COMMISSION STAFF WORKING PAPER EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT
Date: 2011-12-21
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU policy, EU statistics, Eurostat

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 21.12.2011 
SEC(2011) 1623 final 

COMMISSION STAFF WORKING PAPER 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT 

Accompanying the document 

Proposal for a  
REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 

on the European statistical programme 2013-2017 

{COM(2011) 928 final} 
{SEC(2011) 1625 final} 

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INTRODUCTION  

The  economic  and  social  policy  debate  in  the  European  Union  over  recent  years  is  being 
driven  by  the  multifaceted  policy  response  to  the  financial  and  economic  crisis,  the 
confidence crisis that emerged after Greece's misreporting of EDP-related budgetary figures 
in fall 2009, and the very intense debate how to enhance economic governance of the Union 
building upon Commission's proposals adopted in September 2010. One core trait of the latter 
proposals is to introduce wider and more intense use of European statistics and indicators as 
one key and reliable underpinning for monitoring, decision-making and policy evaluation of 
economic and social policies and reforms at national and EU levels.  

At  the  same  time,  fast-evolving  and  pressing  needs  for  reliable  and  sufficient  European 
statistics have to be confronted with the reality that producing high-quality European statistics 
up to the expectations is not straightforward business. Indeed the European Statistical System 
(ESS)  is  composed  by  27+1  partners,  300  processes  and  50  000  statisticians  in  total. 
Numerous  actors  strive  to  meet  numerous  competing  priorities  and  policy  demands  for 
official  and  reliable  information  and  hard-data,  to  adapt  to  tight  requirements  in  terms  of 
respecting  the  principles  of  subsidiarity  and  cost-effectiveness  while  being  confronted  with 
severe strains on the ground in terms of human and financial resources.  

The  debate  on  economic  governance  and  the  progressive  build-up  of  new  Community 
policies - such as home and justice affairs, climate change, research and innovation - and the 
policy initiatives and reforms that follow suit, all speak clearly of the strategic importance for 
the Commission to steer the European Statistical System into a joint commitment to develop, 
produce and preserve the highest quality standards for European statistics. 

The  present  proposal  for  the  European  Statistical  Programme  (ESP)  2013-2017  signals  one 
powerful step towards the materialisation of far-reaching, all-encompassing policy initiatives 
such  as  the  GDP  &  beyond  Initiative1,  the  revision  of  the  European  System  of  National 
Accounts (ESA2010) or the follow-up to the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission report on the 
measurement of economic performance and social progress2. It also aims at bringing to reality 
the statistical priorities and initiatives as decided by the Commission since late 2009.  

The  ESP  2013-2017  covers  all  Eurostat's  operational  activities  and  budget  (with  year  2013 
being  the  only  exception  as  this  is  the  last  year  of  the  ongoing  Modernisation  of  European 
Enterprise  and  Trade  Statistics  Programme,  MEETS).  In  order  to  make  it  possible  that  the 
programme adapts as much as possibly to the continuously evolving requirements as regards 
European  statistics,  detailed  information  on  the  set  of  specific  objectives,  targets  and 
indicators will be provided for in the form of annual statistical work programmes and annual 
management plans. 

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2 

COM(2009) 433 final 
Report  on  the  Measurement  of  Economic  Performance  and  Social  Progress,  J.E.  Stiglitz,  A.Sen, 
J. -P. Fitoussi, 2009 (hereinafter referred to as Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Report) 

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1. 

PROBLEM DEFINITION 

1.1. 

Problem description 

The European Statistical System is currently faced with a number of challenges.  

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

Firstly, the need for European statistics has been constantly increasing during the last 
years and it is unlikely that this tendency will change in the future.  

Secondly, the nature of statistics is changing – there is a growing need for complex 
multi-dimensional statistics, of even higher quality and with shorter time delays than 
before.  

Thirdly,  due  to  the  appearance  of  new  actors  on  the  information  market  providing 
new types of statistics, including those providing information in nearly real time, the 
priority for the ESS in the future is the freshness of data, in particular when it refers 
to the short-term economic information.  

Fourthly, budget constraints both at national and European level, which have become 
more  pertinent  with  the  economic  crisis,  as  well  as  the  need  to  further  reduce  the 
burden on enterprises and citizens make the situation even more challenging.  

