EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 23 February 2010 
on the establishment of the Hellenic Statistical System 
and an independent statistical authority 
(CON/2010/17) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 12 January 2010 the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Greek Ministry of 
Finance for an opinion on a draft law on the Helleni c Statistical System (HSS) and the establishment of 
the Hellenic Statistical Authority (HSTAT) as an i ndependent authority and legal person governed by 
public law (hereinafter the ‘draft law’). This opinion is  based on the text of the draft law received by the 
ECB on 12 January 20101. 
The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on Articles 127(4) and 282(5) of the Treaty on the 
Functioning of the European Union and the third indent  of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC of 
29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Central Bank by national authorities regarding draft 
legislative provisions2, as the draft law relates to a national ce ntral bank. In accordance with the first 
sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the European Central Bank, the Governing Council 
has adopted this opinion. 
 
1.  Purpose of the draft law 
The draft law is mainly aimed at making an institu tional upgrade of the offici al statistics production 
system with a view to ensuring professional independ ence, scientific impartiality and integrity, as well as 
administrative efficiency. This is to be achieved by the establishment of the HSS, composed of HSTAT 
and other public and private sector entities (herei nafter the ‘other HSS entities’) that have the 
responsibility for or the obligation to collect data and produce the statistics required for decision and 
policy making at local, national, European and in ternational levels. Under the draft law the General 
                                                 
1  In accordance with Chapter III of the ‘Guide to consultation of the European  Central Bank by national authorities 
regarding draft legislative provisions’ (available on the ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu), ‘The duty to consult the 
ECB on amendments to draft legislative provisions which have already been submitted to the ECB for an opinion applies 
to substantive amendments which affect the essence of the draft legislation. It is useful to distinguish between two different [cases]. The first is where substantive amendments are proposed at a stage when the ECB has not yet adopted its opinion. In such situations the ECB e xpects the consulting au thority to submit the amended draft legislative provision to 
it as soon as possible, so that the opinion can be based on the most recent text. The second situation is where substantive 
new provisions are proposed after adoption of the ECB opinion. In the latter situation, the ECB should be consulted in relation to those amendments. However, no further consultation is required if the amendments in essence aim to accommodate the view expressed by the ECB in its opinion. The ECB nevertheless welcomes being kept informed about 
the response to its opinions and receiving details of such amendments for information purposes’. 
2  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2 Secretariat of the National Statistical Service of the Mi nistry of Finance, which has been subject to direct 
control by the State, is converted into an indepe ndent administrative authority, namely HSTAT. HSTAT 
will operate as a legal person governed by public law and benefit from the institutional safeguards 
necessary for its independent function ing. More specifically, Chapter A of  the draft law sets out the rules 
of procedure for the HSS and assigns to HSTAT the coordination of all the ac tivities of the other HSS 
entities for the production of official  national statistics and their transmission to Eurostat, taking into 
account the existing Union legal framework and in particular Council Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on 
European Statistics3, as well as the European Statistics Code of Practice4. Chapter A of the draft law also 
establishes the Hellenic Statistical System Co uncil (HSSC) as an advisory body to HSTAT5. Chapter B of 
the draft law sets out the structure and operational methods of HSTAT6. 
 
2. General observations 
2.1 The ECB welcomes the aim of the draft law to improve the collection, compilation and distribution 
of European and national statistics by the HSS.  At the same time, the ECB underlines that, 
irrespective of the general institutional setting, the specific arrangements of a national statistical 
system should aim to optimise the reliability and efficiency of the statistical production process and ensure that the statistics provided are of high quali ty, in particular with a view to preserving the 
credibility and the sound functioning of monetary union. The achievement of these aims relies on 
the efficient and effective implementation of the arrangements introduced by the draft law.  
2.2 There are two complementary regimes for the pr oduction of European statistics set out in 
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 and in Regulation (EC) No 2533/98
7. The ECB notes that the 
                                                 
3  Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament an d of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics 
and repealing Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1101/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the 
transmission of data subject to statisti cal confidentiality to the Statistical O ffice of the European Communities, Council 
Regulation (EC) No 322/97 on Community Statistics, an d Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom establishing a 
Committee on the Statistical Programmes of the Eu ropean Communities (OJ L 87, 31.3.2009, p. 164). 
4  The Code was endorsed by the Commission in its Recommendation of 25 May 2005 on the independence, integrity and 
accountability of the national and Community statistical authorities (COM(2005) 217 final). Articles 1 and 2 of 
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 stipulate that the statistical principles set out in Article 338(2) of the TFEU and in 
Article 2 of the Regulation are further elaborated in the Europ ean Statistics Code of Practice. The Code of Practice is to 
be reviewed and updated as necessary by the European Statistical System Co mmittee (ESS Committee). While the Code 
of Practice does not form an integral part of Regulation  (EC) No 223/2009, the authority to further elaborate the 
statistical principles in the Code of Practice is cl early specified in Regulation (EC) No 223/2009.  
5  Under Article 3 of the draft law, the composition of th e HSSC, which will be chaired by the HSTAT President (the 
chairman of the Council of Economic Ad visors will be its vice-chairman), also includes one member nominated by the 
Bank of Greece. The HSSC will advise HSTAT on: a) the Hellenic Statistical Programme; b) the Rules on Statistical Obligations; c) the priorities of the HSS on the basis of developments at European and international levels and on 
measures to reduce the administrative response cost of HSS entities; d) issues relating to the need for coherence in the 
production of statistics by the HSS ent ities and compliance with statistical princi ples, as well as further development and 
dissemination of the Code of Conduct for all such entities;  e) issues pertaining to statistical confidentiality; 
f) methodology issues which arise in the preparation and application of statistical programmes, especially issues 
pertaining to statistics at Euro pean and intern ational levels. 
6  Under Article 9(4) of the draft law, HSTAT will be entrusted with the systematic production of official statistics, the 
conduct of scientific research and carryin g out studies, which: a) concern all area s of activity of the public and private 
sector; b) support decision-making, as well as the definition and evaluation of Government and public sector policies; c) are submitted to international organi sations for the purpose of complying with Greece’s obligations; and d) concern the 
general public or specific categories of us ers of statistics within Greece or abroad. 
7  Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the collection of statistical information by the 
European Central Bank (OJ L 318, 27.11.1998, p. 8). 
3 explanatory memorandum of the draft law takes account of these complementary regimes by 
expressly stating that the distinct institutional framework governing the co llection of statistical 
information by the ECB, assisted by the Bank of Greece, within its fields of competence, is not 
affected by the draft law in any way. The ECB strongly recommends including in the draft law 
itself, and ideally in its Article 1, an explicit st atement that the draft law is without prejudice to 
Article 5 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank. The ECB also strongly recommends that it should be clear in the draft law that, as a member 
of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), the Bank of Greece has a duty to cooperate with 
the ECB and other Eurosystem central banks on statis tical matters and to comp ile official statistics. 
Such a clarification would be welcome to the extent  that the Bank of Greece may also be entrusted 
with the compilation of ce rtain official statistics
8 in the context of the HSS9. 
2.3 Furthermore, given the complementary regimes fo r the production of European statistics, ensuring 
effective cooperation between the Bank of Greece , as a producer of European Statistics under 
Regulation (EC) No 2533/98, and the HSS entities is very important for cost-effectiveness and, in 
particular, for the quality of the statistics. The ECB would favour a formalisation of such 
cooperation either by means of the draft law or by any other means that the relevant national 
authorities deem appropriate. In addition, for th e purposes of such cooperation the ECB emphasises 
the importance of ensuring that a national statistical  system should allow for the transmission of 
confidential data to ESCB members, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 and 
Regulation (EC) No 2533/98, while preservi ng strict confidentiality safeguards.  
 3. HSS entities’ tasks, statistical principles and quality criteria 
3.1  Without prejudice to the general observations made above, the ECB notes that, for the purpose of 
ensuring that the HSS entities can adequately perfo rm their tasks, Articles 1(4) and (5) of the draft 
law provide for the application of the statistic al principles and quality criteria set out in 
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. While the ECB welcomes the aim of the Greek legislator to 
optimise the proposed national statistical system , among other things by aligning it with the 
European Statistical System framework, it ma kes the following spec ific observations.  
3.2 HSS entities’ tasks 
The draft law could benefit from a clearer formul ation of the responsibilities and duties of HSTAT 
and the other HSS entities. For exam ple, Article 1(2) of the draf t law stipulates that the HSS 
entities will be HSTAT and the other entities in the list  of HSS entities determined by a decision of 
HSTAT’s Board in accordance with Article 10(8). At the same time, Article 4(3)(b) of the draft law seems to exclude HSTAT from the definition of HSS entities, in particular if  read in conjunction 
                                                 
8  See Article 55C of the Bank of Greece’s Statute. 
9  Article 1(2) of the draft law stipulates that the HSS entities will comprise the HSTAT and the other HSS entities, which 
have the responsibility for or obligation to collect data and which will be included in the list of HSS entities under 
Article 10(8) of the draft law. At the same time Article 10(5) of the draft law refers to the list of ‘national authorities’ 
within the meaning of Article 5(2) of Regulation (E C) No 223/2009, which includes the Bank of Greece. 
4 with Article 4(3)(a) thereof, as it states that  the Hellenic Statistical Programme is to be 
implemented by the HSS entities ‘or HSTAT’. In the light of the above, the ECB recommends the use of consistent formulations for, and a clearer  delineation of, the responsibilities assigned to HSS 
entities, since this could contribute to ensuring  the necessary quality of statistics, as also 
highlighted in the following paragraphs. The ECB al so notes that there is scope for enhancing the 
consistency of the use of terminology in the draft law
10.  
3.3 Independence of HSTAT  
3.3.1 The draft law estab lishes HSTAT as an independent author ity and ensures that the HSS entities 
comply with the quality criteria set out in Artic le 12 of Regulation (EC)  No 223/2009. The ECB 
notes that under the draft law HSTAT has functio nal independence and administrative and financial 
autonomy, not being subject to control by any government body or other administrative authority 
but, rather, being supervised by the Hellenic Parliament11. To the extent that the concept and scope 
of supervision cannot be clearly derived from the draft law, for the purposes of safeguarding the 
independent nature of HSTAT and avoiding an y misunderstanding, the ECB would welcome the 
use of the formulation ‘is accountable to’ rather th an ‘supervised by’ in Article 9(2) of the draft 
law. Furthermore, the ECB recommends specifyi ng in Article 9 of the draft law how such 
accountability towards the Hellenic Parl iament will be carried out.    
3.3.2 HSTAT will be governed by its President an d Board. Under Article 12 of the draft law, the 
composition of HSTAT’s Board comprises seven memb ers, each appointed by the Speaker of the 
Hellenic Parliament for a four-year term of of fice, renewable once. Th e Board will comprise: 
(i) the HSTAT president as its chairman to be se lected by the Conference of Presidents of the 
Hellenic Parliament; (ii) four members, including the vice-chairman, also to be selected by the 
Conference of Presidents of the Hellenic Parliament ; (iii) one representative from the Ministry of 
Finance, to be nominated by the Minister of Finance; and (iv) one member to be nominated by the HSTAT’s staff union. To further enhance HSTAT’s independence, the ECB recommends that the chairman and members of HSTAT’s Board should be appointed for longer terms of office and that 
the terms of office for different Board members sh ould be staggered, with a view to ensuring 
continuity in policymaking. Furthermore, the use of  the term ‘representative’ in relation to the 
Board member nominated by the Minister of Financ e seems to be incompatible with Article 15(1) 
of the draft law, on the safeguards of HSTAT’s independence, according to which the chairman 
and members of HSTAT’s Board enjoy personal independence in the performance of their duties 
and are bound only by the law and their conscience s. Moreover, under the same Article, HSTAT’s 
President must be employed by HSTAT on a fu ll-time basis, while the other Board members may 
not hold any remunerated or non-remunerated public  office or engage in any other professional 
activities of a business or other nature, which are incompatible with their status and duties as 
                                                 
