Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Community Statistical Programme 2008 to 2012 COM(2006) 687 final — 2006/0229 (COD)
Date: 2007-05-30
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EU programme, EU statistics, statistical method

C 175/8

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

27.7.2007

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Decision of the
European Parliament and of the Council on the Community Statistical Programme 2008 to 2012’

COM(2006) 687 final — 2006/0229 (COD)

(2007/C 175/02)

On 19 January 2007, the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee, under
Article 262 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the abovementioned proposal.

The Section for Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion, which was responsible
for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 19 April 2007. The rapporteur
was Mr Santillán.

At its 436th plenary session, held on 30 and 31 May 2007 (meeting of 30 May), the European Economic
and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 159 votes to 1 and 5 abstentions.

1. Conclusions

— crime and criminal justice;

1.1
The EESC welcomes the proposal for the five-year statis-
tical programme 2008-2012 and agrees with the assertion that
harmonised and comparable statistics are indispensable for the
understanding of Europe among the general public,
for the
participation of citizens in the debate and for the participation
of economic operators in the single market.

— employment; although statistics do exist covering the active
the rapid
population, employment, unemployment, etc,
developments in the labour market — the emergence of
new economic activities, the creation of new professions
and new types of contract — mean that methods for
carrying out surveys and working in this field must be
constantly updated.

The EESC highlights the need for Eurostat as well as
1.2
national statistical
institutions to have the best human and
financial resources that budgets will allow, because this is essen-
tial to meeting the increasingly demanding requirements for
statistical
the European Union's
importance as a player on the world stage.

information and because of

1.3
The Committee considers that greater emphasis should
be placed on aspects relating to the wellbeing of Europeans and
to this end suggests that the statistical programme be extended
to cover the following areas:

— policies for children;

— the ageing of the population and the situation of the elderly;

— reconciling family and working life;

— social policy should also form a separate chapter.

Given its enormous importance in achieving the Lisbon
1.4
objectives, the attention the Statistical Programme 2008-2012
gives to improving statistical
information on education and
vocational training may be considered inadequate.

Statistics

1.5
should also be provided for
Economy, since this plays such an important
European Union.

the Social
role in the

There are also areas where the statistical

1.6
information
currently available is inadequate. Thus the five-year programme
should thus focus more closely on the following areas:

— immigration and asylum; this is an increasingly important
are

for which no sufficiently reliable

statistics

issue,
available;

1.7
The EESC wishes to point out that, in accordance with
the Treaty, ‘The production of statistics … shall not entail excessive
burdens on economic operators. (1)’ This will require:

a) firstly, endeavouring not to impose unnecessary or excessive

costs on businesses, especially SMEs;

b) secondly, not repeating requests for data. The basic principle
should be that each set of data is provided just once, and
should then be distributed and shared amongst statistical
organisations, whilst adhering to the principles governing
Community statistics (statistical confidentiality, etc.).

Statistics for external trade: corrections should be made
1.8
to the discrepancies that have been noted between the figures
for exports from one given country to another and the figures
for the second country's imports from the first. In other words,
the figure given for A's exports to B is different to the figure
given for B's imports from A.

1.9
Given the diversity of a European Union comprising
27 Member States, the EESC wishes to highlight the importance
of striving to ensure the best possible coordination of statistical
terminology.

To ensure that statistical data is as neutral as possible
1.10
and to guarantee the other principles set out in the Code of
Good Practice (including statistical confidentiality),
the EESC
considers it to be crucial that the work of private agencies ope-
rating (directly or indirectly) within the European Statistical
System be monitored.

(1) Treaty establishing the European Community, Art. 285(2).

27.7.2007

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 175/9

2. Gist of the proposal

Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 (2) calls for a multi-
2.1
annual Community Statistical Programme (CSP) (3) to define the
approaches, the main fields and the objectives of the actions
envisaged for a period not exceeding five years, and to
constitute the framework for the production of all Community
statistics. The CSP is implemented via annual work programmes
which provide more detailed work objectives for each year and
via specific legislation for major actions. The CSP is subject to
mid-term progress reporting and formal evaluation after the
expiry of the programme period.

Against this background, the objective of the proposal —
2.2
the legal base for which is Article 285 of the Treaty establishing
the European Community — is to put in place a comprehensive
strategic programme for official Community statistics. It should
comprise the production and delivery of products and services
to users, the improvement of the quality of statistics and the
further development of the European Statistical System (4).

The main purpose of official Community statistics is to
2.3
underpin on a recurring basis the development, monitoring and
evaluation of Community policies with reliable, objective,
comparable and coherent factual information. In some areas the
statistical information is also used directly for the management
of key policies by the Community institutions.

The 2008-2012 CSP is guided by the following policy

2.4
priorities:

— prosperity, competitiveness and growth,

— solidarity, economic and social cohesion and sustainable

development,

— security and

— further enlargement of the European Union.

for a decision,

interested parties,

the
2.5 When drawing up the proposal
Commission consulted all
including the EU
Member States, the EFTA and candidate countries and the tech-
the ESS. The European Advisory
nical working groups of
Committee on Statistical
Information in the Economic and
Social Spheres (CEIES) (5) and the Committee on Monetary,
Financial and Balance of Payments Statistics (CMFB) both deli-
vered opinions on this subject (6).

(2) OJ L 52, 22.2.1997, page 1.
(3) Article 3(1).
(4) The partnership comprising Eurostat, national statistical authorities
and other national authorities responsible in each Member State for
producing and disseminating European Statistics.

(5) Established by Council Decision 91/116/EEC (amended by Council

Decision 97/255/EC).

(6) Council Decision 91/115/EEC (amended by Council Decision

96/174/EC).

2.6 With regard to the programme's approach, and given the
two possible options, the ‘restricted’ vs. the ‘comprehensive’, the
Commission opted for
the second, bearing in mind three
factors: a) the capabilities and efficiency, b) the costs incurred by
Member States implementing these measures and c) the burden
on enterprises and households.

3. General comments

The EESC has

stated its views on the

3.1
statistical
programmes (7) and on various specific aspects of the Union's
statistical policy on a number of occasions over the years. In
general terms, the Committee has constantly sought to highlight
the importance of the statistical system in achieving the EU's
economic, social and political objectives and the need to
support and strengthen Eurostat, which is a key element of this
system, as are the national statistical institutions, although these
are a matter for the Member States.

3.2
The EESC reaffirms these criteria and furthermore wishes
to point out, with regard to this Decision, three aspects which
made it necessary to have the best possible statistical system:
the EU's role as a world player, meeting the Lisbon and enlarge-
ment objectives and the fact that coordinating the statistics of
27 States is a challenge unprecedented in history. In a nutshell,
for the EU to succeed, it must have, amongst other things, an
efficient statistical system.

As far as resources are concerned, the 2008-2012 five-
3.3
year programme has a budget allocation of EUR 274.2 million
(a 24.3 % increase over the operational resources allocated to
the 2003-2007 programme). Account must, however, be
taken of other factors not covered by this figure (8). If adminis-
trative costs and co-financing by Member States or other bodies
are included, commitment appropriations total EUR 739.34
million.

3.4
Statistical Governance. According to the Code of Prac-
tice (9), national authorities and the Community Statistical
Authority shall:

a) establish an institutional and organisational environment
which promotes the effectiveness and credibility of national
and Community statistical authorities producing and disse-
minating official statistics;

(7) In 1998, the EESC delivered an opinion on the ‘Proposal for a Council
Decision on the Community Statistical Programme1998-2002’, OJ
C 235, 27.7.1998, p. 60, and again in 2002 on the ‘Proposal for a Deci-
sion of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Community
statistical programme 2003 to 2007’, OJ C 125, 27.5.2002, p. 17.
(8) Expenditure on staff and administration; operational resources on
other statistical budget lines which could be additionally opened to
cover new regulatory needs over the period 2008-2012 (Edicom
type actions); operational resources made available by other Directo-
rates-General on their budget lines; resources at the national and
regional level. Eurostat will redeploy its own operational and human
resources to respect the overall priorities of the programme.

(9) Commission Recommendation on the independence,

integrity and
accountability of the national and Community statistical authorities.
COM (2005) 217 final.

C 175/10

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

27.7.2007

b) observe European standards, guidelines and good practices in
the processes used by the national and the Community
statistical authorities to organise, collect, process and disse-
minate official statistics and strive for a reputation for good
management and efficiency to strengthen the credibility of
these statistics;

c) ensure that Community statistics comply with the European
quality standards and serve the needs of European Union
institutional users, governments, research institutions, civil
society organisations, enterprises and the public generally.

The 2008-2012 Statistical Programme proposes

3.5
to
achieve 32 cross-cutting aims (detailed in Annex I) and sets out
some 90 objectives and practical actions (Annex II), covering
both general policies and 18 specific areas of existing EU policy.

3.5.1
main areas:

The programme provides for measures in the following

— Free movement of goods

— Agriculture

— Free movement of persons, services and capital

— Visas, asylum, immigration and other policies related to the

free movement of persons

— Transport

— Common rules on competition, taxation and approximation

of laws

— Economic and monetary policy

— Employment;

— Common commercial policy

— Customs cooperation

— Social policy, education, vocational training and youth

— Culture

— Public health

— Consumer protection

— Trans-European networks

— Industry (including statistics on the information society)

— Economic and social cohesion

— Research and technological development

Brussels, 30 May 2007.

— Environment

— Development cooperation

— Economic,
countries.

financial and technical cooperation with third

4. Specific comments

4.1
Given the ambitious aims of the 2008-2012 Programme,
which now include close coordination between Eurostat and the
statistical authorities of the 27 Member States, there is a need to
prioritise statistical work and to use the limited resources as effi-
ciently as possible.

4.2
Article 4 of the proposed Decision refers to establishing
statistical priorities, given the need to use limited resources as
efficiently as possible. Nevertheless,
it does not set out any
criteria or means for establishing these priorities. This is also
difficult to do when, at the same time, there is an acknowledged
need to further develop or create new areas of work.

that

The EESC agrees with the statement

4.3
‘The rapid
evolution in the capacity and availability of the Internet will
make it the prime tool for the dissemination of statistical data
in the future.
It will significantly increase the potential user
community and thus create new opportunities for dissemina-
tion’ (10). In order to achieve this objective and also bearing in
mind that Eurostat's website reflects on the European Union,
data should be presented as readably, simply and attractively as
technology allows.

The EESC agrees with the assertion that cooperation
4.4
between Eurostat and the national statistical institutes should be
stepped up (11). The Committee wishes to point out, however,
that the proposed Decision does not lay down any concrete
measures for stepping up this cooperation.

4.5
European statistics — scope and priorities. The EESC
wishes to highlight that, as is clear from the list of measures set
out in point 3.5.1 of this opinion, the statistical system basically
focuses on economic aspects and fails to provide sufficient infor-
mation on social aspects, which have a direct impact on the life
of the EU's inhabitants. The Committee also wishes to state that
social policy has much closer links with education, vocational
training and youth than with other areas.

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Dimitris DIMITRIADIS

(10) Annex I. 3.6. Dissemination.
(11) Annex I. 3.6. Dissemination.