Common Position (EC) No 55/2002 of 30 September 2002 adopted by the Council, acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, with a view to adopting a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Community statistical programme (2002 to 2007) (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 2002-09-30
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: EU programme, EU statistics, Eurostat, confidentiality, dissemination of EU information, euro area, financing, information system, statistical method

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I

(Information)

COUNCIL

COMMON POSITION No 55/2002

adopted by the Council on 30 September 2002

with a view to adopting Decision No . . ./2002/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
of . . . on the Community statistical programme (2003 to 2007)

(2002/C 275 E/01)

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community, and in particular Article 285 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social
Committee (2),

Following consultation of the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article
251 of the Treaty (3),

information comparable between the Member States which
is up to date, reliable, pertinent and produced as efficiently
as possible for the formulation, application, monitoring
and assessment of its policies.

(5) The availability of up-to-date comparable statistics of good
quality is often a necessary condition for implementing
Community policies.

(6) In order to ensure the consistency and comparability of
statistical information in the Community, there is a need
to establish a five-year Community statistical programme
which identifies the approaches, the main fields and the
objectives of
the actions envisaged in respect of these
priorities.

Whereas:

(7) To this effect, the Community authorities should ensure

comparable and high quality statistics.

(1) In accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of
a

17 February 1997 on Community
Community statistical programme should be established.

statistics (4),

(2) Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 establishes the prin-
ciples for the production of Community statistics and
applies to this Decision.

(3) Economic and monetary union is imposing substantial
supply of monetary, balance of

demands on the
payments and financial statistics for the Community.

(4) In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 322/97,

Community must have

timely

access

the
to statistical

(1) OJ C 75 E, 26.3.2002, p. 274.
(2) OJ C 125, 27.5.2002, p. 17.
(3) Opinion of the European Parliament of 25 April 2002 (not yet
published in the Official Journal), Council Common Position of 30
September 2002 and decision of the European Parliament of . . . (not
yet published in the Official Journal).

(8) The specific method of drawing up Community statistics
requires particularly close cooperation within a developing
Community statistical system via the Statistical Programme
Committee, set up by Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (5),
as regards the adaptation of the system, notably via the
introduction of legal instruments necessary to establish the
said Community statistics. Account is to be taken of the
burden on respondents, be they business, households or
individuals.

(9) The production of Community statistics within the legis-
lative framework of
the
responsibility of the national authorities at national level
and of the Community authority (Eurostat) at Community
level.

the five-year programme is

(10) In order to achieve this objective, close, coordinated and
coherent cooperation between Eurostat and the national
authorities is necessary.

(4) OJ L 52, 22.2.1997, p. 1.

(5) OJ L 181, 28.6.1989, p. 47.

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(11) To this effect, Eurostat should ensure the coordination
the national authorities in a
system
in

under various forms of
network representing the European statistical
(ESS)
to assure the timely provision of
support of European Union policy needs.

statistics

(12) Detailed implementing measures for individual statistical
actions may be entrusted to the ESS by the Commission,
which should decide the objectives and the measures
concerned.

(13) In addition, in the implementation of this programme, in
the
accordance with Regulation (EC) No 322/97,
Commission is entrusted to execute certain implementing
or execution tasks as they are defined in acts concerning
individual statistical actions.

(14) Consideration may be given as to whether certain of these
tasks currently performed at Commission level could be
executed,
for example, by a specialised implementing
body.

(15) In certain areas covered by various Community policies a

breakdown of data by gender is important.

a

financial

framework constituting

(16) This Decision lays down, for the entire duration of the
programme,
the
prime reference within the meaning of point 33 of the
Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the
European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on
the budgetary
the
budgetary procedure (1),
the budgetary authority
during the annual budgetary procedure.

and improvement of

discipline

for

(17) The guidelines for establishing this programme have been
submitted in accordance with Article 3(1) of Regulation
(EC) No 322/97 to the Statistical Programme Committee,
the
Statistical
Information in the Economic and Social Spheres set up
by Council Decision 91/116/EEC (2) and the Committee on
Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payment Statistics set
up by Council Decision 91/115/EEC (3),

European Advisory

Committee

on

the main fields and the
Annex I defines the approaches,
objectives of
the actions envisaged during that period and
also provides a summary of statistical requirements viewed
from the perspective of
the European
Union. These needs are broken down by titles of the Treaty.

the policy needs of

Annex II provides a summary of the Eurostat work themes.

Article 2

Objectives and policy priorities

Taking account of the available resources of the national auth-
orities and the Commission, this programme shall be guided by
the principal Community policy priorities of:

— economic and monetary union,

— European Union enlargement,

— competitivity,
Agenda.

sustainable development and the Social

It shall also ensure the continuation of existing statistical
support for decisions in current policy areas and the additional
requirements arising from new Community policy initiatives. It
shall take account of the need for ongoing review of statistical
priorities and of the necessity of the statistics produced, with a
view to making best use of available resources and minimising
response burdens.

Furthermore,
high quality statistics.

the Commission shall ensure comparable and

Article 3

Financing

framework for

The financial
this
programme for the period 2003 to 2007 is hereby set at
EUR 192 500 000.

the implementation of

HAVE ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

Establishment of the statistical programme

The Community statistical programme for the period 2003 to
2007 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the programme’)
is hereby
established. The programme is included in the Annexes.

EUR 150 727 000 shall be for the period 2003 to 2006.
amount of
EUR 41 773 000 shall be
it is
EUR 41 773 000 shall be deemed to be confirmed if
the
consistent with the financial perspective in force for
period commencing in 2007.

for 2007. The

The annual appropriations shall be authorised by the budgetary
authority within the limits of the financial perspectives.

Article 4

Reports

(1) OJ C 172, 18.6.1999, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 59, 6.3.1991, p. 21. Decision as amended by Council Decision

97/255/EC (OJ L 102, 19.4.1997, p. 32).

(3) OJ L 59, 6.3.1991, p. 19. Decision as amended by Council Decision

96/174/EC (OJ L 51, 1.3.1996, p. 48).

During the third year of implementation of the programme,
the Commission shall prepare an intermediate report showing
its stage of development and present
to the Statistical
Programme Committee.

it

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after

consulting

the
At the end of the period covered by the programme,
Commission,
Programme
Committee, shall present an appropriate evaluation report on
the implementation of the programme, taking into account the
views of independent experts. That report is to be completed
by the end of 2008 and subsequently submitted to the
European Parliament and to the Council.

Statistical

the

Article 6

Addressees

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

Article 5

Entry into force

Done at . . .

This Decision shall enter into force on the day following that
of
the European
Communities.

its publication in the Official

Journal of

For the European Parliament

The President

For the Council

The President

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ANNEX I

FIVE-YEAR STATISTICAL PROGRAMME: APPROACHES

INTRODUCTION

1. The need for statistical information for EU policy

EU institutions and citizens need a factual means to assess the need for, and progress of, European policy initiatives.
High quality statistical information is of primary importance in meeting this need. Eurostat (the Statistical Office of
the European Communities) has as its main task the compilation and dissemination of relevant and timely
information across a wide range of social, economic and environmental topics in support of existing and future
policies of the EU. In an evolving eEurope, statistical information has to be made available in a form and at a time
when the user needs it. Thus, during the period of this programme further efforts will need to be made to ensure that
citizens have access to an increasing amount of basic information about economic, social and environmental
developments in the EU. The ESS (European statistical system) needs to develop further its structures and strategies
to ensure that the system as whole maintains and develops the necessary quality and effectiveness to meet all user
needs.

Structure of the Annex

This Annex concentrates on the policy determinants of the programme of work and provides a summary of
European statistical requirements viewed from the perspective of the policy needs of the European Union. These
needs are classified by the titles identified in the Treaty establishing the European Community.

For each of these policy titles, this Annex provides:

— the principal orientation of the statistical work to be carried out within this five-year period for each policy area

and the specific action plans envisaged, including any foreseeable legal acts,

— the areas of statistical work which support the policies of the title according to the themes of statistical work as

defined in the activity-based management framework.

