Brussels, 13.1.2005

COM(2005) 1 final

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

ON THE EVALUATION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COMMUNITY STATISTICAL PROGRAMME 1998-2002

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4

1. Introduction 4

2. Methodology of the evaluation – what and how to evaluate 4

3. The Community Statistical Programme 4

4. Main conclusions 5

4.1. The implementation of the 1998-2002 Community Statistical Programme hasto a large extent been achieved for all priority and current EU policies 5

4.2. User satisfaction 6

4.3. Coordination and work planning 6

4.4. Quality 6

4.5. Effectiveness – Efficiency 7

4.6. Implementation of standards 7

4.7. Response burden 7

4.8. Subsidiarity 7

4.9. Balance of needs and resources 7

4.10. Evaluation and monitoring of progress 7

5. recommendations 7

5.1. Improve priority setting in the CSS 7

5.2. Reduce the time cycle of statistical processes 7

5.3. Find the appropriate method to work with 25 countries in accordance with the objectives of each domain 8

5.4. Improve measurement of Eurostat performance 8

5.5. Identify the management skills and knowledge at CSS level for the implementation of the CSP 8

5.6. Identify centres of excellence in the CSS in order to outsource statistical works 8

5.7. Revision of dissemination policy 8

5.8. Define Eurostat Quality Assurance Plan 9

5.9. Rationalise statistical production 9

MAIN REPORT 10

Introduction 10

Methodology of the evaluation – what and how to evaluate 10

The Community Statistical Programme 12

Evaluation of the implementation of the CSP 1998-2002 13

Evaluation of the Programme strategies 21

Principle of Subsidiarity 26

Balance of needs and resources 27

Recommendations 29

BIBLIOGRAPHY 31

GLOSSARY 33

DETAILED EVALUATION OF POLICIES 37

FREE MOVEMENT OF GOODS 37

AGRICULTURE 41

FREE MOVEMENT OF PERSONS, SERVICES AND CAPITAL 48

TRANSPORT 53

ECONOMIC AND MONETARY POLICY 61

COMMON COMMERCIAL POLICY 67

SOCIAL POLICY, EDUCATION, VOCATIONAL TRAINING AND YOUTH 73

CULTURE 80

PUBLIC HEALTH 82

CONSUMER PROTECTION 86

TRANS-EUROPEAN NETWORKS 88

INDUSTRY 92

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COHESION 97

RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT 100

ENVIRONMENT 104

DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION 109

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. INTRODUCTION

This document represents the evaluation of the Community Statistical Programme (CSP) 1998-2002 as required by Article 4 of the Council Decision of 22 December 1998 on the Community Statistical Programme 1998-2002[1],:

Article 4:

“At the end of the period covered by the Programme the Commission, after consulting the Statistical Programme Committee (SPC), shall present an appropriate evaluation report on the implementation of the Programme, taking into account the views of independent experts. that report is to be completed by the end of 2003 and subsequently submitted to the European Parliament and the Council”

2. METHODOLOGY OF THE EVALUATION – WHAT AND HOW TO EVALUATE

The methodology used in this report, drafted internally, is based upon information which has been gathered using the following methods:

- Compilation and analysis of the existing information on the CSP;

- Use of external reviews from independent experts;

- Use of internal reviews taking into account both the views of users and partners[2]

The evaluation will address the following issues:

- Execution of the CSP in accordance with Community policies regarding implementation of standards and methods, provision of statistical service to EU institutions and Member States, dissemination of statistical information and statistical support;

- Target of the programme strategies;

- Subsidiarity;

- Balance of needs and resources;

3. THE COMMUNITY STATISTICAL PROGRAMME

The mission of Eurostat and, by extension, the whole Community Statistical Programme is “to provide the European Union with a high quality statistical service”.

Council Regulation of 17 February 1997 on Community Statistics[3] requires the preparation of a Community Statistical Programme “which defines the approaches, the main fields and the objectives of the actions envisaged for a period not exceeding five years.”

The five-year programme for 1998 - 2002 is the fifth successive medium term programme prepared by Eurostat. The five-year programmes are supported by annual programmes, which provide more detailed work objectives for each year.

4. MAIN CONCLUSIONS

4.1. The implementation of the 1998-2002 Community Statistical Programme has to a large extent been achieved for all priority and current EU policies

Priority policies:

Enlargement

According to the first draft monitoring and interim evaluation report of the European Union Pre-Accession Instrument PHARE in Statistics which was carried out by an independent consortium, the programme has achieved its general immediate objectives of strengthening the institutions to provide appropriate statistics in general and in the pre-accession context in particular. Furthermore, the programme maintains a network of professionals in statistics, at individual and at institutional levels, which is essential for the production of comparable statistics. However full compliance to the EU statistical standards has not been achieved as of end 2002, but is planned for the accession date. At the end of 2002, data were collected in accordance with EU standards for almost all statistical areas for the Acceding and Candidate Countries.

Economic and monetary Union

Eurostat and the Member States had to respond to an enormous increase in demand for macro-economic statistics linked to the introduction of the Euro: first the convergence criteria for entry into the euro, then a wide range of macro-economic statistics for the formulation and conduct of monetary policy. A benchmark comparison with the USA showed the need to improve the timeliness and number of macro-economic series available for the Eurozone. Most of the new demands focused on short term indicators, significant progress has been made in terms of data availability and quality. However, the situation is not fully satisfactory. Important improvements are expected on data coverage and timeliness except for the harmonised indices of Consumer prices (HICP) which already met major user requirements.

At the end of 2002, Eurostat was in a position to publish the data for Candidate Countries for most of the Euro indicators. All were published in 2003.

Competitiveness, Growth and Employment

The Community Statistical System (CSS) has quickly responded to the new requirements issued for the Lisbon Summit. A battery of structural indicators has been made available and methodological improvements are ongoing.

All policies:

- New methodologies and standards were developed and implemented during the period (50% of current statistical legislation in place s of 16.9.2003 was prepared and adopted during the period).

- The provision of statistical services was significantly improved with an increased volume of available information (+300 million, +215%) and information of better quality. However, new methodologies are not yet fully implemented. Data timeliness is far from being fully satisfactory.

- The improved quality of statistical services has led to an increase in online information services (Website, online databases) and a rationalised publications programme.

- Statistical support was provided not only to Member States to improve the current CSS but also, to a large extent, to Candidate Countries to comply with EU statistical regulations. A significant and essential part of Eurostat work over the period was dedicated to this support.

4.2. User satisfaction

According to external user satisfaction surveys and Rolling Reviews[4], users are globally satisfied with Eurostat and its services. Users think the change in overall quality of the service is good.

4.3. Coordination and work planning

According to the Rolling Reviews carried out over the period, partners consider the planning and co-ordinating structures in the Community Statistical System as adequate even if differences by domains are identified. All partners acknowledge the improvements in the general level of CSS co-operation and co-ordination and the improvements in national statistical production.

4.4. Quality

There has been a change of culture towards quality in the CSS with a better assessment and monitoring of quality. In general, relevance, accuracy, reliability and comparability are the strengths, whereas timeliness and accessibility are the main weaknesses. It is not clear if the investments made by the CSS on improvements to timeliness will be sufficient to meet user expectations.

4.5. Effectiveness – Efficiency

The CSP is considered to be effective since it produces the expected results.

The evaluation tools in place do not allow proper assessment of the efficiency of the CSP. The rapid development of new statistical methodologies and their recent implementation lead to the view that potential efficiency gains would be significant when optimising the statistical processes.

4.6. Implementation of standards

In several statistical areas, joint work with international organisations on classifications has made European statistics more comparable with those of other areas of the world.

4.7. Response burden

In a few statistical domains, there is some evidence that the response burden has been reduced. But due to new statistical requirements, the total response burden may have increased over the period.

4.8. Subsidiarity

The principle of subsidiary has been respected by the CSP 1998-2002.

4.9. Balance of needs and resources

Sufficient additional resources were not allocated to the new priorities defined in statistical activities. No statistical activities were given up.

4.10. Evaluation and monitoring of progress

This has been substantially developed since 2000. Several external and internal evaluations led to recommendations (e.g. Rolling Review on the CSS, Rolling Review on External Trade). According to the follow-up of improvement actions in April 2003, 70% of identified recommendations were implemented or in progress at this date.

5. RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1. Improve priority setting in the CSS

Prioritisation appeared to be very difficult and complex. It is recommended that the CSS approve and use a methodology for prioritisation, taking into account current and new activities and key criteria such as political priorities at EU level, relevance, data quality, finance bases and cost implications which would lead to improved programming.

5.2. Reduce the time cycle of statistical processes

Find the best balance between national and EU needs, leading to the choice of one or two of the following actions:

- Systematically evaluate data collection processes within the CSS from a data quality and costs point of view and when new methodologies are developed;

- Adopt a data collection process based on EU-wide sample when ex-ante evaluation clearly demonstrates major benefits for the CSS in terms of data quality and costs;

- Publish early estimates for EU aggregates as soon as possible.

5.3. Find the appropriate method to work with 25 countries in accordance with the objectives of each domain

In general, appropriate methods should be rapidly defined to work with 25 organisations. The use of information technology or a mandate based representation system is also an alternative to traditional working parties.

5.4. Improve measurement of Eurostat performance

Six performance indicators were defined and used to access Eurostat performance. However, no indicator was defined dealing with the annual output of Eurostat and Eurostat resources. This will be very helpful to measure improvement in the efficiency of the organisation and the CSP.

5.5. Identify the management skills and knowledge at CSS level for the implementation of the CSP

In knowledge based organisations such as Eurostat and the CSS, it is strategic that the management of skills and knowledge of staff are in accordance with the work plan and priorities.

In Eurostat, the time needed for developing a methodology corresponds to the normal period of a job. As a consequence, knowledge and skills should be capitalised for the benefit of the CSS and not lost when staff change. The capitalisation of skills and knowledge at team level would increase the sustainability of projects.

5.6. Identify centres of excellence in the CSS in order to outsource statistical works

Some NSIs have developed in depth expertise in very specific domains, with a larger volume of resources than in Eurostat. It would be worth defining the required features of centres of excellence, to list potential ones in Europe and to carry out an in-depth feasibility study from a statistical, administrative and financial point of view.

5.7. Revision of dissemination policy

The revision of the dissemination policy should clearly be focussed on a significant improvement of the access to data through free online services, which means investments into the reference databases. User friendliness, quality of metadata and quality indicators on data should also be upgraded in order to increase user satisfaction.

5.8. Define Eurostat Quality Assurance Plan

The Eurostat Quality Assurance Plan would describe all measures that are in place to manage the quality of data produced by Eurostat on the model of international organisations. It will take into account the process mapping of work procedures and quality records. The document would also aim to identify the potential actions to improve performance and reliability of statistical processes.

5.9. Rationalise statistical production

Rationalise statistical production processes and systems for improving efficiency when common steps (data collection, validation, aggregation, and dissemination) are identified and when common steps may generate economies of scale.

MAIN REPORT

Introduction

This document represents the evaluation of the Community Statistical Programme (CSP) 1998-2002 as required by Article 4 of the Council Decision of 22 December 1998 on the Community Statistical Programme 1998-2002[5]

Article 4:

“At the end of the period covered by the Programme the Commission, after consulting the Statistical Programme Committee (SPC), shall present an appropriate evaluation report on the implementation of the Programme, taking into account the views of independent experts. hat report is to be completed by the end of 2003 and subsequently submitted to the European Parliament and the Council”

The report is structured in 8 chapters, beginning with this introduction.

Chapter 2 describes the methodological approach used to evaluate the implementation of the CSP;

Chapter 3 describes how the CSP works and the links with the annual work programmes;

Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 provide the assessment of the implementation of the CSP;

Chapter 6 deals with the respect of the principle of subsidiary;

Chapter 7 describes the balance between needs and resources over the period;

Chapter 8 presents key recommendations.

Methodology of the evaluation – what and how to evaluate

This chapter outlines methodological approach used to evaluate the implementation of the Community Statistical Programme 1998-2002.

The methodology used in this report, drafted internally, is based upon information which has been gathered using the following methods:

- Compilation and analysis of the existing information on the CSP;

- Use of external reviews from independent experts;

- Authoritative external review of agricultural statistics;

- External mid-term review of MEDSTAT statistics;

- ECB quality report on General Economic Statistics;

- Monitoring and interim evaluation of the European Union Pre-accession instrument PHARE in statistics.

- Use of internal reviews taking into account both the views of users and partners.

The complete bibliography is provided at Annex 1.

Unfortunately, as will be highlighted in this report, the Programme is not structured in such a way as to permit the evaluation to be performed on the basis of standard or commonly accepted procedures. It is necessary to use other methodology than those commonly accepted for the EU expenditure programmes. The 2003-2007 Community Statistical Programme was designed to be evaluated in accordance with Commission evaluation standards.

The evaluation will address the following issues

- Implementation of CSP regarding Community policies;

- Target of the programme strategies;

- Subsidiarity;

- Balance of needs and resources.

- Implementation of CSP regarding Community policies

For each statistical theme and then after consolidation for each EU policy, the level of implementation of CSP has been analysed in 4 basic functions.

- Implementation of standards and methods in order to produce European data that is comparable, reliable and relevant;

- Provision of statistical services to EU institutions and Member States supporting the conception, implementation, follow-up and evaluation of Community policies;

- Dissemination of statistical information for the European public, for businesses and other users, to assess their decision-making;

- Statistical support for developing countries and countries in transition to modern economies.

- Target of the programme strategies

The target of the CSP has been assessed according to the following questions:

Target | Questions |

User satisfaction | To what extent has user satisfaction increased over the period? |

Priorities – Work planning | To what extent has work planning improved over the period? |

Quality | To what extent has data quality improved over the period? |

Co-ordination | To what extent has co-ordination improved over the period |

Effectiveness | To what extent is the programme effective? |

Response burden | To what extent has the response burden been reduced over the period? |

International standards | To what extent are Community statistics now more comparable with those for other areas of the world? |

Subsidiarity

To what extent has the principle of subsidiarity been respected over the period?

Balance of needs and resources

To what extent has the Community Statistical System (CSS[6]) maintained a balance between the needs for information for Community policy purposes and the resources required at both EU, national and regional level?

The Community Statistical Programme

The mission of Eurostat and, by extension, the whole Community Statistical Programme is “to provide the European union with a high quality statistical service”.

Council Regulation of 17 February 1997 on Community Statistics[7] requires the preparation of a Community Statistical Programme “which defines the approaches, the main fields and the objectives of the actions envisaged for a period not exceeding five years.”.

The five-year programme for 1998 - 2002 is the fifth successive medium term programme of work prepared by Eurostat. The five-year programmes are supported by annual programmes, which provide more detailed work objectives for each year.

The formulation of the Community Statistical Programme (CSP) hinges on a Council Regulation on Community Statistics[8], in which a legislative framework for the production of Community statistics is provided. The CSP is the framework programme for all statistics produced at Community level. The rationale for a CSP is clear, as there is a need to produce statistics with a pan-European reach that will help public authorities in their policy-making process.

Irrespective of the different bodies and Working Groups that participate in the various stages of elaboration of the CSP, it is clear that the Council undertakes the approval of the latter. The elaboration and co-ordination of the programme rests largely on the Statistical Programme Committee (SPC) as highlighted by article 2 of Council Decision 89/382/EEC establishing a Committee of the Statistical Programmes of the European Communities[9]: “The Committee shall assist the Commission in the general co-ordination of the multi-annual Statistical Programmes, in order to ensure that the actions to be undertaken are consistent with those decided upon in the national statistical programmes”.

Evaluation of the implementation of the CSP 1998-2002

Conclusion on the implementation of the CSP 1998-2002

The implementation of the 1998-2002 Community Statistical Programme has to a large extent been achieved for all priority and current EU policies.

All policies:

- New methodologies and standards were developed and implemented during the period (58% of current statistical legislation in place as of 16.9.2003 was prepared and adopted during the period).

- The provision of statistical services was significantly improved with an increased volume of available information (+ 300 million; + 215%) and better quality information. However, new methodologies are not yet fully implemented. Data timeliness is far from being fully satisfactory.

- The improved quality of statistical services has led to an increase in online information services (Website, online databases) and a rationalised publications programme.

- Statistical support was provided not only to Member States to improve the current CSS but also, to a large extent, to Candidate Countries to comply with EU statistical regulations. A significant and essential part of Eurostat work over the period was dedicated to this support.

Main statistical objectives of Community policies and achievements

Priorities

Below, the main statistical objectives of each Community policy priorities are given with the assessment of the implementation of the CSP, using, for some areas, the views of independent experts. In annex 2, a detailed evaluation of each policy is presented in accordance with the methodology.

Economic and Monetary Union

Main statistical objectives : meet the statistical requirements of the stability and growth pact, short-term indicators of demand, output, labour market activity and costs.

Achievements : Eurostat and the Member States had to respond to an enormous increase in demand for macro-economic statistics linked to the introduction of the Euro: first the convergence criteria for entry into the euro, then a wide range of macro-economic statistics for the formulation and conduct of monetary policy. A benchmark comparison with the USA showed the need to improve the timeliness and number of macro-economic series available for the Eurozone. Most of the new demands focused on short term indicators, where significant progress has been made in terms of data availability and quality in all areas: National Accounts, Prices, Financial Accounts and Balance of Payments.

To coordinate the countries in responding to the challenge, particularly for the short-term statistics, an EMU Action plan was adopted by the Council. Subsequently the Council made the following overview of progress on the implementation of the EMU action plan (15/01/2003) - Council conclusions.

“The Council endorsed the fifth progress report by the Economic and Financial Committee on information requirements in EMU. The report examines progress on the implementation of the Action Plan on EMU Statistical Requirements (EMU Action Plan), endorsed by the Ecofin Council in September 2000, as well as progress on the original report by the Monetary Committee on Information Requirements in EMU endorsed by the Ecofin Council in January 1999. The Council considers that a number of Member States still need to increase efforts to fulfil their obligations under the EMU Action Plan in order to improve the statistical basis for economic and monetary policy making in EMU/EU. The targets in several statistical areas set for the end of 2001 or 2002 have not yet been met. Even if clear improvements have been recorded, more remains to be done, notably in Spain and Italy, and to a lesser extent in France. To fulfil the needs of a country-by-country analysis, also Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal need to do more. Urgent attention should be devoted to the areas of quarterly national accounts by institutional sector (households and companies); quarterly government expenditure and revenue; the requirements in the labour markets; and new orders for industry and external trade data. The Council furthermore considers that in order to meet shortcomings identified in the original Monetary Committee report, there is the need for a re-balancing of statistical priorities, and a number of coordinated actions should be implemented by the Member States, notably in regard to the list of Principal European Economic Indicators established by the Commission, balance of payments statistics, and statistics on services.

The Council invites the statistical offices in the Member States to take the necessary action as a matter of priority. A follow-up report, including the Acceding Countries, should be submitted in 2004”.

Regarding Maastricht fiscal convergence criteria, Eurostat regularly monitored the quality of the notified debt and deficit statistics and issued a substantial number of decisions concerning the treatment of important transactions. Moreover, these decisions are codified in the "ESA 95 manual on government deficit and debt", which sets the quality standards for EDP reporting.

Balance of payments statistics are compiled in close coordination with the ECB as an EMU secondary convergence criteria.

The EMU action plan did not cover the Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP) because HICP was considered to already be of sufficient quality to meet the needs of its main users. The launch of the Euro-zone HICP (so-called MUICP) in 1998 was considered to be a milestone towards Phase III of the EMU.

Economic, Monetary and Financial statistics for Acceding Countries

- All Acceding Countries compile their national accounts on the basis of ESA 95;

- Starting from January 2001, all Acceding Countries have been publishing detailed HICP;

- On balance of payments, good progress towards the provision of timely and accurate data has been made;

- On government debt and deficit, significant efforts are still required to ensure full compliance of the debt and deficit figures with the ESA 95 accounting rules;

- On external trade, progress still needs to be made to meet Extrastat and Intrastat EU requirements from the moment of accession.

At the end of 2002, data was available for most of Euro indicators. The data was first published in early 2003.

Competitiveness, growth and employment

Main statistical objectives : the structure of the costs and outputs of business enterprises, structure of the labour market.

Achievements: the Community policy requirements on competitiveness, growth and employment touch a wide range of statistical domains. Significant progress has been achieved in most of these domains. One particularly important initiative was set up after the Lisbon summit and defined a set of challenging long-term objectives for the European Union. A list of about 100 Structural Indicators has been specifically designed in cooperation with other Commission services in order to monitor the status of progress in achieving these objectives. It combines key indicators from the statistical domains of general economic development, employment, innovation and research, economic reform, social cohesion and environment in one set of statistical data. The structural indicators have evolved into one of the most consulted parts of the Eurostat web site.

By the end of 2002, Structural Indicators already had had considerable success in providing a quite comprehensive overview on competitiveness, growth and employment. Nevertheless, intensive work is still required to complete the range of indicators, to improve data quality and to provide harmonised definitions in close cooperation with the Commission services and Member States concerned.

European Union enlargement

Main statistical objectives : significant demands for reliable and comparable statistical information for the Candidate Countries.

Achievements: according to the first draft monitoring and interim evaluation report of the European Union Pre-Accession Instrument PHARE in Statistics carried out by an independent consortium, the programme has achieved its general immediate objectives of strengthening the institutions to provide appropriate statistics in general and particularly in the pre-accession context. Furthermore, the programme keeps alive a network of professionals in statistics, at individual and at institutional levels essential for the production of comparable statistics. However the full compliance to the EU statistical standards has not been achieved as of end 2002 but is planned for the accession date. At the end of 2002, data were collected in accordance with EU standards for almost all statistical areas for the Acceding and Candidate Countries.

New EU initiatives in the period 1998-2002

Sustainable development

Achievements : Eurostat contributed to the definitions and methodologies used for the UNCSD set of indicators. A seminar was held in 1998 on testing of UNCSD Sustainable Development Indicators (SDI) list. In 2001, a publication of SDIs based on the UNCSD set was published. A joint seminar was organised with UNECE and Statistics Canada on methodological issues for environmental SDIs. Following the adoption of the EU Sustainable Development strategy at the Gothenburg European Council (June 2001), the SPC created a Task Force to develop an EU specific set of SDIs. All Member States and most acceding countries have drawn up national SD strategies, and identified a set of indicators for these strategies. These reflect the Member States' own priorities, and may differ from those at EU level. A study to be published in 2004 reports the experiences of the 15 EU countries in this area.

Food safety

Achievements: Eurostat has achieved its programme which consisted of beginning to provide an inventory of the existing data and methodologies, developing them and setting up a complete system, avoiding duplication, in order to make good quality, relevant, reliable and well-documented information available to policy makers and consumers. Cooperation with DG SANCO was also set up, notably regarding the exchange of data and definition of priorities.

Social exclusion and poverty

Achievements : The CSS has started to significantly develop work in this policy area, directly influenced by the Cardiff and Luxembourg summits. Eurostat seeks to obtain the resources necessary to assure the continuation of this work.

Work on poverty and social exclusion focus on the consolidation of the methodology on income poverty and its links with deprivation indicators, including longitudinal analysis and absolute poverty. Co-operation with Candidate Countries including data collection has been achieved. From 2000 onwards, 8 Statistics in Focus have been published in this field.

E-Europe – E-Economy

Achievements : This is an area where it has been imperative to make efforts to invest early to anticipate statistical needs. The preparatory work on definitions and methodology was accompanied in 2002 by the necessary investments in the collection of the indicators required to measure the impact of this phenomenon in the economy. Continuing work is needed to ensure that the key macro-economic indicators capture e-commerce activities adequately. Additionally, the increasing use of e-commerce will itself provide rich potential for the direct provision of indicators in processable form to the CSS. Five Statistics in Focus were released in 2002 on the information society.

Euro Indicators and Structural Indicators

Achievements : By creating the Euro Indicators and Structural Indicators web sites, Eurostat has met frequent requests to combine the indicators that are relevant to specific policy areas into a single set of statistical indicators.

The Euroindicators combine infra-annual indicators from the domains of business opinion surveys, national accounts, balance of payments statistics, monetary and financial statistics, price statistics, short-term business statistics as well as labour market statistics in order to give an overview on the various factors important for monetary and economic policy making.

The Structural Indicators combine indicators for general economic development, employment,, innovation and research, economic reform, social cohesion and environment in order to give an overview on competitiveness, growth and employment. Both web sites have significantly improved the accessibility of statistical information to policy makers and the interested public.

Migration/Asylum

Achievements : the work programme has been achieved in the following fields:

- Launch new data collection for monthly asylum and illegal migration data, and extension to CEEC (Peco) countries, Iceland and Norway. Work was undertaken to extend the publication of these data;

- Extensive support given to countries under MED-MIGR programme;

- The joint (UN, UNSD, ILO and CoE) annual migration and demographic data collections now cover EU Member States, EFTA and CEEC countries.

Benchmarking on research and innovation policies

Achievements : Following on from the conclusions of the Lisbon Summit, Eurostat has launched, in close cooperation with the National Statistical Institutes, a major development work of benchmarking indicators, which should lead in the near future to more frequent harmonized statistics in this area.

For an assessment on current Community policies – please see Annex 2

Implementation of new standards and methods

Significant achievements have been made for all priority and current policies in the development of new methodologies in cooperation with international organisations. The progress made is highlighted by the significant number of Commission legislative acts adopted during the period 1998-2002. The following table provides evidence of the importance of the work done to improve the statistical system. The achievements are significant in the fields of social statistics, transport statistics and industry, services and tourism statistics. In the fields of economy and finance, external trade and agriculture statistics, where a lot of work was already done in the former programme, a significant number of new methodologies and improvements were also adopted.

Major areas | Total number of statistical legislative acts in place as of 16/09/2003 | Number of statistical legislative acts adopted and prepared over the period | Percentage of statistical legislative acts adopted and prepared over the period |

General | 15 | 6 | 40% |

Agriculture | 77 | 34 | 44% |

Foreign trade | 29 | 18 | 62% |

Economy and finance | 51 | 34 | 67% |

Energy and environment | 3 | 1 | 33% |

Industry, services, tourism | 27 | 23 | 85% |

Coal and Steel | 11 | 2 | 18% |

Population and social conditions | 24 | 22 | 92% |

Transport | 14 | 11 | 79% |

Research and development | 1 | 1 | 100% |

Committees | 12 | 0 | 0 |

TOTAL | 264 | 152 | 58% |

Provisions of statistical service

Consequently, the significant volume of adopted methodologies led to an increased volume of available information. Over the period 1998-2002, 42 new statistical domains were introduced to meet EU policy requirements. At the end of 2002, about 100 statistical domains were collecting and disseminating data.

The volume of available statistical values was multiplied by 3.15 at just under 300 million available data (Comext excluded). It represents an increase of 215% compared to end of 1997. Most policies benefit from the increase of available data, particularly in the areas which did not exist at the beginning of the period.

Table: Number of available statistical values in the statistical database New Cronos:

31/12/1997 | 31/12/2002 | Difference | Growth in % |

General Statistics | 5.265.519 | 15.232.014 | 9.966.495 | 189% |

Economy and finance | 19.803.181 | 35.874.319 | 16.071.138 | 81% |

Population and social conditions | 17.764.801 | 48.283.943 | 30.519.142 | 172% |

Industry, trade and services | 14.499.062 | 47.523.859 | 33.024.797 | 228% |

Agriculture and fisheries | 34.577.739 | 127.065.650 | 92.487.911 | 267% |

External trade | 127.597 | 5.384.139 | 5.256.542 | 4120% |

Transport | 2.460.414 | 14.216.433 | 11.756.019 | 478% |

Environment and energy | 26.809 | 3.135.949 | 3.109.140 | 11597% |

Science and technology | 69.976 | 1.130.909 | 1.060.933 | 1516% |

94.595.098 | 297.847.215 | 203.252.117 | 215% |

Source: New Cronos Monthly Reports

Concerning external trade data, more than two billion statistical values for EU and more than 600 million statistical values for Candidates Countries have been made available to Internal and External users through Comext on-line until 2002.

New methodologies have also had an impact on the quality of statistical information, which is now more relevant, more comparable and more accurate. For recently implemented methodologies, data timeliness is a big issue as processes and resources are not stabilised and optimised. For domains which were in place at the beginning of the programme, Eurostat significantly improved by 1.32 years the average timeliness of annual data at 3.89 years. Though improved, the average timeliness is still too high and is not in accordance with user expectations.

