EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/890

(2004/C 78 E/0941)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-4000/03

by Herbert Bösch (PSE) to the Commission

(7 January 2004)

Subject: Reforms at Eurostat

The reforms introduced at Eurostat following the financial irregularities there include a new organisational structure. Social statistics, which used to come under Directorate E, have been transferred to Directorate D (previously Business Statistics) while population statistics have been transferred to the department responsible for external relations.

The minutes of the 51st meeting of the Statistical Programme Committee held on 20 November 2003 state that Eurostat should concentrate on its core business. They also mention that there is scope for savings in the social statistics sphere where a series of negative priorities could be identified: house building, time use survey, healthcare, discrimination, disabled people, the homeless, in other words, a whole range of social statistics.

1. Can the Commission say what projects will be or have been cut or abandoned since July 2003?

2. Does the Commission share the view that social statistics will continue to be a negative priority?

3. Does the Commission not see it as paradoxical to cut statistics relating to disabled people in the European Year for People with Disabilities? Does the Commission consider that gender mainstreaming or combating racism and discrimination against women are consistent with cuts in statistics on discrimination?

4. Have cuts already been made in the statistical component of enlargement?

5. Have there been delays in publishing statistics in the last few months or are such delays imminent? If so, which statistics were concerned and what were the reasons?

6. Is Eurostat's establishment plan too small for it to carry out activities that go beyond its core business? If so, how many additional posts are required to enable it to operate satisfactorily and has the Commission already planned for these extra posts or requested additional funds for staff expenditure, and if not why not?

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(8 March 2004)

Despite the events of 2003, constant efforts were made to ensure that the essential statistics were produced. A great deal of thought still had to be given to the matter, involving the Member States in the Statistical Programming Committee (SPC) and the other Directorates-General in the Commission, designed to focus Eurostat's statistical work on priority requests. A scale of priorities was thus laid down, based on the requirements of the Treaty, existing regulations, the needs of the common policies and the duty to inform the public. The statistical programme for 2004 was drawn up on this basis, presented to the SPC for its opinion and adopted by the Commission on 5 February 2004. It sets out in detail for each subject area all the work in progress and the new work, in order of priority. This document is being sent direct to the Honourable Member and to the Parliament's Secretariat.

The annual statistical programme contributes to the priorities of the five-year statistical programme, one of which is completion of the social agenda. Social aspects are also taken into account in all statistics relating to the internal market. The work programme finally adopted by the Commission does in fact include some of the social statistics referred to by the Honourable Member, such as those on disabled persons or time use surveys, plus of course statistics on social protection, living conditions and household incomes, the labour force and employment.

The Commission is indeed mindful of the needs of disabled people and the requirement for statistical information, especially in relation to the European Year for People with Disabilities. For instance, Theme 35 ‘Health and Safety’ of the 2004 Statistical Programme refers to the further development of a common module on disability in the context of the European Health Interview Survey. Commission policy on gender mainstreaming is not affected since all individual data will continue to be collected by gender and this dimension will feature systematically in the presentation of the statistics. Concerning racism and discrimination against women, the Commission has never collected statistics on these topics, which would incidentally be very difficult to quantify using available statistical methods. Regarding statistics on homelessness, an exploratory study carried out by Eurostat revealed that it is very difficult to collect crosscountry comparable statistics on this issue, and that there is still a sore lack of statistical capacity or political will to collect this type of statistics at the national level.

The assistance programmes for statistics for the acceding and remaining candidate countries will continue according to long-term planning. The Honourable Member will be aware that the Accession Treaty provides for continued institution-building assistance in the field of statistics for the ten acceding countries even after accession, under the Transition Facility.

Despite the termination of certain contracts connected with the preparation of statistical publications, the pace and quality of dissemination of statistical information has been maintained, as shown by the stable number of press releases issued by Eurostat or the 10 % increase in the number of titles published in 2003 in the ‘Statistics in Focus’ series. The Honourable Member's attention is drawn to the new strategy applied to the dissemination of statistical information. On the basis of the principle that statistical information is a public service, all the statistical data produced and gathered by Eurostat should be accessible free of charge to users and available on the Internet. This strategy is set out in greater detail in the Action Plan for Eurostat referred to below.

On the staffing side, a detailed internal review of the allocation of human resources was conducted in January 2004 in order to match Eurostat's resources to the priorities to be applied in the work programme and to organise as efficiently as possible the reintegration of certain activities which in the past had been outsourced. Some additional posts were awarded in the final allocation of human resources for 2004 and the additional requirements are being considered in connection with the annual policy strategy for 2005.

Finally the Commission has been informed of the 2004 Action Plan for Eurostat, which determines the work priorities and the arrangements for implementing the statistical programme and takes stock of all the actions undertaken by Eurostat and those planned for 2004. This Action Plan is being sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat.