COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT Accompanying the document Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a common framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected by samples
Date: 2016-08-24
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, data collection, exchange of information, household, personal data, sampling, social survey, socioeconomic conditions, statistical method

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 24.8.2016  SWD(2016) 282 final   COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT  Accompanying the document Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council  establishing a common framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected by samples  {COM(2016) 551 final} {SWD(2016) 283 final}  
 
 
Executive Summary Sheet 

Impact assessment on a common framework for European statistics relating to persons and 
households, based on data at individual level collected by samples 

Why? What is the problem being addressed?  

A. Need for action 

The  growing  information  needs  for  policymaking  and  other  purposes  increasingly  confront  Eurostat  and  the 
National  Statistical  Institutes  (NSIs)  with  additional  high  quality  requirements  –  including  timeliness  –  for 
statistical  data.  At  the  same  time  new  technological  innovations  change  the  possibilities  available  for  data 
collection while also further (re)shaping the future needs of data users. The current system for social statistics is 
fragmented into separate domain-specific Regulations, which rigidly fix the contents (the topics to be covered) 
and  the technical  requirements  of  the  data  collection  (size sample,  quality  criteria,  transmission  requirements, 
etc.). The resulting fragmented and inflexible legal system at the EU level is mirrored in the national processes 
on  data  collection  –  through  mostly  independent  surveys  -  and  contributes  to  the  following  key  problems  of 
European  social  statistics:  (i)  lack  of  responsiveness  to  users’  needs;  (ii)  quality  issues  in  particular  on 
consistency and comparability across data collections; (iii) little support to the use of innovative methods of data 
collection  and  of  available  data  sources.  In  addition,  the  combination  of  these  problems  also  contributes  to 
increasing  inefficiencies:  (iv)  higher  than  necessary  cost  and  response  burden  of  data  collection.  The  ultimate 
consequence  of  these  problems  is  that  the  statistics  collected  by  Eurostat  gradually  lose  relevance  for 
policymakers and other data users. 

What is this initiative expected to achieve?  

The challenge for addressing these main problems is to create a legislative environment for the European Social 
Surveys  that  will  guarantee  the  comparability,  adaptability  and  coherence  of  the  data  in  the  long  run.  The 
system  of  European  social  surveys  must  be  sufficiently  robust  and  maintain  a  high  quality  in  an  environment 
characterised  by  the  rapid  innovation  of  methodology  and  IT,  the  availability  of  new  data  sources,  changing 
needs and expectations of data users, increasing competition on the information market and continued pressure 
on  available  resources.  To  consolidate  the  relevance  of  social  statistics  collected  as  input  for  EU  and  national 
social  policies  as  well  as  research  purposes,  the  following  specific  objectives  have  been  defined:  (i)  Improve 
responsiveness  of  social  statistics  to  societal  needs,  (ii)    Ensure  better  quality  of  social  statistics;  (iii)  Better 
facilitate  the  use  of  innovative  methods  and  processes;  (iv)  Improve  the  efficiency  in  the  production  of  social 
statistics. 

What is the value added of action at the EU level?  

The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) outlines the EU competence to adopt measures for 
the  production  of  statistics  where  necessary  for  the  performance  of  the  activities  of  the  Union  (article  338 
TFEU).  The data  collections considered in this  IA are inputs for the performance of  the Union’s  activities. The 
essential need for international comparability makes an EU intervention indispensable. The possibility of gaining 
efficiency  by  a  strengthened  collaboration  across  the  European  Statistical  System  gives  an  additional  value  to 
action at the EU level.  

B. Solutions 

What  legislative  and  non-legislative  policy  options  have  been  considered?  Is  there  a  preferred 
choice or not? Why? 

A range of options has been considered to address the fragmentation of data collection at EU and national level 
(5 options) and the inflexible programmatic and technical requirements (3 options). For both fields, alternative 
approaches  have  been  analysed  in  comparison  to  the  baseline  scenario.  The  preferred  option  includes  a 
legislative  instrument  that  integrates  the  current  domain-specific  Regulations,  while  ‘defragmenting’  national 
data  collection  processes.  The  preferred  option  also  increases  flexibility  with  allowing  for  flexible  technical 
requirements, while fixing the elements of statistical programming. 

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Who supports which option? 

For  data  producers  the  most  important  impacts  of any  policy  option  considered  are  the  costs:  any  revision  to 
data  collection,  be  it  changes  to  existing  data  collections  or  new  data  collection  components  involve  costs  for 
NSIs in the short  term, recognising a  potential decrease of data  collection costs in the longer run. Data users 
support more flexible programming, while also requesting continuity of data collection series. Data users support 
policy options that contribute to better timeliness of data, and more coherent high-quality data. 

C. Impacts of the preferred option 

What are the benefits of the preferred option (if any, otherwise main ones)?                                       

De-fragmentation of data collection processes reduces duplications and therefore enables considerable efficiency 
gains  in  the  production  of  social  statistics  at  the  system  level;  for  (i)  Eurostat,  (ii)  data  producers,  and  (iii) 
respondents. More flexibility facilitates responsiveness to new user needs. The economic and social benefits of 
the preferred option include improved relevance, timeliness, and consistency of social statistics that contribute 
to a more efficient statistical evidence base for sound economic and social policies, which should result in better 
economic performance and positive social impacts of future policy decisions. The simplification objectives of the 
REFIT programme will also be achieved by streamlining the legal framework in place. 

What are the costs of the preferred option (if any, otherwise main ones)?  

The preferred option faces initial implementation costs that mainly affect the data producers, due to revisions in 
their  business  processes  for  the  production  of  data.  The  impact  assessment  shows  that  these  implementation 
costs in the short term are outweighed by the efficiency gains at the system-level in the longer term especially 
in the data collection phase. 

How will businesses, SMEs and micro-enterprises be affected?  

The policy options do not have direct or indirect impacts for SMEs or micro-enterprises. 

Will there be significant impacts on national budgets and administrations?  

The implementation costs have an impact on the budget of NSIs, and therefore indirectly on national budgets. It 
is essential that the statistical regulatory framework that would be developed fully takes into account these costs 
and foresees safeguards that would limit and reduce as much as possible the costs. 

Will there be other significant impacts?  

No other significant impacts have been identified. 

Proportionality? 

The preferred option will ensure the quality of European social statistics including their comparability, relevance 
and  responsiveness  in  a  harmonised  manner  based  on  the  same  principles.  It  will  lead  to  greater  cost-
effectiveness while respecting the specificities of Member States systems. Therefore the preferred option does 
not go beyond what is strictly necessary to achieve the objectives. 

When will the policy be reviewed?  

D. Follow up 

The frequent Member States reporting on data quality, consolidated by Eurostat, are produced and disseminated 
after  each  wave  of  data  collection  and  contains  a  wealth  of  relevant  monitoring  information  on  the  various 
elements  targeted.  The  European  Statistical  Programme,  currently  covering  the  period  2013-2017  and  that 
includes  social  statistics,  is  assessed  at  mid-term  and  when  it  terminates.  Key  performance  indicators  are 
followed-up  annually.  Collection  of  information  about  quality,  costs  and  benefits  will  therefore  continue  and 
improve.  The  results  from  this  policy  will  be  further  evaluated  after  the  implementation  of  the  future  data 
collections foreseen under this initiative. 

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