Dissemination

The improved quality of statistical service consequently led to increased dissemination of statistical information.

The significant growth of database extractions from New Cronos and Comext which contains all Eurostat available data from 1998 has demonstrated an increasing interest for Eurostat information inside the European Institutions.

Number of Database Extractions

31/12/1997 | 31/12/2002 | Difference | Difference % |

General Statistics | 8943 | 38122 | 29179 | 326% |

Economy and finance | 11765 | 79434 | 67669 | 575% |

Population and social conditions | 5980 | 47375 | 41395 | 692% |

Industry, trade and services | 2793 | 28882 | 26089 | 934% |

Agriculture and fisheries | 7436 | 21941 | 14505 | 195% |

External trade | 581 | 4379 | 3798 | 654% |

Transport | 2136 | 3912 | 1776 | 83% |

Environment and energy | 1520 | 6849 | 5329 | 351% |

Science and technology | 414 | 4476 | 4062 | 981% |

41568 | 235370 | 193802 | 466% |

Source: New Cronos Monthly Reports

Extraction from Comext Database

Year | 1988 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 |

Number of extractions | 84956 | 92124 | 80267 | 83749 | 69354 |

Number of extracted records (millions) | 7411 | 13697 | 13484 | 26565 | 74952 |

Source: Comext Support

The Index of Demand, developed by Eurostat to measure the development of the demand for Eurostat products and services, grew by 40% from December 2000 to December 2002.

In order to meet user requirements for fresh and understandable statistical information, the publications programme was significantly overhauled in 1998 and 1999 and focused on press releases, Statistics in Focus and some key Panorama of the EU. The number of Statistics in Focus increased by 62% from 126 in 1998 to 204 in 2002 covering all statistical areas. Due to their timeliness but also their accessibility to the non-initiated reader, SIF are very useful for improving understanding and uses of available data sources.

In 2000, the launch of the new Eurostat web site followed by the Euro indicators web site has significantly improved the accessibility of main statistical data with an increasing number of online free indicators: Structural indicators, Set of indicators per theme, Euro indicators…

Regarding the punctuality of publication, pre-announced publication dates for short-term indicators have been strictly adhered to over the period.

The Data Shop network has also contributed to the dissemination of detailed data and services, by answering to around 20 000 questions in 1997 and 52 000 in 2002.

Statistical Support

With the significant introduction of new methodologies and the statistical requirements due to Enlargement, Eurostat dedicated a lot of resources to statistical support. While time consuming, statistical support was provided through large working groups and country visits aimed at improving and strengthening the national statistical systems. The overall value of working groups rated by Member States and Candidate Countries participants stand at a high level over the period 2000-2002.

Average overall value of meetings according to participants’ rates:

2000 | 2001 | 2002 |

0,75 | 0,69 | 0,71 |

Max: 1; Min: -1

Evaluation of the Programme strategies

a) User satisfaction

- According to an external user satisfaction survey carried out over the period, users are on the whole satisfied with Eurostat’s services (75% in February 2003) and consider that the information provided by Eurostat is always or often reliable (88% in February 2003)

- According to the 9 Rolling Reviews carried out over the period and to the authoritative review on agricultural statistics, users in European institutions are rather satisfied with Eurostat services and think that the change in the overall quality of the service is good.

b) Co-ordination – working planning – priorities

According to the Rolling reviews carried out over the period, partners consider the planning and co-ordinating structures in the Community Statistical System as adequate even if differences by domains are identified. All partners acknowledge the improvements in the general level of CSS co-operation and co-ordination and the improvements in national statistical production.

Partners are rather satisfied with:

- Eurostat’s multi-annual and annual planning system;

- SPC’s role in coordinating the CSS;

- The way goals are defined inside the CSS;

- Responsiveness and cooperation of Eurostat staff as well as with the account taken of NSI’s needs and problems.

Partners are not satisfied with:

- The use of the multi-annual programme from a national point of view;

- The lack of clear definition of priorities in the Annual Work Programme and indication of subjects that deserve the biggest deployment of resources;

- The way the programme is approved without knowing the full financial position;

- The coordination of large statistical areas that remain outside the CSS such as agricultural statistics.

c) Quality

There have been development of Quality Management policies in several NSIs and Eurostat who participate in formulating the Statistical Programme in accordance with user needs to define the processes in place to monitor statistical quality. In addition to the long-standing efforts of the working groups, there have recently been several more centralised quality initiatives:

- The Quality Declaration of the CSS (signed by all NSIs and Eurostat);

- The Leadership Group on Quality (LEG on Quality) and its Implementation Group;

- Working Group on Quality Assessment in Statistics;

- The Eurostat framework for delivering quality, named Qualistat (Quality in Statistics). About 30 quality reports including Member States contributions were made over the period.

The overall assessment of data quality may be very different from one domain to another. In general, relevance, accuracy, reliability and comparability are the strengths of Eurostat data whereas timeliness and accessibility are the main weaknesses.

Strengths

1. Relevance

Relevance of Eurostat data is very much appreciated by an increasing number of sophisticated users. In its statistical work for 2002 Eurostat has shown its capacity to cope with the main EU priorities.

2. Comparability

An element of Eurostat's core business is to make data comparable over space and time. The harmonisation process of the CSS ensures data comparability. For 2002, Eurostat has shown its capacity to cope with Enlargement and to provide an increasing quantity of data relating to Candidate Countries comparable with EU Member States. When conceptual differences between sets of data remain, they are described and documented.

3. Accuracy and reliability

The key areas for accuracy are government deficit, GNP, regional GDP, HICP and unemployment that are used for politically visible, decision-making processes. In these fields, data quality controls are the most strict and sophisticated. Data processing is not outsourced; these strategic fields and short-term statistics are dealt with strictly in house. However should data processing be outsourced in other less sensible domains, work is carried out in accordance with published harmonised methodologies and validated by Eurostat experts.

Weaknesses

4. Timeliness

The situation is improving but is far from being fully satisfactory.

Short term data

For the Principle European Economic Indicators, a comparison of the delays for publishing between EU Member States and the USA was presented in June 2002. For HICP, quarterly national accounts and external trade, the delays for publication are the same or close to those of the US. For business and social statistics, the gap between the USA and the EU is still wide.

The development of flash estimates for quarterly national accounts has brought the delay to a level comparable with US [final] results, and with the development of the HICP flash estimate for the Euro-zone, Eurostat has produced an indicator that gives an early indication of the over-all final figure on the last working day of the reference month. The full regular HICP data set is published on average 17 days after the end of the reference month. The timeliness of short term data has significantly improved with the implementation plan of the EMU Action Plan, but user expectations are still greater.

Annual data

At the end of 2002, the average delay between the most recent available annual data and 31.12.2002 amounted to 3.84 years. Over the period 1998-2002, significant progress has been made with a gain of over one-year. This improvement is remarkable when you consider the introduction of 42 new domains with new information during this period. Generally, new domains come up against a series of problems in data collection and data structure and generally give a worse timeliness indicator than current data.

5. Accessibility

An increasing number of EU data with documentation will be made accessible free of charge on the Eurostat web site in the following months. User friendliness should also be improved.

Conclusion – Quality

There has been a change of culture towards quality in the CSS with a better assessment and monitoring of quality. In general, relevance, accuracy, reliability and comparability are the strengths whereas timeliness and accessibility are the main weaknesses. In general, it is not clear if the investments made by the CSS on improvements to timeliness will be sufficient to meet user expectations.

d) Effectiveness

According to the rolling review on the functioning of the CSS, partners are rather satisfied with the effectiveness of the CSP 1998-2002. Partners interviewed in other sectoral rolling reviews also share this view.

The CSP is considered as effective since it produces the results expected and generates improvements in data quality. To assure effectiveness, Eurostat still relies today on individual competencies available within the office and the Member States and on too large a number of statistical production systems (according to the report of the “Life Cycle of Data and improved efficiency). A better structured organisation supported by CSS macro processes, the management of skills and a better monitoring of projects at Eurostat and CSS level would enable to improve the effectiveness of the CSP and to reduce risks of malfunction.

e) International standards

In several statistical areas, joint work with international organisations on classifications has made European statistics more comparable with those of other areas of the world. The following actions have been achieved:

- Introduction of the European System of Accounts (ESA 95) in all EU and Candidate Countries, which is entirely consistent with the world-level System of National Accounts N`SNA95);

- NACE and CPA have been implemented in all Candidate Countries;

- 30 countries are now using the same classifications;

- Cooperation is undertaken with the rest of the world;

- Since 2000, convergence of NACE and NAICS (North American classification) has been studied. A detailed table of correspondence is now available;

- The Eurostat concepts and definitions database is now available on the web in 3 languages;

- Development of the reference classifications and concepts for cross border trade (EBOPS[10]) and trade via commercial presence, i.e. FATS (ICFA[11]).

- Eurostat, together with the United Nations, IMF, OECD, UNCTAD and WTO have produced a Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services.

In the field of Economy and Finance statistics and in many other areas, the EU has been a pioneer in setting international standards.

Conclusion – Implementation of standards

In several statistical areas, joint work with international organisations on classifications has made European statistics more comparable with those of other areas of the world.

f) Response burden

In a few domain statistics, there is some evidence that the response burden has been reduced. But due to new statistical requirements, the response burden may have increased over the period.

However a lot of effort has been made for a better use of administrative sources and developed joint questionnaires with international questionnaires to limit the increase of response burden. With the exception of foreign trade, there is still little evidence of economies of scale with the introduction of new technologies.

Principle of Subsidiarity

In all statistical domains, the principle of subsidiarity has been respected over the period.