All  these  challenges  are  addressed  in  the  Communication  on  the  production  method  of  EU 
statistics  as  well  as  the  joint  European  Statistical  System  strategy  on  its  implementation, 
aiming  at  reengineering  the  ways  of  working  in  the  ESS  in  order  to  make  the  ESS  more 
efficient  and  flexible.  Aiming  at  increasing  efficiency  of  the  production  method  of  EU 
statistics, the new production method will, when implemented, result in major efficiency gains 
and  will  increase  the  ESS's  capacity  to  satisfy  new  needs  for  statistical  information,  but  the 
need  to  reduce  response  burden  in  a  more  short-term  compared  to  the  long-term 
implementation  of  the  vision,  emphasises  the  necessity  of  improved  priority-setting  and 
reduction of burden more than ever. 

1.2. 

Justification for EU action: Subsidiarity and added value of EU involvement 

Union statistics and the right for the Commission to propose actions have their basis in Article 
338 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The shared competence between 
Union  and  national  levels  is  justified  by  the  transnational  character  of  many  aspects  of 
statistics in general and of European statistics in particular. While Member States will ensure 
the  actual  collection  of  the  statistical  information  at  national  level,  only  a  coordinated 
approach to the development, production and dissemination of European statistics as a whole 
will  guarantee  the  required  coherence  and  comparability  of  the  statistics  relevant  for  the 
activities of the Union. Furthermore, it is in the interest of policy makers at both national and 
EU levels that statistical activities are effectively and efficiently planned in advance, inter alia 
by  way  of  a  multiannual  programme  as  foreseen  in  Regulation  (EC)  No  223/2009  on 
European  statistics.  The  scale  of  the  actions  included  in  the  programme  justifies  EU 
involvement since the objective of the proposed action, namely, the development, production 
and  dissemination  of  European  statistics  under  the  ESP  2013-2017,  cannot  be  sufficiently 
achieved by the Member States and is therefore better achieved at EU level on the basis of a 
European Union legal act Only the Commission can coordinate the necessary harmonisation 
of statistical information at the European level in all statistical domains covered by this act, 
while, as mentioned above, the data collection itself can be carried out by the Member States. 

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Consequently, the European Union may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of 
subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). 

The added value of EU action is that it allows to concentrate the statistical activities on EU 
policies and issues of relevance for the European Statistical System as a whole. In addition it 
contributes to an effective use of resources and to helping national authorities to do what they 
need to do but do not always have the capacity to do, for instance in terms of priority-setting, 
harmonisation  and  methodological  development.  Furthermore,  a  specific  added  value  of  the 
proposed action would be to make essential contributions to some priority Union activities, in 
particular the Europe 2020 strategy and the enhanced economic governance. 

2. 

OBJECTIVES 

As far as the objectives of a multi-annual programme are concerned, there obviously is a great 
variety of possibilities to choose from. However, after having conducted extremely extensive 
consultations  with  all  stakeholders  of  the  European  Statistical  System,  the  following  set  of 
general, specific and operational objectives appears to offer a satisfactory reply to the highest 
number  of  stakeholder  needs  identified  while  taking  into  account  the  all  the  respective 
provisions of the legislation on European statistics in force. 

The general objectives of the multiannual statistical programme are the following: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

provide  quality  statistical  information  to  support  the  development,  monitoring  and 
evaluation of the policies of the European Union properly reflecting priorities; 

implement  new  methods  of  production  of  European  statistics  aiming  at  efficiency 
gains and quality improvements; 

strengthen the partnership within the ESS and beyond in order to further enhance its 
productivity and its leading role in official statistics worldwide. 

The  specific  objectives  complementing  the  above  general  objectives  cover  the  following 
areas: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

(5) 

(6) 

(7) 

Europe 2020 policy for smart, sustainable, inclusive growth 

Integrated Economic governance and the surveillance cycle integrating the Stability 
and Growth Pact and the economic policy. 

Economic globalisation and global value chains. 

Economic and social performance. 

Environmental accounts and climate change related statistics. 

Business  statistics,  short  term  indicators,  international  transactions,  globalisation, 
single market monitoring, innovation, and tourism. 

People's  Europe  (e.g.  social  cohesion,  poverty,  demographic  challenges,  labour 
market,  education  and  training,  quality  of  life,  safety,  health  and  disability,  free 
movement and single market, etc). 

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(8) 

Geospatial  and  environmental  statistical 
(transport, agriculture, fisheries and forestry). 

information,  plus  sectoral  statistics 

The operational objectives complementing the above general and specific objectives cover the 
following areas: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

(5) 

(6) 

ESS quality management system. 

Priority setting and simplification. 

Multipurpose statistics and efficiency gains in production. 

Dissemination and communication. 

Training, innovation and research in the field of statistics. 

Partnership within the ESS; co-operation with the European System of Central Banks 
and  international  organisations  involved  in  the  production  of  statistics;  statistical 
advisory and assistance activities in countries outside the EU. 

3. 

POLICY OPTIONS 

The  Objectives  summarized  above  could  be  achieved  to  different  degrees  in  numerous 
different ways that can be summarized and grouped in three main options: 

3.1. 

Option 1: "zero option" with no European Statistical Programme 

Without a legal framework of the European Statistical Programme, European Statistics will be 
collected and/or produced by different Commission services in an independent way, with their 
own resources, with the help of the ESS institutional providers and/or private providers.  

3.2. 

Option 2: ESP 2013-17 will be a repetition of the CSP 2008-1012 

This  option  means  no  change  in  terms  of  statistics  covered  in  the  current  Community 
Statistical  Programme.  This  could  be  considered  as  the  baseline  scenario  against  which  the 
other options can be compared. 

3.3. 

Option 3: a new five-year European Statistical Programme is established 

A new European Statistical Programme would be proposed for adoption covering a period of 
five years, i.e. lasting from 2013 to 2017 , which will cover the objectives listed in Chapter 2. 

3.4. 

Other options or sub-options 

A  multitude  of  intermediate  options  could  be  identified  between  Option  1  and  3  (and/or  as 
sub-options  under  Option  3)  by  defining  different  combinations  of  subsets  of  European 
Statistics that would be included in the multi-annual programme. These multitude sub-options 
have not been included in this document for the following reasons: 

• 

An extensive consultation as regards which statistical domains should be included or 
not  included  in  the  ESP  has  already  been  carried  out  in  a  with  all  the  main 
stakeholders (see § 1.5). 

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• 

One  of  the  main  shortcomings  of  the  current  multi-annual  programme  is  that  it 
attempted to define with too main details the actions to the undertaken. The goal of 
Option3  is  to  define  a  multi-annual  programme  which  is  sufficiently  flexible  for 
allowing  for  a  quick  response  to  changing  policy  needs.  In  fact,  the  ESP  is  a 
framework  programme  that  will  be  implemented  through  annual  work  programmes 
which are prepared according to a procedure that involves dialogues with producers 
and  users  of  statistics,  plus  policy  makers,  in  order  to  define  each  year  the  priority 
areas. 

4. 

ANALYSIS OF IMPACTS 

The ESP 2013-2017 is not among the Commission initiatives which have been identified as 
having  far  reaching  economic,  social  and  environmental  impacts  and  it  is  therefore  not 
included in the Commission Work Programme. 

The decisions to produce European statistics are driven by policy-making. The objective is to 
support  policy-making  by  providing  European  Institutions  and  the  governments  of 
Member States with relevant statistical information needed to design, implement, monitor and 
evaluate EU policies.  

The  "impact  of  statistics"  is  linked  to  the  fact  that  it  is  an  infrastructure  serving  many 
purposes in modern information societies. The social, economic and environmental impact of 
statistics  or  a  statistical  legislative  proposal  is  not  measurable  since  the  role  of  European 
statistics  is  a  basic  precondition  for  evidence  based  decision-making.  How  important  high 
quality  statistical  figures  are,  has  become  more  than  evident  throughout  the  last  years, 
whenever a lack of solidity has led to costly wrong decisions, to misallocations of money or 
even  to  major  disruptions  of  the  political  system.  The  Greek  crisis  is  an  example  of  the 
potential  impact  of  bad  statistics.  The  design  and  the  evaluation  of  European  policies  are 
significantly  depending  on  good  statistics.  Statistical  information  help  political  decision-
makers assess (ex-ante) the expected impact of and measure (ex-post) the actual impact of EU 
policies.  Statistics  are  needed  to  help  drive  the  outcomes  that  policies  are  aiming  at  and 
measure  progress  towards  these  outcomes.  Statistics  must  continue  to  be  fit  for  purpose  in 
under-pinning decision-making for those critical policies which are most relevant to European 
citizens and where wrong decisions would have a very high cost for Europe.  

For most statistical legislative proposals, the formal requirements for Impact Assessments as 
concerns analysis of impact are not applicable as the impact of statistical programming is on 
Commission policies. However, the production of European statistics has an impact in terms 
of  administrative  burden  on  national  institutions  and  response  burden  of  enterprises  and 
citizens.  