2. Implementation Strategies

(a) Objectives

The objectives laid down in the Eurostat corporate plan will underpin the execution of the work programme,
which shall be carried out taking into account the principle of cost-effectiveness established in Article 10 of
Regulation (EC) No 322/97. These objectives are:

— Eurostat at the service of the Commission,

— Eurostat at the service of other European institutions and the wider-user community,

— contributing to the maintenance and development of the European statistical system,

— boosting staff motivation and satisfaction,

— improving the quality of its products and services,

— increasing internal productivity.

(b) Statistical production

In association with its partners in the ESS, Eurostat will put into place production processes that assure that
European Statistics achieve the level of quality required for EU policy management purposes. Particular emphasis
will be given to statistics for the euro-zone requirements.

Eurostat and the ESS partners will undertake a permanent review of EU and national statistical information to
ensure that it meets the real requirements for both EU and national policy purposes and that the two aspects are
fully integrated.

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(c) Efficiency of implementation

The Commission will continue to assess its ways of working to ensure that the most efficient use is made of
resources. Certain tasks in the field of statistics may be identified as being appropriate for implementation and
follow-up by an executive agency. Establishment of such an executive agency would be preceded by a full analysis
in conformity with Council and Commission provisions on such bodies. Partners in the ESS will be consulted
through the Statistical Programme Committee and kept fully informed of this process.

(d) Budgetary implementation of the programme

Budgetary resources made available for statistical information under this programme are subject to the annual
budgetary procedure without prejudice to budgetary resources made available under other legal acts. The
resources will be used:

— for the production of statistics as defined in Regulation (EC) No 322/97, including the development and

maintenance of statistical information systems and associated necessary infrastructure,

— for grants made to partners in the ESS (Eurostat envisages concluding framework agreements with such

partners),

— for technical and administrative assistance as well as other support measures.

3. Priorities

The priorities for statistical work are managed according to four different categories of activity.

(a) Community policy requirements

implications of
The statistical
Commission and can be summarised as follows:

the major Community policy areas are those currently identified by the

— economic and monetary union: all of the statistics required for phase III EMU and the pact on stability and

growth,

— EU enlargement: incorporating those areas of statistical indicators of primary importance for the accession

negotiations and for the integration of candidate countries into the ESS,

— competitivity, sustainable development and the social agenda: in particular, statistics on the labour market,

environment, services, living conditions, migration and eEurope,

— open coordination: the provision of indicators and related statistics, based on improved methodologies and

harmonised outputs, in accordance with the mandates given by the European Council.

(b) Major projects

This covers primary areas of work necessary to assure the functioning of the system. These will be subject to a
formal project management approach, as follows:

— Infrastructure work

Consolidate the functioning of the ESS in a deepened and enlarged Europe. Different instruments of cooperation
between national statistical organisations and Eurostat will be put in place. These will be based mainly on the
exchange of data between national statistical authorities, the specialisation of Member States in some specific
domains and flexibility in the launching of statistical surveys to meet European and national needs.

Develop a system capable of reacting to developing policy needs and, at the same time, promote dialogue
between statisticians and policy makers to ensure flexibility of response and relevance of statistical products.

The development of the technological infrastructure at Commission and Member State level will aim to ensure
greater productivity, reduction in response burdens and easier user access to statistical information.

Eurostat's involvement in the eCommission and eEurope initiatives, as well as ESS access to research and devel-
opment programmes and the interchange of data between administrations (IDA) programme will ensure coop-
eration and synergy between Community and national efforts.

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Quality assurance and the scientific basis of Community statistics will be the result of close cooperation between
official and academic statisticians.

— Specific projects

Statistics on the new economy, including domains such as the information society and innovation.

Statistics on research and development, including benchmarking of national RTD policies.

Short-term statistics.

Indicators to support policies for sustainable development.

Social exclusion and poverty indicators.

(c) Statistical support to ongoing policies

This covers the continuation of statistical activities, which support existing Community policy areas such as
agriculture, regional policy and external trade.

(d) Other areas

Other areas of statistical data collection not covered above which are nevertheless required for policy purposes.

For activities within this priority framework, the detailed range and extent of data collected have in general been
developed by Eurostat with the Member States in the context of the SPC and CMFB. This follows the rules defined
in the Council regulation on community statistics and is in conformity with agreed principles for such decisions
concerning work management.

4. Subsidiarity

The legislative context for this is:

1. Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom of 19 June 1989 establishing a Committee on the Statistical Programmes

of the European Communities (1) (SPC);

2. Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97;

3. Commission Decision 97/281/EC of 21 April 1997 on the role of Eurostat as regards the production of

Community statistics (2).

Eurostat is responsible for ensuring the provision of Community statistics for EU policy purposes. Eurostat can only
carry out this task in liaison with the statistical authorities in the Member States. Thus, activities are always based on
a fundamental principle of subsidiarity. This involves a wide range of partner agencies but principally the national
statistical institutes of the EU Member States.

5. The balance of needs and resources

The ESS has to maintain a vigilant watch on the balance between the needs for information for Community policy
purposes and the resources required at EU, national and regional levels to provide this information. The provision of
information
adequate resources in the national context is of particular importance in pursuing the statistical
requirements of EU policy decisions. It is also, however, important to maintain sufficient flexibility to allow the
national authorities to satisfy Community statistical information needs in the most cost-effective manner.

To support a strategy based on balanced prioritisation, the yearly programming process should include ongoing
review of the continuing necessity of existing Community statistics, identifying those which could be curtailed or
discontinued. This must be conducted in close cooperation with the main users of statistics as an important
consideration for the introduction of new statistical initiatives.

This Annex identifies the set of statistical requirements necessary to support Community policies. In the context of
overall resource management, the allocation of priorities across the various components of statistical work is defined
according to the framework described above.

(1) OJ L 181, 28.6.1989, p. 47.
(2) OJ L 112, 29.4.1997, p. 56.

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FIVE-YEAR STATISTICAL PROGRAMME: OBJECTIVES AND ACTIONS

ENLARGEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Statistical implications

It is expected that accession negotiations will be completed with an accession treaty for a number of candidate countries
during the validity of
these
negotiations, the Commission must be able to draw on a complete set of reliable statistics, methodologically comparable
with those of the European Union countries. The Union will then face two somewhat different challenges:

the programme 2003 to 2007. For the follow-up to and potential completion of

— to integrate the potential new members in all Community mechanisms, including e.g. own-resources budgets and

structural funds and all other issues and programmes,

— to continue to prepare the remaining candidates and help them to reach full compliance with current Community

legislation.

In both cases the high demands placed on the statistical production of the candidates, to be verified and communicated
through Eurostat, should not be underestimated. Evidently, basic economic statistics are indispensable, including sectoral
and regional distribution of GDP creation, population, and employment. Other key areas are those which measure the
implementation of the single market, i.e. activities with a cross-border effect such as trade in goods, trade in services and
freedom of establishment, balance of payments, capital flows, mobility of persons (migrant workers, migration, asylum
seekers, etc.), industrial production and structure with a view to capacity, etc. In general, statistical production has to
support the EU policy concerned, including monetary union-generated demands. In addition there are requirements for
statistics in sectors which are sensitive for the accession negotiations, supporting primary EU policies such as agri-
culture, transport, regional and environment.

Summary

During the five-year period work will concentrate on:

— consolidating the collection of harmonised data for negotiations and internal EU purposes,

— continuing assistance to candidate countries and new members to improve their statistical systems to meet

Community requirements, including early information about any new Community legislation.

TITLE I

Free movement of goods

Statistical implications

The entry into force of the single market in 1993 led to the introduction of a system for the statistical measurement of
trade in goods between Member States (Intrastat), a lessening of the burden on information providers and thus a more
appropriate response to the needs of economic and monetary union. However, the lessening of the burden has been
limited in view of the wishes of the national authorities and numerous professional federations to maintain a system of
detailed statistics of intra-Community trade compatible with extra-Community statistics.

In line with the strategic plan approved in 1999 by Eurostat and the Member States, new adaptations of the system will
be examined and tested prior to any reform of the legislation. The new system should therefore be focused on the
supply of results meeting Community needs in accordance with strict quality requirements in terms of coverage,
reliability and availability. The content of the results should be defined in such a way as to simplify current requirements
whilst taking account of how needs develop as European integration progresses. Action will also be taken to improve
the reliability of import and export price statistics to allow the internal competitiveness of the Union's products to be
measured more effectively.

In parallel, the possible consequences of the switch to a common VAT system will have been analysed by an evaluation
of the sources of administrative or statistical information which can be used as a reference, priority being given to
maintaining the link with the VAT system and the use of the general business register.

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Summary

At the end of the five-year programme the Commission will have adapted and improved the systems of statistical
measurement of the trade of goods between Member States and with third countries, taking into account the devel-
opment of the information requirements and the economic and administrative environment.

Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE I — FREE MOVEMENT OF GOODS

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

53 Trade in goods

Other important contributory themes

44 Statistics on the economic activity of enterprises

45 Energy

48 Transport

64 Crop production

65 Animal production

66 Agroindustry statistics

TITLE II

Agriculture

Statistical implications

A g r i c u l t u r e

The common agricultural policy (CAP) absorbs nearly half the Communities' budget. The Commission thus has a major
task with regard to the CAP, with the usual role of policy formulation, monitoring, evaluation and adaptation. The
Commission has extensive delegated competence for current management. The main effort in the five-year period 2003
to 2007 will be, as in the programme 1998 to 2002, to operate this large set of statistics and to carry out essential
maintenance. Particular attention will continue to be given to the environmental dimension, by developing statistics
needed for analysing inter-linkage between agriculture and the environment, including the improvement of statistics on
the use of fertilisers and pesticides, on organic farming and on action to maintain biodiversity and rural habitats.

The technical action plan for agricultural statistics (TAPAS) management framework provides a collective and trans-
parent approach to steadily improving use of available national and Community resources for producing agricultural
statistics. The statistics produced will be put to greater use (e.g. modelling, direct access by Member States and European
institutions).

Two tasks will be undertaken which look towards the future. Agricultural statistics will be formulated to meet the needs
of the CAP seven to ten years hence, taking account of the way the CAP may change following the reforms resulting
from Agenda 2000. Work on agrienvironmental data will be further developed. In particular, work will continue on
indicators of the integration of environmental considerations into the CAP and on operational landscape indicators.
Attention will also be paid to the growing need for information in the consumer/welfare aspects of agriculture and to
statistical support for the rural development component of the CAP. The conclusions of the comprehensive independent
review of the present system will be used to adapt the set of Community agriculture statistics to be in a position to meet
identified new or changing needs. The second task is to establish a regular flow of comparable data, from official
sources, for all candidate countries for accession to the EU.

F o r e s t r y

In this area, particular attention has to be given to the maintenance and improvement of work with international
organisations above all for the development of better quality forestry statistics, including specific criteria and indicators
required for environmental management and sustainable forest management. Also,
information on sustainable
management of timber-derived industries needs to be developed in parallel. The consequences of the Bonn arrangements
in the context of the Kyoto agreement will need to be taken into account for the developments in this work.

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F i s h e r i e s

Future developments within the common fisheries policy (CFP) will concentrate on the integration of the various
components, from biology to resources, through improved monitoring of the activities of
fishing vessels. These
measures are unlikely to result in additional demand for data and the main effort in the coming years will be on
consolidating and improving data flows (completeness, timeliness, consistency, comparability and accessibility) on the
basis of existing legislation.

The social and economic consequences of limiting the activities of fishing vessels and reducing the size of the EU fishing
fleet is producing an increased demand for data on parameters to assess the social and economic situation. These
developments are likely to be important elements in the renegotiation of the CFP in 2002. Eurostat will follow these
negotiations closely to ensure that its programme of fishery statistics continues to reflect the data needs of the CFP.

Summary

During the programme period the Commission will strive to:

— apply the TAPAS scheme for progressive improvements to the existing set of agricultural statistics, mainly as far as

quality, comparability, efficiency savings, simplification and timeliness are concerned,

— plan the development of agricultural statistics with the aim of meeting the future needs of the CAP,

— provide indicators for better integration of environmental considerations into the CAP and information on the

consumer/welfare aspects of agriculture,

— assist in the development of comparable data in candidate countries for accession to the EU,

— consolidate, improve and extend (indicators) forestry statistics,

— consolidate and improve the quality of fishery statistics.

Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE II — AGRICULTURE

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

61 Land use and landscape

62 Agricultural structures

63 Agricultural monetary statistics

64 Crop production

65 Animal production

66 Agroindustry statistics

67 Coordination and reform of agricultural statistics

68 Forestry statistics

69 Fisheries statistics

Other important contributory themes

53 Trade in goods

70 Sustainable development

72 Regional statistics

74 Geographical and local information

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TITLE III

Free movement of persons, services and capital

Statistical implications

EU balance of payment statistics provide fairly detailed information on trade in services and direct investments. Statistics
on the trade of foreign branches are currently being developed. Although all these statistics are being developed mainly
in response to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and therefore to provide information on operations
with countries outside the Community, the Member States consider it essential to continue to draw up a national
balance of payments (therefore including intra-EU flows) even within economic and monetary union. Currently, the
statistics produced cover both extra-EU and intra-EU trade and thus meet the needs of the single market. However there
is a risk of uncertainty regarding this information. Also, the systems for collecting balance of payment data are currently
being restructured (see Title VII). The Commission's needs in this area therefore need to be reassessed and redefined.

A system of globalisation indicators will be put in place. New statistical tools based on the exchange of data between the
national statistical institutes and on the collection of information on European level will be used as pillars for the
development of this domain.

The identification and monitoring of foreign affiliates (FATS) will allow the Europeanisation and internationalisation of
the production systems to be measured. Statistics will aim more and more to analyse sustainable tourism together with
sustainable development by developing satellite accounts.

The Council's decision on audiovisual statistics will have to be implemented. Eurostat will thus continue to consolidate
the work already undertaken since 1999 to establish a Community statistical information infrastructure relating to the
industry and markets of the audiovisual and related sectors. Additionally, a legal basis for telecommunications statistics
will need to be developed.

A flexible and adaptable system for collecting information on information society indicators will gradually be established
on the basis of existing or new surveys according to the priorities set by the Council.

Summary

During the five-year period, the Commission will strive to:

— develop a stable and flexible set of indicators on globalisation,

— develop a stable and flexible set of indicators on information society, including audiovisual services,

— progress in the development of satellite accounts in the field of tourism.

Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE
SERVICES AND CAPITAL

III — FREE MOVEMENT OF

PERSONS,

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

44 Statistics on the economic activity of enterprises

48 Transport

49 Information society

50 Tourism

54 Trade in services and balance of payments

Other important contributory themes

57 Statistics for business cycle analysis

70 Sustainable development

71 Environment statistics

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Visas, asylum, immigration and other policies related to free movement of persons

TITLE IV

Statistical implications

Community competence in the field of immigration and asylum was established by the entry into force of the Treaty of
Amsterdam on 1 May 1999. At the request of the European Council, the Commission submitted in November 2000
two communications to launch a debate in the Community on the long-term aspects of a common EU policy. Both
communications address the issue of statistics in this perspective. The communication on a Community immigration
policy (1) emphasises that more information is needed about migration flows and patterns of migration into and out of
the EU. The communication on asylum (2) states that establishing and implementing the common European asylum
system requires an in-depth analysis on the scale of migratory flows, their origins, as well as analysis of the charac-
teristics of applications for protection and the response to them. The Union's enlargement and the development of
cooperation with the countries of the Mediterranean basin will only reinforce the needs for statistical information in
these fields.

Summary

During the five-year programme period, the Commission will:

— develop a more standardised nomenclature in the areas of migration and asylum in liaison with the national

authorities,

— enhance the range and quality of statistics in this field to meet the initial requirements contained in the Commission

communications on the subject.

Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE IV — VISAS, ASYLUM,
IMMIGRATION AND
OTHER POLICIES RELATED TO FREE MOVEMENT
OF PERSONS

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

31 Population

Statistical implications

TITLE V

Transport

Community transport statistics are required to support the common transport policy (Articles 70 to 80) and the
transport component of the trans-European networks (TENs) (Articles 154 to 156).

Transport is also an important part of Community regional and environmental policies (see Titles XVII and XIX) and
particular attention will need to be accorded to sustainable development indicators.