Balance of needs and resources

a) Evolution of resources

Human resources

Evolution of Eurostat staff in number of posts

Officials[12] |

1999 | 569 |

2000 | 581 |

2001 | 585 |

2002 | 584 |

Over the years 2001 and 2002, Eurostat requested a total of 46 posts (23 in 2001, 23 in 2002) and received no additional posts (-1 in 2001, 1 in 2002).

Training

At the end of 2002, Eurostat staff members spent an average of 7,9 days per year on training compared to 6,5 days in 2001. The Eurostat training programme covers statistical, administration and management topics with a particular focus on these last two.

Evolution of financial resources

The Activity Based Management system was only introduced in 2001.

Evolution of budget line B5-60:

Commitment appropriations Mio € | Outturn of commitment appropriations - % | Total commitments made € Mio |

2001* | 36.152.413,36 | 90,05% | 32.556.808,60 |

2002+ | 39.746.897,53 | 88,34% | 35.112.778,08 |

*Source – Annual Accounts, Volume 2, year 2001

+Source – Provisional Annual Accounts, Volume 2, year 2002

Over the last three years, budget spending remained stable at about 32 million Euro.

b) Evolution of needs

The role of statistics is two-fold:

- Providing a common assessment framework enabling policy co-ordination;

- A more sophisticated tool used for the political decision-making and eligibility processes: Convergence criteria, management of Stability and growth Pact, Eligibility of regions for assistance, definitions of national contributions to the EU budget.

A lot of new initiatives arose over the period 1998-2002. For some such as the EMU action, the work was relatively well planned. For others such as structural indicators or food safety, Eurostat had to react very quickly and to provide short term solutions.

According to the rolling review on CSS functioning, the major problem identified by CSS partners is the way Eurostat and the CSS face and manage new statistical needs of the Commission. “Partners complain that there is a lack of balance in the CSS between the users (the Commission and the ECB) and the providers, NSIs. “Statistics are a “free” good for the Commission, since they do not bear the ongoing production costs; therefore there are no cost controls on their demands, as exist in the national context in all countries. The demands made by users in Brussels are excessive, especially in the context of detail”. They forget that the information has to be collected and paid for”. Partners are not satisfied with the way priorities are set inside the CSS. Partners complain about too many priority changes over time and about the increasing interference of politics.

Partners point to the fact that there is a continuous expansion in statistics required, without adequate justification, without adequate consideration of NSI resource availability, with no effort made at saving resources by limiting programmes that are no longer a high priority.

In several areas for Candidate Countries, the implementation of methodologies is not fully achieved due to resource constraints and, consequently, a limited amount of support.

Conclusion – Balance of needs and resources

There were not sufficient additional resources allocated to the new priorities defined in statistical activities. The very time-consuming task of statistical support to deal with enlargement was underestimated. In addition, no statistics were given up.

Evaluation and monitoring of progress

This has been substantially developed since 2000. Several external and internal evaluations led to recommendations (e.g. Rolling Reviews on the CSS, Rolling Review on External trade). According to the follow-up of improvement actions in April 2003, 70% of identified recommendations were implemented or in progress at this date.

The conclusions and recommendations of the interim report and rolling review have, to a certain extent, been taken into account for defining of the 2003-2007 CSP. Priorities and allocation of resources have been broken down at project level and quantitative objectives have been set up. While some significant projects have been evaluated, there is still room for more regular and systematic ex ante and ex-post evaluation.

Recommendations

Improve priority setting in the CSS

In the light of EU developments over the period, prioritisation appeared to be very difficult and complex. It is recommended that the CSS approves and uses a methodology for prioritisation, taking into account current and new activities and criteria such as relevance, data quality, finance bases, cost implications.

The interface with policy users should be improved, especially within the Commission, in order to respond more efficiently and more quickly to users’ needs and priorities.

Reduce the time cycle of statistical processes

Find the best balance between national and EU needs leading to the choice of one or two of the following actions:

- Systematically evaluate data collection processes within the CSS from a data quality and costs point of view and when new methodologies are developed;

- Adopt a data collection process based on EU-wide sample when ex-ante evaluation clearly demonstrates major benefits for the CSS in terms of data quality and costs;

- Publish early estimates for EU aggregates as soon as possible.

Find the appropriate method to work with 25 countries in accordance with the objectives of each domain

In general, appropriate methods should be rapidly defined to work with 25 organisations. The use of information technology or a mandate based representation system is also an alternative to traditional working parties. An increased use of task forces with precise mandates on topics rather than traditional large workings groups is also recommended. In addition, regular ‘phone conference calls with all network participants would be an efficient solution to monitor progress on the implementation of the work programme. These conference calls are commonly used in multi-national organisations for short discussions.

Improve measurement of Eurostat performance

Six performance indicators were defined and used to assess Eurostat performance. However, no indicator was defined dealing with the annual output of Eurostat and Eurostat resources. This will be very helpful to measure the improvement of the efficiency of the organisation and the CSP.

Identify and manage skills and knowledge at CSS level for the implementation of the CSP

In knowledge based organisations such as Eurostat and the CSS, it is strategic that the management of skills and knowledge of staff are in accordance with the work plan and priorities.

In Eurostat, the time needed for developing a methodology corresponds to the normal period of a job. As a consequence, knowledge and skills should be capitalised for the benefit of the CSS and not lost when staff change. The capitalisation of skills and knowledge at team level would increase the sustainability of projects.

Identify centres of excellence in the CSS in order to outsource statistical work

Some NSIs have developed in depth expertise into very specific domains with a larger volume of resources than in Eurostat. It would be worth defining the required features of centres of excellence, to list potential ones in Europe and to carry out an in-depth feasibility study from a statistical, administrative and financial point of view.

Revision of dissemination policy

The revision of the dissemination policy should clearly be focussed on a significant improvement of the access to data through free online services which means investments into the reference databases. User friendliness, quality of metadata and quality indicators on data should also be upgraded in order to increase user satisfaction.

Define Eurostat Quality Assurance Plan

The Eurostat Quality Assurance plan would describe all measures that are in place to manage the quality of data it produced on the model of international organisations. It will take into account the process mapping work procedures and quality records. The document would also aim to identify the potential actions to improve performance and reliability of statistical processes.

Rationalise statistical production

Rationalise statistical production processes and systems for improving efficiency when common steps (data collection, validation, aggregation, and dissemination) are identified and when common steps may generate economies of scales.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Regarding the bibliography used in the report, the main documents are the following:

External reviews

- Report on Mid-Programme evaluation of the Community Statistical Programme 1998-2002. (IDOM Report)

- First draft monitoring and interim revaluation report of the European Union Pre-accession Instrument PHARE in Statistics

- Fifth report on the Implementation of the EMU Action Plan

- Authoritative external review of agricultural statistics

- External mid-term review of MEDSTAT statistics

- EBC quality report on General Economic Statistics – August 2003 – Draft

- Conclusions of ECOFIN Council – 15.01.2003 – Overview of progress on the Implementation of the EMU Action Plan

Internal Reviews

- Council Decision on the Community Statistical Programme 1998-2002 on the Community Statistical Programme and the Accompanying Document

- Statistical Programmes of the Commission for 1998, 1999 and 2000, 2001, 2002

- Execution reports on the annual work programmes. Years 1998, 1999 and 2000, 2001, 2002

- Quality Work and Quality Assurance within Statistics

- Several articles published in SIGMA Newsletter (1999-2001)

- Minutes of several meetings of the Working Group on the Annual Statistical Programme

- Compte de gestion et bilan financier. Afférents aux opérations du budget de l´éxercise 2000

- Minutes of the meetings of the Statistical Programme Committee

- Information about the Quality Reports

- Eurostat Rolling Reviews: External trade, National Accounts, Labour Force Survey, European Community Household Panel, R&D and innovation, Community Statistical System, Balance of payments

- Data Life Cycle Object Model for statistical information systems

- Action plans to implement the conclusions and recommendations from the Rolling Reviews

- The Directors-General of the NSIs’ conferences

- Annual Policy Strategy Circular 2002, 2003

- Several guides for the evaluation of EU programmes

- Partners’ Survey Forms on the European Community Household Panel, Labour force statistics, CSS, Trade in goods, National Accounts and R&D innovation statistics

- Collection of comments from Eurostat’s Partners Satisfaction Survey, survey which was run by Eurostat Internal Evaluation Sector between December 2000 and May 2001

- CSS Partner Satisfaction Survey, Pilot exercise 1998

- New Cronos Monthly reports

- User Satisfaction surveys.

