Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1101/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008 on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Codified version) (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 2008-10-22
Institutions: Council of the European Union, European Parliament
Subjects: Eurostat, codification of EU law, confidentiality, data protection, professional secret

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REGULATION (EC, EURATOM) No 1101/2008 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE
COUNCIL

on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the
European Communities

of 22 October 2008

(Codified version)

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION,

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

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic
Energy Community, and in particular Article 187 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

(4) Member States have no further cause to invoke provisions
on statistical confidentiality, since it is established that
Eurostat offers the same data confidentiality guarantees as
the national statistical
institutes. These guarantees are
already to some extent enshrined in the Community
Treaties, notably in Article 287 of the EC Treaty, Arti-
the Euratom Treaty, and Article 17 of
cle 194(1) of
the
Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) No 259/68 of
Council of 29 February 1968 laying down the Staff
Regulations of Officials of the European Communities and
the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the
European Communities (4), and can be backed up by
appropriate measures under this Regulation.

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

(5) Any violation of statistical confidentiality protected by this
Regulation should be dealt with effectively, whoever the
offender may be.

Whereas:

(1) 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 (2) has been substantially amended several
times (3). In the interests of clarity and rationality the said
Regulation should be codified.

(2)

To enable it to carry out the duties entrusted to it by the
Treaties,
the Commission must have full and reliable
information. With a view to efficient management, the
Statistical Office of the European Communities, hereinafter
referred to as ‘Eurostat’, should be able to obtain all the
national
to
prepare Community statistics and carry out the necessary
analyses.

information necessary in order

statistical

(3) Article 10 of the EC Treaty and Article 192 of the Euratom
Treaty require Member States to facilitate the achievement
the Community's tasks. This obligation extends to
of
the
providing all
absence of confidential
for
Eurostat a considerable loss of information at Community
level and makes it difficult to prepare statistics and carry
out analyses on the Community.

the requisite information. Moreover,
statistical data constitutes

(1) Opinion of the European Parliament of 14.12.2006 (OJ C 317 E,
23.12.2006, p. 600) and Council Decision of 25 September 2008.

(2) OJ L 151, 15.6.1990, p. 1.
(3) See Annex I.

(6) Any infringement of the rules binding officials and other
servants working for Eurostat, whether committed wilfully
or through negligence, renders them liable to disciplinary
sanctions and, if appropriate, legal penalties for violation of
professional secrecy, pursuant to the combined provisions
of Articles 12 and 18 of the Protocol on the Privileges and
Immunities of the European Communities.

(7)

(8)

(9)

This Regulation applies only to the transmission to Eurostat
of statistical data which, in the national statistical institutes'
field of competence, are covered by statistical confidenti-
ality, and does not affect special national or Community
provisions relating to the transmission of other types of
information to the Commission.

This Regulation is to be adopted without prejudice to
Article 296(1)(a) of the EC Treaty, under which no Member
State is required to supply information the disclosure of
which it considers contrary to the essential interests of its
security.

contained in this
the provisions
Implementation of
Regulation, and in particular those designed to ensure the
protection of confidential statistical data transmitted to
Eurostat, will
technical and financial
resources.

require human,

(4) OJ L 56, 4.3.1968, p. 1.

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(10) The measures necessary for the implementation of this
Regulation shall be adopted in accordance with Council
Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the
procedures
implementing powers
the exercise of
conferred on the Commission (1),

for

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

1. The purpose of this Regulation is:

(a)

(b)

to authorise national authorities to transmit confidential
statistical data to the Statistical Office of the European
Communities (hereinafter referred to as Eurostat);

to provide a guarantee that the Commission will take all
necessary measures to ensure the confidentiality of data
thus transmitted.

2. This Regulation shall apply to statistical confidentiality only.
It shall not affect special, Community or national provisions
safeguarding confidentiality other than statistical confidentiality.

Article 2

For the purposes of this Regulation, the terms given below are
defined as follows:

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

confidential statistical data: data defined in Article 13 of
Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997
on Community statistics (2);

national authorities: national statistical institutes and other
national bodies responsible for the collection and use of
statistics for the Communities;

information on the private lives of natural persons:
information on the private and family lives of natural
persons as defined by national legislation or practices in the
various Member States;

for

statistical purposes: use

the
use
compilation of statistical tables or for statistical economic
analyses; may not be used for administrative, legal or tax
purposes or for verification against the units surveyed;

exclusively for

statistical unit: basic unit covered by statistical data
transmitted to Eurostat;

direct identification: identification of a statistical unit from
its name or address, or from an officially allocated and
published identification number;

(1) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.
(2) OJ L 52, 22.2.1997, p. 1.

(g)

(h)

(i)

(j)

indirect identification: possibility of deducing the identity of
a
information
mentioned in point (f);

statistical unit other

than from the

officials of Eurostat: officials of the Communities, within
the meaning of Article 1 of
the Staff Regulations of
Officials of
the European Communities, working at
Eurostat;

other staff of Eurostat: servants of the Communities, within
the meaning of Articles 2 to 5 of
the Conditions of
Employment of Other Servants of the European Commu-
nities, working at Eurostat;

dissemination: supply of data in any form whatever:
publications, access to databases, microfiches, telephone
communications, etc.

