Regulation (EC) No 452/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 concerning the production and development of statistics on education and lifelong learning (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 2008-04-23
Institutions: Council of the European Union, European Parliament
Subjects: EU statistics, administrative cooperation, continuing vocational training, data collection, education, education statistics, vocational training

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REGULATION (EC) No 452/2008 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

concerning the production and development of statistics on education and lifelong learning

(Text with EEA relevance)

of 23 April 2008

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EURO-
PEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Commu-
nity, and in particular Article 285(1) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

the Presidency Conclusions of the Spring 2005 European
Council it was stressed that ‘human capital is Europe’s most
important asset’. The Integrated Guidelines for Growth and
Jobs including the guidelines for the employment policies
of the Member States, endorsed by the Council in its Deci-
sion 2005/600/EC (3), aim to contribute better to the Lis-
bon strategy and to establish comprehensive lifelong
learning strategies.

After consultation of
Committee,

the European Economic and Social

(5)

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251
of the Treaty (1),

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

The Council Resolution of 5 December 1994 on the pro-
motion of education and training statistics in the European
Union (2) requested the Commission, in close cooperation
with the Member States, to expedite the development of
education and training statistics.

The European Council held in Brussels on 22 and 23 March
2005 agreed to relaunch the Lisbon Strategy. It concluded
that Europe must renew the basis of its competitiveness,
increase its growth potential and its productivity and
strengthen social cohesion, placing the main emphasis on
knowledge, innovation and the optimisation of human
capital. In that respect, the employability, adaptability and
mobility of citizens is vital for Europe.

To attain these objectives, European systems of education
and training must adapt to the requirements of the knowl-
edge society and the need for an enhanced level of educa-
tion and better quality employment. Statistics on
education, training and lifelong learning are of the highest
importance as a basis for political decisions.

(4)

Lifelong learning is a key element in developing and pro-
moting a skilled, trained and adaptable workforce. In

(6)

(7)

The adoption in February 2001 of the Council Report
‘Objectives of the education and training systems’ and the
adoption in February 2002 of the work programme for
2001-2011 on the follow-up to this report constitute an
important step in honouring the commitment to modern-
ise and improve the quality of the education and training
systems of the Member States. Indicators and reference lev-
els of European average performance (‘benchmarks’) are
among the instruments of the open method of coordina-
tion which are important for the ‘Education and Training
2010’ work programme. The Ministers of Education took
a decisive step in May 2003 by agreeing on five European
benchmarks to be attained by 2010, while stressing they
do not define national targets or prescribe decisions to be
taken by national governments.

On 24 May 2005, the Council adopted Conclusions on
‘New indicators in education and training’ (4). In these Con-
clusions the Council invited the Commission to present to
the Council strategies and proposals for the development
of new indicators in nine particular areas of education and
training and also stressed that the development of new
indicators should fully respect the responsibility of Mem-
ber States for the organisation of their education systems
and should not impose undue administrative or financial
burdens on the organisation and institutions concerned, or
inevitably lead to an increased number of indicators used
to monitor progress.

The Council also adopted, in November 2004, Conclu-
sions on European cooperation in vocational education
and training, and agreed that priority should be given at
European level to ‘the improvement of the scope, precision
and reliability of vocational education and training statis-
tics in order to enable evaluation of progress’.

(1) Opinion of the European Parliament of 25 September 2007 (not yet
published in the Official Journal) and Council Decision of 14 February
2008.

(2) OJ C 374, 30.12.1994, p. 4.

(3) OJ L 205, 6.8.2005, p. 21.
(4) OJ C 141, 10.6.2005, p. 7.

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(8)

Comparable statistical information at Community level is
essential for the development of education and lifelong
learning strategies and for the monitoring of progress in
their implementation. Statistical production should be
based on a framework of coherent concepts and compa-
rable data in view of the establishment of an integrated
European statistical
information system on education,
training and lifelong learning.

(9) When applying this Regulation, account should be taken
of the notion of people at a disadvantage in the labour
market referred to in the Guidelines for the employment
policies of the Member States.

