EN    EN  
 EUROPEAN  
COMMISSION 
Brussels, 24.6.2015  
COM(2015) 309 final 
  
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 
on the implementation of the European Statis tical Programme 2013-2017 
 
 
1 
 1. I NTRODUCTION  
Regulation (EU) No 99/20131 on the European statistic al programme for 2013-2017 
was adopted on 15 January 2013. 
Article 15 of the Regula tion requires the Commission to submit an intermediate 
progress report on the implementation of the programme to the European Parliament and to the Council by 30 June  2015. It must consult the Eu ropean Statistical System 
Committee before submitting this report. 
The intermediate progress report is consider ed as an evaluation of the programme to 
date against the Commission’s standards. It must therefore cover five evaluation 
criteria: effectiveness, relevance, effi ciency, EU added value and coherence. 
The scope of the report is limited to the execution of the European statistical 
programme in 2013 and 2014. Relevant progress accomplished in 2015 are also highlighted where appropriate. 
The report is structured in five chapters , corresponding to the fi ve criteria to be 
evaluated, plus one containing a few high level recommendations. 
The European statistical programme has four main objectives. The programme is 
divided into three parts, each focusing on a specific priority area. Objectives 1 and 4 
are covered by the actions unde rtaken in priority area I;  objective 2 corresponds to 
priority area II; and objective 3 to priority area III. The three priority areas are themselves divided into one or two levels of sub-areas. 
There are a total of 23 second-level deta iled objectives, spread across the three 
priority areas. A set of achievement indicators is provided for each of these objectives. A total of 114 achievement i ndicators are used to measure progress 
towards the 23 objectives. 
Since effectiveness is the most relevant crite rion for this kind of report, the chapter 
on effectiveness includes a summary, followed by information on the results 
achieved so far, which is presented respecting exactly the structure of the programme, by the three prior ity areas and sub-areas and their 23 detailed objectives. 
The other chapters only cont ain information related to the programme as a whole. 
In its report on the peer review it conducte d of Eurostat, the European Statistical 
Governance Advisory Board confirmed that Eu rostat is a well-run institution that has 
been strengthened over recent year s. In the view of the auth ors, it is well equipped to 
guide the European Statistical System th rough the process of modernising European 
statistics on a structural and sustainabl e basis, in order to meet the growing 
challenges to be faced in the future. 
2. E
FFECTIVENESS  
Summary 
The Commission is considered to be ‘we ll on track’ to achieving an objective when 
75 % or more of its indicators are being me t. On this basis, 17 of the 23 detailed 
objectives are currently well on track fo r completion, with only limited difficulties 
                                                            
1 Regulation (EU) No 99/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 January 2013 on the 
European statistical programme 2013-17 (OJ L 39, 9.2.2013, p. 12). 
 
2 
 being experienced in relation to the ot her six, these being economic governance 
(1.2.2), people’s Europe (3.2.1) , geospatial, environmental,  agricultural and other 
sectoral statistics (3.3.1 and 3.3.4), prio rity setting and simplification (2.1) and 
partnership within the European Statistical System and beyond (1.1). 
Notably, all Eurostat projects classified as  critical on the basi s of their strategic 
importance, the number of staff involved or  the financial resources invested were 
successfully concluded or are on track. 
Good progress has also been made on the projects related to modernisation. The 
projects involving collaboration between the members of the European Statistical 
System showed good results, with the Euro pean Statistical System collaboration 
networks and the European Statistical Syst em vision implementation projects making 
especially good progress. At the start of  2015, the European Statistical System 
Committee agreed to implement the Eu ropean Statistical System Vision 20202, 
initially through eight European Statistical  System vision implementation projects. 
Further development of the modernisation pr ojects, both in terms of their extent and 
their scope, will depend on the continuous ava ilability of resources for the European 
Statistical System. 
Priority area I: Statistical outputs 
1. Indicators3 
1.1 Europe 2020 
Strengthening economic governance is a f undamental element of the Europe 2020 
strategy. The European statis tical programme was an impor tant data source for the 
Commission Alert Mechanism Report, and pr ovided related statistical information 
for the 2014 and 2015 European Semesters.  Eurostat was, for the first time, 
responsible for preparing th e statistical annex for the Alert Mechanism Report, the 
starting point for the annual Macr oeconomic Imbalances Procedure. 
There were major achievements to mon itor the Europe 2020 Resource Efficiency 
flagship initiative: the resource efficien cy scoreboard was released in December 
2013 and further developed in 2014. 
In the area of social statistics, work  continued towards the development and 
production of high quality indicators for Europe 2020 and Education and Training 
2020. The initial results already released pr ovided more up-to-date data on poverty 
and inequalities and ensured the ava ilability of regional data on poverty. 
In the area of business stat istics, the target indicators for research and development 
intensity, one of the areas c overed by the Europe 2020 strate gy, were released for the 
first time following the rules of the ne w European System of Accounts (ESA 2010)4. 
The data on transnationally coordinated re search, expressed in terms of the national 
research and development budgets, was produced  more quickly. This data is used for 
the monitoring of the European Resear ch Area carried ou t under the Innovation 
Union flagship initiative. 
                                                            
2 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/10186/756730/ESS-Vision-2020.pdf/8d97506b-b802-439e-9ea4-
303e905f4255.  
3 A definition of statistical indicators can be found on pages 19-20 of the European statistical programme 2013-
17. 
4 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/esa-2010.  
 
3 
 A flagship publication5 on the Europe 2020 targets was produced for the first time in 
2013. 
1.2. Economic governance 
The biannual validation of the data for th e Excessive Deficit Procedure marked an 
important achievement in 2014. In the Apri l 2014 notification, Eurostat expressed 
one reservation on the quality of the data reported by Member States, which was lifted in October 2014. In October 2014, Eurost at did not express any reservations on 
the reported data in spite of the impleme ntation of the new European System of 
Accounts methodological framework, ESA 2010, for the first time. The ESA 2010 
data on debt and deficit was accompanied by annual and quarterly national accounts tables on the general government sector. Regulation 479/2009
6, which lays down the 
procedure for Member States' submission of  statistics for the Excessive Deficit 
Procedure,  was amended replacing the refere nce to ‘ESA 95’ in the Regulation with 
‘ESA 2010’. The Manual of Government De ficit and Debt was adapted to ESA 2010. 
1.3. Economic globalisation 
There were three notable developments relating to ongoing work on the global value 
chain: the Sturgeon report — commissi oned by Eurostat — on a measurement 
framework for the global value chain was pub lished; the European Statistical System 
collaboration network on th e global value chain was fina lised; and Member States  
now actively participate in the United Na tions Friends of the Chair group, which is 
working to develop a global framework for the global value chain. 
2. Accounting frameworks 
Eurostat was very active in implementing its action plan GDP and beyond . The plan 
covers the years 2012 to 2014, and fo cuses on three pr iority areas: 
a)  further developing the production of st atistics at household level and the 
production of statistics measuring the di stribution of income, consumption and 
wealth; 
b)  measuring quality of life in a multidimensional way; 
c)  measuring environmental sustainability. 
2.1. Economic and social performance 
Eurostat produced and disseminated high quality economic statistics on national 
accounts, balance of payments, prices a nd purchasing power parities. Its work 
included producing statistics for essential indicator sets such as Europe 2020, the 
Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedure sc oreboard, the sustainable development 
indicators and the principal European econom ic indicators. It al so produced statistics 
for administrative purposes such as cal culating the regional gross domestic product 
for structural funds and the gross na tional income (GNI) for budgetary own 
resources, and calculating sta ff remuneration and pensions. 
Further achievements included producing a mo re detailed breakdown of the euro area 
flash estimate of inflation and managing th e first systematic dissemination of house 
price indices. Member States also sent quarterly price indices for owner-occupied 
                                                            
5  http://ec.europa.eu/eurosta t/product?code=KS-02-13-238. 
6  Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 of 25 May 2009 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive 
deficit procedure annexed to the Treaty establishing the European Community (OJ L 145, 10.6.2009, p. 1). 
 
4 
 housing for the first time, and the Comm ission adopted the proposal for a new 
framework regulation on the harmonised index of consumer prices7. 
Member States were able to send their national accounts and balance of payments 
data under the new methodolog ical frameworks, the latest European System of 
Accounts (ESA 2010) and the sixth edition of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manua l (BPM6). The introdu ction of the new 
frameworks involved using th e new standard for statistical data and metadata 
exchange (SDMX), meaning that work  needed to be carried out on the 
methodological manuals and guidelines. 
The task force for European public sect or accounting standards, created in 2014, 
prepared an impact assessment. The projec t aims to improve the comparability and 
transparency of public sector financ ial reporting by laying the foundations for 
introducing standardised Eu ropean public sector accoun ting and general purpose 
financial reporting standards, under which accounts will be prepared on an accrual basis. 
Eurostat produced a number of publicati ons, covering topics including quarterly 
deficit and debt, the structure of government  debt and trends in taxation. It also 
continued to publish regular press releases  on quarterly government debt and began 
publishing a new euro indicator press re lease on seasonally adjusted quarterly 
government deficit. Eurostat also releas ed its biennial monitoring report on 
sustainable development in the EU at the end of 2013
8. 
For the detailed objective 2.1.2 on key indi cators, Eurostat published two handbooks, 
Getting messages across using indicators  and Towards a harmonised methodology 
for statistical indicators . 
2.2 Environmental sustainability 
The new legislation on European envi ronmental economic accounts (Regulation 
(EU) No 538/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council9) was adopted by 
the Council and the European Parliament . It introduces modules on environmental 
protection expenditure accounts, environm ental goods and services sector accounts 
and energy flow accounts. An updated European strategy for environmental 
accounts, covering the period 2014 to 2018, was adopted by the European Statistical 
System Committee. 
3. Data 
3.1. Business Eurostat concluded the discussions it had b een holding with partners of the European 
Statistical System on several of the indi vidual packages contained within the 
foreseen Framework Regulation In tegrating Business Statistics. 
                                                            
7  http://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html ?uri=cellar:61b14699-7f95-11e4-9e6e-
01aa75ed71a1.0015.03/DOC_1&format=PDF  and http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:61b14699-7f95-11e4-9e6e-
01aa75ed71a1.0015.03/DOC_2&format=PDF.  
8  http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3217494/5760249/KS-02-13-237-EN.PDF/f652a97e-e646-456a-82fc-
34949bbff956. 
9  Regulation (EU) No 538/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 amending 
Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 on Eu ropean environmental economic account s (OJ L 158, 27.5.2 014, p. 113). 
 
5 
 Eurostat continued the testing and impl ementation of ‘European profiling’ — a 
method for analysing the struct ure of businesses. It finalis ed the results of a study 
into the feasibility of the use of mobile positioning data for tourism statistics. Pilot 
studies on the use of microdata linking to explore links between structural business 
statistics and statistics on services trad e by business characteristics continued. 
Studies were also launched into the pot ential for microdata lin king of structural 
business statistics with international trade statistics. Eurostat obtained the data it 
needed to develop the new indicator of  innovation to be used for high-growth 
innovative enterprises. This data was provided by Member St ates on a voluntary 
basis. 
Eurostat released data and metadata on s hort-term statistics, tourism statistics, 
structural business statistics, business demography, foreign a ffiliates statistics, 
foreign direct investment and internati onal trade in goods and services. It also 
published the results of th e survey on community innov ation, data on science and 
technology needed to produce the new innovation output indi cator, and the results of 
the survey on information and communications technology. 
The requirements for the European Sample Scheme, a method used in the production 
of short-term sta tistics, were updated. 
Statistics on research and development, in cluding notably the target indicators for 
research and development intensity for th e Europe 2020 strategy, were released for 
the first time following the rules of the new European System of Accounts, ESA 
2010. 
3.2. People’s Europe 
Eurostat continued working on the devel opment and production of indicators for 
central EU policies — such as Europe  2020, Education and Training 2020 and the 
underlying joint assessment frameworks — and in the area of population and 
migration. Results from the five-year lifel ong learning surveys were made available. 
Statistics on the causes of  death were published for th e first time under Commission 
Regulation 328/201110 and the Regulation on the Eur opean Health Interview Survey 
was adopted in 201411. 
Eurostat is revising the indicator on mate rial deprivation, and data for the revised 
indicator should be available in 2015. Significant progress was achieved in 
developing methodologies in a number of ar eas, including for the labour force survey 
and the statistics on income and living conditions. 
A first set of indicators on measuring progress, well-being and sustainable 
development was disseminated in 2013, and a set of publications and new indicators 
in 201412. 
                                                            
10 Commission Regulation (EU) No 328/2011 of 5 April 2011 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of 
the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics on public health and health and safety at 
work, as regards statistics on causes of death (OJ L 90, 6.4.2011, p. 22–24). 
11 Commission Regulation (EU) No 68/2014 of 27 January 2014 amending Regulation (EU) No 141/2013 
implementing Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community 
statistics on public health and health and safety at wo rk, as regards statistics based on the European Health 
Interview Survey (EHIS) by reason of the accession of Croatia to the European Union (OJ L 23, 28.1.2014, 
p. 9-11). 
12  http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/indicators 
 
6 
 Eurostat has begun implementing the meas ures set out in Re gulation (EU) No 
1260/201313 on European demographic statistic s, following its adoption in 2013.  
Good progress has been made in revising th e labour force survey, the aim being to 
produce new and more detailed labour mark et data. The new legal framework for the 
labour force survey (Regulation (EU) No  545/2014 of the European Parliament and 
of the Council14) and for the programme of ad hoc modules for the years 2016 to 
2018 (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1397/201415) were adopted in 
2014. Eurostat published up-to-date indi cators for the EU 2020 strategy, other 
indicators on education a nd lifelong learning produced using data from the labour 
force survey and new data on disabilities. Implementing regulations were adopted for 
statistics on educati on and lifelong learning16 and for statistics on income and living 
conditions17. 
3.3 Geospatial, environmental, agricultu ral and other sectoral statistics 
The compliance monitoring applied to data sent by Member States was extended to 
cover aspects relating to the quality of th e data. Efforts were made to improve the 
completeness and reduce the time taken to prepare statistics for agriculture and 
fisheries, the environment and account s and energy. These statistics are now 
published with a shorter time delay. 
Commission Regulati on (EU) No 715/201418 introduced a new list of characteristics 
for the 2016 survey on farm structure. 
Eurostat launched a first dedicated user survey on energy statistics. The area of 
energy statistics further benefited from th e introduction of online dissemination of 
annual nuclear energy data. A manua l for statistics on household energy 
consumption was published at the end of  2013. The Energy Statistics Regulation19 
was amended to cover final energy consumption in households by fuel and by use. 
Early estimates of carbon dioxide emissions  from energy use are currently published 
approximately five months after the e nd of the reference year. Methods for 
calculating ‘bottom-up estimations’ of gr eenhouse gas emissions from different 
transport modes are also now being developed. 
                                                            
13  Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 2013 on 
European demographic statistics, (OJ L 330, 10.12.2013, p. 39). 
14  Regulation (EU) No 545/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending 
Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey in the Community (OJ L 163, 29.5.2014, p. 10). 
15  Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1397/2014 of 22 October 2014 amending Regulation (EU) No 
318/2013 adopting the programme of ad hoc modules, covering the years 2016 to 2018, for the labour force 
sample survey provided for by Council Regulation (E C) No 577/98 (OJ L 370, 30.12.2014, p. 42). 
16  Commission Regulation (EU) No 1175/2014 of 30 October 2014 implementing Regulation (EC) No 
452/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the production and development of 
statistics on education and lifelong learning (OJ L 316, 4.11.2014, p. 4). 
17 Commission Regulation (EU) No 112/2013 of 7 February 2013 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1177/2003 
of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning Community statistics on income and living 
conditions (EU-SILC) (OJ L 37, 8.2.2013, p. 2). 
18  Commission Regulation (EU) No 715/2014 of 26 June 2014 amending Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 
1166/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on farm structure surveys and the survey on 
agricultural production methods, as regards the list of characteristics to be collected in the farm structure 
survey 2016 (OJL 190, 28.6.2014, p. 8). 
19  Commission Regulation (EU) No 431/2014 of 24 April 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 of 
the European Parliament and of the Council on energy statistics, as regards the implementation of annual 
statistics on energy consumption in households (OJ L 131, 1.5.2014, p. 1). 
 
7 
 Progress was made on the development of i ndicators for monitoring the targets set in 
the 2011 Transport White Paper. 
An amendment to the common classification of territorial units for statistics was 
adopted20. 
Eurostat worked in close cooperation with  the Directorate-General for Regional and 
Urban Policy and the Committee of the Regions to produce the Regional Yearbook and the accompanying electronic ve rsion, the Statistical Atlas. 
The coordination of national initiatives  for monitoring land cover and land use 
statistics was extended. The aim of this is to be able to develop a long-term strategy 
for the survey on land use and land cover statistics. 
Priority area II: Production methods of European statistics 
1. European Statistical System quality management  
A new round of peer reviews was launched in 2013. A total of 32 countries (the EU 
Member States plus the four other countri es in the European Free Trade Association 
and European Economic Area) and Eurostat ta ke part in the exer cise. All countries 
and Eurostat completed self-assessm ent questionnaires, and, during 2014, peer 
reviews were conducted of 12 countries and of  Eurostat. The peer review of Eurostat, 
carried out by the European Statistical Governance Advisory Board, was completed 
and the report published. 
The ongoing work to align the quality assurance frameworks used by the European 
Statistical System and the European System of Central Banks focused on 
implementation and monitoring tools, in pa rticular on the round of peer reviews and 
statistical audits be ing conducted in the respective systems. 
The work carried out by the group ‘Sponsor ship on Quality’ and the implementation 
of its recommendations on quality reporting led to the development of the Single Integrated Metadata Structure and th e publication of the 2014 edition of the 
European Statistical System Handbook for Quality Reports. In 2014, Eurostat began 
planning the implementation of the priority area ‘quality’ of the European Statistical System Vision 2020, in cooperation with the members of the European Statistical 
System. The biennial European conference on qu ality in official statistics was held in 
Vienna. A new procedure for handling and reporting errors found in published 
statistics was developed and appr oved for use by Eurostat in 2014. 
2. Priority setting and simplification 
The framework provided by the European statistical programme requires priority-
setting in the European Statistical System to  ensure that the five-year objectives can 
be achieved within the available resources at both national and European levels. Eurostat thus conducts an annual priority-setting exercise, in consultation with users and producers of statistics. Priorities are fixed on the basis of a review of existing 
statistical requirements, which identifies legal acts that are goi ng to be repealed, 
voluntary data collections (based on gentlemen’s agreements) that are no longer going to be carried out, and areas to be reduced or simp lified. The introduction of a 
‘product list’ for the European Statistical System has improved the system for setting 
                                                            
