and implement policies and activities for the EU’s benefit in the areas the EU has competence in, as established by Articles 2 and 3 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The Commission is monitoring and reporting on the demographic situation in the EU in line with Article 159 TFEU. For their part, EU institutions need accurate and comparable population figures for administrative and procedural purposes, e.g. for qualified majority voting in the Council. These statistics also provide essential inputs for public research by generating insights and keeping society informed of developments. Population estimates are also needed to obtain per capita indicators for statistics. Population statistics provide input for population projections for long-term EU economic and budgetary projections specifically and EU economic, social and cohesion policies generally. They are also something the public can easily relate to because they describe facts and events that concern each individual. In the context of this initiative, European statistics on population (ESOP) mean official statistics at EU level on population, demographic events and migration and the various indicators based on these statistics. Eurostat has published statistics in these areas since 1960, when the first survey on the size and structure of the active population in the then Member States was introduced. Since then, population statistics have been produced mainly by taking results from direct population enumerations during censuses and interpolating intermediate periods with information on population changes taken from administrative systems for civil registration (on births, deaths and migration). The ongoing move from traditional field censuses to combined or even fully register-based censuses minimises the production burden on the general public by basing the compilation of these statistics mainly on administrative data sources. Until 2007, Member States voluntarily transmitted all population data. This led to inconsistencies and a lack of completeness or timeliness, as the recent evaluation of the situation shows. Article 338 TFEU obliges the legislator to adopt measures for the production of official statistics where necessary for EU policies. Today, population statistics are based on a legal framework adopted between 2007 and 2013. In the first place, Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 set up requirements for migration statistics in line with the Action Plan for the collection and analysis of Community statistics in the field of migration. Article 3 of the Regulation covers statistics on immigration to and emigration from the Member States’ territories, including flows from one Member State’s territory to another’s and flows between a Member State and a third country’s territory, statistics on the citizenship and country of birth of people usually resident in the Member States’ territory, and statistics on citizenship acquisitions. In the second place, Regulation (EC) No 763/2008 established common rules for the provision every 10 years of comprehensive census data on population and housing in the EU. This ensured the compilation of detailed data on predetermined demographic, social and economic characteristics of people, families and households, as well as on national, regional and local housing characteristics. Finally, Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 established the common rules for European demographic data, including data requirements on population stocks and vital events such as births and deaths. Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 also obliges Member States to provide the Commission (Eurostat) with harmonised data on the total population at national level to be used as weights for qualified majority voting in the Council. The evaluation conducted by the Commission has shown that the current legal framework of the three acts mentioned above has significantly improved European population statistics overall. EU added value has been increased significantly and all EU policy and institutional needs for population statistics have been met. However, the evaluation has also revealed the reduced – and further reducing – relevance, coherence, consistency and comparability of population data and statistics across Member States, with negative effects for the decision-making based on them. A new legal basis is therefore needed to provide a long-term framework for developments that are necessary for further harmonising European population statistics. The framework should also provide sufficient flexibility to better adapt to changing policy needs and seize the opportunities arising from new data sources. There are also potential opportunities for administrative simplification and process integration instead of the current fragmentary state of affairs in this area. This initiative is therefore being included in the 2022 Commission Work Programme as a regulatory fitness (REFIT) initiative. As the evaluation acknowledges, statistical EU population data – including demographic and migration events and information on families, households and housing arrangements – are vital for evidence-based policymaking. High quality statistics on all Member States are essential for many EU policy areas and initiatives. Apart from the long-standing use cases mentioned above, four out of six Commission priorities for 2019-2024 have identified clear needs for specific EU population statistics as data evidence for these policies: A European Green Deal, Promoting our European way of life, A new push for European democracy and An economy that works for people. The final proposals of the Conference on the Future of Europe have also identified a need for further EU efforts to collect such data. The evaluation supported by the stakeholder consultation has also identified various major gaps in the current statistical framework, especially insufficient geographic and statistical detail and the lack of timeliness and frequency of statistical outputs. The evaluation’s findings were supported by the stakeholder consultation that involved institutional and other professional users at EU and other levels. In the impact assessment, the policy options for this initiative were assessed on their capacity to fill these gaps. This legislative proposal draws on the detailed findings of the evaluation and impact assessment to address these gaps effectively and proportionately. In 2014, to meet emerging statistical needs, the Commission (Eurostat) began modernising social statistics, with the support of Member States’ national statistical institutes (NSIs). This led to the adoption, as Regulation (EU) 2019/1700, of a common legal framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples of persons and households. This framework is fundamental for laying solid foundations at European level for collecting data from samples. This initiative on European statistics on population is the second core component of this modernisation process. Early high-level support for the initiative in the European Statistical System (ESS) was expressed in the 2017 Budapest Memorandum, endorsing action to flexibly respond to changing needs, further harmonise concepts and definitions, and expand annual data collection including data on migration and geographic detail. On the basis of the findings of the evaluation and impact assessment, this legislative proposal contains ambitious elements to strengthen the links between and general consistency of all EU social statistics based on persons and households. The proposal contains provisions aimed at developing a harmonised definition of population based on sound statistical concepts for all outputs, and to facilitate access to available data sources that will improve the production processes and general quality of social statistics. The proposal also contains provisions to align population and international migration statistics more with statistics on administrative and judicial events related to asylum, legal and irregular migration under Articles 4, 5, 6 and 7 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007. 2.LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY •Legal basis The legal basis for this proposal is Article 338(1) TFEU that provides the legal basis for European statistics. Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, the European Parliament and the Council adopt measures for the production of statistics where such statistics are necessary for the EU to carry out its role. Article 338 sets out the requirements for producing European statistics, stating that they must conform to standards of impartiality, reliability, objectivity, scientific independence, cost-effectiveness and statistical confidentiality without putting an excessive burden on businesses, authorities or the public. •Subsidiarity (for non-exclusive competence) The ESS provides an infrastructure for statistical information. The system is designed to meet the needs of multiple users in democratic societies. One of the main quality criteria European statistics must meet is to be consistent and comparable. Comparability is very important for population and housing statistics because of its crucial role in supporting evidence-based economic, social and cohesion policies. Member States cannot achieve the necessary consistency and comparability without a clear European framework in the form of EU legislation setting out the common statistical concepts, reporting formats and quality requirements. The objective of the proposed action cannot be achieved satisfactorily by Member States acting independently. Action can be taken more effectively at EU level, by means of an EU legal act ensuring the comparability of statistical information in the statistical areas the proposed act covers. Data collection itself can be done by the Member States.