Community statistics should constitute a comprehensive transport information system, including data on flows of goods
and passengers, as well as on infrastructure, equipment, traffic flows, personal mobility, safety, energy consumption and
environmental impact, as well as data on transport costs and prices, and on transport enterprises. A key objective will be
to shift the balance between modes of transport, favouring rail and short-sea shipping over road transport, and thereby
removing the existing coupling of economic growth with increased road traffic. It will be necessary to provide better
statistics on modal split, covering passengers as well as freight, taking account of all modes of transport and improving
timeliness aspects.

(1) Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and to the Council on a Community immigration policy

(COM(2000) 757 final, 22.11.2000).

(2) Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and to the Council: ‘Towards a common asylum procedure and a

uniform status, valid throughout the Union, for persons granted asylum’ (COM(2000) 755 final, 22.11.2000).

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The opening up of transport markets to competition will require objective statistical data to monitor developments in
these markets and to assess the impact of these developments on employment and working conditions in transport
enterprises and on the economic viability of these businesses. It will also reinforce the demands for statistical indicators
relating to safety and service quality. Market trends will require the collection of statistical data on freight transport
which are less centred on single modes of transport, but which provide information on the complete intermodal
transport chain and on the transport of goods from a market perspective.

Monitoring the relationship between transport and the environment will be a main driving force for improved quality
and coverage across all areas of transport data. It will also generate some specific requirements for additional data, for
example on personal mobility and on transport equipment. There will be a need to respond to the growing demand for
traffic data expressed in vehicle-kilometres for all modes of transport,
in view of their importance in monitoring
congestion and gas emissions.

The continued high level of investment in European transport infrastructure, and in particular the transport TEN, will
generate specific needs for statistics on infrastructure and on market trends. The TEN, together with Community
regional policies, will continue to generate demands for more spatially broken-down data on transport networks and
flows, which should be considered an integral part of the overall transport information system.

Summary

During the five-year period, the Commission will strive to:

— complete the coverage of Community transport statistics across all modes of transport and all types of information,

— continue to adapt and complete, where necessary, the legal basis for transport statistics,

— promote the collection of additional statistics on intermodal transport chains as well as those additional data needed

to monitor the integration of environmental considerations into transport policies (the TERM exercise).

Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE V — TRANSPORT

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

48 Transport

72 Regional statistics

Other important contributory themes

44 Statistics on the economic activity of enterprises

45 Energy

49 Information society

50 Tourism

53 Trade in goods

61 Land use and landscape

70 Sustainable development

71 Environment statistics

74 Geographical and local information

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Common rules on competition, taxation and approximation of laws

TITLE VI

No direct statistical programme is required. Statistical information for this title is derived as needed from data and
indicators generated for other titles in the programme.

Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE VI — COMMON RULES ON COMPETITION,
TAXATION AND APPROXIMATION OF LAWS

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

32 Labour market

53 Trade in goods

Other important contributory themes

44 Statistics on the economic activity of enterprises

45 Energy

48 Transport

49 Information society

63 Agricultural monetary statistics

64 Crop production

65 Animal production

66 Agroindustry statistics

TITLE VII

Economic and monetary policy

Statistical implications

The implementation of economic and monetary union requires very close statistical monitoring to support macro-
economic policy coordination and the monetary policy functions of the European system of central banks. The Stability
and Growth Pact presents new statistical requirements. Meanwhile, measuring the extent of economic convergence
achieved by Member States remains important.

In order to provide statistics with the necessary breadth, comparability, timeliness and frequency to coordinate macro-
economic policy and support the monetary policy functions of the European system of central banks, work will be
pursued on short-term indicators of demand, output, the labour market, prices and costs. New methods (e.g. flash-
estimation, nowcasting, etc.) will be applied to improve the service for business cycle analysts. This work will
complement further development of monetary and financial indicators.

The permanent improvement of timeliness and coverage of data is needed in the framework of the action plan on EMU
statistical requirements. The calculation of euro-zone aggregates in the shortest possible time will require the timely
production of quarterly national accounts and the implementation of flash estimates. Moreover, major work will be
necessary in the field of quarterly institutional sector non-financial and financial accounts fully consistent with annual
accounts and short-term public finances. The request for counterpart information in the financial accounts, which shows
the relationships from ‘whom-to-whom' between sectors,
is an important tool for monetary policy analysis. In a
step-by-step approach, this information is to be collected during this five-year programme.’

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(2003 to 2007), the most significant single feature is expected to be the
During the period of this programme,
enlargement of the EU from 15 members to 20 or more. This will entail substantial work on data supply by the
new members and on validation by Eurostat. To support fully the Commission's enlargement policy, assistance to the
candidate countries will be pursued and developed,
in order to ensure proper availability, quality, timeliness and
comparability of the data.

For all Member States increased attention will be paid to the quality of the data, at both constant and current prices.
One administrative use, own resources based on gross national income, will represent 60 % of the EU budget. Much of
the task will be to continue and supplement the efforts made to harmonise statistics on the convergence criteria. The
goal of maintaining price stability (Article 105 of the Treaty) and providing information for the euro-zone monetary
policy of the ECB requires that, pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 of 23 October 1995 concerning
harmonised indices of consumer prices (1), the quality of the Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICPs) should be
maintained and further improved. HICP methodology is to be completed and consolidated within the framework of the
abovementioned Council Regulation on HICPs.

Monitoring of the budgetary situation and of the stock of government debt (Article 104 of the Treaty and the Stability
and Growth Pact agreed upon in Dublin) will be based on the accounts of general government drawn up using the ESA
95 methodology approved by Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European system of
national and regional accounts in the Community (2). Harmonisation and comparability will be kept under review in
order to provide the institutional decision-makers with high quality and comparable statistical instruments so as not to
create any distortions in the judgements made of the budgetary situation in each Member State.

The monitoring of the economic development in the Member States as provided for in Article 99 of the Treaty
strengthens the need to implement fully the existing data transmission programme on national accounts according
to the ESA 95 Regulation, especially as far as timeliness and coverage are concerned, and to extend it progressively to
new areas through revision and extension of the legislation in force.

Work on drawing up the principal aggregates of the accounts in terms of purchasing power parities will be continued.
The revision work on the methodology for purchasing power parities to make the results more reliable for comparative
analyses, which started under the previous five-year programme, should be concluded with the adoption of the PPP
Council Regulation.

The establishment of economic and monetary union has considerable implications for the balance of payments statistics.
Of particular importance here are the reporting thresholds, which if modified as currently foreseen, will require
significant development work to ensure that the quality of this data can be maintained. Many Member States (especially
those where bank reporting is the main source for balance of payments compilers) are currently revising their balance of
payments collection systems in order to cope with the new circumstances. Work will be pursued in the coming years in
order to ensure that Member States keep providing good quality and relevant data to the EU institutions and the ECB,
especially on trade in services, foreign direct investment, and foreign affiliated trade statistics. Also the collection (and
analysis) of data from candidate countries will have priority. These data are requested by several Commission services,
especially those dealing with economic monitoring, trade policy, and external relations.

Summary

During the five-year period the Commission will aim to:

— pursue the development and production of statistics in the framework of the EMU action plan for the conduct of
for the Stability and Growth Pact and for the

macroeconomic policy coordination and of monetary policy,
continued assessment of economic convergence,

— intensify implementation of the ESA 95 Regulation,

— revise the collection system for balance of payments statistics.

(1) OJ L 257, 27.10.1995, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 359/2002 (OJ L 58, 28.2.2002, p. 1).

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Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE VII — ECONOMIC AND MONETARY POLICY

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

32 Labour market

40 Annual economic accounts

41 Quarterly accounts

42 Financial accounts

44 Statistics on the economic activity of enterprises

52 Money and finance

54 Trade in services and balance of payments

55 Prices

57 Statistics for business cycle analysis

Other important contributory themes

53 Trade in goods

Statistical implications

TITLE VIII

Employment

EU labour statistics development will be driven by the following political processes: EU enlargement, European
employment strategy, economic and monetary union and the benchmarking exercise (with structural indicators to be
presented every year in spring to the European Council).

Labour statistics are largely governed by EU regulations. Thanks to this the candidate countries will have made major
steps towards complying with EU requirements before 2003. Full compliance, regular data transmission and keeping
pace with new developments will be the challenge during 2003 to 2007.