20  Commission Regulation (EU) No 868/2014 of 8 August 2014 amending the annexes to Regulation (EC) No 
1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of a common classification of 
territorial units for statistics (NUTS) (OJ L 241, 13.8.2014, p. 1). 
 
8 
 priorities. This exercise is particularly important at a time when the resources are 
actually decreasing, both at Eu rostat and in Member States , and statistical offices had 
to make major efforts to match reducing resources with the increasing demand for 
statistics. 
Work has begun on rationalising and modernis ing water and forest statistics. The 
amendment of the Rail Transport Regulati on, under which Member States will no 
longer be required to report data for certain  tables, was presented to the legislator. 
Steps were taken to simplify fisheries st atistics, by using da ta on catch, reported 
under the Common Fisheries Policy. A numbe r of changes are being made to 
simplify agricultural statistics, including devising a more flexible survey on farm 
structure, for use from 2020 onwards, and developing greater synergies between the 
various areas of agricultural statistics. Data on land prices and rents was collected 
using the harmonised methodology. City stat istics collected under the urban audit 
were further rationalised. 
The production and dissemination of sta tistics on labour market policy was 
transferred to the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. 
Voluntary data collection was disconti nued for annual gross earnings and labour 
costs. Data collection for the production of statistics on occupational diseases has 
been simplified, the Directorate-Genera l for Employment, Social Affairs and 
Inclusion having provided financial suppo rt for these change s over a four-year 
period. 
The Single Market Statistics (SIMSTAT) project and the re-design of internal trade 
statistics were launched. The aim of thes e changes was to reduce the burden created 
by data collection and improve  the quality of the data. 
A number of new guidelines and explanati ons were produced a nd published, as a 
way of rationalising the support provided for the European Statistical System 
classifications and standard ised structural metadata. 
The Commission did not engage in any furt her work with non- EU countries other 
than the enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy countries. 
3. Multi-purpose statistics and efficiency gains in production 
The process of modernising European st atistics continued, with the European 
Statistical System Vision 2020 being adopted  at the European Statistical System 
Committee meeting of May 2014 as the central  strategy for the development of the 
European Statistical System during the pe riod up to 2020. This framework identifies 
five priority areas: users, quality, new data sources, production processes and 
dissemination and communication. A ma jor achievement of note was the 
development of the central modernisation pr ojects (the European Statistical System 
vision implementation projects) in colla boration with Member States. The areas 
covered include the data exchange network, statistical validation, the use of new data 
sources (for administrative and big data ), critical business projects (the 
modernisation of trade statistics and the creation of interoperational business 
registers within the European Statis tical System) and support frameworks 
(information models and standards, quality, enterprise architecture). 
The European Statistical System vision implementation project on statistics on the 
single market, which was focused on the exch ange of microdata on intra-EU trade, 
 
