EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, 12.7.2022 COM(2022) 333 final REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the ‘Commitments on Confidence in Statistics’ by Member States as required by Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009











REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND TO THE COUNCIL on the ‘Commitments on Confidence in Statistics’ by Member States as required by Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 1.Introduction 1.1.Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics This is the third report drawn up by the Commission in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics, and in particular Article 11(4) establishing that: ‘The Commitments by Member States shall be monitored regularly by the Commission on the basis of annual reports sent by Member States and shall be updated as necessary. … The Commission shall report to the European Parliament and the Council on the published Commitments and, where appropriate, progress reports, by 9 June 2018 and every two years thereafter.’ The first report was published in 2018 and the second in 2020. 1.1.Commitment on Confidence in Statistics The concept of Commitment on Confidence in Statistics (‘Commitment’) has its roots in the aim to improve the quality framework for statistics. It is described for the first time in a 2011 Commission Communication. The concept is a means to involve national governments in the responsibility for the level of a country's compliance with the European Statistics Code of Practice (‘Code’). The Code sets the standard for developing, producing and disseminating European statistics. It is based on 16 principles concerning the institutional environment, statistical processes and outputs. It aims to ensure that European statistics are not only relevant, timely and accurate but also comply with principles of professional independence, impartiality and objectivity. The Commitment establishes a link between the Code and a Member State government, which was previously missing. According to Article 11(3) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009, the Commitment is an instrument that ‘shall further aim to ensure public trust in European statistics and progress in the implementation of the statistical principles contained in the Code of Practice’, to be adopted by both Member States and the Commission. Recital 17 of amending Regulation (EU) No 2015/759 also states that the Commitment ‘should include specific undertakings by the government of that Member State to improve or maintain the conditions for the implementation of the Code of Practice’. 1.2.European Statistical System (ESS) peer reviews Eurostat and the national statistical authorities of all Member States and EFTA countries form a partnership to produce European statistics called the European Statistical System (ESS). To guarantee the quality of their statistics, the ESS members created a common quality framework with the Code as the cornerstone. Besides the Commitments, the ESS peer reviews, which are periodically conducted to assess members’ compliance with the Code, is an important instrument to ensure the implementation of the common quality framework and thus the quality of European statistics. The ESS peer reviews are conducted regularly, involving self-assessments, country visits and a peer review report for each reviewed country containing recommendations for improvement, which are followed up through improvement actions and their annual monitoring by Eurostat. Two previous rounds of peer reviews were carried out from 2006 to 2008 and from 2013 to 2015. The current third round runs from 2021 to 2023. 2.Overview of Commitments on Confidence and country reports 2.1.General provisions

According to Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009, Member States must establish and publish a Commitment, or at least send to the Commission and publish a progress report on the implementation of the Code and the efforts made towards establishing a Commitment. The Commission monitors the Commitments regularly, on the basis of annual reports sent by Member States. 2.2.Form of the Commitment Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 does not set out rules on the form the Commitment should take. However, the Commitments must include specific policy commitments and be presented and drafted in a way to ensure the right conditions for high-quality statistics. Member States that consider certain parts of their respective legislation to constitute the Commitment generally refer to the specific legal provisions that are relevant for improving or maintaining the conditions for the implementation of the Code and report on recent developments. Member States that have established stand-alone Commitments have notified the Commission of them and made the Commitments public. Section 2.2.1. below provides an overview of existing Commitments for which significant developments were reported during 2020 and 2021: 2.2.1.National laws constituting the Commitment Croatia: The new Official Statistics Act entered into force in March 2020. It gives the Croatian Bureau of Statistics the professional independence and the support it needs to maintain and improve the conditions for implementing the Code. The provisions on the appointment and dismissal of the Director-General were improved, and provisions on co-operation and co-ordination within the statistical system and a new funding basis were drawn up. Significant progress was reported preparing the planned stand-alone Commitment. Czechia: The Commitment was published on 28 February 2018. In 2020 and 2021, the government continued to fully respect the principle of professional independence of the Czech Statistical Office, which in turn actively promoted professional independence principles and acted in accord with them. Denmark: In 2020 and 2021, the National Statistician prepared new mandatory quality guidelines based on the Code which include monitoring and reporting to the government and form the basis of a national enforcement procedure. Finland: The relevant national statistical act is being revised and will be presented to Parliament in the course of 2022. France: The process to enshrine in law the professional independence of statistics progressed well. The Ministry for Culture has already amended the decree accordingly. On the adequacy of resources, a multi-year contract was signed, providing assurance that the objectives would be achieved and internal management improved. The ESS peer review visit already took place in 2021. Italy: The ESS peer review visit will take place in late 2022. In 2020 and 2021, the quality policy of the statistical institute was updated, the quality committee was re-constituted and the second edition of the Italian Statistics Code of Practice was approved. Efforts in preparing a ‘self-standing’ Commitment continued. Netherlands: Many steps were taken in 2020 and 2021 to improve compliance with the Code. For instance, in 2020, Statistics Netherlands released a new human resources strategy for 2020-2025 and acquired several ISO certifications. Spain: The Commitment is implemented as part of the 2021-2024 National Statistics Plan and the subsequent annual programmes. A specific website hosted by the national statistical institute includes a citizens’ summary of the Commitment, with links to all multiannual plans and annual programmes since 2016. Slovakia: The ‘Act on State Statistics’ constitutes the Commitment. It was amended in 2021 to clarify this and to implement the principles of the Code. Other Member States considering the Commitment to be constituted by national law that reported no major changes in the last 2 years include: Austria, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Poland and Portugal. 2.2.2.Stand-alone Commitments Bulgaria: