COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics
Date: 2015-03-10
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU statistics, Eurostat, access to EU information, data recording, disclosure of information, official statistics, statistical method

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 10.3.2015  COM(2015) 125 final 2012/0084 (COD)   COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union  concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (Text with relevance for the EEA and Switzerland)  
 
 
2012/0084 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and 
of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics 

(Text with relevance for the EEA and Switzerland) 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and 
to the Council 
(document COM(2012) 167 final – 2012/0084 COD): 

17 April 2012 

Date  of  the  opinion  of  the  European  Economic  and  Social 
Committee: 

N/A 

Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading: 

21 November 2013 

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: 

N/A 

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 

5 March 2015 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

The proposal calls for a revision of the current basic legal framework for European statistics, 
by  adapting  it  to  meet  the  policy  needs  and  challenges  created  for  European  statistics  by 
recent  developments  in  the  global  economy.  The  main  goal  is  to  further  strengthen 
governance in the European Statistical System in order to safeguard its high credibility and to 
respond adequately to data needs resulting from the enhanced economic-policy coordination 
in  the  European  Union.  The  four  more  specific  objectives  contributing  to  this  aim  are: 
strengthening of the professional independence of national statistical authorities; clarification 
of  the  coordinating  role  of  national  statistical  institutes  (NSIs)  in  the  national  statistical 
systems;  establishment  of  ‘Commitments  on  Confidence  in  Statistics’;  and  enhancement  of 
the access to and use of administrative data for statistical purposes. 

In  particular,  unconditional  professional  independence  of  national  statistical  authorities  is  a 
key  pre-requisite  for  maintaining  high  credibility  of  European  statistics  in  their  core 
supporting role for economic governance and in general, for evidence based policy-making. 
The  proposal  refers  explicitly  to  the  Heads  of  NSIs  as  persons  whose  independence  in 
performing their duties is a pre-condition for establishing the independence of the respective 
institutions.  To  that  end,  Heads  of  NSIs  should  have  the  freedom  to  decide  on  processes, 
statistical  methods,  standards  and  procedures,  and  on  the  content  and  timing  of  statistical 
releases  and  publications  for  all  European  statistics.  They  must  also  be  forbidden  from 

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seeking,  and  protected  from  receiving,  instructions  from  national  governments  and  other 
institutions. Moreover, Heads of NSIs should be granted considerable autonomy in deciding 
on the internal management of the statistical office and allowed to publicly comment on the 
budget  allocated  to  the NSI  in  the context of statistical tasks to  be performed. Furthermore, 
there must exist transparent rules for the appointment, transfer and dismissal of Heads of NSI, 
based solely on professional criteria. 

As stipulated by the Commission in its Communication ‘Towards robust quality management 
for European Statistics’ (COM(2011) 211 final), the proposal also includes the establishment 
of  ‘Commitments  on  Confidence  in  Statistics’,  i.e.  declarations  of  respect  of  the  European 
Statistics Code of Practice, and notably of the principle of independence of NSIs. According 
to the proposal, they should be signed by the governments of all Member States and counter-
signed  by  the  Commission.  Each  CoC  is  intended  to  be  country-specific  and  contain 
improvement  actions.  The  actual  implementation  of  these  actions  would  be  monitored  by 
Eurostat as part of the already established regular assessment of Member States’ compliance 
with the European Statistics Code of Practice.  

The proposal further attempts to clarify the coordinating role of NSIs in the national statistical 
systems by explicitly referring to institutions and functions that need to be coordinated. 

Another major objective of the proposal is to strengthen the use of administrative data sources 
for the production of European statistics without increasing the burden on respondents, NSIs 
and other national authorities. To that end, NSIs should be involved, to the extent necessary, 
in decisions on the design, development and discontinuation of administrative records which 
could  be  used  in  the  production  of  statistical  data.  Free  and  timely  access  to  administrative 
records  should  be  granted  to  NSIs,  other  national  authorities  and  Eurostat,  but  only  within 
their  own  respective  public  administrative  system  and  to  the  extent  necessary  for  the 
development, production and dissemination of European statistics. 

Moreover, in order to simplify budget planning for statistical activities and to make  it more 
stable, the proposal brings the programming period of the European statistical programme into 
line with the Union’s multi-annual financial framework. 

Finally,  the  proposed  amendment  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  223/2009  takes  account  of  the 
necessary adjustments to the Lisbon Treaty as regards granting the Commission delegated and 
implementing powers. 

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

The  position  of  the  Council  reflects  the  political  agreement  reached  between  the  European 
Parliament  and  the  Council  on  3  December 2014  and  includes  elements  proposed  by  both 
institutions. The Commission supports this agreement. 

The main amendments included in this position, as compared to the Commission's proposal, 
are the following: 

For the specific situation of NSIs, amendments are made that limit the scope of the statistical 
decision-taking  power  of  the  Heads  of  NSIs  as  proposed  by  the  Commission,  notably  to 
matters  within  their  own  institutions.  Furthermore,  the 
  provision  on  professional 
independence is extended to cover, in addition to Heads of NSIs, also the ‘statistical heads of 
other national authorities’.  

For  the  specific  situation  of  Eurostat,  an  additional  Article  is  introduced,  largely  based  on 
elements already provided for  in the Commission  Decision on Eurostat (2012/504/EU), that 
focusses  on  the  professional  independence  of  the  Director  General  of  Eurostat  to  ensure 

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correspondence  with  the  respective  provisions  applying  to  Heads  of  NSIs.  The  compromise 
formalises, in particular, that a statistical dialogue will enable every year for a direct exchange 
of  views  between  the  Director-General  of  EUROSTAT  and  the  relevant  Committee  of  the 
European Parliament on statistical matters.    

The  provision  on  establishment  by  Member  States  of  ‘Commitments  on  Confidence  in 
Statistics’  is  weakened  but  combined  with  a  more  detailed  description  of  the  applicable 
monitoring and reporting process by the Commission. 

In  response  to  the  European  Parliament's  request  for  stronger  quality  monitoring  and 
enforcement,  provisions  have  been  introduced  foreseeing  publication  of  Commission’s 
concerns  regarding  the  quality  of  national  contributions  to  European  statistics  and  recalling 
the possibility for the Commission  to conduct investigations on suspected misrepresentation 
of  statistical  data,  provided  that  fines  are  applicable  in  such  cases  by  virtue  of  sectoral 
legislation. 

Finally, additional references to the cooperation between the European Statistical System and 
the  European  System  of  Central  Banks  on  compilation  of  European  statistics  have  been 
added. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The  Commission  accepts  the  results  of  the  inter-institutional  negotiations  and  can  therefore 
support the Council's position at first reading. 

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