By fixing new employment rate objectives to be reached in 2005 and 2010, the European Council has reinforced the
need to monitor the implementation of the European employment strategy and in particular the yearly implementation
of the employment guidelines. This monitoring will need to record the implementation of the continuous labour force
survey and the adaptation of its list of variables. The monitoring will require more frequent and complete statistics to
measure the gender gap (in particular the wage gap in all economic activities) and the skill gap. This will involve
structural statistics on earnings and studies on the implementation of a Community job vacancy survey.

In a zone as large as the EMU, the labour cost trend is the main potential inflationary pressure and has thus to be
monitored by quick short term statistics of high quality. The implementation of the labour cost index Regulation and
the continuous improvement of short term labour cost statistics are of utmost importance, as well as improved labour
productivity measurement (implying an improved series on volume of work).

Summary

— Implementation of a continuous LFS providing quarterly results in all Member States

— Harmonisation of part of the questionnaires

— Collection/analysis of the results of the 2002 structure of earnings survey

— Implementation of the 2004 labour cost survey covering NACE M, N and O

— Full implementation of the Council regulation on labour cost index

— Implementation of the 2006 structure of earnings survey

— Designing a target system for European labour cost statistics.

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Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE VIII — EMPLOYMENT

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

32 Labour market

33 Education

35 Health and safety

36 Distribution of incomes and living conditions

37 Social protection

Other important contributory themes

44 Statistics on the economic activity of enterprises

49 Information society

50 Tourism

63 Agricultural monetary statistics

TITLE IX

Common commercial policy

Statistical implications

Article 133 of the Treaty gives responsibility to the European Commission for conducting negotiations on commercial
agreements with third countries. This includes the trade agreements on services (GATS). For this purpose good quality
data are essential.

Work will be pursued in the coming years in order to ensure that data on cross-border trade in services (both
geographical breakdown and detail by components), foreign direct investment, and foreign affiliated trade maintain
the quality standards, the level of detail, and the degree of harmonisation required by the Commission services in charge
of conducting the commercial policy.

The Doha Round, launched in November 2001, will make sustainable development and the impact of the common
commercial policy on developing countries a key issue. Coordination work on collecting global data will need to be
undertaken.

The collection and analysis of data from candidate countries will also have first priority in the coming years. Work will
also be undertaken to coordinate further the methodological discussion among Member States, notwithstanding the fact
that a significant degree of harmonisation has already been achieved in this field. The drawing-up of Community BOP
statistics is also indispensable to obtain a comprehensive BOP for the EU.

Work on harmonising the statistical rules will continue within a methodological framework which is more in line with
the international recommendations recently adopted by the United Nations. Statistical information will be improved by
more efficient use of the customs declaration's content and the needs ensuing from changes in the European Union and
international trade (enlargement, globalisation, trade liberalisation) will be taken into account. Action will also be taken
to improve the reliability of import and export price statistics to ensure better measurement of the external competi-
tiveness of the Union's products.

Summary

By the end of the five-year programme, the Commission will have:

— progressively integrated the candidate countries' data,

— adapted and improved the data-collection and production systems,

— improved and further developed the methodological framework taking into account the international recommen-

dations, new information requirements and the development of the economic and customs environment,

— enhanced the use of existing data and analysis on global sustainable development.

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Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE IX — COMMON COMMERCIAL POLICY

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

53 Trade in goods

Other important contributory themes

19 Statistical cooperation with the candidate countries

54 Trade in services and balance of payments

21 Statistical cooperation with other third countries

42 Financial accounts

52 Money and finance

TITLE X

Customs cooperation

No direct statistical programme is required. Statistical information for this title is derived as needed from data and
indicators generated for other titles in the programme.

TITLE XI

Social policy, education, vocational training and youth

Statistical implications

During this programme a coherent strategy will be developed to ensure the availability of a complete set of indicators
covering all the social fields in close coordination with actions under Title VIII. The quality of existing information will
be improved and new indicators are to be introduced to cover areas which have been identified as a priority, such as
social exclusion and lifelong learning. In the context of the ‘report on the concrete objectives of education and training
systems’ ratified by the Stockholm European Council, close cooperation between DG EAC and Eurostat will have to be
pursued. In addition to the continuation of the statistical work on the three priorities defined for 2002 (basis skills,
information and communication technologies, mathematical sciences and technology), the implementation of other
objectives will require new work. Indicators for which data do not exist, or which do not meet the necessary quality
criteria but which would be essential with regard to achieving the objectives laid down, will need to be developed.

Geographically the scope of social statistics will have to be extended to cover all the candidate countries and also areas
lying outside the confines of Europe, such as the Medstat (Euro-Mediterranean programme of statistical cooperation)
countries. The benchmark for this development will be demographic data; as the results of the 2001 census round are
processed and published, this process will merge into the programme of regular updating and preparation for the next
round, promoting a harmonised approach throughout the enlarged geographical area described above. Population
projections for the entire area will also be needed at national level.

During this programme, improvements in data-gathering and processing in respect of international mobility in higher
education and research, will play a particularly important role. The first task is to harmonise the basic definitions and
the most important indicators.

The theme of ‘lifelong learning’ will be vital throughout this period, reflecting the fact that economic changes will
require job and social skills to be constantly updated. A comprehensive system of ‘learning’ statistics will be required to
serve employment, economic and education policies, giving special attention to public and private investment in
education. The current range of information on education and training will need to be supplemented with further
data on adult education.

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The Commission communication in 2002 on a new Community strategy on health and safety at work requires the full
implementation of the last phase of the European statistics on accidents at work (ESAW) and the first phase of the
European occupational diseases statistics (EODS). Indicators on the quality of work, work-related health problems and
the socioeconomic costs of health and safety at work will also be further developed.

In the context of Article 13 of the Treaty and the action to combat discrimination, a methodology will be set up to
provide regular statistics on the integration of disabled people into society.

Significant social changes, most of which are already discernible, are expected to continue throughout the programme
period (for example in the population pyramid, household structure, migration trends, working patterns, educational
systems, etc.) and a new type of instrument will be required in addition to those described above. The EU statistics on
income and living conditions (EU-SILC) will be based on a wide selection of sources and will draw upon the experiences
acquired during the 1990s in implementing successive waves of the European Community Household Panel. It will be
set in place to provide a range of information on the living conditions of European citizens during the five-year period
and beyond.

Summary

During the five year programme period, the Commission will:

— develop a coherent strategy that will ensure the availability of a complete set of indicators covering all the social

fields,

— provide regular information on living conditions of citizens through newly developed indicators,

— provide information on care and childcare facilities.

Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE XI — SOCIAL POLICY, EDUCATION, VOCA-
TIONAL TRAINING AND YOUTH

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

31 Population

32 Labour market

33 Education

35 Health and safety

36 Distribution of incomes and living conditions

37 Social protection

38 Other work in the field of demographic and social

statistics (housing statistics)

72 Regional statistics

Other important contributory themes

70 Sustainable development

Statistical implications

TITLE XII

Culture

Community action in the cultural field is based on Article 151 of the Treaty. Improving the knowledge and dissemi-
nation of information on key cultural aspects of Europeans constitutes a main element in the Community competencies
in this area. Moreover, it has been clearly stipulated that the Community must take cultural aspects into account in the
definition and implementation of its policies as a whole.

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In the framework of the Community statistical programme (2003 to 2007), the priority for cultural statistics will be the
consolidation of the pilot work on culture employment, participation in cultural activities and statistics on culture
expenditure. At the same time and in close cooperation with Member States and competent international organisations,
the statistical programme will support methodological work and development of statistics related to the issue of returns
on investing in culture. Particular attention will be given to the development of international methodologies which allow
the statistical measurement and analysis of the impact that participation in cultural activities can have in contributing to
social goals such as increasing educational levels and employment rates and reducing crime and inequalities in the health
sphere.

Summary

During the five-year programme period, the Commission will:

— consolidate the existing statistical information on culture,

— develop and implement methodologies to measure culture impacts in society.

Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE XII — CULTURE

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

34 Culture

Other important contributory themes

49 Information society

Statistical implications

TITLE XIII

Public health

According to Article 152 of the Treaty, Community action in the area of public health covers health information. A
basic framework of statistics on public health,covering health status, health determinants and health resources has been
established within the European statistical system in support of the Community action programmes on public health.
The adoption of
the statistical element of health
information will be further developed in the context of the Community statistical programme, including data collection
broken down, as necessary, by gender, age, geographical location and, where available, by level of income. During 2003
to 2007, activities will be continued on further developing the set of health statistics in order to respond to the specific
requirements that result from the new action programme on public health. The particular need for sustainable devel-
opment indicators will have to be addressed.

the new Community action programme on public health (1),

The general emphasis will be on reinforcement of the infrastructure for the basic system on public health statistics (at
Member State and EU level), on harmonisation and improvement of the comparability of existing data in cooperation
with international organisations competent in the field of public health (WHO and OECD).

In order to ensure consistency and complementarity, specific action under this programme will also be directed towards
ensuring that basic concepts, definitions and classifications on health statistics will be used for the whole area of health
information.

In accordance with the relevant agreements with the countries concerned, the scope of statistics on public health will be
progressively extended to cover all candidate countries.

Summary

During the five-year programme period, the Commission will:

— further develop the set of health statistics in order to respond to the specific requirements that may result from the

action programme on public health,

— reinforce the infrastructure for the basic system on public health statistics.

(1) Commission communication on the health strategy of the European Community and proposal for a decision of the European
Parliament and of the Council adopting a programme of Community action in the field of public health (2001 to 2006) (COM(2000)
285 final, 16.5.2000)

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Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE XIII — PUBLIC HEALTH

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

35 Health and safety

37 Social protection

Other important contributory themes

39 Consumer protection

70 Sustainable development

Statistical implications

TITLE XIV

Consumer protection

Consumer policy has achieved a much higher profile within the EC institutions during recent years (Article 153 of the
Treaty).

The Commission has set up an action plan for consumer policy (1999 to 2001) which will be followed by activities in
favour of consumers. The current action plan, as well as its predecessors, has been handicapped by the limited
availability of data necessary to arrive at an informed judgement. The consumer policy action plan (2002 to 2005)
is at present being prepared. It will put emphasis on the need to make a more systematic and comprehensive effort in
order to develop a suitable ‘knowledge base' as an essential tool to assist policy development.’

The purpose of Eurostat's efforts in this area is to provide statistical data generally interesting for the public to shed light
on consumption and consumer issues at the European, national and regional levels.

Summary

During the five-year programme period, the Commission will:

— make statistics for consumer protection available in a more user-friendly format, in particular publications,

— pursue the methodological support relating to injuries in the home,

— raise the awareness of the subject of consumer protection across all relevant statistical themes of work,

— ensure that consumer protection aspects are taken into consideration for new statistical policies,

— promote the development of statistics for consumer protection in the statistical services in the Member States.

Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE XIV — CONSUMER PROTECTION

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

36 Distribution of incomes and living conditions

Other important contributory themes

61 Land use and landscape

39 Consumer protection

64 Crop production

65 Animal production

66 Agroindustry statistics

69 Fisheries statistics

70 Sustainable development

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TITLE XV

Trans-European networks

No direct statistical programme is required. Statistical information for this title is derived as needed from data and
indicators generated for other titles in the programme.

Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE XV — TRANS-EUROPEAN NETWORKS

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

48 Transport

Other important contributory themes

45 Energy

49 Information society

53 Trade in goods

61 Land use and landscape

71 Environment statistics

72 Regional statistics

73 Science and technology

74 Geographical and local information

Statistical implications

TITLE XVI

Industry

Statistical work in the field of industry in the broad sense of the term (including, in particular, construction, services,
energy and agri-foodstuffs) will be centred on support for the policies decided on the basis of the Treaty of Amsterdam,
and at various summits held subsequently (in particular, the Lisbon Summit of March 2000). These developments are in
particular planned for the areas globalisation, internal and external organisation of businesses (and more generally, the
production system) as well as cooperation between businesses, the spirit of enterprise and governance, demand, and
finally employment and human resources.

The first priority will be the implementation of the different regulations on business statistics. Particular emphasis will be
placed on the quality of results.

In order to follow the structural changes in industry, a programme for developing business statistics will be pursued in
close cooperation with the national statistical systems. This development will cover the adaptation of existing regu-
lations, as well as the support for the major European policies, in particular, the single market, enlargement, economic
and monetary policy, the information society, employment, as well as support for the structural indicators underlying
the Union's annual report.

Eurostat will study with the Member States possibilities for maximum rationalisation of the national collection methods
as well as their coordination to reduce the burden on enterprises as far as possible. A special effort will be made to
improve the analysis of the single market using existing statistical tools or tools yet to be developed, and in particular
Prodcom (and similar developments in the services domain).

Energy

In the field of energy statistics, work will consist in improving the quality of energy balances, especially in the area of
the consumption, in order to respond better to requirements arising from the GHG emissions monitoring mechanism.
The present system will be extended in order to respond better to sustainable development issues (energy efficiency,
co-generation, renewables), and the effectiveness of competition in liberalised markets and its impact on consumers and
the energy industry will be followed up.

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Summary

During the five-year programme period work will progress in the following areas to:

— improve the system for developing structural business statistics, based on political needs and with a capacity of

quick reaction to changing factors such as environment, policies and users,

— strive for maintaining the infrastructure needed such as business registers and classifications,

— focus on the quality assessment and improvement of the data produced.

Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE XVI — INDUSTRY

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

44 Statistics on the economic activity of enterprises

Other important contributory themes

49 Information society

45 Energy

66 Agroindustry statistics

51 Business registers

53 Trade in goods

70 Sustainable development

71 Environment statistics

TITLE XVII

Economic and social cohesion

Statistical implications

One of the key elements of the building of the European Union is the correction of social and regional imbalances. This
is, indeed, the primary objective of the Structural Funds. Since their reform in 1988, the Commission has put in place
an integrated policy for social and economic cohesion within which regional statistics play an essential role in the
decision implementation process: eligibility of zones under regional objectives is defined on the basis of socioeconomic
criteria with respect to certain thresholds; financial allocations to Member States are decided objectively on the basis of
statistical indicators. In addition, evaluation of the impact of Community policies at regional level, and the quantification
of regional disparities, are possible only with access to extensive regionally based statistics.

The regular evaluation reports drawn up by the Commission (‘Report on Economic and Social Cohesion’ (1)) on
information. Urban issues deserve
socioeconomic trends in the regions require a significant reserve of statistical
particular attention, given that political decision-makers are increasingly clamouring for an evaluation of the quality
of life in Europe's cities. As the basis for their action in the future, they require comparable data on all EU towns and
cities. The communications issued by the Commission in 1997 (‘Towards an urban agenda in the European Union’) and
1998 (‘Sustainable urban development in the European Union: a framework for action’) highlighted in particular this
need for more comparable information.

The work to be undertaken under the statistical programme (2003 to 2007) will, accordingly, be very largely determined
by the shape of Community regional policy within an enlarged European Union, and by the arrival of the new
programming period for the Structural Funds. The third Cohesion Report is scheduled for adoption by the Commission
in early 2004, while its conclusions are due to be implemented (as draft regulations) over the rest of that year. The
information required will include population projections at regional level and data on regional demography.

(1) See ‘Unity, solidarity, diversity for Europe, its people and its territory’; the second report on economic and social cohesion, European

Commission, January 2001.

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Geographical information

A large number of departments within the Commission make use of geographical information systems for the drafting,
implementation and evaluation of the policies for which they are responsible. This trend will become increasingly
evident in the next few years as technology advances and data become more extensively available. The initiatives on a
European spatial data infrastructure will lead to new challenges in this area. Eurostat, as manager of the Commission's
reference database, must meet these challenges.

Summary

During the five years, work will progress in the following areas to:

— implement the statistical indicators required for the next phase of the structural funds,

— provide the necessary data for the cohesion report and to support Commission proposals for the structural funds

after 2006,

— further integrate the use of geographical information systems for policy management.

Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE XVII — ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COHESION

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

55 Prices

Other important contributory themes

72 Regional statistics

74 Geographical and local information

31 Population

32 Labour market

40 Annual economic accounts

44 Statistics on the economic activity of enterprises

50 Tourism

63 Agricultural monetary statistics

71 Environment statistics

TITLE XVIII

Research and technological development

Science and technology and innovation statistics

S t a t i s t i c a l

i m p l i c a t i o n s

The overall objective of Community RTD policy is to strengthen the scientific and technological basis of the European
economy and to improve its competitiveness at international level. At the 2000 Lisbon Summit, the European Council
set a clear strategic objective for Europe for the next decade. The measurement of harmonised inputs, outputs and the
socioeconomic impacts of the knowledge-based economy will continue to have a high priority on the European research
agenda as is clearly evident in the debate on the European research area.

All recent R & D and innovation policies have called for timely and harmonised data, the collection of which must be
negotiated with the Member States and coordinated by Eurostat. Annual updates of the indicators for both initiatives
will require more frequent surveys in Member States, as well as quality improvements. The ability to produce statistics
on human resources in science and technology and by gender must be developed in order to provide policy makers with
the necessary data to assess the effectiveness of related Community policies.

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S u m m a r y

During the next five years, main efforts will be undertaken to:

— improve the quality of existing indicators and continue the conceptual work leading to the production and further
development of new indicators to benchmark national research and innovation policies, and in particular, to
measure human resources and their mobility in research and development,

— develop further statistics on RTD and innovation in the context of the European research area and, in particular, to

develop a theoretical framework for more frequent RTD and innovation statistics,

— develop a general framework for the measurement of the knowledge society,

— measure the technological trends with harmonised statistics on patents,

— associate the candidate countries in the overall framework of the development of harmonised and comparable RTD

and innovation statistics.

Research in Statistics

S t a t i s t i c a l

i m p l i c a t i o n s

As part of its R & D policy, the Community promotes research activities, which support its own policies. Official
statistics have been identified in various framework programmes (including the draft documents for the sixth
framework programme) as an area in which R & D activities will be launched at Community level.

The increased use of statistics for political decision-making in the late 1990s has led to the demand for more accurate
and comparable statistics, in particular for short-term indicators to monitor the evolution of the single European market
and monetary union. The foreseeable enlargement of the European Union reinforces this need for prompt access to such
information.

In parallel, technology provides new possibilities for collecting data and disseminating statistics. At the same time,
respondents (enterprises and individuals) complain about the response burden, and request that it be reduced, through
more automation and a better use of existing information. R & D in statistics has an important European dimension,
because statistical production is international by nature as only few Member States could afford it on their own.
Combined with the increasing emphasis on cost-benefit analysis of the statistics produced, this implies new requirements
for the production of European statistics. European official statisticians must therefore reconsider the procedures used
today for collecting and compiling statistics on an expanding range of phenomena.

These requirements underline the importance of using existing data sources for the production of statistics for more
in-depth statistical analysis. This implies that methods and tools that support the combined use of data (from, for
example, administrative data and sample surveys, or infra-annual statistics and structural statistics) should be developed.

S u m m a r y

During the next five years, efforts will be concentrated on:

— the development of new tools and methods for official statistics,

— the better conceptualisation and development of statistics to measure new emerging socioeconomic phenomena,

— the transfer of technology and know-how within the European statistical system,

— the improvement of the quality of the statistical production process and the statistical output.

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Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE XVIII — RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGICAL
DEVELOPMENT

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

22 Statistical research and methodology

73 Science and technology

Other important contributory themes

44 Statistics on the economic activity of enterprises

49 Information society

TITLE XIX

Environment

Statistical implications

The main objective of environment statistics is to serve as an efficient tool for implementation and evaluation of the
environmental policy of the European Union. The main environmental priorities are covered under the sixth environ-
mental action programme, the sustainable development strategy and the Cardiff strategy of integration of environment
into other sectoral policies.

The European Commission's proposal for the sixth environment action programme ‘Environment 2010: our future, our
choice’, indicates the priority areas for environment statistics. The new programme identifies four main policy areas:
climate change, nature and biodiversity, environment and health and quality of life, natural resources and waste. It
emphasises the need to continue the process to integrate environmental concerns into all relevant policy areas and to
ensure better and more accessible information on the environment for citizens. A more environmentally conscious
attitude towards land use is also to be developed.

The European Council at Gothenburg in June 2001 adopted an EU strategy for sustainable development. The strategy
builds on four themes (climate change, transport, health and natural resources) and it will be monitored on a yearly
basis. The strategy will influence the needs for environmentally related statistics to a large extent, but the sustainability
aspect will also have impacts on social and economic statistics. In order to measure progress, sustainable development
will be included in the list of structural indicators for the synthesis report, and presented each year at the European
Spring Council, starting from 2002.

The Gothenburg Council also called for a strategy on the external dimension of sustainable development and an overall
agenda is expected to be adopted in view of the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development.

For the environmental part of the statistical programme, the action programme and the strategy for sustainable
development imply that the present working areas should continue, but also that these should be extended and
adapted. The main orientation of the statistical programme will continue to be focused on statistics with a close link
to socioeconomic statistics, such as pressures on the environment from human activities and responses from society's
representatives. The capacity of the statistics to describe the interaction between social, economic and environmental
development will require further work. The programme has been designed to meet the needs for statistics together with
the information from the European Environment Agency and working areas will continue to be complementary.

A crucial factor for sustainable development is the integration of environmental aspects into other policies, but major
progress has been achieved in just three of the nine sectors (transport, agriculture and energy). To serve as a tool for
such integrated policies, work on fully harmonising the environmental component of Community statistics with the
relevant socioeconomic statistics will continue. Substantial progress has been made in recent years regarding the
compilation of some relevant statistics. Corresponding action will be essential also for other policy areas. Major
importance should be given also to the biodiversity indicators, resource use/intensity and toxic chemicals and their
effects on human health. Land-use statistics are being improved through landscape statistics. Fishery statistics will be
important to show the development of this scarce resource (See Title II). Aggregated indicators using production and
trade statistics as well as other sources can make a contribution to the description of society's dependence on chemicals.
An environmental component needs also to be added to social statistics in order to reflect consumption patterns and
possible health effects from pollution and use of chemicals.

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The implementation of the regulation for waste statistics will be an essential task. New policies linking waste to resource
management will also require statistical actions to describe material flows, resource use, waste, reuse and eco-efficiency
in a consistent way. Implementation of the water framework directive will require statistical support and better harmon-
isation of water statistics. A better legal foundation for such statistics is essential. Statistical support for the implemen-
tation of the IPPC (integrated pollution and prevention control) directive will be important to ensure comparability with
business statistics. A review of reporting obligations and coordination between statistical and compliance reporting will
be an essential task.

Environmental accounts linked to the national accounts have also been developed. These accounts constitute an essential
basis for environmental analysis and the development of more comprehensive models for the interaction between the
economy and the environment. They will be further adapted and extended to serve as an essential statistical tool for
analyses of sustainable development.

Summary

The main effort in the next five years will be to:

— improve core environmental statistics, mainly waste, water and environmental expenditure statistics, with a focus on
statistics needed for environmental indicators and to put in place the necessary legislation for such statistics,

— produce easily understandable environmental and sustainability indicators in cooperation with other Commission

services and the European Environment Agency,

— continue work to produce an environmental component to socioeconomic statistics, with the aim of responding to
needs relating to indicators for integration of environmental and sustainability concerns into other policies,

— continue work to add an environmental domain to national accounts, through regular production of a set of

environmental accounts and to adapt them to the priority of sustainability issues,

— participate in reviewing reporting obligations and to continue the close cooperation with the European Environment

Agency with coordinated actions and by making data collection by the two institutions complementary,

— enhance data collection and analysis on global sustainable development.

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Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE XIX — ENVIRONMENT

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

45 Energy

65 Animal production

70 Sustainable development

71 Environment statistics

74 Geographical and local information

Other important contributory themes

35 Health and safety

39 Consumer protection

44 Statistics on the economic activity of enterprises

48 Transport

50 Tourism

61 Land use and landscape

62 Agricultural structures

64 Crop production

67 Coordination and reform of agricultural statistics

68 Forestry statistics

69 Fisheries statistics

72 Regional statistics

TITLE XX

Development cooperation (and other external actions)

Statistical implications

The overall objective is to support the EU external relations policies by providing appropriate and focused statistical
technical assistance in order to strengthen statistical capacity in countries benefiting from EU aid. The future strategy,
however, recognises the need to adapt in response to the changing EU policy context.

Reflecting EU policy in statistical cooperation activities

The most significant policy change is the increased and explicit focus on poverty reduction in the Community's
development policy, in particular with ACP States. Consequently, statistical cooperation will have an increased focus
on strengthening the measurement and monitoring of poverty; this will entail an increase in activities mainly in the
social statistics domain. Similarly, technical advice and support will be provided to DG Development, DG External
relations, and EuropeAid in the area of measuring the poverty impact of the Community's development programmes.

Regional integration will be a continuing emphasis of the programme, mirroring the increased moves amongst countries
themselves to strengthen their regional structures. Areas for support will include multilateral surveillance, improvement
of national accounts, price statistics, agricultural statistics, foreign trade, business statistics and statistical training.

With the 12 Mediterranean partner countries, institutional and interinstitutional strengthening of the national statistical
systems will constitute the central objective. Statistical harmonisation, production and improved data access for users
will be supported in order to provide a solid basis for political decision-making and for good governance. Apart from
socioeconomic statistics, priority areas are migration, tourism and environment.

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Statistical cooperation between EU and NIS countries is aimed at supporting and monitoring economic cooperation and
the reform process as well as promoting the market economy. Key demands concern economic and foreign trade
statistics.

Eurostat will continue and strengthen its efforts to improve coordination amongst the donor community (i.e. bilateral
and multilateral donors). Accordingly, Eurostat will support work, in particular in the OECD/DAC, UN and World Bank
contexts, to assess the impact of development cooperation on reaching the ‘millennium development goals’ adopted at
the UN Millennium Summit in 2000. As such, it will play an active part in the Paris 21 initiative and in the Balkans. In
particular, technical cooperation activities will stress the importance of a user focus, and will promote the value of
multiannual programming.

Innovative work will be undertaken with the aim of developing approaches and methods for the measurement and
monitoring of human rights and good governance.

Summary

During the five-year period work will concentrate on:

— providing statistical technical assistance in order to strengthen statistical capacity in countries benefiting from EU

aid,

— increasing focus on strengthening the measurement and monitoring of poverty,

— developing approaches and methods for the measurement and monitoring of human rights and good governance.

Policy needs and Eurostat outputs

Treaty title

Eurostat work themes

TITLE XX — DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION

Principal themes of work necessary for this policy area

21 Statistical cooperation with other third countries

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FIVE-YEAR STATISTICAL PROGRAMME (2003 to 2007): EUROSTAT WORK THEMES

ANNEX II

Chapter (subactivity)

Theme (action)

I. Support for statistical outputs, technical infrastructure

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

21

22

25

Quality management and evaluation

Classifications

Statistical training

IT-infrastructures and services for Eurostat

IT-normalisation and collaborative infrastructures for the ESS

Reference data and metadata warehouses

Information

Dissemination

Statistical coordination

Statistical cooperation with the candidate countries

Statistical cooperation with other third countries

Statistical research and methodology

Data security and statistical confidentiality

II. Demographic and social statistics

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

Population

Labour market

Education

Culture

Health and safety

Distribution of incomes and living conditions

Social protection

Other work in the field of demographic and social statistics

Consumer protection

III. Economic statistics

III.A. Macroeconomic statistics

40

41

42

43

55

57

Annual economic accounts

Quarterly accounts

Financial accounts

Monitoring own resources

Prices

Statistics for business-cycle analysis

III.B. Business statistics

44

45

48

49

50

51

Statistics on the economic activity of enterprises

Energy

Transport

Information society

Tourism

Business registers

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III.C. Monetary, financial, trade and balance of payments statistics

52

53

54

Money and finance

Trade in goods

Trade in services and balance of payments

IV. Agriculture, forestry and fisheries

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

Land use and landscape

Agricultural structures

Agricultural monetary statistics

Crop production

Animal production

Agroindustry statistics

Coordination and reform of agricultural statistics

Forestry statistics

Fisheries statistics

V. Multi-domain statistics

70

71

72

73

74

Sustainable development

Environment statistics

Regional statistics

Science and technology

Geographical and local information

VI. Resources and management

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

99

International and interinstitutional relations

Management and statistical programmes

Management of human resources

Management of financial resources

Management of legal bases

Audit

General administration

Decentralised management

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STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL’S REASONS

I. INTRODUCTION

1. On 3 December 2001, the Commission forwarded to the Council a proposal for a decision of the
European Parliament and of the Council on the Community statistical programme (2003 to 2007).

2. The above proposal is based on Article 285 of the Treaty according to which the procedure of

co-decision with the European Parliament prescribed in Article 251 of the Treaty applies.

3. The European Parliament adopted its amendments to the Commission proposal at first reading on

25 April 2002.

4. The Economic and Social Committee adopted its opinion on 20 March 2002.

5. On 30 September 2002, the Council adopted its Common Position pursuant to Article 251 of the

Treaty.

II. OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL

The purpose of the proposal is to produce the Community statistical programme required by Article 3
of Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on community statistics. This stipulates the
adoption of ‘a Community statistical programme which defines the approaches, the main fields and the
objectives of the actions envisaged for a period not exceeding five years. The Community statistical
programme shall constitute the framework for the production of all Community statistics.’

The current Community statistical programme was established by Council Decision 1996/126/EC for
the years 1998 to 2002.

III. ANALYSIS OF THE COMMON POSITION

The Council’s Common Position closely follows the Commission’s proposal and the European
Parliament’s amendments:

New recitals 7 and 15 are added,
to incorporate the European Parliament’s first and second
amendments on the comparability and high quality of statistics and the need for a gender
breakdown of data in certain areas.

In Article 2, a new sentence is introduced to recall the need for ongoing review of priorities to make
optimum use of resources and minimise response burdens. A further sentence is introduced to incor-
porate the European Parliament’s third amendment on the comparability and high quality of statistics.

Article 3 establishes the budgetary framework for the programme. It has been amended to reflect the
fact that the final year of the programme falls outside the current financial perspective, so that any
amount relating to that year must remain subject to confirmation in the context of a new financial
perspective. The European Parliament’s amendment to increase the budget for the programme from
EUR 192,5 million over five years to EUR 222,377 million over the four years 2003 to 2006 was
rejected, as this increase was not acceptable to the Commission.

In the introductory section of Annex I, the Council has introduced in section 2(a) a reference to the
need for cost-effectiveness in implementation and in section 2(c) a reference to the consultation of
Member States through the Statistical Programme Committee.

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In section 3(a) of the introductory section of Annex I, the Council has revised the wording of the
element related to structural indicators, so as better to reflect the scope of the mandates given by the
European Council and to place the appropriate emphasis on open coordination.

In section 5 of the introductory section of Annex I, the Council has introduced a paragraph describing
the need for ongoing review of the necessity of existing statistics as part or the programming of
statistical priorities (reflecting the amendment introduced in Article 2).

In Title II of Annex I, under ‘Forestry’, the Council has introduced a general reference to the need to
develop better quality forestry statistics, rather than the narrow focus on the specific criteria and
indicators described.

In Title VIII of Annex I, the Council has removed the reference to the specific variables covered by the
continuous labour force survey, since these are set out in the relevant regulation. A reference to care
and childcare facilities has nonetheless been introduced in Title XI of the Annex. The Council has also
introduced in Title VIII a reference to ‘studies on’ the implementation of a Community job vacancy
survey, while deleting the indent relating to implementation of a regulation on the survey, since the
Commission has decided not to introduce a legislative proposal in this area for the time being.

In Title XI of Annex I, the Council has introduced the European Parliament’s fifth amendment on
improving data-gathering and processing, as well as introducing a reference to providing information
on care and childcare facilities.

In Title XIII of Annex I, the Council has introduced an amendment requiring a breakdown of data by
level of income only where this information is available, so as to avoid a disproportionate cost in those
Member States where these data are not available.

IV. CONCLUSION

The Council considers that the modifications introduced in its Common Position are fully in line with
the objectives of the proposed decision. All amendments of the European Parliament are incorporated
except
for the programme, which could not be accepted by the
that
Commission.

in respect of the budget

The Council considers its Common Position an excellent basis for a swift decision to enable the
programme to be implemented from the start of 2003.