9 
 progressed according to schedule. The feas ibility study was finalised and work on the 
development of a centralised data hub began. 
The preparatory phase of the European Statistical System vision implementation 
project on the European system of inter operable statistical business registers was 
completed in 2013 and the European Statisti cal System collaboration network project 
on the European system of interoperable statistical business registers was launched in 2014. 
The main achievement for the European Statistical System vision implementation 
project on validation was the development of  the validation synta x, which will allow 
Eurostat to exchange validation rules with  Member States and to draw up functional 
specifications for developing improved validation tools. 
The European Statistical System Committ ee issued a memorandum on big data, and 
subsequently adopted the European Sta tistical System Action Plan and Roadmap 
1.0
21. Work began on developing prototype app lications on the us e of big data in 
official statistics in the fields of he althcare, unemployment and demographics. 
A number of modernisation initiatives rela ting to the development of social and 
population statistics in the coming year s are currently ongoing, such as on the 
integration of European so cial surveys. A census hub wa s opened in 2014, allowing 
the publication of comparative and very detailed data on population and housing. 
Eurostat completed the second phase of  the National Accounts Production System 
project, the aim of which was to modernise the statis tical production chain for the 
main statistical areas relating to nationa l accounts and the balance of payments. 
An international agreement was concluded set ting a standard format to be used when 
exchanging national accounts and balance of pa yments statistics. This agreement was 
implemented at EU level through the intr oduction of the new European System of 
Accounts, ESA 2010, and the sixth edition of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6). Good progress was made with the 
implementation of standards including those for reference metadata, quality reports, 
code lists, statistical data and metadata exchange (SDMX), and others used in the 
European Statistical System. 
The revised version of European Statis tical System Guidelines on seasonal 
adjustment was endorsed by the European Statistical System Committee and the official version of the new software for seasonal adjustment was released. 
4. Dissemination and communication 
A number of new services (web services, a pps and widgets) were offered for the first 
time. The main achievement was the launch of the new Eurostat website in December 2014. There was a particular  focus on producing cross-cutting 
publications, such as the two flagship publications Europe 2020 indicators
22 and 
Youth in the EU . Statistics Explained  was extended and a new European statistical 
data support network was set up, with  33 support centres c overing 31 European 
languages. 
                                                            
21  http://www.cros-portal.eu/content/pap ers-big-data-context-official-statistics.  
22  http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/produ ct?code=KS-EZ-14-001&mode=view.  
 
10 
 Eurostat allowed researchers access to four additional microdata sets. Discussions 
were held on the technical viability of developing a remote access infrastructure to give access to highly confidential secure-use files. 
Eurostat published two handbooks on indicators, Getting messages across using 
indicators  and Towards a harmonised methodolog y for statistical indicators . 
The European Statistical Advisory Committ ee played an important role in reaching 
out to academics, involving users and ma king microdata available for research. 
5. Training, innovation and research 
Eurostat continued to support and promot e collaboration between members of the 
European Statistical System. Members are encouraged to share knowledge, to 
exchange ideas on best pr actices and innovative approa ches to the production of 
statistics, to collaborate on the de velopment and implementation of new 
methodologies and to promote research into official statistics. Both the Centres of 
Excellence and various international initia tives, including leading conferences such 
as Quality 2014  and the workshop on big data in o fficial statistics have played a 
particularly important role in this area. The first Conference of European Statistics 
Stakeholders  in 2014 was a good example of strengt hening the links to academia and 
stakeholder relevance. 
Significant progress was made in relation to the European Master in Official 
Statistics. A feasibility study was planned, and is now in progr ess. The European 
Statistical System Committee gave its agr eement to the concept of the European 
Master in Official Sta tistics, to the proposed governance framework for the 
programme and to the creation of the Europ ean Master in Offici al Statistics Board. 
Priority area III: Partnership 
1. Partnership with the European Statistical System and beyond 
A political agreement on the proposal amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on 
European statistics was reached in December 2014. On 19 May 2015 the amended 
Regulation
23 was published in the Official Journal. 
A number of improvements were made to th e governance structure of the European 
Statistical System: in particular, the Eu ropean Statistical System Committee was 
made the main committee, and the European Statistical Forum was set up to improve cooperation between the Europ ean Statistical System and the European System of 
Central Banks. 
The overall assessments of the statistical  systems of the candidate, potential 
candidate countries and th e European Neighbourhood Policy East countries were 
used to prepare cooperation strategies  for the period 2014-2020. The Strategy for 
Statistical Cooperation and the Strategy for Statistical Co-operation in the European 
Neighbourhood Instruments (ENI) East C ountries 2014-2020 are frameworks for 
developing sustainable and reli able statistical systems. In the context of Enlargement 
Negotiations the objective is the implementa tion of the acquis and integration in the 
European Statistical System. In European  Neighbourhood East the co-operation aims 
at capacity building and provision of tim ely and reliable data related to the 
Association and the Deep and Comprehens ive Free Trade Agreem ents. Cooperation 
                                                            
23 Regulation (EU) 2015/759 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2015 amending 
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (OJ L 123, 19.5.2015, p. 90). 
 