(10)

The Commission (Eurostat) is collecting data on vocational
training in enterprises in accordance with Regulation (EC)
No 1552/2005 of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 7 September 2005 on the statistics relating to
vocational training in enterprises (1). However, a broader
legal framework is necessary to ensure the sustainable pro-
duction and development of statistics on education and
lifelong learning, covering at least all relevant existing and
planned activities. The Commission (Eurostat) is collecting
annual data on education from the Member States on a
voluntary basis, through a joint action carried out with the
Unesco Institute for Statistics (UIS) and with the Organisa-
tion for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),
usually referred to as the ‘UOE data collection’. The Com-
mission (Eurostat) is also collecting data on education,
training and lifelong learning through other household
sources such as the European Union Labour Force Sur-
vey (2) and the Community statistics on income and living
conditions (3) as well as through their ad-hoc modules.

(11)

Since policy formulation and monitoring in the field of
education and lifelong learning is of a dynamic nature and
adapts to an evolving environment, the statistical regula-
tory framework should provide for a certain degree of flex-
ibility in a limited and controlled manner, taking into
account the burden for respondents and the Member
States.

(12)

Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the creation
of common statistical standards that permit the production
of harmonised data cannot be sufficiently achieved by the
Member States and can therefore be better achieved at

(1) OJ L 255, 30.9.2005, p. 1.
(2) Commission Regulation (EC) No 2104/2002 of 28 November 2002
adapting Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 on the organisation of a
labour force sample survey in the Community and Commission Regu-
lation (EC) No 1575/2000 implementing Council Regulation (EC)
No 577/98 as far as the list of education and training variables and
their codification to be used for data transmission from 2003 onwards
are concerned (OJ L 324, 29.11.2002, p. 14).

(3) Commission Regulation (EC) No 1983/2003 of 7 November 2003
implementing Regulation (EC) No 1177/2003 of the European Parlia-
ment and of the Council concerning Community statistics on income
and living conditions (EU-SILC) as regards the list of target primary
variables (OJ L 298, 17.11.2003, p. 34).

Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in
accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in
Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of
proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation
does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve that
objective.

(13)

The production of specific Community statistics is gov-
erned by the rules set out in Council Regulation (EC)
No 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community
Statistics (4).

(14)

This Regulation ensures full respect for the right to the pro-
tection of personal data as provided for in Article 8 of the
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

(15)

(16)

(17)

(18)

The transmission of data subject to statistical confidential-
ity is governed by the rules set out in Regulation (EC)
No 322/97 and in Council Regulation (Euratom, EEC)
No 1588/90 of 11 June 1990 on the transmission of data
subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office
of the European Communities (5).

Commission Regulation (EC) No 831/2002 of 17 May
2002 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97
on Community statistics concerning access to confidential
data for scientific purposes (6) established the conditions
pursuant to which access to confidential data transmitted
to the Community authority may be granted.

The measures necessary for the implementation of this
Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council
Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the
procedures for the exercise of implementing powers con-
ferred on the Commission (7).

In particular, the Commission should be empowered to
select and specify the subjects of the statistics, their char-
acteristics in response to policy or technical needs, the
breakdown of characteristics, the observation period and
deadlines for transmission of results, the quality require-
ments including the required precision and the quality
reporting framework. Since those measures are of general
scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of
this Regulation, inter alia, by supplementing it with new
non-essential elements, they must be adopted in accor-
dance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny pro-
vided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC.

(4) OJ L 52, 22.2.1997, p. 1. Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC)
No 1882/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council
(OJ L 284, 31.10.2003, p. 1).

(5) OJ L 151, 15.6.1990, p. 1. Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC)

No 322/97.

(6) OJ L 133, 18.5.2002, p. 7. Regulation as last amended by Regulation

(EC) No 1000/2007 (OJ L 226, 30.8.2007, p. 7).

(7) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23, Decision as amended by Decision

2006/512/EC (OJ L 200, 22.7.2006, p. 11).

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(19)

The Statistical Programme Committee established by
Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (1), has been con-
sulted in accordance with Article 3 of that Decision,

(b) Domain 2 shall cover statistics on the participation of adults

in lifelong learning;

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation establishes a common framework for the system-
atic production of Community statistics in the field of education
and lifelong learning.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purpose of this Regulation:

(c) Domain 3 shall cover other statistics on education and life-
long learning, such as statistics on human capital and on the
social and economic benefits of education, not covered by
Domains 1 and 2.

The production of statistics in those domains shall be carried out
in accordance with the Annex.

Article 4

Statistical actions

The production of Community statistics in the field of edu-
1.
cation and lifelong learning shall be implemented by individual
statistical actions as follows:

(a)

‘Community statistics’ shall be defined as in the first indent
of Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 322/97;

(b)

‘production of statistics’ shall be defined as in the second
indent of Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 322/97;

(c)

‘national authorities’ shall be defined as in the third indent of
Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 322/97;

(d)

‘education’ means organised and sustained communication
designed to bring about learning (2);

(a)

(b)

(c)

the regular delivery of statistics on education and lifelong
learning by the Member States, within specified deadlines for
Domains 1 and 2;

the use of other statistical information systems and surveys,
to provide additional statistical variables and indicators on
education and lifelong learning, corresponding to Domain 3;

the development, improvement and updating of standards
and manuals on statistical
frameworks, concepts and
methods;

(e)

learning activity undertaken
‘lifelong learning’ means all
throughout life, with the aim of improving knowledge, skills
and competences within a personal, civic, social and/or
employment-related perspective (3);

(f)

‘micro-data’ means individual statistical records;

(g)

‘confidential data’ means data which allow only indirect iden-
tification of the statistical units concerned, in accordance
with Regulation (EC) No 322/97 and Regulation (Euratom,
EEC) No 1588/90.

Article 3

Domains

(d)

the improvement of data quality, in the context of the qual-
ity framework, to include:

— relevance,

— accuracy,

— timeliness and punctuality,

— accessibility and clarity,

— comparability, and

This Regulation shall apply to the production of statistics in three
domains:

— coherence.

(a) Domain 1 shall cover statistics on education and training

systems;

(1) OJ L 181, 28.6.1989, p. 47.
(2) According to the 1997 version of the International Standard Classifi-

cation of Education (ISCED).

(3) Council Resolution of 27 June 2002 on lifelong learning (OJ C 163,

9.7.2002, p. 1).

Available capacities within the Member States for data collection
and the processing and development of concepts and methods
shall be taken into account by the Commission.

Where appropriate, special attention and consideration shall be
given to the regional dimension of the data collected. Where
appropriate, data shall be systematically broken down by gender.

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2. Whenever possible, the Commission (Eurostat) shall seek
cooperation with the UIS, the OECD and other international
organisations with a view to ensuring international comparabil-
ity of data and to avoid duplication of effort, in particular as
regards the development and improvement of statistical concepts
and methods and the delivery of statistics by the Member States.

3. Whenever significant new data requirements or insufficient
quality of data are identified and before any data collection, the
Commission (Eurostat) shall institute pilot studies to be com-
pleted on a voluntary basis by the Member States. Such pilot stud-
ies shall be carried out in order to assess the feasibility of the
relevant data collection, taking into consideration the benefits of
the availability of the data in relation to the collection costs and
the burden on respondents. Pilot studies shall not necessarily lead
to corresponding implementing measures.

Article 5

Transmission of micro-data on individuals

When necessary for the production of Community statistics,
Member States shall transmit confidential micro-data resulting
from sample surveys to the Commission (Eurostat) in accordance
with the provisions on the transmission of data subject to confi-
dentiality set out in Regulation (EC) No 322/97 and in Regula-
tion (Euratom, EEC) No 1588/90. Member States shall ensure that
the transmitted data do not permit the direct identification of the
statistical units (individuals).

Article 6

Implementing measures

1.
The following measures designed to amend non-essential
elements of this Regulation by supplementing it, including mea-
sures to take account of economic and technical developments
concerning the collection, transmission and processing of the
data, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory proce-
dure with scrutiny referred to in Article 7(3) with a view to ensur-
ing the transmission of high quality data:

(a)

the selection and specification of subjects covered by the
domains and their characteristics in response to policy or
technical needs;

(b)

the breakdowns of characteristics;

(c)

the observation period and deadlines for transmission of
results;

(d)

the quality requirements, including the required precision;

(e)

the quality reporting framework.

If these measures lead to a requirement for a significant enlarge-
ment of existing data collections or for new data collections or
surveys, implementing decisions shall be based on a cost-benefit
analysis as part of a comprehensive analysis of the effects and
implications, taking into account the benefit of the measures, the
costs for the Member States and the burden on respondents.

The measures referred to in paragraph 1 shall take account

2.
of the following:

(a)

for all Domains, the potential burden on educational institu-
tions and individuals;

(b)

for all Domains, the results of the pilot studies referred to in
Article 4(3);

(c)

for Domain 1, the latest agreements between the UIS, the
OECD and the Commission (Eurostat) on concepts, defini-
tions, data collection format, data processing, periodicity and
deadlines for transmission of results;

(d)

for Domain 2, the results from the Adult Education Pilot Sur-
vey performed between 2005 and 2007 and further devel-
opment needs;

(e)

for Domain 3, the availability, suitability and the legal con-
text of existing Community data sources after an exhaustive
examination of all existing data sources.

3.
If necessary, limited derogations and transition periods for
one or more Member States, both to be based upon objective
grounds, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory pro-
cedure referred to in Article 7(2).

Article 7

Committee

The Commission shall be assisted by the Statistical Pro-

1.
gramme Committee.

2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 5 and 7
of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the pro-
visions of Article 8 thereof.

The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC
shall be set at three months.

3. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5a(1)
to (4) and Article 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having
regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof.

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Article 8

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the Euro-
pean Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Strasbourg, 23 April 2008.

For the European Parliament
The President
H.-G. PÖTTERING

For the Council
The President
J. LENARČIČ

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ANNEX

DOMAINS

Domain 1: Education and training systems

1. Aim

The aim of this data collection is to provide comparable data on key aspects of education and training systems, specifi-
cally on the participation and completion of education programmes, as well as on the cost and type of resources dedi-
cated to education and training.

2. Scope

The data collection shall cover all domestic educational activities regardless of ownership of, or sponsorship by, the insti-
tutions concerned (whether public or private, national or foreign) and of the education delivery mechanism. Correspond-
ingly, the coverage of the data collections shall extend to all student types and age groups.

3. Subjects covered

Data shall be collected on:

(a)

students’ enrolment, including the characteristics of the students;

(b)

entrants;

(c)

graduates and graduations;

(d)

education expenditure;

(e)

educational personnel;

(f)

foreign languages learnt;

(g)

class sizes;

allowing the calculation of indicators on the inputs, processes and outputs of the education and training systems.

Appropriate information (metadata) shall be transmitted by Member States, describing specificities of national educa-
tion and training systems and their correspondence with international classifications as well as any deviations from the
specifications of the data request and any other information which is essential for the interpretation of data and the com-
pilation of comparable indicators.

4. Periodicity

Data and metadata shall be supplied annually, if not otherwise specified, within the deadlines agreed between the Com-
mission (Eurostat) and the national authorities taking into account the latest agreements between the UIS, the OECD and
the Commission (Eurostat).

Domain 2: Participation of adults in lifelong learning

1. Aim

The aim of this survey shall be to provide comparable data on participation and non-participation of adults in lifelong
learning.

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2. Scope

The statistical unit shall be the individual, covering at least the population age range of 25-64 years. In the case of the
collection of information through a survey, proxy answers shall be avoided, wherever possible.

3. Subjects covered

Subjects covered by the survey shall be:

(a)

participation and non-participation in learning activities;

(b)

characteristics of these learning activities;

(c)

information on self-reported skills;

(d)

socio-demographic information.

Data on participation in social and cultural activities shall also be collected on a voluntary basis as explanatory variables
useful for further analysis of the participants and non-participants’ profiles.

4. Data sources and sample size

The data source shall be a sample survey. Administrative data sources may be used to reduce the burden on respon-
dents. Sample size shall be established on the basis of precision requirements that shall not require effective national
sample sizes to be larger than 5 000 individuals, calculated on the assumption of simple random sampling. Within these
limits, specific subpopulations shall require particular sampling considerations.

5. Periodicity

Data shall be collected every five years. The first year of implementation shall be 2010, at the earliest.

Domain 3: Other statistics on education and lifelong learning

1. Aim

The aim of this data collection shall be to provide further comparable data on education and lifelong learning to support
specific policies at the Community level not included in Domains 1 and 2.

2. Scope

Other statistics on education and lifelong learning shall refer to the following aspects:

(a)

statistics on education and the economy, required at Community level for monitoring policies on education,
research, competitiveness and growth;

(b)

statistics on education and the labour market, required at Community level for monitoring employment policies;

(c)

statistics on education and social inclusion, required at Community level for monitoring policies on poverty, social
inclusion and migrant integration.

For the aspects listed above, the necessary data shall be acquired from existing Community statistical sources.