GLOSSARY

CSP | Community Statistical Programme |

SPC | Statistical Programme Committee |

PHARE | Action Plan for coordinated aid to Poland and Hungary (subsequently extended to the remainder of the Central and East European Countries) |

HICP | Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices |

CSS | Community Statistical System |

MEDSTAT | Mediterranean Statistics |

EMU | Economic and Monetary Union |

ESA | European System of Integrated Economic Accounts |

EDP | Excessive Debt Procedure |

ECB | European Central Bank |

UNCSD | United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development |

SDI | Sustainable Development Indicators |

UNECE | United Nations Economic Commission for Europe |

CEC | Commission of the European Communities |

UN | United Nations |

UNSD | United Nations Statistics Division |

ILO | International Labour Organisation |

COMEXT | Database for statistics on the European Union's external trade and trade between Member States |

New Cronos | Macroeconomic and social database |

NSI | National Statistical Institutes |

LEG | Leadership Group |

GNP | Gross National Product |

GDP | Gross Domestic Product |

NACE | General Industrial Classification of Economic Activities in the European Commission |

CPA | Classification of Products by Activity |

NAICS | Northern American Industry Classification System |

FATS | Foreign Affiliates Trade Statistics |

ICFA | ISIC Categories for Foreign Affiliates |

ISIC | International Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities |

IMF | International Monetary Fund |

OECD | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development |

UNCTAD | United Nations Conference on Trade and Development |

WTO | World Trade Organisation |

SLIM | Simpler Legislation for Internal Market |

TACIS | Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States |

MED | Mediterranean |

TAPAS | Technical Action Plan for Improving Agricultural Statistics |

CAP | Common Agricultural Policy |

LUCAS | Land use/Cover Area Frame Statistical Survey |

EAA | Economic Accounts for Agriculture |

ITS | International Trade in Services |

FDI | Foreign Direct Investment |

NST-2000 | Standard international classification for goods in transport |

AWP | Annual Work Programme |

PDU | Unit Development Plan |

FISIM | Financial intermediation services indirectly measured |

NCBs | National Central Banks? |

GES | General Economic Statistics |

BOP | Balance of payments |

LFS | Labour Force Survey |

ISCED97 | International Standard Classification of Education |

TF MLLL | Task Force “Measuring Life Long Learning” |

ESSPROS | European System of Social Protection Statistics |

ESAW | European Statistics on Accidents at Work |

HBS | Household Budget Survey |

ECHP | European Community Household Panel |

CEDEFOP | Centre européen pour le développement de la formation professionnelle |

IDA-CARE | International Development Association – système communutaire sur les accidents de la route en Europe |

MEHM | Minimum European Health Module |

EU-SILC | European Union – Statistics in Income and Living Conditions |

EHSS | European Health Survey System |

ECHIS | European Core Health Interview Survey |

SHA | System of Health Accounts |

EODS | European Occupational Diseases Statistics |

COD | Causes of Death |

HIS | Health and health-related survey |

CES | Conference of European Statisticians |

PRODCOM | The EU-wide harmonised classification of products produced by the industrial sector specified in Council Regulation No. 3924/91 |

SBS | Structural Business Statistics |

STS | Short-term Statistics |

SSIS | Structural Statistics for Industry and Services |

SEC | EN: System of National Accounts |

NUTS | Classification of territorial units |

STI | Science, Technology and Innovation |

CIS 3 | Third Community Innovation Survey |

EEA | European Environment Agency |

IRENA | Indicator Reporting on the Integration of Environmental Concerns into Agricultural Policy |

SEEA | System of integrated Environmental and Economic Accounts |

CARDS | Cooperation with the Western Balkan countries |

ACP | Countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific |

EU-CAN | European Union-Canada |

MED NSO | Mediterranean National Statistical Offices |

DETAILED EVALUATION OF POLICIES

FREE MOVEMENT OF GOODS

Treaty title TITLE I: FREE MOVEMENT OF GOODS | Eurostat work themes |

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area | 53 – Trade in goods 57 – Other economic statistics (statistics on the internal market) |

Other important contributory themes | 44 – Industry 45 – Energy and raw materials 47 – Distributive trades 48 – Transport 64 – Crop production 65 – Animal production 66 – Agro-industry statistics |

Principal objectives of the statistical work to be carried out for this specific policy

- Improve the operation of the Intrastat system and the quality of its results in terms of precision and availability, in particular to respond to the requirement to produce national accounts;

- Reduce its burden on respondents via alternative and simplification proposals;

- Analyse in depth the statistical implications of a possible change to the VAT system and the requirement to produce timely, accurate figures at macro level, and propose alternative statistical developments.

Achievements : The CSP objectives in the field of free movements of goods have been met. In 1999, Eurostat has adopted a long-term strategic plan that was the subject of extensive consultation; it dealt with all statistics relating to the trading of goods and its specific aims were to improve the reliability of results, speed up the availability of statistics and add to the range of statistics on offer in order to respond better to changing demand. Most of the actions to be carried out were included in a five-year programme (Edicom) adopted through a European Parliament and Council decision in 2001. Considerable improvements have already been achieved over the period, in particular as regards the timeliness and the on timeliness and availability of new indicators (seasonally adjusted data and indices). However, the global level of asymmetries has not been reduced significantly.

Concerning the simplification of Intrastat, the collection system was simplified on two occasions in 1999 and 2000 in the frame of the SLIM initiative (Simpler Legislation for Internal Market). Additional studies were carried out, in particular an opinion poll of information providers in six Member States. In the light of the results of these studies, it did not appear opportune to bring radical changes. However, a new legislation was prepared (still in discussion) with the aim to improving the existing system.

To what extent has the Statistical Programme 1998-2002 been implemented?

Introduction of new methods and standards

The definition and start of a strategic plan for 2001-2005, including all aspects of methodologies, organisations and IT (Edicom II) is a major achievement to cope with the statistical requirements of the EMU action plan.

Provision of statistical services

The provision of statistical services in the field of trade of goods made significant improvements in the following areas:

- Data quality: early estimates, quality controls and analysis of asymmetries are regularly performed;

- Timeliness of macro indicators, in particular within the framework of the EMU action plan;

- Development of links between external trade registers with business registers in order to measure intra business trade;

- Implementation of the data collection network for foreign trade data with Candidate and TACIS Countries. With Central European countries, data collection covers all monthly periods since 1995. TACIS data provision refers to the quarter since 1998 while MED Countries have been providing monthly data since 2000.

Most of the data collected are coherent to standards set up by Eurostat in order to improve data quality and comparability.

According to the 5th progress report on the implementation of the EMU action plan, "In 2002; first estimates of Euro area trade with the rest of the world are released after 50-53 days, showing a slight improvement (about 3 days in average). Further improvements in timeliness of first estimates are still necessary for Ireland (which currently provides data within 60 days), Austria (64 days), and Greece (106 days). Due to the implementation of a new methodology, analysis of external trade for the Euro area has suffered in 2002 from the temporary lack of volume and unit value indices . First results for the period from January 2000 to July 2002 have become available recently using the improved method for calculating the indices. So as to ensure a consistent basis for comparison of trade developments over time, longer historical series starting earlier than January 2000 will urgently be needed due to the changes in the method of their calculation.

Dissemination

- The publications programme was streamlined in order to focus on priorities and online dissemination;

- About 366,000 pages on external trade were consulted on the Eurostat web site from 2000 to 2002;

- Data are published regularly and on a timely basis according to pre-established schedules;

- The Comext database was accessed over the period more than 400.000 times.

System improvements permitted integration of data, massive extractions and better remote access. Average internal access decreased (-37%) while external accesses increased (610%) over the period. In terms of extracted records, considerable increases are observed (817% and 3816% respectively).

Statistical support

Statistical support was provided to Candidate, TACIS and Mediterranean Countries to extend the collection system and to integrate quarterly data.

Conclusion

Community Statistical Programme objectives in the field of free movement of goods policy have been met. Considerable improvements have been achieved over the period but important progress on timeliness and historical series is still needed.

Programme targets

a) Users

According to the rolling review on trade of goods, users think that the change in the overall quality of the service is good and extensively use Comext data for the establishment and follow up of main EU policies.

b) Priorities – work planning

According to the rolling review on trade of goods:

- partners are satisfied with the functioning, organisation and effectiveness of planning and co-ordinating structures in the area of trade of goods;

- partners are globally satisfied with the functioning of the CSS except from the capability of the CSS to learn from best statistical practices.

c) Quality

According to the rolling review on trade of goods, users are satisfied with accuracy, reliability, coherence, accessibility, completeness and timeliness of data. While the services provided by the online system, CD ROM and paper publications are considered sufficient by regular users, improvements in terms of access facilities through WEB and derived information (confidential treatment, links to tariff and other information) is needed.

On average, intra-trade data are transmitted 7.5 days before the 6 weeks mandatory delay. From 1999 to 2001 it had improved by 9 days. For extra trade data, the improvement amounts to 4 days but is still over the 6 weeks limit by 2.2 days.

d) Effectiveness

Over the period, effectiveness of the programme improved as delays of data transmission were reduced and new indicators were made available (seasonally adjusted data and indices).

e) International standards

Community concepts are globally consistent with the United Nations concepts.

f) Response burden

The increase of electronic trade declarations from 68% in 1998 to 74% in 2000 contributed to reduce the response burden.

Conclusion:

All programme strategies have been improved over the period.

Principle of subsidiarity

57 % for the period 98-99 (Edicom 1) and 42 % for the period 2001-2002 (Edicom II) were granted to Member States.

Balance of needs and resources

When starting to revise the system for trade of goods statistics between Member States collected through Intrastat, studies undertaken in 2002 showed that there was no need for a substantial change in the system.

The collection of trade of goods statistics with non-EU Member States (Extrastat), based on customs declarations represents a limited burden on Member States.

Summary of ratings for all statistical themes

Theme/ Objectives | Implementation of new standards and methods | Provision of statistical services | Dissemination | Statistical support |

53 | Achieved | Improved | Improved | Provided |

57 | Achieved | Significantly improved | Significantly improved | Provided |

References

-Detailed statistical themes evaluation

-Economic and monetary policy evaluation

-Fifth progress report on the implementation of information requirements in EMU

-ECB quality report on general economic statistics.

AGRICULTURE

Treaty title TITLE II: AGRICULTURE | Eurostat work themes |

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area | 61 - Land use and countryside 62 – Agricultural structures 63 – Agricultural incomes and prices 64 – Crop production 65 – Animal production 66 – Agro-industry statistics 67 – Reforming agricultural statistics 68 – Forestry statistics 69 – Fisheries statistics 53 – Trade in goods |

Other important contributory themes | 72 – Regional and geographical information |

Principal objectives of the statistical work to be carried out for this specific policy

- Apply the TAPAS scheme for progressive improvements to the existing set of agricultural statistics, mainly as far as quality, comparability, efficiency savings, simplification and timeliness is concerned;-plan the development of agricultural statistics with the aim of meeting the future needs of the CAP, in particular of rural development;

- assist in the development of comparable data for negotiations on the enlargement of the Union;

- consolidate and improve the quality of fishery statistics.