•Proportionality The proposal complies with the proportionality principle in the following way. It will ensure the quality and comparability of European statistics on population and housing collected and compiled applying the same principles across Member States. It will also ensure that European statistics on population and housing remain relevant and are adapted so they respond to user needs. The regulation will make the production of statistics more cost-effective while respecting the specific characteristics of Member States’ statistical systems. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, the proposed regulation confines itself to the minimum required to achieve its objective and does not go beyond what is necessary for that purpose. •Choice of instrument Proposed instrument: a regulation. Given the proposal’s objectives and content, a regulation is the most appropriate instrument. Important EU policies such as economic, social and cohesion policies inherently depend on comparable, harmonised and high quality European population and housing statistics. These can best be ensured by regulations that are directly applicable in Member States and therefore do not need to be transposed into national law first. 3.RESULTS OF EX POST EVALUATIONS, STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS •Ex post evaluations/fitness checks of existing legislation As part of this initiative the Commission has evaluated the current legal framework for European statistics on population, consisting of Regulations (EC) No 763/2008 and (EU) No 1260/2013 and Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007, and their implementing measures. On the positive side, the evaluation has shown that this current legal framework has significantly improved European population statistics overall. For instance, EU added value has been increased significantly and all EU policy/institutional topical needs for population statistics known before the previous intervention (around 2005) have been delivered on. However, the current legal framework has four weaknesses as follows. One of the current legal framework’s weakness is that it does not fully ensure sufficiently coherent, comparable and complete statistics. Although the framework has common definitions of key statistical concepts, there is often flexibility in how Member States implement them. In particular, they apply three conceptually different definitions of the population base (usual residence, registered residence, legal residence) that are allowed, sometimes using different definitions for different datasets. This has reduced the comparability and coherence of population statistics data from different Member States, to the detriment of the data collections’ EU added value. Certain data gaps are currently filled using data supplied by Member States voluntarily. This results in incomplete statistics at EU level that may not be coherent with mandatory statistics. This makes voluntary statistics less cost-effective in terms of their EU added value, and it is why it is both necessary and important for them to be mandatory in the future. Voluntary collections may be useful initially when new statistics are being developed, but a clear legal base is necessary for their full implementation as official European statistics. Another weakness of the current legal framework is that it does not ensure sufficient availability of population data in terms of the timeliness and frequency of data releases. Existing legislation covers only annual demographic and migration statistics. Under existing legislation, most annual datasets are to be provided only within 12 months of the end of the reference period, and the ten-yearly census datasets are to be provided only within 27 months of the end of the census year. These frequencies and corresponding deadlines remain below user expectations and don’t match national statistical publications or other international statistics transmissions across most Member States. Under existing legislation, the legal deadlines and frequencies cannot be improved, e.g. to cover other multiannual population and housing statistics, or infra-annual population statistics (i.e. compiled more than once during a given year), such as those recently developed on excess COVID-19 mortality. Yet another weakness is that the framework does not capture the characteristics and details of topics or population groups that have become politically and socially relevant during the past decade. This is because existing legislation focuses on the data needs for policy priorities at the time the legislation was developed. Over time, priorities have changed, with the result that the available population statistics no longer adequately cover policy-relevant characteristics, topics or population groups. In particular, the gaps identified in the stakeholder consultation concern the characteristics of politically relevant topics and groups. Examples include housing data for the European Green Deal, migrants and EU mobility, the urban/rural population, and vulnerable minority groups. There are also gaps relating to statistics’ insufficient geographic granularity, including functional typologies and georeferenced data for urban/rural integration and cross-border analysis. Finally, the framework is not flexible enough to adapt to changing policy needs or to enable the Member States or the EU to use new sources. This is because existing legislation lacks the flexibility to enable it to adapt to new statistical needs. New data sources in Member States and at EU level (in particular, administrative data including interoperability systems and privately held data) offer potential improvements in costs and timeliness, but current legislation does not support their adoption. Finally, the evaluation identified REFIT-relevant redundancies regarding compliance, enforcement and monitoring. These are due to current legislation’s being spread out over three legal acts that were not developed together. The current situation in which Member States produce many voluntary but incomplete datasets (with high but not full completeness across Member States) leads to significantly reduced efficiency at EU level.

•Stakeholder consultations The consultation strategy mapped key stakeholder profiles in three main groups (providers of source data – such as holders of administrative data and other relevant data sources; statistics producers – mainly the NSIs – and statistics users) onto consultation activities. The consultation included public and targeted consultations, targeted workshops, expert group consultations, interviews with key stakeholders, and desk research. The stakeholder consultation successfully reached the intended stakeholder groups, except administrative data providers and media organisations. Given the subject’s technical nature, respondents’ overall engagement was considered sufficient to support the back-to-back evaluation and impact assessment of European population statistics. The consultation supported the Commission’s initiative and acknowledged that matters had significantly improved since the previous policy intervention in demography, international migration and population, and housing census statistics. However, it also identified statistical gaps and the emergence of new statistical needs that the current legal framework cannot meet. All stakeholders confirmed the need to plan statistical improvements, although they did not always agree on the level of ambition of such improvements. Statistics producers were somewhat more conservative than statistics users about this. Statistical topics that all stakeholder groups agreed were priority topics were better migration statistics, greater geographical detail and more timely and frequent statistics. All stakeholders acknowledged that harmonising the population base was very important, some statistics producers opposed change. The main statistical topics on which producer and user views diverged concerned equality data and making existing voluntary data collection mandatory. To a lesser extent, producers’ and users’ views diverged on statistics on housing, legally induced abortions and infant mortality. •Collection and use of expertise The Commission has regularly asked its relevant expert groups to seek advice and input on the progress of evaluation and impact assessment. The European Statistical System Committee has also been kept informed of progress. The three expert groups are (Register of Commission Expert Groups): –the Working Group on Population and Housing Censuses ( E01544 ) and its subgroup, the Task Force on the Future of Censuses; –the Working Group on Population Statistics ( E03076 ); –the European Directors of Social Statistics ( E01552 ). The Commission carried out the back-to-back evaluation and impact assessment with support from a contractor study carried out by ICF SA, Belgium. For the evaluation, the support study provided an economic and subsidiarity analysis and case studies on population definitions. For the impact assessment, the study provided the quantitative cost analysis and methodological support for scoring and ranking the policy options. The contractor also supported various stakeholder consultation activities including the open public consultation, the targeted consultation of NSIs and several topical workshops with specific stakeholder groups. •Impact assessment The impact assessment for this initiative, discussed by the Regulatory Scrutiny Board in a formal meeting on 16 March 2022, received a positive opinion with reservations. A revised version of the impact assessment report addressing the deficiencies identified in the opinion was endorsed by the interservice steering group at its meeting on 16 June 2022. The general objective defined in the impact assessment is to better respond to users’ needs and to modernise and enhance the relevance, harmonisation and coherence of European population statistics. This can be broken down into four specific objectives to address the weaknesses outlined above, namely to: (1)ensure complete, coherent and comparable European population statistics; (2)ensure timely and frequent statistics to meet users’ needs; (3)provide statistics that are sufficiently comprehensive in terms of relevant topics and sufficiently detailed in terms of characteristics and breakdowns; (4)promote legal and data collection frameworks that are sufficiently flexible to adapt datasets to changing policy needs and seize the opportunities presented by new data sources.

Policy options have been developed by grouping granular policy measures addressing the specific objectives according to four characteristics: harmonisation of statistics where the main focus is defining the population base; integration of statistical processes; statistical outputs; framework flexibility. –Option A is the baseline scenario, with separate statistical processes and legislation, limited harmonisation of the population definition, and no new statistical outputs. –The main features of options B.1 and B.2 are an upgrade, with increasing ambition, of the statistical outputs and the framework’s flexibility, but limited harmonisation of the population base. –Options C.1 and C.2 are the same as B.1 and B.2, but with a more ambitious attempt to harmonise the population base. Options B.2 and C.2 involve a more expansive upgrade of the statistical output and framework flexibility than options B.1 and C.1. –Finally, options D.1 and D.2 would involve full harmonisation and a major upgrade of outputs, as well as sufficient flexibility for the future development of statistics to meet new needs. Option D.2 also includes the introduction of a statistical population register in all Member States. The costs of all options have been quantified as much as possible, using these criteria: (i) the level of harmonisation of the population base; (ii) the upgrade of statistical outputs; and (iii) the integration of statistical processes through national statistical population registers. Finally, the benefits were itemised, but most could not be quantified due to their often indirect or dispersed nature, and were therefore assessed qualitatively. In the absence of quantified benefits, it was not possible to do a direct ranking of options. The efficiency assessment, however, showed qualitatively that none of the options is obviously more cost-effective than any other. Rather, they offer increasing benefits (directly for statistics users and indirectly for the whole society) at increasing costs (mostly for statistics producers, i.e. national statistical production systems). The great difference between statistics producers and users reflects this, as producers focused on costs while users were more concerned with the benefits. However, the assessment has clearly shown that ambitious action to meet data needs for EU policy priorities has its price, in the form of additional resources needed for statistics producers that are substantial compared to current baseline costs (up to roughly 10% for option D.2). In particular, only the most ambitious options, D.1 and D.2, contain far-reaching measures to address the needs of key EU policy areas such as urban/rural integration, the European Green Deal, and fundamental rights and non-discrimination. What’s more, only option D.2 includes statistical population registers to make statistical production more efficient, thereby helping to achieve the ambitious output goals. The preferred option overall was therefore D.2. The most ambitious in terms of statistical output and framework flexibility, it achieves the best result thanks to a similarly ambitious simplification and integration of statistical production systems and sustainable long-term efficiency gains. However, uncertainties remain about subsidiarity and proportionality, in addition to the significant adaptation costs of introducing interoperable statistical population registers in all Member States. For this reason, an alternative (conservative) approach preferring option C.2 would also be reasonable if option D.2’s proportionality and efficiency concerns are given more weight – this would also be more acceptable to statistics producers as key implementation stakeholders. The most notable deviations of this legislative proposal from the impact assessment’s preferred options are the reduced ambition on equality data and on setting up statistical population registers in Member States. On the latter, the impact assessment does mention specific doubts about the proportionality and subsidiarity of requiring such statistical registers in all Member States. The proposal therefore takes a line following rather option C.2, i.e. focusing more on the output oriented aspects of statistical infrastructures without specifying procedural constraints. NSI experts consulted have also shown a strong preference for such an output oriented approach. The proposal would still strengthen the legal basis and encourage the development of innovative solutions to enable data sharing between Member States to address cross-border quality issues related to the freedom of movement of EU citizens. In particular, privacy-enhancing technologies are supported explicitly to implement data sharing fully in line with the EU’s personal data protection legislation (see ‘Fundamental rights’ below). •Regulatory fitness and simplification The preferred options D.2 or C.2 are likely to generate some scope for possible REFIT-relevant cost savings resulting from the simplification, streamlining and integration of statistical processes. Simplifications are expected especially in data sharing between source data owners and NSIs, in regulatory adaptations to changing data needs for NSIs and Eurostat, and in data transmission procedures from NSIs to Eurostat. Users will benefit from simplified and centralised access to statistics on the Eurostat website. In line with preferred option C.2, statistical population registers are not required under this proposal, but the legal and technical prerequisites for data sharing between Member States are strengthened. Data sharing using modern technologies may offer more effective and efficient solutions for statistical quality assurance in the long term. •Fundamental rights The impact assessment has identified two main sources of potential indirect impacts on fundamental rights. On the one hand, various stakeholder groups raised concerns in the stakeholder consultation about possibly greater personal data protection risks related to improved and modernised statistical infrastructures linking all kinds of relevant sources efficiently and enabling data sharing between Member States. On the other hand, increased availability and better quality of statistics on social phenomena (including better data on socio-economic characteristics of vulnerable groups or on grounds for discrimination) would improve fundamental rights policies. This proposal takes these findings into account by proposing proportionate and targeted improvements of relevant statistical outputs, while sticking to the principles, and bearing in mind the legal implications, of EU legislation on personal data protection in Regulations (EU) 2016/679 and (EU) 2018/1725. 4.BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS The proposal does not include funding regular data collections, but it makes provision for EU co-funding of relevant modernisation efforts including pilot and feasibility studies in Member States. The Commission (Eurostat) also commits itself to developing a secure infrastructure for data sharing. Finally, human and operational (IT) resources in the Commission (Eurostat) will need to be increased to handle the increased regulatory, monitoring and production workload the significantly enhanced data collections will result in. The overall financial impact of the proposal is of unlimited duration. The estimated budgetary implications over the first 10 years after the regulation enters into force are set out in the legislative financial statement. 5.OTHER ELEMENTS •Implementation plans and monitoring, evaluation and reporting arrangements

The proposed regulation is expected to be adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in 2023, with the Commission’s implementing measures to be adopted shortly after that. The regulation will be directly applicable in all EU Member States without any need for an implementation plan. Member States are expected to start providing data to the Commission under the new regulation in 2026. In line with the impact assessment, the implementation of the adopted regulation will be monitored and evaluated regularly. The impact assessment also contains monitoring arrangements including proposals for indicators to be used. •Detailed explanation of the specific provisions of the proposal The proposed regulation establishes a new framework for European statistics on population and housing. Integrating current statistics on demography, migration and censuses, it specifies that Member States must provide statistics on 3 domains (demography, housing, families and households), 11 related topics and 23 detailed topics. These are to be supported by articles on subject matter, definitions, statistical population and units, periodicity and reference times, data sources and methods including specific enablers for the reuse of administrative data sources, statistical confidentiality, quality specifications, data sharing, pilot and feasibility studies, and potential financial contributions. As a key aspect of the definitions, this proposal aims to resolve a structural problem in current legislation identified in the evaluation: the lack of harmonisation of the population base definition. The new proposal is based on a common definition of the population based on the statistical concept of usual residence, without default exemptions. Moreover, scientific statistical estimation methods (such as ‘signs of life’ or ‘rate of stay’) are explicitly encouraged to make it possible to implement the definition starting from administrative data sources. Achieving a harmonised population definition that is properly implemented across all Member States would significantly improve the comparability and coherence of European population statistics, in line with the impact assessment’s preferred options. The details of data requirements would be specified in implementing acts, but the proposed regulation makes it possible to amend the list of detailed topics and their periodicity and reference times using delegated acts. The proposal also provides the possibility of responding to upcoming data requirements with ad hoc data collections. Lastly, the proposed regulation requires pilot and feasibility studies to be launched as appropriate and offers potential co-financing to further modernise statistical production systems and test new topics. These implementing and delegated powers conferred on the Commission, as well as the possibility to launch pilot/feasibility studies, are proposed to maintain a certain flexibility of the new framework to address emerging user needs and opportunities from new data sources over a longer time into the future. Moreover, an article specifically on data sharing describes how confidential data can be shared under Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council for the specific purposes of population statistics. On the one hand, previous experience has shown that cross-border cooperation between NSIs based on individual records is needed to effectively address coverage issues related to the freedom of movement of EU citizens. On the other hand, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 strictly limits data sharing in this context, based on six principles including purpose limitation, data minimisation, and integrity and confidentiality. To enable effective data sharing for quality purposes in line with Regulation (EU) 2016/679, this proposal requires the testing and use of privacy-enhancing technologies that implement data minimisation by design. The Commission (Eurostat) must also set up a secure infrastructure to facilitate such data sharing while ensuring the technical integrity and confidentiality of data processing. Finally, the part of the proposal amending Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 serves three distinct purposes: (1)to reduce its statistical scope by deleting Article 3, whose statistical topics are moved into the new ESOP framework; (2)to add more legal enablers for statistical authorities on timely access and reuse of administrative data sources for the purposes of that Regulation, in line with extended enablers added to the ESOP proposal itself; (3)to ensure that the lists of countries and territories used for the purposes of that Regulation are harmonised with the lists used in the new ESOP framework. To ensure consistency, Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 needs to be amended through the ESOP proposal because statistical topics are moved from that Regulation to the new ESOP framework. There are important statistical and methodological reasons for this approach: – ‘Migration’ as currently covered under Article 3(1)(a-c) of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 refers to the fundamental demographic concept of people moving to live in a different country, i.e. a part of the flows that change the demographic balance of a country. The ESOP proposal aims to introduce – for the first time – a single, coherent legal basis for all elements of the demographic balance. This should cover all flows including vital events (births, deaths) but also migration flows and stocks – in the sense of changing residence from one country to another. –‘Acquisition and loss of citizenship’ currently covered under Article 3(1)(d) of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 is a statistical topic that is in nature closely related to the demographic balance in that it complements vital events with the changes (in-flows and out-flows) of the citizen population that resides in the country. All other amendments proposed to Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 (change of title, deletion of subject matter paragraphs in Article 1 and of definitions in Article 2) are consequential to the resulting reduced scope of that Regulation. 2023/0008 (COD) Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on European statistics on population and housing, amending Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and repealing Regulations (EC) No 763/2008 and (EU) No 1260/2013

(Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 338(1) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments, Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee, Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions, Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, Whereas: (1)European statistics on population and housing are required for the design, implementation and evaluation of Union policies, in particular those addressing the demographic change, the green and digital transformations, the promotion of energy efficiency, economic, social and territorial cohesion, and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda. (2)Statistics on population are an important denominator for a wide range of policy indicators and used as reference across European statistics, particularly for providing sampling frames for conducting representative surveys of persons and households, under Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council. (3)The Economic and Financial Affairs Council regularly gives a mandate to the Economic Policy Committee to assess the long-term sustainability and quality of public finances based on population projections produced by Eurostat. The population projections are also used for policy analysis in the context of the European semester. The Commission (Eurostat) should have at disposal all the necessary statistics to produce and publish population projections according to the information needs of the Union. (4)In accordance with Article 175(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), every three years the Commission should report on the progress made towards achieving economic, social and territorial cohesion to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Regional and local data including for different territorial types such as border regions, cities and their functional urban areas, metropolitan regions, rural regions, mountain and island regions are necessary for the preparation of those reports and for the regular monitoring of demographic developments and of possible future demographic challenges in the Union territories. (5)According to Article 16(4) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), a qualified majority of the members of the Council is defined, inter alia, based on the population of the Member States. For this purpose, pursuant to Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council Member States are currently obliged to provide the Commission (Eurostat) with data on the total population at national level. (6)In 2017, the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC) endorsed the Budapest Memorandum, which stated the need for annual statistics on the size and on certain social, economic and demographic characteristics of the population and improved statistics on migration. For the observance of the principles of equality and non-discrimination of its citizens in all activities and the individual citizens’ rights as enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and Articles 10 and 19 TFEU, the Union needs reliable and comparable statistics. Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 provides a framework for data collections from samples that allow to collect data on equality and non-discrimination in so far as this is feasible on samples and to analyse some aspects of equality and discrimination by producing socio-economic indicators and information on experience of discrimination. In addition, the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) and the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) carry out specific studies and dedicated surveys that can further extend the availability of equality statistics at EU level. Future cooperation and coordination between Member States, Eurostat and these agencies should be enhanced to meet growing user demands for reliable and comprehensive data on equality and diversity in the Union. (7)To achieve the targets of the European Green Deal, the development and evaluation of effective policies require enhanced statistics relating to the energy use and efficiency of housing, detailed geographical data on the distribution of the population as well as deeper studies of the relationship between population and housing. With the COVID-19 pandemic the need for reliable, high frequency and timely statistics on deaths in the Union was manifested. While data needs were met with a voluntary data collection from Member States to the Commission (Eurostat), the Union needs an adequate mechanism for mandatory collection of such data within the European Statistical System (ESS) with the necessary frequency, timeliness and detail. (8) United Nations Economic and Social Council, on the proposal of the United Nations Statistical Commission, every ten years adopts resolutions regarding the World population and housing census and invites UN Member States to conduct population and housing censuses in line with international and regional recommendations and by upholding the integrity, reliability, accuracy and value of the population and housing census results. European statistics on population and housing should take into account these recommendations. (9)Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council established a legal framework for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics, based on common statistical principles. That Regulation sets out the quality criteria and refers to the need to minimise the response burden on survey respondents and to contribute to the more general objective of reducing the administrative burden. A new legal framework for European statistics on population and housing should implement the quality criteria set out in that Regulation and facilitate burden reduction by embracing effective and efficient reuse of available data sources including administrative data. (10)The evaluation of existing statistics on the population and housing censuses in the Union, statistics on international migration flows, migrant stocks and acquisitions of citizenship and demography statistics has shown that the current legal framework comprising Regulations (EC) No 862/2007, (EC) No 763/2008 and (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council has led to significant overall improvements of statistics compared to the 2005 situation without the current legal framework in force. That framework, however, has potential for a lack of coherence and comparability, which should be addressed. (11)The evolving demographic situation and recent migration trends have created demands for timelier, more frequent, and more detailed European statistics on population, vital events and housing including details of topics or groups that have become politically and societally relevant during the past decade. In addition, the existing legal framework is not flexible enough to adapt to evolving policy needs and to enable the use of new sources at national and Union level. Furthermore, the structure of the existing legal framework in the form of three separate regulations, adopted at different times, has led to intrinsic inconsistencies of the statistics. Finally, as Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 will cease to apply on 31 August 2028, a new legal basis is required for the demographic statistics collected under that Regulation. It is therefore necessary to replace the current legal framework by a new, more coherent and flexible one that should amend relevant parts of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and repeal Regulations (EC) No 763/2008 and (EU) No 1260/2013.

(12)Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 covers statistics on the country of citizenship and place of birth of the resident population (migrant stocks), on changes of residence between countries (international migration flows) and on acquisitions of citizenship of the resident population, whereas the other statistics under that Regulation concern administrative and judicial procedures relating to immigration legislation and international protection. Statistics under Article 3 are therefore closely linked and should be consistent with the statistics on the resident population and its demographic changes provided under Regulations (EC) No 763/2008 and (EU) No 1260/2013. To ensure intrinsic consistency, these statistics should therefore be integrated into a single legal basis while deleting Article 3 from Regulation (EC) No 862/2007. (13)The rapidly changing nature of some population and housing characteristics, in particular in relation to demographic and migration phenomena, and the corresponding need for a prompt targeting and adaptation of policies means that there is a need for statistics to be available on a timely basis soon after the reference period. The periodicity and timeliness of statistics should be therefore tangibly advanced. (14)Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishes a grid-based methodology for the definition of territorial typologies based on the population distribution by one kilometre square grid cells. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1799 as a temporary direct statistical action accompanying the 2021 population and housing censuses provides for key census outputs on a pan-European one kilometre square grid. A legal framework should ensure the continued dissemination of georeferenced population statistics based on grids and its extension to housing statistics. (15)Territorial units and statistical grids should be defined in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003. (16)For geocoding of location, the Statistical Units theme in accordance with Annex III to Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council should be used. (17)The current legal framework for European statistics on population and housing needs to be updated to ensure that the presently separate statistical processes are adequately integrated in a common framework which allows the ESS to respond effectively to new information needs of the Union and encourage statistical innovations. Statistical output must enhance to remain relevant in the face of demographic, migratory, social and economic changes in society. (18)The enhanced regular (annual and infra-annual) statistics on population and housing based on administrative sources should be complemented with information from coordinated population and housing censuses in the Union conducted every ten years in accordance with the UN Principles and Recommendations. Equally important, population and housing censuses provide a unique opportunity for official statistics to be visible, both in terms of operations and results. (19)The Union censuses should become more cost-effective through making full use of the rich set of administrative data available across the Member States or a combination of different sources including sources related to the Internet of Things (IoT) and provision of digital services. They should be also used to re-establish the demographic baseline and include surveys of the coverage of administrative data sources. (20)Member States and the Commission (Eurostat) should have sustainable access to the widest possible range of data sources to produce European statistics on population and housing of high quality and in a cost-effective manner. In this regard, it is crucial that national statistical authorities get timely access and are able to use promptly the administrative data owned by public administrations at national, regional and local level, in accordance with Article 17a of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. For example, statistics on energy efficiency of buildings can be based on administrative data relating to the issuance of energy certificates of buildings under Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council. The national statistical institutes also need to be involved in decisions concerning the design and redevelopment of relevant administrative data sources to ensure that they can be further reused for compilation of official statistics. (21)In recent years, comprehensive Union level databases and interoperability systems related to residence, vital events, citizenship and migratory and cross-border movements of population such as those established under Regulations (EU) 910/2014, (EU) 2018/1724, (EU) 2019/817 and (EU) 2019/818 of the European Parliament and of the Council have been developed. They provide valuable information that can be re-used for the compilation and quality assurance of European statistics on population and housing. (22)In that respect, it is essential to enable the Commission (Eurostat) to re-use these data for statistical purposes only while strictly applying rules of data protection and data privacy, as laid down in Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council. This should apply in particular to the statistical data stored in the central repository for reporting and statistics (CRRS) in accordance with the purpose of the CRRS set out in Article 39(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/817 as well as in Article 39(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/818 and in accordance with the Regulations establishing the systems whose statistical data is stored in the CRRS. In particular, considering that the CRRS is to provide cross-system statistical data and analytical reporting for policy, operational and data quality purposes, the Commission (Eurostat) should cooperate with the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA), to the extent possible, with a view of providing the required European statistics. (23)Privately held data can improve the coverage, timeliness and crisis response capacities of European statistics on population and housing or to enable statistical innovation. Such data have the potential to complement existing demography and migration statistics, bring statistical innovation and even serve for production of early estimates. The national statistical institutes and other competent national authorities and the Commission (Eurostat) should have access to and use such data. (24)To ensure the comparability of European statistics on population and housing at Union level, it is essential that common population definitions are used and implemented in a harmonised way. To implement the single harmonised population base consistently, robustly and cost-effectively while ensuring timely results, statistical methods and modelling techniques such as ‘signs of life’ and ‘rate of stay’ need to be applied. (25)Member States should provide their data and metadata in electronic form in an appropriate technical format to be provided by the Commission. International standards, such as the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) initiative, and statistical or technical standards elaborated within the Union, such as metadata and validation standards or European Interoperable Framework principles, should be used to the extent relevant for European statistics on population and housing. The ESSC has endorsed ESS standards for metadata and quality reports, in accordance with Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. Those standards are to contribute to the harmonisation of quality assurance and reporting under this Regulation and should be therefore introduced. (26)European statistics on population and housing should meet the quality criteria on relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, comparability and coherence specified in Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. Their quality should be enhanced as far as the needs of the Union evolve. Appropriate results from the quality assessment carried out by the Commission (Eurostat) should be publicly available to statistics users. Access to these statistics should be free and easy through Commission (Eurostat) databases on its website and in its publications. (27)Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 includes rules on the provision of data from the Member States to the Commission (Eurostat) and on the use thereof, including on the transmission and protection of confidential data. Measures taken in accordance with this Regulation should ensure that confidential data are provided and used exclusively for statistical purposes in accordance with Articles 21 and 22 of that Regulation. (28)The Commission (Eurostat) is to respect the statistical confidentiality of the data provided by Member States pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. With regard to the population statistics collected under this Regulation, a harmonised approach to ensuring high quality of European aggregates and avoiding the disclosure of confidential data in statistical outputs should be developed, avoiding as far as possible the suppression of data. (29)Data sources available at national level are not always able to capture accurately phenomena related to the free movement of persons in the Union, the access of persons to cross-border services on demographic vital events and the exercise of persons rights to buy and own housing property used as primary, holiday and secondary accommodation across the Union. There are also asymmetries in the bilateral migration flows and difficulties to measure population groups, for instance among the migrant, homeless or stateless population. Therefore, data sharing for the purposes of compiling statistics on population and migration and ensuring their quality should be reinforced and considered as yet another data source. Such reinforced data sharing may cover a wide range of relevant data, from data that clearly do not allow for the identification of statistical units, either directly or indirectly, to data potentially subject to statistical confidentiality requirements. Member States should, in their own interest and in the interest of the other Member States, participate in data sharing activities, including in pilot projects assessing innovative secure solutions. The Commission (Eurostat) should also establish a secure infrastructure to facilitate such data sharing while ensuring all necessary safeguards. (30)When data sharing entails processing of personal data according to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council or Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, the principles of purpose limitation, data minimisation, storage limitation and integrity and confidentiality should be fully applied. In particular, data sharing mechanisms based on privacy enhancing technologies that are specifically designed to implement these principles should be preferred over direct data transmission. (31)The sharing of confidential data should take place only on the basis of a request justifying the necessity to share these data in accordance with Chapter V of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009.

(32)In the longer term, the collaborative efforts in the European Statistical System to mitigate cross-border statistical quality issues, such as double counting of Union residents enjoying freedom of movement, should profit as much as possible from single digital identifiers established at Union level by Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 (33)This Regulation is without prejudice to Regulations (EU) 2016/679 and (EU) 2018/1725 and Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. Within their respective scope of application, the latter Regulations are to apply to the processing of personal data under this Regulation. (34)European statistics on population and housing should evolve to take into account emerging data needs stemming from changing policy priorities, as well as changes in the demographic, migratory, social or economic situation in the Union. The Commission (Eurostat) should undertake pilot studies assessing the feasibility of the adaptations concerned as appropriate and should take into account aspects such as costs and administrative burdens on Member States and the availability of appropriate data sources. (35)In order to take account of demographic, economic and social trends as well as technological developments, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission in order to amend the list, description , periodicities and reference times of detailed topics covered by European statistics on population and housing; to update the periodicities and reference times in the Annex to this Regulation and to specify the information to be provided by Member States on an ad hoc basis. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making. In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States' experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts. (36)In accordance with the Financial Regulation, Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 883/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Regulations (EC, Euratom) No 2988/95, (Euratom, EC) No 2185/96 and (EU) 2017/1939, the financial interests of the Union are to be protected by means of proportionate measures, including measures relating to the prevention, detection, correction and investigation of irregularities, including fraud, to the recovery of funds lost, wrongly paid or incorrectly used, and, where appropriate, to the imposition of administrative penalties. In particular, in accordance with Regulations (Euratom, EC) No 2185/96 and (EU, Euratom) No 883/2013, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) has the power to carry out administrative investigations, including on-the-spot checks and inspections, with a view to establishing whether there has been fraud, corruption or any other illegal activity affecting the financial interests of the Union. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is empowered, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2017/1939, to investigate and prosecute criminal offences affecting the financial interests of the Union as provided for in Directive (EU) 2017/1371 of the European Parliament and of the Council. In accordance with the Financial Regulation, any person or entity receiving Union funds is to fully cooperate in the protection of the financial interests of the Union, grant the necessary rights and access to the Commission, OLAF, the Court of Auditors and, in respect of those Member States participating in enhanced cooperation pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2017/1939, the EPPO, and ensure that any third parties involved in the implementation of Union funds grant equivalent rights. (37)In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Regulation with regard to the specification of data and metadata requirements, technical formats and procedures for data and metadata provision, content and structure of quality reports, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and the Council. (38)Where the implementation of this Regulation, or of delegated and implementing acts adopted pursuant thereto, would require major adaptations to the national statistical system of a Member State for data provision with periodicity of less than 10 years, the Commission should be able, in duly justified cases and for a limited period of time, to grant derogations to the Member States concerned. (39)Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the systematic production of European statistics on population and housing, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, for reasons of consistency and comparability, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures to achieve that objective, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 TEU. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective. (40)The European Data Protection Supervisor was consulted in accordance with Article 42(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 and delivered an opinion on [xxx]. (41)The European Statistical System Committee has been consulted, HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: Article 1

Subject matter This Regulation establishes a common legal framework for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics on population and housing. Article 2

Definitions For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply: (1)‘citizenship’ means the particular legal bond between a natural person and his or her State, acquired by birth or naturalisation, whether by declaration, choice, marriage, adoption or other means according to national legislation; (2)‘usual residence’ means the place where a person normally spends the daily period of rest, regardless of temporary absences for purposes of recreation, holidays, visits to friends and relatives, business, medical treatment or religious pilgrimage. Only the following persons shall be considered to be usual residents of a specific geographical area: (a)those who have lived in their place of usual residence most of the time in the 12 months prior to and including the reference date; or (b)those who arrived at their place of usual residence during the 12 months prior to and including the reference date and for whom there is an intention or expectation of staying there most of the time for at least 12 months after arrival;

(3)‘signs of life’ means any information indicative of the actual presence and usual residence of a person on the territory of interest. They can be obtained from any appropriate source or combination of them, including digital traces that relate to the person; (4)‘rate of stay’ means the proportion of the number of persons arrived in the place of interest during a selected period of time who have remained in the same place for at least 12 months over the total number of persons arrived in the same place during the same period of time; (5)‘international migration’ means the event by which a person establishes his or her usual residence in the territory of a Member State or third country, having previously been usually resident in another Member State or a third country; (6)‘immigrant’ means a person who underwent international migration during the reference period to establish his or her new usual residence inside the reporting country; (7)‘emigrant’ means a person who underwent international migration during the reference period to establish his or her new usual residence outside the reporting country, having previously been usually resident within the reporting country; (8)‘internal migration’ means the event by which a person changes his or her place of usual residence within the territory of the reporting country; (9)‘living quarter’ means a temporary or permanent structure, shelter or lodging place at which one or more persons reside, irrespective of whether it is designed or intended for human habitation; (10)‘conventional dwelling’ means a premise at a fixed location that is designed for permanent human habitation but that is not intended for institutional or collective housing; (11)‘building intended for habitation’ means a permanent structure comprised of one or more conventional dwellings or which is intended for institutional or collective housing. (12)‘household’ means a group of two or more persons who share living quarters or other specific resources; or an individual person who does not form part of any other household; (13)‘family’ means a group of two or more persons who live in the same household and who are related through parenthood or through marital, registered or consensual union partnership; (14)‘administrative records’ mean data generated by a non‐statistical source, usually a register hold by a public body, the main aim of which is not the provision of statistics; (15)‘domain’ means one or several data sets that covers particular topics; (16)‘topic’ means the content of the information to be collected about the statistical units, with each topic covering several detailed topics; (17)‘detailed topic’ means the detailed content of the information to be collected about the statistical units related to a topic, each detailed topic covering one or several variables; (18)‘data set’ means statistics in the form of one or several variables organised in a structured form; (19)‘population and housing census’ means the detailed decennial data sets and metadata to be provided under this Regulation; (20)‘statistical unit’ means one member of a universe of entities, namely persons, objects or events about which data are collected and statistics are ultimately compiled; (21)‘variable’ means a characteristic of a statistical unit that can assume more than one set of values; (22)‘breakdown’ means a predefined discrete, exhaustive and mutually exclusive set of values which can be assigned to a variables characterising statistical units;

(23)‘national level’ means the territory of a Member State; (24)‘regional level’ means the NUTS3 level as set out in Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003; (25)‘local level’ means the local administrative unit (LAU) level as set out in Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003; (26)‘grid level’ means statistical grid as set out in Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003; (27)‘frames’ means any list, material or device that delimits and identifies the elements of the target population. Depending on the use, a frame may allow access to, and/ or provide additional characteristics of the elements; (28)‘reference date’ means the moment in time to which statistics refer; (29)‘reference period’ means the time interval to which statistics on events refer; (30)‘reference time’ means either reference date or reference period, depending whether the statistics are on events or on other statistical units; (31)‘metadata’ means information that is needed to use and interpret statistics and that describes data sets in a structured way; (32)‘pre-checked data sets’ means data sets verified by the Member States, based on agreed common validation rules; (33)‘quality report’ means a report conveying information about the quality of a statistical product or process. Article 3

Population base 1.For the purpose of this Regulation, the population base consists of all persons having their usual residence within the Union in a specified territorial unit of a Member State at national, regional, local or grid level, at the reference date. 2.The population base shall include all usually resident persons, regardless of citizenship or whether the person is or was formerly stateless, and regardless of whether the person’s residence or stay is authorised or permitted by the relevant authorities. 3.The population base shall exclude persons having their usual residence outside the territory of the Member State regardless of place of birth or citizenship, and regardless of any family, social, economic or property links that the person may have with the Member State. 4.Persons with no usual residence shall be attributed, as place of usual residence, the place at which they are at the reference date. 5.Member States shall apply the definition of usual residence set out in this Regulation to all data sets provided to the Commission (Eurostat) under this Regulation and for national, regional, local and grid level. 6.When applying the definition of usual residence, Member States shall use: (a)one or a combination of the data sources listed in Article 9(1); (b)estimation methods such as ‘signs of life’ to correct for actual presence at the presumed place of usual residence during most of the time in the 12 months ending with the reference date, and ‘rate of stay’ to estimate the number of persons who intend or are expected to stay during most of the time in the 12 months after arrival.

Article 4

Statistical units Statistics under this Regulation shall be compiled for the following statistical units: (a)persons; (b)vital events; (c)families; (d)households; (e)buildings intended for habitation, living quarters and conventional dwellings. Article 5

Statistics requirements 1.European statistics on population and housing shall cover the following domains: (a)demography; (b)housing; (c)families and households. 2.Statistics in the domains listed in paragraph 1 shall be organised into data sets following the topics and detailed topics as set out in the Annex. 3.The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 17 to amend the list of the detailed topics in the Annex. The delegated acts shall be adopted at least 12 months before the beginning of the relevant reference time. 4.When exercising the power to adopt delegated acts pursuant to paragraph 3 of this Article, the Commission shall ensure that those acts do not impose significant and disproportionate burden on the Member States and survey respondents. Any new detailed topic shall be assessed with respect to its feasibility by means of pilot studies carried out by the Commission (Eurostat) and the Member States in accordance with Article 14. 5.The Commission shall adopt implementing acts to specify the technical properties of the data sets and metadata to be provided to the Commission (Eurostat). Those implementing acts shall specify the following technical elements, where appropriate: (a)titles of variables, their technical specifications and breakdowns; (b)detailed specifications of the statistical units and metadata; (c)statistical classifications to be used; (d)provision deadlines;

(e)technical formats of data sets and metadata provision; (f)the content, structure, periodicity, modalities and provision deadlines of the quality reports as well as further specifications when needed and justified. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 18(2) at least 12 months before the beginning of the relevant reference time, except for the population and housing census for which the implementing acts shall be adopted at least 24 months before the beginning of the year in which the reference date falls. Article 6

Periodicity and reference times 1.Member States shall produce European statistics on population and housing quarterly, every six months, annually and multi-annually, and in a decennial population and housing census. 2.The years ending with “1” shall be the reference years for the decennial population and housing census. 3.The years ending with “1”, “5” and “8” shall be the reference years for multi-annual statistics. 4.The periodicity and reference time (reference period or reference date) for each detailed topic shall be as set out in the Annex. 5.The first reference date for which annual statistics on the topic ‘population stocks’ are to be provided shall be 31 December 2025. The first reference time for which any other statistics under this Regulation are to be provided shall be in 2026. 6.The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 17 to amend the Annex by updating the periodicities and reference times. Article 7

Ad hoc statistics requirements 1.Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with ad hoc data sets and metadata. 2.The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts to supplement this Regulation in accordance with Article 17 by specifying the data sets and metadata to be provided by Member States on an ad hoc basis, where the collection of additional statistics is deemed necessary for the purpose of addressing additional statistical needs under this Regulation. 3.Those delegated acts shall specify: (a)the detailed topics to be provided in the ad hoc data sets and the reasons for such additional statistical needs; (b)the reference times. 4.The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts referred to in paragraph 2 starting with reference year 2027 and with a minimum of two years between each ad hoc collection. 5.The Commission shall adopt implementing acts to specify the technical properties of the ad hoc data sets and metadata referred to in paragraph 2. Those implementing acts shall specify the following technical elements, where appropriate: (a)titles of variables, their technical specifications and breakdowns; (b)detailed specifications of the statistical units and metadata;

(c)statistical classifications to be used; (d)provision deadlines. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 18(2) no later than 12 months before the beginning of the reference time. Article 8

Data sets and metadata to be provided to the Commission 1.Member States shall provide pre-checked data sets and metadata using a technical format specified by the Commission (Eurostat). The single entry point services shall be used to provide the data sets and metadata to the Commission (Eurostat). 2.When Member States publish statistics required by this Regulation at national level ahead of the provision deadlines established in accordance with Articles 5(5) and 7(5), they shall provide them to the Commission (Eurostat) as follows: (a)statistics of quarterly and six-monthly periodicity at the latest by up to one working day after the national publication; (b)statistics of annual periodicity at the latest by up to three working days after the national publication; (c)statistics of multi-annual and decennial periodicity at latest by up to seven working days after the national publication. 3.Member States shall provide to the Commission (Eurostat): (a)revised data sets and metadata if a revision is conducted after the data sets required under this Regulation were initially provided; (b)revised data sets and metadata for relevant time series if a revision is conducted on data sets that had been provided to the Commission (Eurostat) before the application of this Regulation. The revised data sets and metadata shall be provided within the deadlines specified in paragraph 2 of this Article and be complemented by quality reporting in accordance with Article 12. Article 9

Data sources and methods 1.Member States and the Commission (Eurostat) shall use one or a combination of the following data sources, provided that they allow for producing statistics that meet the quality requirements laid down in Article 12: (a)administrative data sources; (b)statistical surveys or other statistical data collections; (c)other sources including privately held data; (d)reuse of data derived from data sharing between national statistical authorities and the Commission (Eurostat) within the European Statistical System. 2.Member States shall assess and monitor the quality of their data sources, including of administrative records and other appropriate sources used.

3.Member States shall continuously develop innovative sources and methods and use them to improve statistics compiled under this Regulation provided that they allow for producing statistics that meet the quality requirements laid down in Article 12. 4.The statistics compiled under this Regulation shall be based on statistically sound and well-documented methods taking into account international recommendations and best practice such as ‘signs of life’, ‘rate of stay’ and other scientifically-based statistical estimation methods used for compiling usually resident population in the Member States. 5.When requested for reasons of assessment of statistical quality, Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with the assessment results of the data sources, the documentation of methods and necessary clarifications. Article 10

Timely access and reuse of administrative data 1.National authorities in charge of administrative data sources relevant for the purposes of this Regulation shall allow reuse of these data in time and frequency sufficient to produce and submit statistics within the deadlines and compliant with the specific quality requirements according to this Regulation. The timely access to administrative records, as well as its operational modalities, shall be included in cooperation agreements to be established between those national authorities and the national statistical authorities. 2.For the purpose of this Regulation, the Commission (Eurostat) shall be allowed, upon request, to access and reuse in a timely manner relevant data and metadata from databases and interoperability systems maintained by Union bodies and agencies, including under Regulations (EU) No 910/2014, (EU) 2018/1724 and statistical data stored in the central repository for reporting and statistics (CRRS), in accordance with Regulations (EU) 2019/817 and (EU) 2019/818 and the Regulations establishing the systems whose statistical data are stored in CRRS. For that purpose, the Commission (Eurostat) shall further cooperate with the relevant Union bodies and agencies with a view to specifying the customised statistical data and metadata required, where possible under Union law, for European statistics on population and housing, the operational modalities for their provision and the necessary accompanying physical and logical safeguards. Article 11