11 
 with the European Neighbourhood Policy South countries focused on the 
development of a statistics code of pr actice for these countries, based on the 
European statistics code of practice. Eu rostat designed a pan- African statistical 
cooperation programme while cooperation with  countries classified as high income 
continued in the form of excha nge of information and knowledge. 
3. R ELEVANCE  
The European statistical progr amme continues to be releva nt, as its objectives still 
correspond to the needs of the EU. 
The programme meets the needs of a number of different categor ies of users, as 
shown by several indicators: 
• the number of website users increased in 2013 and in 2014; 
• the number of times that data publishe d by Eurostat was accessed online and 
the number of publications downloade d both increased in 2013 and 2014; 
• the frequency of mentions of Eurostat  on the internet is steadily rising; 
• the level of user satisfac tion remained high, as demonstrated by the results of 
user satisfaction surveys; 
• the European Statistical Advisory Co mmittee gave overall favourable opinions 
in its assessment of the 2013 and 2014 wo rk programmes, albeit with some 
concerns to be taken in to account in the future; 
• a new Commission Regulation allowed an  increased number of requests from 
researchers for access to microda ta sets to be accommodated; 
• the number of user requests addressed to Eurostat’s support for data and 
methodology increased; and 
• a set of new methods for publishing data  was introduced to make the Eurostat 
website more powerful and more user-friendly. 
The European statistical programme is c ontributing to the de sign of policies in 
priority areas. Eurostat communicated on a regular basis with th e other Directorate-
Generals of the European Commission in order to remain informed of their needs and to be able to contribute to the design of  policies in priority areas. The information 
provided in connection with these policies was communicated to the public and to 
the main institutional actors, the Eu ropean Parliament and the Council. 
Eurostat began producing a publication on Europe 2020 policies, the first of a new 
series of annual publications providing statis tical analyses relate d to the European 
Commission's main policy frameworks or other issues of social importance. 
The number of parliamentary questions on Eurostat’s statistics remained at a 
continual high level, with a particularly large number of questions being asked on 
statistics relating to the financial crisis. Eurostat made an impor tant contribution to 
the European Semester through the provision of data and a number of indicators. 
Finally, the European statistical programme is also contributing to a review of the 
statistical priorities via legi slation or by setting negative pr iorities. Three regulations 
that included prioritisation were respectively adopted or proposed, one proposal was 
withdrawn and two impact assessments of ne w legislative measures were carried out 
 
12 
 or started. A list of around 40 negative priorities was dr awn up and put into use, 
ensuring that European statistics remain relevant. A significant number of Eurostat staff were reassigned in 2013 and 2014, in orde r to take account of new priorities. 
4. E
FFICIENCY  
Eurostat has made efficient use of it s resources, both financial and human. 
Budget execution in 2013 and 2014 exceeded th e targets set in the management plans 
and the level of participation in project s supported by EU grants was good, with all 
Member States benefiting from at least one grant provided by Eurostat. 
Productivity has improved at a time when human resources are being reduced. The 
volume of data published by Eurostat incr eased substantially, although the total 
number of employees fell slightly. 
5. EU  ADDED VALUE  
The European statistical programme supports  a continual improvement in the quality 
of statistics used for the Europe 2020 scoreboard, the development and evaluation 
flagship initiatives and the EU monitoring of national policies (specifically through 
the Stability and Growth Pact, the Macr oeconomic Imbalances Procedure and the 
European Semester). In particular, it aims to improve the relevance and 
comparability of statistics, and to reduce the time lag between the reference period and the publication of statis tics. The European statistical programme is the main 
channel through which the EU provides fina ncial support to na tional statistical 
authorities, for the production of statistics, the developmen t of new statistics and the 
implementation of new methodologies, cl assifications and standards. The 
improvement in the quality of the statistics produced by Eurostat is evidenced by the increase in the level of user satisfaction with the overall quality and comparability of 
the published data, and with the speed with which it is produced and made available. 
The programme also supports the deve lopment of new methods for producing 
statistics, which will increase efficiency and lower the administrative burden on businesses and individuals. The European statistical programme has therefore delivered and continues to deliver a clear ‘EU added value’. This is true for all the main objectives of the European statistical programme and is part icularly visible in 
some statistical areas and projects,as indicated in the following sections. 
For objective 1 and 4 , European statistics have a clear  transnational character. The 
development, production and dissemination of European statistics, as is carried out 
under the European statistical programme, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the 
Member States, and can be better accomp lished at EU level. The Commission has 
therefore managed this process at EU leve l on the basis of a European Union legal 
act. Only the Commission can coordinate the necessary standardisation of statistical information at European level in all the statistical areas covered by the European 
statistical programme, while the data coll ection can be carried out by the Member 
States. 
The added value of EU involvement continues to  be that it allows statistical activities 
to be concentrated on EU policies and issues  of relevance for the European Statistical 
System as a whole. In addi tion, it contributes to an e ffective use of resources and 
helps national authorities to better fulfil their role, where they may otherwise not 
 
13 
 have the capacity to do so, e.g. in term s of priority setti ng, standardisation and 
methodological development. 
Some clear examples of this from the fi rst two years of the European statistical 
programme include: statis tics on government finance, statistics on road freight 
transport, the European Statistical Sy stem collaboration networks, geographical 
statistics, the European public sector accounting standards, the survey on land use and land cover statistics, statistics on the single market, the EuroGroups register, the 
census hub and the social indicators for EU policies. 
For objective 2 and 3 , the implementation of Eurostat’s plan for reforming the 
methods used for producing European sta tistics, and the definition of the new 
strategy in the European Statistical Syst em Vision 2020 are having an effect on the 
approaches used throughout the European Statistical System. This process of 
modernisation is moving away from the trad itional way of produci ng statistics, based 
on numerous parallel processes, country by country and area per area, which is no 
longer appropriate for Eurostat or for the national statistical o ffices working within 
the European Statistical System. The European  Statistical System strategy has started 
to create a system of official European  statistics, where overall productivity is 
improved, by better coordinating the work carr ied out by the statistical offices so as 
to avoid duplication and fully exploit potential synergies. 
6. C
OHERENCE  
In 2013 and 2014, the European statistical programme was well coordinated with 
other EU initiatives in the same field, bot h other Eurostat programmes, such as the 
programme for the modernisation of Eur opean enterprise and trade statistics24, and 
statistics produced by other Co mmission Directorate-Generals. 
The modernisation of European  enterprise and trade statistics, a spending programme 
in the area of business statistics, was ac tive until the end of 2013. Article 3 of the 
European statistical programme states, how ever, that it does not cover measures 
provided for by the modernisation of Eur opean enterprise and trade statistics 
programme. The most important outputs fr om this programme were methodological 
recommendations for a wide spectrum of areas relating to business and trade statistics. As a direct follow-up to this programme, and as part of the European 
statistical programme, Eurost at launched a fundamental revision and integration of 
business-related statistics via a common legal framework, the Framework Regulation 
Integrating Business Statistics. 
The relationship between the European statistical programme and the other 
Commission programmes that involve the prod uction of statistics is defined in the 
Commission Decision on Eurostat,
25 which distinguishes European and other 
statistics. The decision also defines Eurostat's responsibilities and its rights to access to administrative records. 
                                                            
24  Decision No 1297/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December  2008 on a 
Programme for the Modernisation of European En terprise and Trade Statistics (MEETS) (OJ L 340, 
19.12.2008, p. 76). 
25  Commission Decision 2012/504/EU of 17 September 2012 on Eurostat (OJ L 251, 18.9.2012, p. 49). 
 
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 7. R ECOMMENDATIONS  
Give particular attention to those object ives where problems have been encountered 
Although the implementation of the European  statistical programme is proceeding 
well, it is advisable to concentrate on ar eas where limited problems have come to 
light, in order to remain on track for mee ting all the objectives. The results of this 
focusing of efforts will be visible from the annual monitoring of activities. 
Secure sufficient resources to maintain the necessary level of investment for the 
modernisation of the producti on of European statistics 
In order for the national statistical institutes to be able to participate actively in the 
projects designed to modernise the produc tion of European statistics, and to 
implement their results, at a time when re sources are being reduced, whilst ensuring 
regular statistical production,  more resources must be invested in the European 
Statistical System. The process of modernis ing the production of statistics offers a 
way of tackling the issue of limited or decreasing resources, but itself requires initial investment in order to advance at the de sired speed and to gua rantee the long-term 
sustainability of the system. 
Identify and implement projects at EU level which can maximise EU added value 
The EuroGroups register, the Single Market  Statistics (SIMSTAT) project, and the 
census hub are just some examples of proj ects that have bene fited from increased 
collaboration between Eurostat and the national statistical institutes, made possible 
through collaborative approaches such as the European Statistical System 
collaboration networks, and as part of the European Statistical System vision 
implementation projects. The work carri ed out in implementing the European 
Statistical System Vision 2020 plays also a role in maximising EU added value.