Achievements : The implementation of new methods was not achieved to the same level in all areas. In land use and landscape, agriculture structures and agricultural incomes and prices, the objective was achieved. In crop and animal production, agro industry statistics, forestry and fishery statistics, it was only partially achieved.

To what extent has the Statistical Programme 1998-2002 been implemented?

Introduction of new methods and standards

The introduction of new methods was different, depending on the areas concerned. In land use and landscape, crop and animal products, agriculture structures, agricultural incomes and prices and fishery statistics the objective was achieved. In forestry, it was only partially achieved.

General

Decision N°1919/2002/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2002 amending Council Decision 96/411/EC on improving Community agricultural statistics extending the TAPAS programme to the period 2003-2007 was adopted.

Land use and landscape

-Methodological improvements for the second LUCAS pilot survey (2003) were developed;

-Commission Decision 2002/750/EC on the continued application of a real survey and remote sensing techniques to agricultural statistics for 2002-2003 was adopted.

Agricultural structures

-Commission’s Decision n° 98/377/CE of 18.5.1998 and Commission’s Regulation n°143/2002 which defined the list of characteristics for the 1999-2000, 2003, 2005 and 2007 farm structure surveys were adopted.

Agricultural incomes and prices

-New methodological manual on price statistics was developed.

-Development of agricultural labour input data (alignment to new EAA methodology).

Crop production

-An amendment of Council Regulation N°959/93 was completed;

-Progress has been made on the elaboration of an inventory concerning statistical methodology;

-The basic survey in 2000 on vineyards was carried out;

-The survey of orchards was launched in 2002;

-Publication of statistical methodology.

Animal production

-Inventory of methods on live stock surveys, meat production and milk production in Member States and Candidate Countries;

-Agreement has been reached on two main sensitive domains: the protein content of milk and milk products and the regional production of cows’ milk. For both domains, methods of measurement and/or estimation have been agreed;

-Draft revision to Council Directive 96/16/EC was prepared.

Agro industry statistics

-Proposed measures to revise NACE and CPA in 2007;

-The food safety statistics were launched;

Reforming agricultural statistics

Adoption of Commission Communication (COM (2001) 144) on statistical information needs for agri-environmental indicators.

Provision of statistical services

The provision of statistical service in the field of agricultural statistics has improved over the period. The implementation of new Commission and Council regulations led to an increased volume of available data and data of better quality.

Land use and landscape

-The first round of Lucas (Land use/Cover Area Frame Statistical Survey) pilot surveys was completed by the analysis of the results.

Agricultural structures

-Collection and dissemination of the 1997 survey data;

-Reports on Eurofarm were transmitted to Council in 1999 and 2002.

Agricultural incomes and prices

-Collection, analysis and publication of the EAA data;

-Internalisation and standardisation of the EAA production database (FAME-based);

-Collection of Candidate Countries’ data;

-Development of a comprehensive Agricultural Information System (AgrIS) and distribution to Member States.

Crop production

-Collection and processing of EU Member States and Candidate Countries data and early estimates;

-Implementation of the TAPAS action plan.

Animal production

-Collection and analysis of EU Member States and Candidate Countries data;

-Final implementation of TAPAS actions on poultry meat and milk production data.

Agro-industry statistics

-Implementation of food supply balance sheets;

-Co-operation with DG SANCO and DG ENTR;

-In the field of food safety, inventory of available data has been achieved.

Reforming agricultural statistics

Authoritative review of agricultural statistics was completed and the implementation of recommendations has started.

Forestry statistics

-Collect and process data for Member States and Candidate Countries;

-Improvement of a set of economic, social and environment related forestry indicators.

Fishery statistics

-Implementation of the Council Regulations on catch, landings and aquaculture production;

-Improved data quality;

-Study of employment data in the fisheries sector in Member States.

In all agricultural statistics, the volume of available data rose by 92 million values over the period which represents an increase by 267% compared to end of 1997.

Dissemination

The dissemination of agricultural statistics made significant progress over the period. However, accessibility to online detailed information is still an issue.

Agriculture pages on the web site were consulted about 500.000 times from January 2000, which represents 8% of web consultations. Databases extractions increased by 195% over the period.

The publications programme was streamlined with a focus on Statistics in focus. About 120 Statistics in Focus were released from 2000 on key topics of agricultural statistics:

- Agricultural price trends

- Areas under cereals

- Structure of agriculture holdings

- Cattle population

- Agricultural incomes

- Women and men in agriculture

- Thirty years of agriculture

- Milk collection

- Fishery statistics: EU catches

- Land use-Land cover: Lucas 2001 primary results

- European aquaculture.

In addition, more than 30 detailed tables published including CD-ROM were released to provide users with all relevant tables.

Statistical support

Strong statistical support was provided to Candidate Countries to improve the statistical system and to enable them to carry surveys following EU standards.

Conclusion

The Community Statistical Programme objectives in the field of agricultural statistics have been met. Considerable improvements have been achieved over the period.

Programme targets

An authoritative review of agricultural statistics was completed in 2002 by an external consultant.

a) Users

According to the authoritative review, “Users are rather satisfied with Eurostat's services in the field of agricultural statistics. Delivery time, assistance and relationships are well appreciated”.

If we take into account the volume of processed information, the quality of statistical data meets user needs well. According to users, improvements are expected in terms of freshness, completeness and coherence.

b) Priorities – work planning

According to the authoritative review, priorities and strategies stated in the 5 year programme are not strictly speaking deployed in the agricultural statistical field in a structured and systematic way and but are implemented in an empirical way. Due to Commission procedures, it takes too much time to adopt legal bases that are required at CSS level to organise data collection. The agricultural statistical system works rather well from the initial request to the delivery of harmonised data. The strong relationships between Eurostat, the Agriculture DG and Member States led to improved coordination of the agricultural statistical system.

c) Quality

According to the authoritative review, “users acknowledge Eurostat’s efforts to improve the quality of statistics”. Annual data timeliness improved by 22% over the period. Data quality has been assessed in quality reports on farm structure survey and crop and animal products.

Improvements in terms of timeliness, coherence, accessibility and clarity are expected by users.

d) Effectiveness

According to the authoritative review, the agricultural statistical system is relatively effective since it produces the results expected. To assure effectiveness, Eurostat still relies today on individual competencies available within the office and the Member States.

A better-structured organisation supported by CSS macro processes would enable Eurostat to reduce dysfunction, prevent risks and optimise the system.

e) International standards

Agricultural statistics do not use standard NACE and CPA classifications. Proposed measures to revise NACE and CPA in 2007 have been introduced.

There is a part of forest products statistics which is common with the UN/ECE requirements through the "joint questionnaire". Little progress has been made to make EU statistics more comparable with those of other areas of the world.

f) Response burden

According to the authoritative review, Member States judge the volume of data required by Eurostat as being too high, survey questionnaires too dense and the burden on respondents too heavy.

Conclusion

All programme strategies except for response burden and international standards have been improved over the period.

Principle of subsidiarity

The principle of subsidiarity is fully respected in agricultural statistics.

Balance of needs and resources

According to the authoritative review, Eurostat demand for national data does not take into account Member States' constraints and limits (resources, burdens on farmers). Sustainability of resources is also questioned for start-up projects.

Summary of ratings for all statistical themes

Theme/ Objectives | Introduction of new standards and methods | Provision of statistical services | Dissemination | Statistical support |

61 | Achieved | Improved | Improved | Support provided |

62 | Achieved | Improved | Improved | Strong support provided |

63 | Achieved | Improved | Improved | Strong support provided |

64 | Partially achieved | Improved | Improved | Strong support provided |

65 | Partially achieved | Improved | Improved | Strong support provided |

66 | Partially achieved | Not improved | Not improved | Support provided |

67 | Partially achieved | Improved | Improved | Support provided |

68 | Partially achieved | Improved | Improved | Support provided |

69 | Achieved | Improved | Improved | Support provided |

53 | Achieved | Improved | Improved | Provided |

References

-Detailed statistical themes evaluation.

FREE MOVEMENT OF PERSONS, SERVICES AND CAPITAL

Treaty title TITLE III: Free movement of persons, services and capital | Eurostat work themes |

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area | 31 – Population 47 – Distributive trades 48 – Transport 49 – Communication 50 – Tourism 51 – Services 54 – Balance of payments |

Principal objectives of the statistical work to be carried out for this specific policy

- Harmonisation of concepts used in the area of migration, and as used in censuses, social surveys and administrative registers;

- Analysis of available data;

Services and capital:

- pilot surveys will be launched and the structural business survey will be implemented on a progressive basis;

- pilot studies will be launched and the Short-term Statistics Regulation will be implemented with particular focus on the service sector;

- studies will be realised to determine the needs for statistics in the field of communication and of the information society;

- users requirement analyses, sources assessment, data collection and testing of methods by pilot studies in the audio-visual sectors will be undertaken;

- implementing the Directive adopted in 1995 will further develop existing tourism statistics;

- the Regulations on structural business statistics, short-term statistics and business registers for statistical purposes will be implemented.