Lists of countries and territories 1.Where data sets include information by countries or territories, Member States shall use specific breakdowns for the purposes of this Regulation and of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007. 2.The Commission shall adopt implementing acts specifying or updating the lists of countries and territorial units that shall apply to breakdowns of statistics compiled under this Regulation. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 18(2) of this Regulation. These lists shall be specified in accordance with criteria set out in Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003. 3.Implementing acts amending more than one third of the breakdown categories of countries or territories shall apply at the earliest 12 months after their entry into force. Article 12

Quality requirements and quality reporting 1.Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure the quality of the data sets and metadata provided. 2.Member States shall take appropriate and effective measures to: (a)implement the rules related to the population base as laid down in Article 3 of this Regulation, uniformly and independently of the data sources used; (b)capture or estimate hard-to-reach population groups; (c)control the exhaustiveness and accuracy of the population covered in accordance with Article 3 of this Regulation; (d)establish frames that are fit for the purposes of this Regulation and of Article 12 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1700; (e)avoid possible risks of undercounting or double counting related to the free movement of persons in the Union, the access of persons to cross-border services linked to vital events and the person rights to buy cross-border, own and use housing property across the Union; (f)reduce asymmetries of migration flows; (g)provide all data to the Commission (Eurostat) that are needed to ensure the completeness of published European statistics.

3.Member States shall transmit to the Commission (Eurostat), for the first time by 31 March 2027 and every year thereafter ending with ‘0’, ‘3’ or ‘7’, a quality report describing the quality of the statistics provided and the statistical processes for the data sets provided during the period, including in particular on the data sources and methods used, the application of the concepts and definitions and related possible effects on quality of the selected data sources, data revisions and their reasons and impacts, the statistical disclosure control methods, and detailing how the quality criteria referred to in paragraph 2 are met and if the measures referred to in paragraph 3 were effective. 4.The Commission shall adopt implementing acts setting out the practical arrangements for the quality reports and their contents. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 18(2). 5.Member States shall inform the Commission (Eurostat) as soon as possible of any relevant information or changes with regard to the implementation of this Regulation that would influence the quality of the statistics provided. 6.At the request of the Commission (Eurostat), Member States shall provide necessary additional clarifications to evaluate the quality of the statistics. Article 13

Data sharing 1.Data shall be shared between the competent national authorities of different Member States, and between these competent national authorities and the Commission (Eurostat), exclusively for the purpose of developing and producing European statistics governed by this Regulation and of improving their quality. 2.In the interest of secure data sharing within the ESS, all necessary safeguards with regard to the physical and logical protection of data shall be taken. The Commission (Eurostat) shall set up a secure infrastructure to facilitate data sharing referred to in paragraph 1. Competent national authorities for statistics under this Regulation may use this secure data sharing infrastructure for the purpose specified in paragraph 1. 3.When the data concerned are confidential data within the meaning of Article 3, point 7, of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 or personal data according to Regulations (EU) 2016/679 and (EU) 2018/1725, the sharing of such data shall be allowed and may take place on a voluntary basis provided it is: (a)based on a request justifying the necessity to share the data in each individual case, in particular with regard to the quality issues to be specifically addressed; (b)based preferably on privacy enhancing technologies that are specifically designed to implement the principles of Regulations (EU) 2016/679 and (EU) 2018/1725, with particular regard to purpose limitation, data minimisation, storage limitation, integrity and confidentiality; (c)without prejudice to Chapter V of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. 4.The Commission (Eurostat) and the Member States shall test and assess by means of pilot studies the fitness of relevant privacy enhancing technologies for data sharing. 5.Where the pilot studies under paragraph 4 of this Article identify effective and secure data sharing solutions for the purposes referred to in paragraph 1, the Commission may adopt implementing acts laying down technical specifications for the data sharing and measures for the confidentiality and security of information. These implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 18(2). Article 14

Pilot and feasibility studies 1.The Commission (Eurostat) shall, where necessary and appropriate for the purposes of this Regulation, launch pilot and feasibility studies that aim at: (a)assessing the availability of data sources and their quality, including of publicly and privately held data in Member States and at Union level; (b)developing and assessing the feasibility of implementing new topics, detailed topics, statistical units, variables and their breakdowns; (c)developing new methodologies and statistical techniques to reinforce quality; (d)reducing asymmetries of migration flows; (e)testing and assessing the fitness of relevant privacy enhancing technologies for secure data sharing within the ESS in accordance with Article 13(4);

2.Member States may participate in those studies but shall, together with the Commission (Eurostat), ensure the representativeness of those studies at Union level. 3.The results of those studies shall be evaluated by the Commission (Eurostat) in cooperation with Member States. The Commission (Eurostat) shall prepare in cooperation with the Member States reports on the findings of those studies. Article 15

Financing 1.Financial contribution may be provided from the general budget of the Union to the national statistical institutes and other national authorities referred to in Article 5(2) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009, for: (a)the development and implementation of new or enhanced data sources, methodologies, data sharing, statistical units, topics, detailed topics, variables and their breakdowns; (b)the participation of the Member States in representative pilot and feasibility studies referred to in Article 14 of this Regulation. 2.The Union financial contribution shall not exceed 90% of the eligible costs. Article 16

Protection of the financial interests of the Union Where a third country participates in the actions financed under this Regulation by means of a decision adopted pursuant to an international agreement or on the basis of any other legal instrument, the third country shall grant the necessary rights and access required for the authorising officer responsible, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the Court of Auditors and the EPPO to comprehensively exercise their respective competences. In the case of OLAF, such rights shall include the right to carry out investigations, including on-the-spot checks and inspections, as provided for in Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 883/2013. Article 17

Exercise of the delegation 1.The power to adopt delegated acts is conferred on the Commission subject to the conditions laid down in this Article. 2.The power to adopt delegated acts referred to in Articles 5(3), 6(6) and 7(2) shall be conferred on the Commission for an indeterminate period of time from [Publications Office: please insert exact date of entry into force of the Regulation]. 3.The delegation of power referred to in Articles 5(3), 6(6) and 7(2) may be revoked at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council. A decision to revoke shall put an end to the delegation of the power specified in that decision. It shall take effect on the day following the publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the European Union or at a later date specified therein. It shall not affect the validity of any delegated acts already in force. 4.Before adopting a delegated act, the Commission shall consult experts designated by each Member State in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making. 5.As soon as it adopts a delegated act, the Commission shall notify it simultaneously to the European Parliament and to the Council. 6.A delegated act adopted pursuant to Articles 5(3), 6(6) and 7(2) shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or by the Council within a period of two months of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. That period shall be extended by two months at the initiative of the European Parliament or the Council. Article 18

Committee procedure 1.The Commission shall be assisted by the European Statistical System Committee established by Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. That committee shall be a committee within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011. 2.Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply.

Article 19

Derogations 1.Where the application of this Regulation, or the delegated or implementing acts adopted pursuant thereto, requires major adaptations to be made to a Member State’s national statistical system, the Commission may grant, by means of implementing acts, derogations to Member State, for a maximum duration of two years. 2.When granting the derogations, the Commission shall take into account the comparability of Member States’ statistics and the timely calculation of the required representative and reliable European aggregates. When granting the derogations, the Commission shall also ensure that the requirements related to statistics, metadata and quality covered by this Regulation and previously covered by Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 or by Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 are continued without interruption. 3.The Member State shall submit a duly justified request for derogation to the Commission within two months of the date of the entry into force of the act concerned. 4.The Commission shall adopt the implementing acts referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 18(2). Article 20

Amendments to Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 is amended as follows: (1)the title is replaced by the following: ‘Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of 11 July 2007 on European statistics on asylum and administrative and judicial procedures related to immigration legislation and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 311/76 on the compilation of statistics on foreign workers’; (2)In Article 1, points (a) and (b) are deleted; (3)in Article 2(1), points (a), (b), (c), (f) and (g) are deleted; (4)Article 3 is deleted; (5)the following Article 9c is inserted: “Article 9c

