Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98    {SEC(2007) 29}
Date: 2007-01-17
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU statistics, disclosure of information, employment statistics, report, sample survey, statistical method, working population

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 17.1.2007 
COM(2007) 10 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL 
AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

on the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 

{SEC(2007) 29} 

EN 

   EN 

 
 
 
  
 
 
 
1. 

INTRODUCTION 

This is the third in a series of three-yearly reports that the Commission is required to 
submit under Article 7 of Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 on the organisation of 
the  labour  force  sample  survey  (LFS)  in  the  Community.  The  first  report  was 
submitted  by  the Commission  in 2000  and covered  the period 1998-1999, while the 
second was submitted in 2003 and covered the period 2000-2002. 

This  report  documents  the  progress  made  by  Member  States,  Candidate  and  EFTA 
countries  (hereinafter  referred  to  as  Participating  Countries1)  with  respect  to  the 
provisions  of  the  Council  Regulation  and  the  associated  Commission  Regulations 
issued during the period 2003-2005. The content of the report is based upon quality 
reports, data and other information received from the countries concerned, in addition 
to analyses of the national questionnaires.  

2. 

MAIN POINTS 

Since  the  last  Report  to  the  Council  and  the  European  Parliament,  considerable 
progress has been made towards improving the data quality and comparability of the 
national Labour Force Surveys. All the Member States have started to implement the 
continuous survey, enabling Eurostat to publish quarterly results. Timeliness of data 
delivery  has  improved  and  several  countries  have  revised  and  improved  their 
questionnaires  and  survey  designs,  thereby  making  for  greater  comparability  of  the 
survey across Europe and better coverage of the population. 

The  situation  regarding  the  progress  made  in  implementing  specific  aspects  of 
Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 is described in more detail below, with references 
to the relevant articles. 

2.1. 

Implementation of continuous quarterly surveys – Article 1 

Regulation (EC) No 1991/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which 
requires  the  Member  States  to  implement  a  continuous  quarterly  survey  from  2003 
onwards, was adopted in October 2002. Two countries received derogations allowing 
them  to  extend  the  transitional  period:  Italy  (until  the  end  of  2003)  and  Germany 
(until the end of 2004).  

Overall,  substantial  progress  has  been  achieved  in  the  implementation  of  the 
continuous survey, with few exceptions: Luxembourg has as yet only implemented a 
survey  providing  annual  results.  Hungary,  Slovenia,  Bulgaria,  Romania,  and  Turkey 
had  not  covered  all  weeks  of  the  year  by  2005.  From  2006  this  situation  has  been 
rectified  for  Hungary,  Slovenia,  Romania  and  Turkey.  Luxembourg,  Slovenia, 
Hungary,  the  Netherlands  and  Germany  still  diverge  from  a  uniform  distribution  of 
the sample over the weeks of the year. 

1 

The Former Yugoslav Republic Macedonia does not deliver micro-data to Eurostat from the 
National  Labour  Force  Survey;  nor  has  it  provided  any  details  regarding  the  survey. 
Consequently, FYROM is not covered by this report. 

EN 

2 

   EN

 
                                                 
Croatia, Turkey and Switzerland do not conduct a continuous survey. Croatia plans to 
implement one from 2007, Turkey from 2009 and Switzerland from 2009. 

2.2. 

Precision requirements – Articles 3(1) and 3(2) 

Article  3(1)  stipulates  that  the  annual  relative  standard  error  for  the  characteristic 
unemployment (set at 5%) should not exceed 8% at regional level (NUTS II). 

In  only  31  out  of  281  regions  at  NUTS  II  level  (in  France  (8),  Poland  (6),  United 
Kingdom (8), Bulgaria (2) and Romania (7)) did the Labour Force Survey not achieve 
the precision requirement laid down in Article 3(1) for all three years. 

Article 3(2) stipulates that the relative standard error for change between two quarters 
(set  at  5%  sub-population)  should  not  exceed  3%  (2%  if  the  country  has  20  million 
inhabitants or more). 

Belgium,  Denmark,  Estonia,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Poland,  Bulgaria  and  Romania  were 
not  in  line  with  the  precision  requirement  of  Article  3(2)  in  any  of  the  years  2003-
2005. 

2.3. 

Survey characteristics – Article 4(1) 

Some  Participating  Countries  are  still  not  providing  a  full  set  of  the  mandatory 
variables, which restricts the comparability of data. 

2.4. 

Annual programme of ad hoc modules – Article 4(2) 

The  annual  programme  of  ad  hoc  modules  provided  results  on  lifelong  learning 
(2003),  the  length  and  organisation  of  working  time  (2004),  and  reconciliation  of 
work  and  family  life  (2005).  All  Member  States,  Candidate  and  EFTA  countries 
participated in the ad hoc modules, with the exception of Croatia and Turkey. 

The data was generally transmitted in time with the exception of one Member State 
for the module 2003 (SE), four Member States for the Module 2004 (CZ, EL, IT and 
SE) and 3 Member states for the module 2005 (DE, EL and SE). 

The  whole  set  of  the  2005  variables  were  transmitted  by  all  Member  States.  Two 
Member States (NL and UK) haven't transmitted some of the variables of the 2003 ad 
hoc module. Concerning the 2004 ad hoc module this was also the case for LT, HU 
and SI. 

2.5. 

Definition  of  unemployment  and  the  12  principles  for  formulating 
questionnaires – Article 4(3) 

There are still issues of labour status not being measured in the same way across the 
Participating  Countries.  These  relate  to  the  lower  age  limit  (Spain,  UK,  Iceland  and 
Norway  setting  it  at  16),  definition  of  the  availability  period  (Belgium,  Czech 
Republic,  Greece,  Ireland,  Italy,  Cyprus,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Hungary,  Malta, 
Netherlands,  Slovenia,  Slovakia,  Finland,  Bulgaria,  Croatia,  Romania,  Turkey, 
Iceland  and  Norway  taking  this  to  be  2  weeks  after  the  interview)  and  follow-up 
questions  on  persons  not  looking  for  work  because  they  have  already  found  a  job 

EN 

3 

   EN

 
(Estonia,  Ireland,  Luxembourg,  Hungary,  Slovenia,  Croatia,  Romania  and  Norway 
either  not  testing  when  the  job  starts  or  whether  the  person  is  in  the  meantime 
available  to  work  within  two  weeks  of  the  reference  week).  In  2006,  Germany, 
Slovakia and Norway have already made changes to correct these deviations. 

The  12  principles  for  formulating  the  questionnaire  were  designed  to  provide 
minimum harmonisation with regard to key measurements of the LFS. Ireland, Malta, 
Slovenia and Croatia start with questions on main status, which may interfere with the 
ILO  definition  of  employment  in  the  reference  week.  The  Netherlands  and  Norway 
ask only those expressing willingness for work if they had looked for work in the past 
4 weeks. Other deviations are minor. Two countries (Austria and Spain) respect all the 
principles. 

2.6. 

Timeliness of data transmission – Article 6 

There has been an improvement in the timeliness of the quarterly data since the last 
report. 

Quarterly data are now submitted by most Participating Countries within the 12-week 
transmission period. 

3. 

CONCLUSION 

There has been good progress within Member States, Candidate and EFTA countries 
in a number of important areas since the last report to the Council. 

Faster  transmission  of  data  has  improved  the  usefulness  of  the  quarterly  results. 
Countries  have  directed  national  resources 
technical 
improvements  to  their  surveys,  in  some  cases  with  the  financial  support  of  the 
Commission, and this has increased the comparability and general quality of the data. 

introduce 

test  and 

to 

However,  the  Commission  is  concerned  that  not  all  mandatory  variables  are  being 
transmitted  by  Participating  Countries  and  there  are  still  issues  of  Participating 
Countries  not  measuring  certain  variables  in  the  same  way.  This  is  especially 
important  with  key  estimates  relating  to  employment  and  unemployment,  some 
countries  not  having  fully  implemented  the  definition  of  unemployment  and  the  12 
principles for formulating questions on labour status. 

Good  progress  has  been  achieved  in  the  implementation  of  the  continuous  survey. 
However,  there  are still some Participating Countries  that do  not fully distribute the 
sample uniformly over all weeks of the year. One Member State is still not providing 
quarterly results from the continuous survey. 

Some Participating Countries have still to adjust their survey design to fully comply 
with the precision requirements either at regional level or with regard to estimates of 
changes between quarters. 

EN 

4 

   EN

 
The Participating Countries must fulfil their obligations under this Regulation, and the 
Commission will continue to work closely with Member States, Candidate and EFTA 
countries to achieve full implementation of its provisions. 

In this context, compliance monitoring is conducted by Eurostat twice a year. Actions 
according to the importance of the infringement are taken accordingly. 

EN 

5 

   EN