Achievements : In all statistical themes, population, distributive trades, transport, communication, tourism, services, and balance of payments, new methodologies were developed to further improve the quality of statistics. These improvements led to a large increase of available data in terms of times series, variables and geographical coverage and a better data quality. Some projects in the field of balance of payments, distributive trades and tourism statistics were not achieved due to resource constraints.

To what extent has the Statistical Programme 1998-2002 been implemented?

Introduction of new methods and standards

In all statistical themes, population, distributive trades, transport, communication, tourism, financial services, business services, audio-visual and balance of payments, new methodologies were developed to further improve the quality of statistics.

Some examples:

-a new methodology was developed to calculate harmonised demographic indicators;

-joint Eurostat-ECE recommendations for the 2001 census data collection have been prepared and used for data collection which covers 32 countries;

-a harmonised methodology for business demography was developed. Business demography data are now collected on a voluntary basis from 11 countries;

-business services statistics are now covered by voluntary data collection for a majority of Member States;

-statistics on foreign affiliates were collected from a majority of Member States and the drafting of regulation has begun;

-publication of methodological work on intermodal freight transport;

-adaptation of transport statistics of Candidate countries;

-methodological work was carried out to include major changes and new items in communication statistics (including audio visual statistics);

-methodological follow up on examining adaptations of national statistical systems to comply with the directive;

-an implementation manual for Tourism Satellite Accounts was prepared and adopted by the Working group;

-services to businesses/new questionnaires have been designed in the field of informatics, human resources management, consultancy services and advertising services;

-services to businesses/new questionnaires have been designed in the field of informatics, human resources management, consultancy services and advertising services.

Development of the revision of EU Member States Balance of payments collection systems, due to the implementation of the Commission Regulation on cross border holdings (introducing an exemption reporting threshold);

-Advanced state of the draft Regulation on Balance of payments statistics, International Trade in Services (ITS) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows and positions and kick off of the draft regulation on the structure and activity of foreign affiliates (FATS);

-Implementation of the new methodology on goods and on portfolio income in Balance of payments statistics;

-Final report from Technical Group “Travel” on the revision of the collection systems for the travel item of the balance of payments of EU Member States following stage three of the EMU.

Provision of statistical services

In all statistical themes related to free movements of persons, services and capital policy, significant improvements have been achieved in the provision of statistical services. These improvements led to a large increase of available data in terms of times series, variables and geographical coverage.

Main directives and regulations were implemented such as:

-In business structural statistics, the regulation 58/97 was implemented with a strong focus on the quality of the data, which has been significantly improved.

In short term business statistics, the implementation of Regulation 1165/98 was started and progressed for a number of good quality key indicators. Regular and timely publications of a series of key indicators by Eurostat and the ECB were issued.

-Full implementation of the Directive on maritime statistics.

-On audio-visual services statistics, implementation of the Council Decision, launch of pilot studies and methodological work on film, TV, radio and audio-visual balance of payments among other topics. A comprehensive database has been implemented also potentially covering the non-Member States including, for 2002, 106 main indicators and 418 variables.

-Implementation of the Directive on tourism statistics. The report to the Council relating to the implementation of the Directive was adopted in January 2001.

Dissemination

Consultations of databases and publications of the statistical themes increased significantly over the period:

-Transport statistics database consultation growth +83%

-Business statistics database consultation growth +934%.

Statistical support

Support was provided to Candidate Countries in all themes and also to Mediterranean countries in some areas such as transport and population.

Conclusion:

The Community statistical objectives in the field of free movements of persons, services and capital have been achieved.

Programme targets

a) Users

No information available.

b) Priorities – work planning – coordination

No information available.

c) Quality

Data quality has been improved in general in all domains. Timeliness, completeness and comparability have been improved.

d) Effectiveness

The Statistical Programme is relatively effective since it produces the expected data and an improvement of data quality.

e) International standards

No information available.

f) Response burden

Joint work with international organisations led to reduced response burdens for Member States in several areas: Population, Tourism, Services and Balance of payments.

Conclusion:

Data quality made significant progress over the period.

Principle of subsidiarity

The principle of subsidiarity has been fully respected in all statistical themes of this policy

Balance of needs and resources

Some projects in the field of balance of payments, distributive trades and tourism statistics were not achieved due to resource constraints.

Summary of ratings for all statistical themes for free movement of persons, services and capital

Theme/ Objectives | Introduction of new standards and methods | Provision of statistical services | Dissemination | Statistical support |

31 | Achieved | Improved | Improved | Support provided |

47 | Achieved | Improved | Improved | Support provided |

48 | Achieved | Improved | Improved | Support provided |

49 | Achieved | Improved | Improved | Support provided |

50 | Achieved | Improved | Improved | Support provided |

51 | Achieved | Improved | Improved | Support provided |

54 | Achieved | Significantly improved | Significantly improved | Support provided |

References

-Detailed statistical themes evaluation

TRANSPORT

Treaty title TITLEV: TRANSPORT | Eurostat work themes |

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area | 48 – Transport |

Other important contributory themes | 49 – Communication 50 – Tourism 71 - Environment |

Principal objectives of the statistical work to be carried out for this specific policy

- Further implementation of the legal bases recently adopted by the Council in the field of transport statistics;

- adaptation of the legal bases currently in force as a result of the liberalisation of various modes of transport in Europe;

- development of a statistical system on intermodal transport based on existing data available in the Member States.

Achievements : Continuous progress has been achieved towards the goal of a comprehensive statistical information system on Community transport. At the start of the period, there were significant gaps in transport statistics in terms of data coverage, series and quality. During the period, with the introduction of new methods and regulations, the provision of statistical services was progressively extended to all modes of transport:

- Road transport;

- Rail transport;

- Inland waterways transport;

- Air transport;

- Maritime transport;

- Oil pipeline transport;

- Multimodal transport;

- Road data.

Considerable improvements have been achieved over the period but important progress on timeliness is still needed, together with continued work to ensure the coverage of passenger transport and intermodal transport.

To what extent has the Statistical Programme 1998-2002 been implemented?

Introduction of new methods and standards

Continuous progress towards the goal of a comprehensive statistical information system on Community transport has been achieved. Eurostat developed a new standard international classification for goods in transport (NST-2000), adopted by the Conference of European Statisticians (CES) in 2002.

-The Directive on maritime statistics was fully implemented;

-The 1980 Directive on road transport statistics was replaced with a new Council Regulation;

-Parliament and Council approved two new Regulations, on rail and aviation statistics;

-The Commission adopted six implementing acts for road and maritime statistics;

-Methodological work and key indicators on intermodal freight transport were published;

-Transport statistics of Candidate Countries were adapted to EU regulations.

The objective to introduce new standards and methods has been met.

Provision of statistical services

At the start of the period, the provision of statistical services in the field of transport was embryonic in terms of data coverage, series and quality. During the period, with the introduction of new methods and regulations, the provision of statistical services was progressively extended to all areas of transport:

- Road transport;

- Rail transport;

- Inland waterways transport;

- Air transport;

- Maritime transport;

- Oil pipeline transport;

- Multimodal transport;

- Road data.

A set of transport and environment indicators in cooperation with the EEA was also published.

About 12 million data were collected over the period. At the end of 2002, annual data lateness was 3.96 years, which requires further improvements.

The provision of statistical services has been significantly improved over the period.

Several improvements were achieved in the field of dissemination, including the complete restructuring of transport statistics in New Cronos and a large increase in the amount of data available, together with the publication of a Panorama of Transport and a full range of Statistics in Focus on transport.

Results have demonstrated a significant increase of transport statistics consultations:

-Database extraction growth: +83%

-Web site consultation: 300.000 pages consulted from 2000. For comparison external trade web pages were consulted 360.000 times.

The dissemination of transport statistics has been significantly improved over the period.

Statistical support

Strong statistical support was provided to Candidate Countries to adapt transport data to EU regulations and Mediterranean countries in the implementation of the first phase of the MEDTRANS project.

Conclusion:

The Community Statistical Programme objectives in the field of transport have been met. Considerable improvements have been achieved over the period but important progress on timeliness is still needed.

Programme targets

a) Users

According to DG comments, data from recent legal acts, especially maritime statistics, are useful for policy units.

Continuing concerns remain about

-inconsistency between Eurostat statistics and other data sources

-slow response to new data needs e.g. for modal split data in relation to the 2001 White Paper.

b) Priorities – work planning

Improved work planning has been achieved in:

-Annual Work Programme (AWP) reviewed in annual co-ordination meetings with Member States (Co-ordinating Committee in Transport Statistics);

-objectives derived from AWP defined at unit and process level in Unit Development Programme (PDU).

c) Quality

The new legal acts have assisted in resolving some quality issues (especially in road statistics). However, in other areas, the increased volume of data has led to new data quality issues being identified.

d) Effectiveness

The programme for transport statistics has been effective in improving the coverage of the various transport modes, and increasing the volume of information collected and disseminated.

However, lack of staff resources has slowed progress in providing key indicators for policy, and in developing new areas of transport statistics.

e) International standards

Community statistics are now more comparable with those of other areas of the world due to the following improvements:

-input by Eurostat to 3rd edition of Glossary of Transport Statistics for 55 UNECE member countries

-collection of transport statistics according to Community methods by Candidate Countries (in context of enlargement) and by Mediterranean countries (in MED-TRANS).

f) Response burden

There has been a large increase in the response burden due to the new legal acts.

Conclusion:

All programme strategies have been improved over the period except for response burden.

Principle of subsidiarity

No Eurostat budget has been granted to Member States for transport statistics in the reference period. However, there has been funding to Member States from DG TREN (approximately 2 mio Euro).

Balance of needs and resources

Since most data collection for transport statistics is based on legal acts, Member States have approved in principal the allocation of substantial additional resources at national and regional level to