Timely access and reuse of administrative data 1.National authorities in charge of administrative data sources relevant for the purposes of this Regulation shall allow reuse of these data in time and frequency sufficient to produce and submit statistics within the deadlines and compliant with the specific quality requirements according to this Regulation. The timely access to administrative records, as well as its operational modalities, shall be included in cooperation agreements to be established between those national authorities and the national statistical authorities. 2.For the purpose of this Regulation, the Commission (Eurostat) shall be allowed, upon request, to access and reuse in a timely manner relevant data and metadata from databases and interoperability systems maintained by Union bodies and agencies, including under Regulations (EU) No 910/2014, (EU) 2018/1724 and statistical data stored in the central repository for reporting and statistics (CRRS), in accordance with Regulations (EU) 2019/817 and (EU) 2019/818 and the Regulations establishing the systems whose statistical data are stored in CRRS. For that purpose, the Commission (Eurostat) shall further cooperate with the relevant Union bodies and agencies with a view to specifying the customised statistical data and metadata required, where possible under Union law, for European statistics on population and housing, the operational modalities for their provision and the necessary accompanying physical and logical safeguards.” (6)the following Article 10a is inserted: “Article 10a

Lists of countries and territories The lists of countries and territories referred to in Article 11 of [Publications Office: please insert correct reference to this Regulation] shall be applied for the compilation of statistics under this Regulation to ensure comparability of country and territories specific details across European statistics. Member States shall apply these lists for the first time to compile statistics due under this Regulation starting with data transmissions for the reference year 2026.” Article 21

Repeal Regulations (EC) No 763/2008 and (EU) No 1260/2013 are repealed with effect from 1 January 2026 without prejudice to the obligations set out in those legal acts with regard to reference periods that fall, in whole or in part, before that date.

References to the repealed Regulations shall be construed as references to this Regulation. Article 22

Entry into force and application This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. It shall apply from 1 January 2026. This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Done at Brussels, For the European Parliament For the Council The President The President LEGISLATIVE FINANCIAL STATEMENT 1.FRAMEWORK OF THE PROPOSAL/INITIATIVE 1.1.Title of the proposal/initiative 1.2.Policy area(s) concerned 1.3.The proposal/initiative relates to: 1.4.Objective(s) 1.4.1.General objective(s) 1.4.2.Specific objective(s) 1.4.3.Expected result(s) and impact 1.4.4.Indicators of performance 1.5.Grounds for the proposal/initiative 1.5.1.Requirement(s) to be met in the short or long term including a detailed timeline for roll-out of the implementation of the initiative

1.5.2.Added value of Union involvement (it may result from different factors, e.g. coordination gains, legal certainty, greater effectiveness or complementarities). For the purposes of this point 'added value of Union involvement' is the value resulting from Union intervention which is additional to the value that would have been otherwise created by Member States alone. 1.5.3.Lessons learned from similar experiences in the past 1.5.4.Compatibility with the Multiannual Financial Framework and possible synergies with other appropriate instruments 1.5.5.Assessment of the different available financing options, including scope for redeployment 1.6.Duration and financial impact of the proposal/initiative 1.7.Management mode(s) planned 2.MANAGEMENT MEASURES 2.1.Monitoring and reporting rules 2.2.Management and control system(s) 2.2.1.Justification of the management mode(s), the funding implementation mechanism(s), the payment modalities and the control strategy proposed 2.2.2.Information concerning the risks identified and the internal control system(s) set up to mitigate them 2.2.3.Estimation and justification of the cost-effectiveness of the controls (ratio of "control costs ÷ value of the related funds managed"), and assessment of the expected levels of risk of error (at payment & at closure) 2.3.Measures to prevent fraud and irregularities 3.ESTIMATED FINANCIAL IMPACT OF THE PROPOSAL/INITIATIVE 3.1.Heading(s) of the multiannual financial framework and expenditure budget line(s) affected 3.2.Estimated financial impact of the proposal on appropriations 3.2.1.Summary of estimated impact on operational appropriations 3.2.2.Estimated output funded with operational appropriations 3.2.3.Summary of estimated impact on administrative appropriations 3.2.4.Compatibility with the current multiannual financial framework

3.2.5.Third-party contributions 3.3.Estimated impact on revenue LEGISLATIVE FINANCIAL STATEMENT 1.FRAMEWORK OF THE PROPOSAL/INITIATIVE 1.1.Title of the proposal/initiative Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on European statistics on population and housing, amending Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and repealing Regulations (EC) No 763/2008 and (EU) No 1260/2013 1.2.Policy area(s) concerned 3403 – Production of statistical information 1.3.The proposal/initiative relates to: ◻ a new action ◻ a new action following a pilot project/preparatory action ◻ the extension of an existing action ☒ a merger or redirection of one or more actions towards another/a new action 1.4.Objective(s) 1.4.1.General objective(s) The general objective of this proposal is to better respond to users’ needs, and to modernise and enhance the relevance, harmonisation and coherence of European population statistics. 1.4.2.Specific objective(s) The general probjective is broken down into four specific objectives: 1) ensure complete, coherent and comparable European statistics on population and housing; 2) ensure timely and frequent statistics to meet users’ needs;

3) provide statistics that are sufficiently comprehensive in terms of relevant topics and sufficiently detailed in terms of characteristics and breakdowns; 4) promote legal and data collection frameworks that are sufficiently flexible to adapt datasets to evolving policy needs and opportunities emerging from new sources. 1.4.3.Expected result(s) and impact Specify the effects which the proposal/initiative should have on the beneficiaries/groups targeted. The expected results are as follows: - improved harmonisation and comparability of European statistics on population and housing thanks the use of a single population base and the developments in statistical infratructures; - integrated statistical processes and avoidance of duplications and redundances; - enhanced statistical outputs in terms of statistical variables, breakdown and - territorial detail in line with the current and emerging policy and societal needs; - timelier and more frequent statistics; - flexibility of the legal framework towards new data needs. The proposal meets the simplification objectives of the REFIT programme, in particular because it streamlines three regulations into one single regulatory framework. The enabling of business-to-government data sharing for the purposes of European population statistics does not generate ‘net ins’ for businesses that would be relevant under the ‘one-in, one-out’ principle. 1.4.4.Indicators of performance Specify the indicators for monitoring progress and achievements. The performance of the new legal framework for European statistics on population and housing will be monitored and evaluated against the specific objectives. During the implementation phase of the new legal framework, the Commission (Eurostat) will continue organising regular expert group meetings with partner NSIs in the ESS to discuss and clarify any issues that may arise, continuing a long-standing history of good and close cooperation between Eurostat and its ESS partners on technical and statistical matters. This includes diligent joint preparation of key implementing acts regulating the detailed new statistical data and metadata requirement, which will be of central interest to both statistics users and producers. The implementation stage is planned to conclude with a first evaluation focussing on the implementation, functioning and initial impacts of the new legal framework. To obtain sufficient information on the performance, this evaluation is planned within three to five years after the entry into force of the new legal framework. After transition to the application phase, the Commission (Eurostat) plans to evaluate the functioning and impact of the legislation every five to seven years. The list of possible key performance indicators is provided in Table 11 of the Impact assessment report (SWD(2023)11). The Commission (Eurostat) produces common European statistical guidelines and sets requirements on quality reporting relating to the development, production and dissemination of statistics. The quality reports that Member States are required to produce have to include specific checks, relevant to that data collection. This will ensure the quality of the statistical data and metadata. 1.5.Grounds for the proposal/initiative 1.5.1.Requirement(s) to be met in the short or long term including a detailed timeline for roll-out of the implementation of the initiative

The proposed regulation is to create a new framework for producing statistics on population, demography including migration, families, households and housing in an integrated manner. Current respective data collections with Member States will be harmonised, streamlined, accelerated and extended to better address policy needs. The planned first reference times for data collections under the new framework are in 2026. To set up and implement this new framework as planned, the new regulation should be adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in 2023, allowing for the implementing acts on the first data collections to be adopted by the end of 2023 too, i.e. at least 12 months before the start of the first reference times. Data and metadata collections of annual and infra-annual statistics will start in 2026, while the first reference time for a census-like decennial data collection under the new framework will be in 2031. Finally, the proposal will oblige the Commission (Eurostat) and Member States to carry out pilot studies as necessary and proportionate to further modernise the statistics under the regulation (assessing new including privately held data sources and statistical topics, developing new methodologies and techniques including privacy enhancing technologies for secure data sharing). 1.5.2.Added value of Union involvement (it may result from different factors, e.g. coordination gains, legal certainty, greater effectiveness or complementarities). For the purposes of this point 'added value of Union involvement' is the value resulting from Union intervent