EN Official Journal of the European Union C 175/8

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Community Statistical Programme 2008 to 2012’

COM(2006) 687 final — 2006/0229 (COD)

(2007/C 175/02)

On 19 January 2007, the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee, under Article 262 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the abovementioned proposal.

The Section for Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 19 April 2007. The rapporteur was Mr Santillán.

At its 436th plenary session, held on 30 and 31 May 2007 (meeting of 30 May), the European Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 159 votes to 1 and 5 abstentions.

1. Conclusions

1.1 The EESC welcomes the proposal for the five-year statistical programme 2008-2012 and agrees with the assertion that harmonised and comparable statistics are indispensable for the understanding of Europe among the general public, for the participation of citizens in the debate and for the participation of economic operators in the single market.

1.2 The EESC highlights the need for Eurostat as well as national statistical institutions to have the best human and financial resources that budgets will allow, because this is essential to meeting the increasingly demanding requirements for statistical information and because of the European Union's importance as a player on the world stage.

1.3 The Committee considers that greater emphasis should be placed on aspects relating to the wellbeing of Europeans and to this end suggests that the statistical programme be extended to cover the following areas: — policies for children; — the ageing of the population and the situation of the elderly; — reconciling family and working life; — social policy should also form a separate chapter.

1.4 Given its enormous importance in achieving the Lisbon objectives, the attention the Statistical Programme 2008-2012 gives to improving statistical information on education and vocational training may be considered inadequate.

1.5 Statistics should also be provided for the Social Economy, since this plays such an important role in the European Union.

1.6 There are also areas where the statistical information currently available is inadequate. Thus the five-year programme should thus focus more closely on the following areas: — immigration and asylum; this is an increasingly important issue, for which no sufficiently reliable statistics are available; — crime and criminal justice; — employment; although statistics do exist covering the active population, employment, unemployment, etc, the rapid developments in the labour market — the emergence of new economic activities, the creation of new professions and new types of contract — mean that methods for carrying out surveys and working in this field must be constantly updated.

1.7 The EESC wishes to point out that, in accordance with the Treaty, ‘The production of statistics … shall not entail excessive burdens on economic operators. (1)’ This will require: a) firstly, endeavouring not to impose unnecessary or excessive costs on businesses, especially SMEs; b) secondly, not repeating requests for data. The basic principle should be that each set of data is provided just once, and should then be distributed and shared amongst statistical organisations, whilst adhering to the principles governing Community statistics (statistical confidentiality, etc.).

1.8 Statistics for external trade: corrections should be made to the discrepancies that have been noted between the figures for exports from one given country to another and the figures for the second country's imports from the first. In other words, the figure given for A's exports to B is different to the figure given for B's imports from A.

1.9 Given the diversity of a European Union comprising 27 Member States, the EESC wishes to highlight the importance of striving to ensure the best possible coordination of statistical terminology.

1.10 To ensure that statistical data is as neutral as possible and to guarantee the other principles set out in the Code of Good Practice (including statistical confidentiality), the EESC considers it to be crucial that the work of private agencies operating (directly or indirectly) within the European Statistical System be monitored.

2. Gist of the proposal

2.1 Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 (2) calls for a multi-annual Community Statistical Programme (CSP) (3) to define the approaches, the main fields and the objectives of the actions envisaged for a period not exceeding five years, and to constitute the framework for the production of all Community statistics. The CSP is implemented via annual work programmes which provide more detailed work objectives for each year and via specific legislation for major actions. The CSP is subject to mid-term progress reporting and formal evaluation after the expiry of the programme period.

2.2 Against this background, the objective of the proposal — the legal base for which is Article 285 of the Treaty establishing the European Community — is to put in place a comprehensive strategic programme for official Community statistics. It should comprise the production and delivery of products and services to users, the improvement of the quality of statistics and the further development of the European Statistical System (4).

2.3 The main purpose of official Community statistics is to underpin on a recurring basis the development, monitoring and evaluation of Community policies with reliable, objective, comparable and coherent factual information. In some areas the statistical information is also used directly for the management of key policies by the Community institutions.

2.4 The 2008-2012 CSP is guided by the following policy priorities: — prosperity, competitiveness and growth, — solidarity, economic and social cohesion and sustainable development, — security and — further enlargement of the European Union.

2.5 When drawing up the proposal for a decision, the Commission consulted all interested parties, including the EU Member States, the EFTA and candidate countries and the technical working groups of the ESS. The European Advisory Committee on Statistical Information in the Economic and Social Spheres (CEIES) (5) and the Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payments Statistics (CMFB) both delivered opinions on this subject (6).

2.6 With regard to the programme's approach, and given the two possible options, the ‘restricted’ vs. the ‘comprehensive’, the Commission opted for the second, bearing in mind three factors: a) the capabilities and efficiency, b) the costs incurred by Member States implementing these measures and c) the burden on enterprises and households.

3. General comments

3.1 The EESC has stated its views on the statistical programmes (7) and on various specific aspects of the Union's statistical policy on a number of occasions over the years. In general terms, the Committee has constantly sought to highlight the importance of the statistical system in achieving the EU's economic, social and political objectives and the need to support and strengthen Eurostat, which is a key element of this system, as are the national statistical institutions, although these are a matter for the Member States.

3.2 The EESC reaffirms these criteria and furthermore wishes to point out, with regard to this Decision, three aspects which made it necessary to have the best possible statistical system: the EU's role as a world player, meeting the Lisbon and enlargement objectives and the fact that coordinating the statistics of 27 States is a challenge unprecedented in history. In a nutshell, for the EU to succeed, it must have, amongst other things, an efficient statistical system.

3.3 As far as resources are concerned, the 2008-2012 five-year programme has a budget allocation of EUR 274.2 million (a 24.3 % increase over the operational resources allocated to the 2003-2007 programme). Account must, however, be taken of other factors not covered by this figure (8). If administrative costs and co-financing by Member States or other bodies are included, commitment appropriations total EUR 739.34 million.

3.4 Statistical Governance. According to the Code of Practice (9), national authorities and the Community Statistical Authority shall: a) establish an institutional and organisational environment which promotes the effectiveness and credibility of national and Community statistical authorities producing and disseminating official statistics; b) observe European standards, guidelines and good practices in the processes used by the national and the Community statistical authorities to organise, collect, process and disseminate official statistics and strive for a reputation for good management and efficiency to strengthen the credibility of these statistics; c) ensure that Community statistics comply with the European quality standards and serve the needs of European Union institutional users, governments, research institutions, civil society organisations, enterprises and the public generally.

3.5 The 2008-2012 Statistical Programme proposes to achieve 32 cross-cutting aims (detailed in Annex I) and sets out some 90 objectives and practical actions (Annex II), covering both general policies and 18 specific areas of existing EU policy.

3.5.1 The programme provides for measures in the following main areas: — Free movement of goods — Agriculture — Free movement of persons, services and capital — Visas, asylum, immigration and other policies related to the free movement of persons — Transport — Common rules on competition, taxation and approximation of laws — Economic and monetary policy — Employment; — Common commercial policy — Customs cooperation — Social policy, education, vocational training and youth — Culture — Public health — Consumer protection — Trans-European networks — Industry (including statistics on the information society) — Economic and social cohesion — Research and technological development — Environment — Development cooperation — Economic, financial and technical cooperation with third countries.

4. Specific comments

4.1 Given the ambitious aims of the 2008-2012 Programme, which now include close coordination between Eurostat and the statistical authorities of the 27 Member States, there is a need to prioritise statistical work and to use the limited resources as efficiently as possible.

4.2 Article 4 of the proposed Decision refers to establishing statistical priorities, given the need to use limited resources as efficiently as possible. Nevertheless, it does not set out any criteria or means for establishing these priorities. This is also difficult to do when, at the same time, there is an acknowledged need to further develop or create new areas of work.

4.3 The EESC agrees with the statement that ‘The rapid evolution in the capacity and availability of the Internet will make it the prime tool for the dissemination of statistical data in the future. It will significantly increase the potential user community and thus create new opportunities for dissemination’ (10). In order to achieve this objective and also bearing in mind that Eurostat's website reflects on the European Union, data should be presented as readably, simply and attractively as technology allows.

4.4 The EESC agrees with the assertion that cooperation between Eurostat and the national statistical institutes should be stepped up (11). The Committee wishes to point out, however, that the proposed Decision does not lay down any concrete measures for stepping up this cooperation.

4.5 European statistics — scope and priorities. The EESC wishes to highlight that, as is clear from the list of measures set out in point 3.5.1 of this opinion, the statistical system basically focuses on economic aspects and fails to provide sufficient information on social aspects, which have a direct impact on the life of the EU's inhabitants. The Committee also wishes to state that social policy has much closer links with education, vocational training and youth than with other areas.

Brussels, 30 May 2007. The President of the European Economic and Social Committee Dimitris DIMITRIADIS

(1) Treaty establishing the European Community, Art. 285(2).

(2) OJ L 52, 22.2.1997, page 1.

(3) Article 3(1).

(4) The partnership comprising Eurostat, national statistical authorities and other national authorities responsible in each Member State for producing and disseminating European Statistics.

(5) Established by Council Decision 91/116/EEC (amended by Council Decision 97/255/EC).

(6) Council Decision 91/115/EEC (amended by Council Decision 96/174/EC).

(7) In 1998, the EESC delivered an opinion on the ‘Proposal for a Council Decision on the Community Statistical Programme1998-2002’, OJ C 235, 27.7.1998, p. 60, and again in 2002 on the ‘Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Community statistical programme 2003 to 2007’, OJ C 125, 27.5.2002, p. 17.

(8) Expenditure on staff and administration; operational resources on other statistical budget lines which could be additionally opened to cover new regulatory needs over the period 2008-2012 (Edicom type actions); operational resources made available by other Directorates-General on their budget lines; resources at the national and regional level. Eurostat will redeploy its own operational and human resources to respect the overall priorities of the programme.

(9) Commission Recommendation on the independence, integrity and accountability of the national and Community statistical authorities. COM (2005) 217 final.

(10) Annex I. 3.6. Dissemination.

(11) Annex I. 3.6. Dissemination.