In  the  current  approach,  the  reduction  of  burden  on  businesses  followed  the  organisation  of 
the data collection system meaning that the reduction measures were introduced separately for 
a  number  of  European  legal  acts  which  currently  govern  the  collection  of  statistical 
information  on  Member  States'  economic  activity  of  the  business  sector.  Considering  the 
efforts  made  so  far,  this  stovepipe  approach  has  a  limited  potential  for  costs  and  burden 
reduction in the future. Further reduction of the burden on businesses, mainly SMEs, can only 
be  achieved  in  the  future  through  a  new,  integrated  approach  stemming  from  the 
implementation  of  Communication  404.  This  approach  is  only  possible  by  implementing 
Option 3. 

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Numerous  initiatives  included  in  the  programme  can  foster  the  reduction  of  administrative 
costs  and  burdens  for  the  public  authorities  and  businesses.  This  objective  can  best  be 
achieved  through  long  term  projects,  deriving  mostly  from  the  implementation  of  the 
Communication on the production method of EU statistics. Aiming at increasing efficiency of 
the production method of EU statistics, when implemented, the Communication will result in 
efficiency  savings  and  will  lighten  the  process  of  satisfying  the  new  needs  for  statistical 
information. Further projects, which now fall into the scope of the MEETS programme, will 
be integrated into the European Statistical Programme after 2013." 

In order to ensure that tangible results as regards the reduction of burden are achieved also in 
the  short  term  and  to  help  free  up  the  necessary  resources  for  new  and  strategic  needs, 
Eurostat has put in place a strategy-driven priority-setting mechanism. It is composed of two 
elements:  review  of  priorities  and  the  introduction  of  sunset  clauses  in  new  legal  acts.  The 
review of priorities involves an annual review on existing statistical requirements. Every year, 
when preparing the Annual Statistical Work Programme of the following year, Eurostat will 
screen existing requirements for statistics, examine the possibility of stopping data collection 
in  certain  areas  with  higher  impact  in  terms  of  cost  and  burden  reduction  and  make  initial 
proposals  for  repealing  an  existing  legal  act  requiring  statistical  data  collections;  stopping  a 
voluntary statistical data collection based on gentlemen's agreement; and areas under review 
for simplification. These proposals will be thoroughly discussed with the producers and users 
of statistics in order to come up with a list agreed by all stakeholders which is subsequently 
incorporated  in  the  Annual  Work  Programme  of  Eurostat  which  is  adopted  by  the 
Commission.  The  second  element  of  priority-setting  mechanism  is  the  introduction  of  the 
concept of "sunset clauses" in new legal acts. This measure implies that expiration/validations 
dates for carrying out data collections will be included in new legal acts to be prepared in the 
future. This means that once the expiration date is approaching, a thorough discussion will be 
initiated in order to understand the need to continue the data collection and that data collection 
is not going to be carried out without a clear and justified need.  

5. 

COMPARING THE OPTIONS 

5.1. 

Option 1: "zero option" with no European Statistical Programme 

Having  no  five-year  statistical  programme  at  European  level  would  implicate  the  lack  of 
long-term  planning  which  is  an  inherent  prerequisite  of  the  development,  production  and 
dissemination of statistical information. 

This option would not ensure at all the achievement of the Objectives defined in Section 3. No 
legal framework for the production of European statistics would then exist and no operational 
budget  would  be  provided.  The  users  of  statistics  (Commission  Directorates-General,  the 
ECB, etc.) would have to produce or look for statistics themselves, in an uncoordinated and 
inefficient way and there would not be a commonly agreed assurance of quality of European 
statistics. The uncoordinated demand of statistics by the different users would also contribute 
to  an  increase  in  the  response  burden  of  individuals,  households,  enterprises  and  ESS 
institutional providers of statistics. 

5.2. 

Option 2: ESP 2013-17 will be a repetition of the CSP 2008-1012 

This option would not ensure the achievement of the objectives defined in Section 3 only to a 
limited  extent  and  would  correspond  to  partially  outdated  policy  priorities.  The  statistics 

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provided would correspond to policy needs of the period 2008-2012 and would not take into 
account new developments and needs for priority policies of the European Union such as the 
Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and other policies addressed 
in  the  Commission's  strategic  priorities  for  2010-2014.  The  costs  of  inadequate  statistics 
would  be  considerable.  In  addition,  these  statistics  would  be  produced  according  to  the 
stovepipe  model3,  i.e.  without  taking  advantage  of  new  method  of  production  of  European 
statistics aiming at efficiency gains and quality improvements. 

5.3. 

Option 3: a new five-year European Statistical Programme is established 

With  this  option  European  statistics  will  better  correspond  to  users'  needs.  There  will  be  an 
agreed  assurance  of  quality  and  the  production  of  statistics  will  be  more  cost-effective  as  a 
result of the new method of production.  