Article 3

1. The national authorities shall be authorised to transmit
confidential statistical data to Eurostat.

2. National rules on statistical confidentiality may not be
invoked to prevent the transmission of confidential statistical
data to Eurostat where an act of Community law governing a
Community statistic provides for the transmission of such data.

3. Transmission to Eurostat of confidential statistical data,
within the meaning of paragraph 2, shall be carried out in such a
way that statistical units cannot be directly identified. This does
not preclude the admissibility of more far-reaching transmission
rules in accordance with the legislation of the Member States.

shall not be obliged to transmit
4. National authorities
information on the private lives of natural persons to Eurostat
if the information transmitted could enable those persons to be
identified either directly or indirectly.

Article 4

1. The Commission shall take all the necessary regulatory,
administrative, technical and organisational measures to ensure
transmitted by the
the
statistical data
competent departments of Member States
in
to Eurostat
accordance with Article 3.

confidentiality of

2. The Commission shall establish the procedures for transmit-
ting confidential statistical data to Eurostat and the principles for
protection of such data in accordance with the procedure
referred to in Article 7(2).

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Article 5

instruct

1. The Commission shall
the Director-General of
Eurostat to ensure the protection of data transmitted to Eurostat
by the national authorities of the Member States. It shall establish
the arrangements for the internal organisation of Eurostat in
order to ensure such protection, after consulting the Committee
referred to in Article 7(1).

2. Confidential statistical data transmitted to Eurostat shall be
accessible only to officials of Eurostat and may be used by them
exclusively for statistical purposes.

3. However, the Commission may grant access to confidential
statistical data to other staff of Eurostat and other natural persons
working on the premises of Eurostat under contract, in special
cases and exclusively for statistical purposes. The procedures for
such access
shall be determined by the Commission in
accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 7(2).

4. Confidential statistical data in Eurostat's possession may be
disseminated only when combined with other data in a form
which ensures that statistical units cannot be identified either
directly or indirectly.

5. Officials and other staff of Eurostat and other natural
persons working on the premises of Eurostat under contract may
not use or distribute these data for purposes other than those
laid down in this Regulation. This prohibition shall continue to
apply following transfer, termination of service or retirement.

secrecy of confidential statistical data transmitted in accordance
with Article 3. These measures shall concern at least violations
committed in the territory of the Member State concerned, by
officials or other staff of Eurostat and by the other natural
persons working under contract on the premises of Eurostat.

Member States shall inform the Commission without delay of the
measures taken. The Commission shall pass on this information
to the other Member States.

Article 7

1. The Commission shall be assisted by a Committee on
Statistical Confidentiality, hereinafter referred to as ‘the Commit-
tee’.

2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 4 and 7
of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the
provisions of Article 8 thereof.

The period laid down in Article 4(3) of Decision 1999/468/EC
shall be set at three months.

Article 8

The Committee shall examine questions raised by its chairman,
either on his own initiative or at the request of the representative
of a Member State, relating to the implementation of
this
Regulation.

6. The protection measures referred to in paragraphs 1 to 5
shall apply to:

Article 9

(a)

all confidential statistical data the transmission of which to
Eurostat is covered by an act of Community law governing
a Community statistic;

(b)

all confidential statistical data transmitted voluntarily by
Member States to Eurostat.

Regulation (Euratom, EEC) No 1588/90, as amended by the
regulations set out in Annex I, is repealed.

References to the repealed Regulation shall be construed as
references to this Regulation and shall be read in accordance with
the correlation table in Annex II.

Article 6

Article 10

Member States shall, before 1 January 1992, take appropriate
measures to curb any violations of the obligation to maintain the

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

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

Done at Strasbourg, 22 October 2008.

For the European Parliament

The President

H.-G. PÖTTERING

For the Council

The President

J.-P. JOUYET

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ANNEX I

Repealed Regulation with its successive amendments

Council Regulation (Euratom, EEC) No 1588/90
(OJ L 151, 15.6.1990, p. 1).

Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97
(OJ L 52, 22.2.1997, p. 1).

Only Article 21(2)

Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council
(OJ L 284, 31.10.2003, p. 1).

Only Annex II, point 4

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ANNEX II

CORRELATION TABLE

Regulation (Euratom, EEC) No 1588/90

This Regulation

Article 1(1) first and second indents

Article 1(1)(a) and (b)

Article 1(2)

Article 2(1) to (10)

Article 3(1)

Article 3(2)

Article 3(3) first subparagraph

Article 3(3) second subparagraph

Article 3(4)

Article 4(1)

Article 4(2)

Article 4(3)

Article 5(1) to (5)

Article 6

Article 7(1) and (2)

Article 7(3)

Article 8

__

Article 9

__

__

Article 1(2)

Article 2(a) to (j)

Article 3(1)

Article 3(2)

__

Article 3(3)

Article 3(4)

Article 4(1)

Article 5(6)

Article 4(2)

Article 5(1) to (5)

Article 6

Article 7(1) and (2)

__

Article 8

Article 9

Article 10

Annex I

Annex II