10  See e.g. the different terms used in Articles 6(3) and 7(1) of the Greek version of the draft law in relation to the 
identification of reporting agents in the context of statistical confidentiality; thes e terms are not in line with the term 
introduced in Article 1(3) of the draft law for the same concept. 
11  See Articles 9(1) and (2) of the draft law. 
5 members of HSTAT’s Board. While the ECB welcomes  the independence safeguards in Article 15, 
it is of the view that the draft law leaves broa d discretion as to which types of activities may be 
considered incompatible with su ch persons’ status and duties12 and recommends that also the vice-
chairman of HSTAT should be employed by HSTAT on a full-time basis.  Furthermore, under 
Article 15(2) of the draft law, the chairman a nd members of the Board may be dismissed by a 
decision of the body appointing them on serious grounds relating to the performance of their duties or for failure to perform their duties due to illn ess or disability. The ECB recommends that these 
serious grounds should be further specified in the draft law.   
3.3.3 Article 16 of the draft law provides for a multitude of income source s for HSTAT, including 
Union, public and private funds
13. Article 4 of the draft law, on the production of statistics, 
stipulates that the production of  statistics that need to be compiled is weighed against the 
availability of human and financial resources.  The ECB emphasises the importance of the 
availability of adequate resources at all times for the appropriate fulfilment of HSTAT’s tasks in line with Union legal obligations. In this resp ect, the ECB draws the consulting authority’s 
attention to the need to ensure the adequacy of re gular and secure resources. The need to ensure the 
availability of resources is also underlined by the European Statistics Code of Practice, which 
stipulates that staff, financial and computing reso urces, adequate both in magnitude and in quality, 
should be available to meet European statistics needs.  
3.4 Quality and confidentiality of statistics under the HSS  
3.4.1 Article 5(1) of the draft law stipulates that, in  order to safeguard the qua lity of the HSS’s results, 
HSS entities must develop, produce and disseminate statistics on the basis of uniform standards and 
harmonised methods, applying the evaluation criteria of  Article 1(5) of the draft law, which in turn 
refers to the quality benchmarks set out in Article  12 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. The ECB 
emphasises the importance of the high quality of statistics and recommends that the ‘certification’ 
procedure, which is referred to in  Articles 1(6) and 10(9) of the draft law and which will be set out 
in detail in the HSTAT’s Rules of Operation and Administration, should allow for thorough data 
validation to ensure the quality of the statistics produced. In view of the above, the ECB draws the 
consulting authority’s attention to the need for HSS entities to provide HSTAT with all relevant 
statistical information required for the purposes of da ta validation as promptly as possible. In this 
respect, and in order to provide a practical safeguard for ensuring compliance with the 
abovementioned principles and qu ality standards, the ECB recomme nds that, without prejudice to 
Article 5(2) of the draft law, each HSS entity should submit a quality report to HSTAT at least 
once a year. As a minimum, such quality reports should address the completeness of the data, their compliance with relevant definitions and/or acco unting rules, their internal consistency, their 
timeliness and their reliability. HSS entities should  also properly document any cases of reporting 
                                                 
12  The  explanatory memorandum states that this provision is intended to prevent cases of e.g. the engagement of Board 
members in companies conducting public opinion surveys. However, the current formulation of the draft law remains unclear as to the scope of activities. 
13  E.g. State budget funds, own asset management, sales of HSTA T’s statistical products to third parties, grants, donations 
and other contributions from public or private sector entities, administrative fines etc. 
6 agents’ non-compliance with their obligations to provide the required data, as well as any major 
data revisions. Moreover, the quality reports shou ld provide HSTAT with a detailed inventory of 
the methods, procedures and sources used to co llect data and produce st atistics. The ECB would 
also welcome a clarification of the access rights provided for in the first sentence of Article 2(3) of 
the draft law. In particular, HSTAT’s access rights should not be limited to ‘statistics’, as the current formulation suggests; HSTAT should also have access to primary information.  
3.4.2  On the confidentiality of statistics, the ECB notes that under Article 7(2) of the draft law HSS 
entities may refuse to transmit conf idential data if such data relate to national defence, State 
security and Greece’s internationa l relations. This provision is not in line with Regulation (EC) 
No 223/2009 or Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 of 25 May 2009 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure anne xed to the Treaty establishing the European 
Community
14. Against this background, arrangements sh ould be put in place that allow for the 
proper recording of all government expenditure, including military expenditure, in the national 
accounts without compromising secret State information. 
 
4. Statistics used for administrative purposes  
4.1 It is also important to ensure the highest qualit y of statistics used for administrative purposes, such 
as the statistics on the Harmonized Index for Consumer Prices (HICP) and the Excessive Deficit 
Procedure (EDP). In particular, the credibility of  budgetary surveillance in the European Union 
and, ultimately, as stated above, the credibilit y and the sound functioning of monetary union, 
depend on the reliable and timely compilation of EDP statistics, independen tly of political cycles. 
Although the draft law aims to ensure the indepe ndence of HSTAT, the independence of the other 
HSS entities under the draft law is not ensured. Inde ed, the current formulation of Article 2(3) of 
the draft law seems to allow, in practice, one or  more of these HSS entities in the private or the 
public sector to be entrusted with the comp ilation of EDP statistics. However, the ECB 
recommends that the draft law should expressly stipulate that HSTAT is responsible for the 
compilation of EDP statistics, and that the ot her HSS entities should provide HSTAT with the 
administrative source data necessary for such compilation.  
4.2 Furthermore, the ECB recommends that the other HSS entities should provide HSTAT with all 
information necessary for verifying the plausib ility of the source data feeding into the EDP 
statistics as promptly as possible. Such verificatio n should be made by comparing these source data 
                                                 
14  OJ L 145, 10.6.2009, p. 1. Article 8(2) of Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 stipulates that: ‘Member States shall provide the 
Commission (Eurostat), as promptly as possible, with the rele vant statistical information requested for the needs of data 
quality assessment, without prejudice to the provisions relating to the st atistical confidentiality in Council 
Regulation (EC) 322/97’. Article 21(1) of Regulation 22 3/2009, which has replaced Regulation (EC) No 322/97, 
stipulates that the transmission of confid ential data from an ESS authority, as refe rred to in Article 4 of that Regulation, 
that has collected the data to another ESS authority may take place if this information is necessary for the efficient 
development, production and dissemination of European statistics, and Article 21(4) further specifies that national rules on statistical confidentiality may not be invoked to prevent the transfer of confid ential data, where an act of the European 
Parliament and of the Council in accordance with Article 294 of the Treaty provides for the transmission of the data. 
Article 8(2) of Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 is such a pr ovision on the transmission of  confidential information for 
quality assessment and improvement purposes. 
7 with monetary and financial statistics collected by  the Bank of Greece. The quality of the source 
data would also be improved by the establishment of an independent budget office to monitor the execution of the budget, as envisaged in th e updated Hellenic Stability and Growth Programme
15. 
The ECB recommends that HSTAT, the Bank of Gr eece and the relevant HSS entities should draw 
up a memorandum of understanding to define thei r various responsibilities in the field of EDP 
statistics. 
 
This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website. 
  
Done at Frankfurt am Main, 23 February 2010. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
 
                                                 
15  See Annex D of the Updated Hellenic Stability and Growth Programme (January 2010), available on the website of the 
Ministry of Finance (www.mnec.gr).