The objectives defined for the ESP 2013-2017 will be in line with the Commission's strategic 
priorities  and  will  address  the  challenges  that  the  European  System  are  faced  with  in  the 
coming years. 

All comments received from stakeholders on the draft ESP have been carefully analysed by 
Eurostat and taken into account when preparing a revised version of the ESP 2013-2017 for 
the Inter-Service Consultation. 

The ESP reflects the commitment to the strategy-driven priority-setting approach established 
by  Eurostat  and  presented  to  the  ESSC  in  2010.  Following  this  approach,  the  exercise  on 
negative  priorities  is  an  integrated  part  of  the  preparation  of  the  annual  statistical  work 
programmes and will therefore be carried out for the period of the ESP. In order to serve as a 
general  and  flexible  planning  instrument  allowing  for  new  developments  to  be  taken  into 
account,  the  ESP  provides  the  general  framework  for  the  development,  production  and 
dissemination  of  European  statistics  by  fixing  the  main  fields  and  objectives  of  actions 
envisaged for the next five years. These objectives are subject to more detailed definition and 
planning  in  the  annual  statistical  work  programmes.  In  this  way,  a  clear  link  is  established 
between the ESP and the annual statistical work programmes. 

5.4. 

The preferred option 

Option 3 of a new five-year ESP  2013-2017 seems to be the  best option given the fact that 
this is the only option that would ensure the achievement of all the objectives defined, i.e. (i) 
providing  quality  statistics  that  correspond  to  users'  needs  in  term  of  coverage,  timeliness, 
comparability and reliability; (ii) producing statistical information in a cost-effective way; and 
(iii) reduction of the response and administrative burden of respondents. Consequently, this is 
the only out of the 3 options that is able to offer a satisfactory response to all four challenges 
identified under Section 2.1. 

3 

In the stovepipe model statistics are traditionally produced in numerous parallel processes, country by 
country (in some cases even region by region) and domain per domain. In such a model every single 
product  stovepipe  corresponds  to  a  specific  domain  of  statistics  together  with  the  corresponding 
production  system.  For  each  domain,  the  whole  production  process  from  survey  design  over  data 
collection  and  processing  to  dissemination  takes  place  independently  of  other  domains,  and  each 
domain  has  its  own  data  suppliers  and  user  groups.  The  stovepipe  model  is  also  reflected  in  the  way 
statistical domains are regulated at the European level. 

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Key:  ++ = very positive impact; + = positive impact; 0 = no or neutral impact; - = negative 
impact; -- = very negative impact 

6. 

MONITORING AND EVALUATION 

The  ESP  2013-2017  is  a  framework  programme  that  will  be  implemented  through  Annual 
Statistical Work Programmes and Management Plans. Monitoring the progress will be done as 
part of the annual SPP cycle and two reports will be produced every year on the progress of 
achievement of the objectives in the annual and multi-annual programme. 

More specifically, (1) the number of values added in to the Eurostat dissemination databases 
(by  statistical  domain),  (2)  the  proportion  of  users  rating  the  overall  quality  of  European 
statistics as "very good" or "good" and (3) the number of downloads of different publications 
from  Eurostat's  website  will  be  monitored  and  reported  on  throughout  the  implementation 
period of the programme. 

The implementation of Communication on the new production method will also be subject to 
specific monitoring. A first report on progress made in the preparatory phase was presented to 
the ESSC in May 2011 and will be submitted to the ECOFIN Council in November 2011. 

As  far  as  the  budgetary  and  financial  execution  is  concerned,  the  programme  will  be 
implemented  in  conformity  with  the  Financial  Regulation.  Eurostat  has  defined  a  control 
strategy  2013-2017  accompanying  the  implementation  of  the  programme.  Reducing 
complexity  (for  example,  grants  awarded  for  the  implementation  of  the  objectives  of  the 
programme may take the form of lump sums) and cost-effective monitoring procedures, risk 
based reinforced ex-ante and ex-post controls will aim to reduce the likelihood/prevent fraud. 

It  is  foreseen  that,  in  line  with  the  Regulation  on  European  statistics,  an  interim  progress 
report will be prepared and, after consulting the ESS Committee, submitted to the European 
Parliament and the Council no later than June 2015. 

At  the  end  of  the  period  covered  by  the  programme,  the  ESP  will  be  subject  to  an  ex-post 
evaluation.  The  ESS  Committee  will  be  consulted  on  the  evaluation  report  which  will  be 
completed  by  end  of  2018  and  subsequently  submitted  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the 
Council. 

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