EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 4 May 2009 
on the organisation and functioning of official statistics in Romania  
(CON/2009/42) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 25 March 2009 the European Central Bank (ECB)  received a request from the Romanian National 
Institute of Statistics (NIS) for an opinion on a draft Law on the organisation and functioning of official 
statistics in Romania (hereinafter the ‘draft law’). 
The ECB’s competence to deliver an  opinion is based on Article 105(4) of the Treaty establishing the 
European Community and the third and the fourth in dents 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 provisions1, as the draft law contains both provisions on the Banca Na ţională a României 
(BNR) and on the collection, compilation and distri bution of monetary, fina ncial, banking, payment 
systems and balance of payments statistics. In accord ance 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 
1.1 The draft law establishes the legal framework fo r the organisation and functioning of official 
statistics in Romania and sets up the National Statistical System (NSS). It also repeals the Government Ordinance on the organisation of official statistics
2. According to the draft law, the 
NSS comprises the NIS and the statistical offices of the central government, local government and other public authorities and institutions. The draft law also includes BNR as part of the NSS
3, 
but specifies that BNR, as an independent public institution, is responsible for producing official 
statistics in the areas within its field of comp etence according to Law No 312/2004 on the Statute 
of Banca Na ţională a României4. 
1.2 Furthermore, when defining offici al statistics under Article 2 of the draft law, a clear distinction is 
drawn between the activities organised for the coll ection, processing, analysis and dissemination of 
statistical data, the development of a statistical cu lture, and the creation and administration of official 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2  Government Ordinance No 9/1992 on the organisation of official statistics, approve d with amendments by Law 
No 11/1994 republished in Monitorul Oficial, Part One, No 763, 18.10.2002. 
3  Article 6(1) and (3) of the draft law. 
4  Published in Monitorul Oficial al României , Part One, No 582, 30.6.2004. 
2 statistical data series by the publ ic authorities and institutions, on the one hand, and by BNR, 
on the other hand.  
1.3 The draft law introduces substantial changes to the current legal framework of the NIS, which is 
the primary producer of the State’s official statistics. A ccording to Article 7, NIS is responsible for 
coordinating the statistical activiti es of the public authorities and institutions comprising the NSS, 
with the exception of BNR. Nevertheless, Article 7(3) specifies that NIS and BNR must cooperate and coordinate their activities w ith a view to increasing efficien cy, reducing the response burden on 
primary data providers, improving the quality of st atistical data and disseminating them at national 
and international level.  
1.4 The National Statistical Council, an advisory board  to the NIS, is established by the draft law. Its 
aim is to ensure that official statistics-related activities are objective, transparent and of a scientific 
nature and to minimise the re porting burden on data providers. A representative of BNR will hold a 
seat on the advisory board. Furthermore, Article 6( 5) provides that BNR may draw up development 
strategies and statistical implementation programmes with regard to official statistics in its fields of competence.  
1.5 The draft law endorses the Fundamental Principl es of Official Statistics adopted by the United 
Nations Statistical Commission
5. More specifically, Chapter II of the draft law addresses 
professional independence, impartiality and obj ectivity, confidentiality,  quality, appropriate 
procedures and sound methodology, accuracy and reliability, and access rights. Chapter X of the 
draft law requires the NIS and other producers of official statistics to adopt administrative, 
organisational and technical measures for the prot ection of confidential statistical data and to 
prevent unauthorised access, dissemination, alienation and destruction of these data. 
 2. General observations  2.1 Ensuring effective cooperation between a national cen tral bank, as a producer of official statistics, 
and other statistical authorities is often vital for guaranteeing the availability, quality and cost-
effectiveness of the statistics required by the ECB.  Whatever the general institutional setting, the 
specific arrangements should aim to optimise the qual ity and availability of official statistics, while 
preserving in all respects the independence of th e central bank, which derives from the central 
bank’s participation in the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) in general and from its duty 
to collaborate with the ECB on statistical matters in particular
6. 
2.2 A significant feature of the draft law refers to  the recognition of BNR as a producer of official 
statistics7. Although the statistical responsibilities of BN R have been established by the Law on the 
Statute of BNR, there was no explicit recognition of th is function in the previous legislation, i.e. the 
Government Ordinance on the organisation of offi cial statistics. The ECB welcomes the provisions 
                                                 
5  Available on the United Nations Statisti cs Division website at unstats.un.org. 
6  See CON/2008/6. 
7  Article 6(3) of the draft law. 
3 of the draft law recognising and preserving BNR’ s independence as a participant in the NSS and 
producer of official statistics relating to its areas of  competence. In this cont ext, legal certainty is 
provided that the statistical activities of BNR ar e not coordinated by the NIS in its role as 
coordinator of the NSS. 
2.3 The ECB welcomes the draft law as it will provide cl arity on the Romanian statistical system. This 
should have a positive impact on the quality a nd availability of official statistics. 
 3. Specific remarks  3.1 Article 4(j) of the draft law provides that official statistics  are represented by the ‘activities regulated 
… by the Law on the Statute of BNR, in accordance with the fundamental principles of national statistics’. The wording of this provision could be cl arified in order to acknowledge that the statistics 
developed, produced and disseminat ed by BNR as part of the ESCB are governed by statistical 
principles that are close but not identical to  the principles of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009
8.  
3.2 Finally, while the ECB notes that the draft la w remains silent on the possibility to exchange 
confidential information for the efficient compila tion of European statisti cs, it understands that a 
transmission of confidential data by the NIS to  the members of the ESCB remains possible in line 
with the enabling clause provided fo r in Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. 
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.    Done at Frankfurt am Main, 4 May 2009. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
                                                 
8  Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and 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 statistical confidentiality to  the Statistical Office of the European Communities, Council 
Regulation (EC) No 322/97 on Community Statistics, a nd Council Decision 89/382/EEC,  Euratom establishing a 
Committee on the Statistical Programmes of the European Communities (OJ L 87, 31.03.2009, p. 164).