REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection
Date: 2018-08-16
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, EU visa policy, data collection, disclosure of information, emigration, immigration, migratory movement, residence permit, right of asylum

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 16.8.2018 COM(2018) 594 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection    
 
 
INTRODUCTION 

1. 
The  main  aim  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  862/20071  (‘the  Regulation’)  is  to  collect  and  compile 
European statistics on migration and international protection.  

Article 12 of the Regulation states that ‘By 20 August 2012 and every three years thereafter, the 
Commission  shall  submit  a  report  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  on  the  statistics 
compiled pursuant to this Regulation and on their quality.’  

This  report  follows  the  first  two  adopted  by  the  Commission  in  September  20122  and  in  July 
20153.  

This  report  documents  the  progress  that  has  been  made  by  Member  States,  together  with  the 
Commission (Eurostat), in implementing the Regulation since the second report and outlines the 
next  steps  to  further  improve  the  quality  of  the  statistics  on  migration  and  international 
protection.  

2. 

STATISTICS COVERED BY THE REGULATION  

Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 concerns the compilation of European statistics on migration and 
international protection (asylum). The main areas covered are: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

international migration flows disaggregated by groups of citizenship, groups of country 
of birth, groups of country of previous/next usual residence, age and sex (Article 3); 

population stocks disaggregated by groups of citizenship, groups of country of birth, age 
and sex (Article 3);  

acquisitions of citizenship by country of previous citizenship (Article 3);  

asylum  applications,  first  instance  decisions  and  appeal  decisions  granting  or 
withdrawing  different  forms  of  international  protection  status,  broken  down  by 
citizenship (Article 4); 

asylum applications by unaccompanied minors, disaggregated by citizenship (Article 4);  
statistics on the application of the Dublin III Regulation4 by Member State (Article 4); 

third-country nationals refused entry to the Member State at the external border or found 
to  be  illegally  present  under  national  immigration  legislation,  disaggregated  by 
citizenship (Article 5); 

residence permits issued to third-country nationals, disaggregated by citizenship, length 
of  permit  validity  and  reason  (immigration  category)  for  the  permit  being  issued 
(Article 6); and 

1   Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on Community 

statistics on migration and international protection (OJ L 199, 31.7.2007, p. 23). 

2   COM (2012) 528 final.  
3   COM (2015) 374 final. 
4   OJ L 180, 29.6.2013, p. 31. 

1 

 
 
                                                 
 

third-country nationals subject to an order to leave the territory of a Member State under 
immigration  legislation  or  recorded  as  departing  after  the  issue  of  such  an  order, 
disaggregated by citizenship (Article 7).  

As part of the implementation process, the Commission has continued to work closely with the 
national authorities involved in producing and supplying data for the Regulation. The statistics on 
migration  flows,  acquisitions  of  citizenship  and  population  stocks  are  generally  supplied  to  the 
Commission  (Eurostat)  by  national  statistical  institutes.  Statistics  on  residence  permits  and 
asylum  usually  come  directly  from  interior  ministries  or  immigration  services.  Statistics  on 
border controls and the removal of unauthorised migrants are also provided by interior ministries 
or immigration services, or else by police authorities.  

Table  1  below  gives  an  overview  of  these  statistics  for  which  the  first  reference  year  of  data 
collection was 2008. 

Table 1: Main features of statistics under Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 

Article 3 

Article 4 

Articles 5 and 7 

Article 6 

Migration flows, 
acquisitions of 
citizenship, 
population stocks 

Asylum 

Enforcement of 
immigration 
legislation 

Residence 
permits 

Geographical 
coverage 

Member States and EFTA countries5 

Frequency 

Annual 

Monthly/quarterly/annual 

Annual 

Annual 

Deadline for 
data 
transmission 

12 months after 
end of reference 
year 

2 months after reference 
period for 
monthly/quarterly data, 
3 months after reference 
period for annual data 

3 months after 
end of reference 
year 

6 months 
after end of 
reference 
year 

Data 
providers 

National statistical 
institutes 

Interior ministries or related immigration agencies or border 
police 

3. 

OTHER RELEVANT LEGISLATION 

In  2016,  a  new  legal  basis  for  legal  migration  entered  into  force.  It  is  relevant  for  statistics  on 
residence permits compiled under Article 6 of the (EC) Regulation No 862/2007 and will be used 
for this data collection in the near future. The legal act in question is: 

Directive (EU) 2016/801 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on 
the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of research, 

5 Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. 

2 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
studies,  training,  voluntary  service,  pupil  exchange  schemes  or  educational  projects  and 
au pairing6.  

The collection of data based on this Directive will begin in 2020, with 2019 as the reference year. 
Also, the statistics produced under the Directive are subject to their own evaluation. Therefore, 
they  have  not  been  included  in  the  quality  evaluation  in  this  Report.  It  is  also  the  case  for  the 
recently  launched  data  collections  related  to  the  'Seasonal  Workers  Directive'7  and  the  'Intra-
Corporate Transfers Directive'8 for which the collection started in 2018 with reference year 2017. 

4. 

GENERAL PROGRESS SINCE THE 2015 REPORT  

Since  the  2015  report,  data  availability  and  completeness  has  further  improved  across  all  data 
collections.  General  data  quality  improvements  have  helped  make  data  more  accurate,  more 
coherent  and  more  comparable  overall.  Member  States  have  improved  the  underlying  data 
sources  and  statistical  tools  used  for  data  preparation,  so  that  the  data  provided  to  the 
Commission is better in terms of accuracy, coverage and timeliness. 

A  higher  quality,  more  punctual  data  supply  from  the  Member  States  has  allowed  the 
Commission  to  shorten the time needed for data dissemination. This  has made  for more timely 
data releases and improved data accessibility for users. 

the  2015  report, 

Since 
the  Commission  (Eurostat)  has  made  several  methodological 
improvements. They have focused on (i) analyses of the misclassification of demographic events; 
(ii)  the  inclusion/exclusion  of  asylum  seekers  and  refugees;  (iii)  coherence  with  asylum  and 
residence  permits  data;  (iv)  ensuring  a  consistent  demographic  balance.  These  technical 
improvements have resulted in more efficient data validation and processing; alongside this, the 
collection of extensive quality metadata has made for better assessment of incoming data quality. 
When necessary, administrative letters were sent to ensure compliance with the legal obligations.  

Moreover, in the areas of statistics collected under Articles 4-7 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007, 
new policy needs for additional data not planned under the current legislation have been treated 
exclusively on a voluntary basis. This approach is, however, not always efficient. In this area of 
international  protection  and  managed  migration,  statistical  cooperation  within  the  Commission, 
with other EU bodies (e.g. the European Asylum Support Office, the European Border and Coast 
Guard Agency – Frontex or the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights) and with the 
Member  States  has  resulted  in  revised  guidelines  for  data  collected  under  the  Regulation9.  The 
methodological  improvements  mentioned  above  have  brought  greater  clarity  to  statistical 
definitions  and  concepts.  The  three  most  recent  Directives  in  the  field  of  legal  migration  (i.e. 

6 OJ L 132, 21.5.2016, p. 21. 
7  Directive  2014/36/EU  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  26  February  2014  on  the  conditions  of 
entry and stay of third-country nationals for the purpose of employment as seasonal workers (OJ L 94, 28.3.2014, p. 
375). 
8 Directive 2014/66/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on the conditions of entry 
and residence of third-country nationals in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer (OJ L 157, 27.5.2014, p. 1). 
9  Revision  of  the  Technical  Guidelines  for  the  data  collection  under  Article  4(1)-4(3)  of  Regulation  (EC)  No 
862/2007  -  Statistics  on  Asylum  and of  the  Technical  Guidelines  for  the  data  collection under  Articles  5  and  7 of 
Regulation  (EC)  No  862/2007  -  Enforcement  of  Immigration  Legislation  (EIL)  Statistics  in  2018.  Revision  of  the 
Technical  Guidelines  for  the  data  collection  under  Article  6  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  862/2007  -  Statistics  on 
Residence  Permits  and  of 
the  data  collection  under  Article  4(4)  of 
Regulation 862/2007 - Dublin Statistics in 2017.  

the  Technical  Guidelines 

for 

3 

 
 
                                                 
'Seasonal Workers Directive', 'Intra-Corporate Transfers Directive' and 'Students and Researchers 
Directive') and the growing policy needs for additional statistics on migration and asylum have 
been  included  in  the  methodological  guidance  for  data  collections  on  asylum,  enforcement  of 
immigration legislation and residence permits. The relevance of the data has also been examined. 
As a consequence, national metadata information reported by Member States is disseminated on 
the Eurostat website alongside data, after metadata and data validation. 

To  make  the  Regulation  more  responsive  to  a  new  and  more  dynamic  policy  environment,  the 
Commission  has  adopted  a  legislative  proposal  amending  Regulation  (EC)  No  862/200710.  The 
aim  of  the  proposed  amendment  is  to  deliver  greater  completeness,  accuracy,  timeliness, 
reliability and certainty than it is possible under the current arrangement, based on gentlemen’s 
agreements. Likewise, flexibility around further improvements to migration statistics needs to be 
developed, so  that  the  European  Statistical  System  can  be  more  responsive  and  relevant to  any 
further  developments  in  migration  data  requirements.  The  amendment  mainly  sets  out  a  legal 
basis  for  current  voluntary  data  collections  and  provides  flexibility  for  future  specifications  of 
data. 

The amendment to the Regulation will make sure that statistics are available in areas where clear 
needs have been expressed by the stakeholders, namely on: asylum, returns (higher frequency and 
more  mandatory  disaggregations),  resettlement  and  residence  permits,  with  additional 
disaggregations by criteria such as age and sex. This flexibility would create EU aggregates that 
are not currently available but may be needed in the future. 

5. 

QUALITY OF THE STATISTICS PRODUCED  

5.1. 

Relevance  

the  Commission, 

the 
Within 
Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs. These statistics are also frequently used by 
other  Commission  Directorates-General,  starting  with  DG  Employment,  Social  Affairs  and 
Inclusion, and DG Justice and Consumers.  

international  protection  statistics 

the  main  user  of 

is 

One important use of these statistics has been as part of the annual budgetary allocations of the 
Solidarity  and  Management  of  Migration  Flows  Funds  for  each  Member  State.  As  in  previous 
years, these funds are based on the Asylum, Migration and Integration  Fund, established under 
Regulation  (EU)  No  516/201411,  and  the  Internal  Security  Fund,  established  under  Regulation 
(EU) No 515/201412  for 2014-2020. Due to the multi-annual funding arrangements  under these 
new  funds,  data  are  no  longer  provided  annually.  The  allocations  were  calculated  based  on  the 
statistics previously supplied, with the exception of the Internal Security Fund, where a mid-term 
review is required.  

10 Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 
of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics on migration and international protection -
COM (2018) 307 final. 
11  Regulation  (EU) No 516/2014 of  the  European Parliament  and  of  the Council  of 16 April 2014  establishing  the 
Asylum,  Migration  and  Integration  Fund,  amending  Council  Decision  2008/381/EC  and  repealing  Decisions 
No 573/2007/EC  and  No 575/2007/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  and  Council  Decision 
2007/435/EC (OJ L 150, 20.5.2014, p. 168). 
12 Regulation (EU) No 515/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 establishing, as part 
of  the  Internal  Security  Fund,  the  instrument  for  financial  support  for  external  borders  and  visa  and  repealing 
Decision No 574/2007/EC (OJ L 150, 20.5.2014, p. 143). 

4 

 
 
                                                 
The  statistics  on  migration  and  international  protection  are  used  by  the  Commission  for  the 
preparation of regular reports, policy proposals, implementation reports required under European 
legislation and policy analysis. For example, the European Migration Network13 continues to be a 
major user of Eurostat migration and international protection statistics for its Annual Report on 
Migration and Asylum14. That report provides a factual overview of the main developments in the 
area  of legal  migration, international protection, irregular migration  and return, at both  EU and 
national level. 

The use of European statistics on international protection to support the work of migration-related 
European  Union  agencies  such  as  Frontex  and  the  European  Asylum  Support  Office  has 
continued to rise. Eurostat works very closely with them on data collections and related statistical 
methodology. 

Since 2016, the European Commission’s Knowledge Centre on Migration and Demography has 
used  the  migration  and  international  protection  statistics  extensively  to  feed  policy-relevant 
knowledge  and  evidence-based  analysis  into  EU  policy-making.  In  addition  to  supporting  the 
European Agenda on Migration, the centre’s focus is on global migration developments and their 
demographic impact on the EU in the medium to longer term. The Joint Research Centre runs its 
daily activities. Eurostat is a leading contributor to this undertaking with its European statistics on 
migrant stocks and flows, population stocks by citizenship and country of birth, legal migration, 
asylum and irregular migration. 

In  addition,  the  statistics  produced  under  the  Regulation  are  regularly  used  by  national 
administrations,  international  organisations,  academic  researchers  and  civil  society  groups 
working on a wide range of topics, including the integration of immigrants, the development and 
monitoring  of  national  asylum  and  immigration  procedures,  and  population  and  labour  force 
projections. 

Migration  statistics  are  among  the  most  widely  consulted  European  statistics.  The  population 
section15  on  Eurostat’s  website  presents  the  indicators  available,  the  regulatory  framework  and 
the data collection methods. Since 2016, it has ranked first among the thematic sections on the 
website. User interest in data on migration, on population by citizenship and country of birth, and 
on  acquisition  of  citizenship,  grew  steadily  from  2015  to  2017.  Over  this  period,  their  usage 
increased  by  47 %.  The  migration  and  migrant  population  statistics  page16  has  seen  almost  the 
same relative increase (46 %). Since 2016, it has established itself as the most visited page of the 
Statistics  Explained  wiki-type  section  of  the  Eurostat  website.  These  results  confirm  the 
relevance of the data to users. 

5.2. 

Accuracy 

Since the 2015 Report, there have been further improvements in the accuracy of data provided by 
the Member States. There are a number of reasons for this. Member States continue to introduce 
more  integrated  and  comprehensive  administrative  systems  that  make  use  of  modern  IT  and 
communication  methods.  The  new  systems  respond  better  to  the  methodological  and  technical 

13 http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/networks/european_migration_network/index_en.htm (available 
in English only). 
14 European Migration Network, Annual Report on Migration and Asylum 2017 (available in English only). 
15  http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/population-demography-migration-projections  (available  in  English,  French  and 
German). 
16 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Migration_and_migrant_population_statistics 

5 

 
 
                                                 
requirements of the Eurostat data collections. Member States have kept Eurostat informed about 
ongoing changes to administrative systems and have sought advice and confirmation that the data 
would meet the requirements of the Regulation.  

Eurostat  collects  metadata,  and  in  particular  information  on  data  accuracy,  explaining,  among 
other  aspects,  the  data  sources  and  procedures,  any  estimation  or  modelling  processes  that  are 
applied  to  the  data,  and  the  possible  effects  of  these  on  the  degree  of  compliance  with  the 
definitions  in  the  Regulation.  In  addition,  special  quality  questionnaires  collect  more  specific 
information on data quality.  

Since  the  2015  Report,  there  have  been  further  reductions  in  the  amount  of  missing  and 
incomplete  data.  A  number  of  national  authorities  have  improved  practices  to  ensure  that  the 
necessary  information  is  gathered  during  the  administrative  procedures  related  to  immigration 
and international protection, and have improved their computing systems so that these data can be 
easily obtained for statistical purposes.  

Finally, Eurostat participates in the Expert Group on Refugee  and Internally Displaced Persons 
Statistics17.  The  work  of  this  Group  led  to  the  United  Nations  approved  International 
Recommendations on Refugee Statistics18. These recommendations have set the global standards 
for producing international protection statistics. For instance, they call for closing the gaps  and 
proper standards in statistics on forcibly displaced children and unaccompanied minors.  

Despite improvements, specific accuracy issues around the data collected under Article 3 remain. 
These relate both to under-coverage (i.e. persons do not register in their place of residence) and 
over-coverage (i.e. persons do not deregister, as there is often no obligation or incentive to do so). 
The  migration  data  exchange  facilitated  by  Eurostat  helps  alleviate  such  issues  (see  section 
5.5.1). 

5.3. 

Timeliness and punctuality 

Depending on the type of data concerned, the deadline to supply data is between 2 and 12 months 
after the reference date or the end of the reference period.  

Since  the  2015  Report,  the  punctuality  of  data  provisions  has  improved.  The  introduction  of 
automated extraction procedures at national level and regular monitoring by Eurostat have led to 
punctual  data  provisions.  Some  remaining  issues  are  non-recurring  -  for  instance,  isolated 
disruptions due to staff unavailability or computing system failures.  

More  timely  and  complete  supply  of  data  under  the  Regulation  has,  in  turn,  helped  Eurostat 
improve the timeliness and punctuality of its data processing and dissemination. The time delay 
between data being received and validated data being published on Eurostat’s website has further 
decreased  since  the  2015  Report.  In  addition,  the  introduction  of  automated  internal  validation 
procedures  with  error-feedback  reporting  to  national  data  providers  has  further  reduced  the 
processing time.  

17 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/expert-group-on-refugee-statistics/home (available in English only). 
18  https://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/49th-session/documents/BG-Item3m-RefugeeStat-E.pdf  (available  in  English 
only).  

6 

 
 
                                                 
5.4. 

Accessibility  

The migration data (and metadata) for all four domains (Migration, population stocks, acquisition 
of  citizenship;  Asylum;  Enforcement  of  immigration  legislation;  Residence  permits)  are  freely 
available  on  the  Eurostat  website  under  the  themes  Population  (Demography,  migration  and 
projections)19  and  Asylum  and  managed  migration20.  Moreover,  these  data  are  included  in 
compendium  publications  such  as  Eurostat  Statistics  Explained21  and  Key  figures  on  Europe22. 
Since the 2015 Report, Eurostat has made more use of the Statistics Explained articles by giving 
more information about the statistics, trends and their interpretation. Such articles are produced 
and regularly updated for all data collected under the Regulation23. 

5.5. 

Comparability and coherence 

5.5.1.  Definitions  

The problems related to the application in Member States of the specifics of definitions for the 
migration and acquisition of citizenship statistics covered by Article 3 of the Regulation continue 
to  be  among  the  hardest  to  address.  It  is  for  these  data  that  there  are  the  greatest  differences 
between  national  systems,  because  Member  States  use  a  variety  of  data  sources.  Efforts  are 
ongoing to overcome remaining problems. For example, two Member States were unable to use 
the 12-month criterion for defining emigration flows because a 6-month criterion for defining the 
immigration flows was used for some Member States of next residence; one Member State is still 
unable  to  use  the  living-in-the-country  criterion  for  acquisition  of  citizenship,  as  the  Member 
State includes citizenship granted to persons not living in the Member State. 

the  demographic  data  collections  covered  by  Regulation 

Statistics  covered  by  Article  3  of  the  Regulation  continue  to  have  high  consistency  and 
comparability  with 
(EU) 
No 1260/201324  following  an  agreement  reached  with  Member  States  to  apply  the  same  age 
definitions  and  breakdowns,  and  on  the  definition  of  EU  aggregates.  Improvements  have  been 
achieved in definitions, methods and data sources thanks to the useful input of data from the 2011 
round  of  EU  population  and  housing  censuses,  together  with  the  use  of  mirror  statistical  data: 
Eurostat offers Member States a facility for exchanging migration (emigration and immigration) 
data. Such exchanges also go a long way towards reducing the issues related to registration and 
deregistration (see also section 5.2).    

The  methodological  guidelines  mentioned  in  section  4  remain  in  place  for  the  data  collections 
under  Articles  4  to  7.  They  are  continuously  improved  to  provide  more  precise  and  clear 
guidance  on  the  definitions  and  concepts  for  data  collections  on  asylum,  residence  permits  and 
enforcement of immigration legislation. They also incorporate the latest innovations in European 
legislation  (see  section  3  of  this  Report  and  the  2015  Report).  Another  strand  of  work  at 

 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Main_Page  

19  http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/population-demography-migration-projections  (available  in  English,  French  and 
German).  
20 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/asylum-and-managed-migration/statistics-illustrated (available in English, French 
and German).  
21
22  http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-statistical-books/-/KS-EI-17-001  (available  in  English,  French  and 
German).  
23 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Population (available in English only).   
24 Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 2013 on European 
demographic statistics (OJ L 330, 10.12.2013, p. 39). 

7 

 
 
                                                 
international level is the development of the international recommendations on refugee statistics 
(see section 5.2). 

5.5.2.  Data sources 

Since the 2015 Report and concerning Article 3, Member States have improved the quality of the 
statistics transmitted to Eurostat by working on their national estimation methodologies and using 
additional administrative data sources in their estimates. In particular, some Member States make 
use of the mirror flows reported by partner countries to solve coverage errors stemming from the 
non-propensity  to  register  and  de-register.  This  has  helped  curb  underestimation  of  emigration 
flows and double counting of part of the population stocks. Eurostat has monitored this work by 
engaging  in-depth  discussions  with  national  statistical  institutes  and  other  national  authorities, 
and by helping Member States exchange data. Personal data protection issues and differences in 
national  legislation  have  made  progress  in  this  very  difficult  area.  Alongside  this,  freedom  of 
movement  within  the  EU,  combined  with  personal  data  protection  issues,  has  placed  stringent 
limitations on further quality improvements for migration statistics, especially in relation to EU 
citizens.  

The national data providers have  informed the  Commission  (Eurostat) of  further improvements 
and  redevelopments  of  administrative  registers  covering  asylum,  residence  permits  and 
enforcement statistics. These improvements have mainly targeted the modernisation of registers, 
including  better  compliance  with  the  methodological  and  technical  requirements  of  data 
collections under the Regulation. In some Member States, such technical developments have led 
to temporary interruptions in the supply of data. Eurostat is aware of them beforehand and they 
eventually result in improvements to data quality. 

A future  central repository  for statistics  and reporting,  hosted by the European Agency, for the 
Operational Management of large-scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice 
(eu-LISA),  will  contain  anonymised  data  extracted  from  the  European  Dactyloscopy  (Eurodac) 
fingerprint database, the Schengen Information System (SIS) and Visa Information System (VIS) 
and  the  upcoming  European  Travel  Information  and  Authorisation  System  (ETIAS)  and 
Entry/Exit System (EES). Without prejudice to the relevant legal instruments, and in full respect 
of the purpose limitations provided therein, the Commission (Eurostat) has started discussions to 
explore the possibility to use these data in the production of European migration statistics with a 
view to eventually replacing parts of the current national data collections. 

5.5.3.  Coherence 

Where comparisons are possible, a high degree of coherence can be seen with data collected and 
published in other exercises and by national and international organisations. Eurostat cooperates 
closely with the European Asylum  Support Office  and Frontex to  ensure full coherence  among 
the data collected by these agencies. Any differences between the data supplied to Eurostat and 
the  statistics  published  by  national  authorities  can  be  explained  by  differences  in  definition: 
Member States  may  have  chosen to retain  distinct definitions in  their  national  statistics. As the 
data  provided  under  Article  3  of  Regulation  (EC)  No 862/2007  and  under  Regulation  (EU) 
No 1260/2013  are  systematically  used  together  by  statisticians  and  demographers,  Regulation 
(EU) No 1260/2013 requires Member States to ensure that data on population are consistent with 
those required under Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007.  

8 

 
 
5.6.  Measures to improve quality  

The Commission continues to apply follow-up measures in response to non-compliance with the 
Regulation. In a few cases, data supplied by Member States were incomplete, of low quality or 
were  not  delivered  in  accordance  with  the  legal  deadlines.  These  measures  (e.g.  administrative 
letters) are part of Eurostat’s regular compliance monitoring.  

The trend in these measures since the 2015 Report points to further progress by Member States in 
terms of data completeness, quality and timeliness. The number of administrative letters sent to 
the national statistical authorities has declined steadily.  

In response to the need to evaluate data quality more effectively and comprehensively, automatic 
data  validation  software  has  been  introduced  into  data  processing.  This  automated  tool  is  also 
available to national data providers and the verifications are based on the sets of validation rules 
agreed between Eurostat and the Member States.  

To  further  evaluate  the  quality  of  the  incoming  data,  Eurostat  set  about  gathering  even  more 
extensive metadata and quality information. In line with the European Statistical System quality 
standards,  domain-specific  quality  questionnaires  have  been  developed  since  2014  covering 
asylum, residence permits and enforcement statistics. The available national quality reports serve 
as  an  aid  for  quality  checks,  evaluation  and  improvements,  and  are  accessible  to  the  general 
public25.  

According to Article 8 of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013, Member States were required to carry 
out  feasibility  studies  on  the  use  of  the  ‘usual  residence’  definition  of  the  population  and  to 
transmit  the  results  of  these  studies  to  Eurostat  by  the  end  of  2016.  The  studies  included  an 
analysis  of  current  and  potential  data  sources,  data  processing  and  the  estimation  methods  for 
required  statistics.  They  were  designed  mainly  to  make  concepts  and  definitions  more 
comparable and consequently deliver better data quality and comparability. The results of these 
studies will be outlined in the report to the European Parliament and the Council on Regulation 
(EU)  No 1260/2013  that  the  Commission  will  adopt  by  the  end  of  2018.  The  results  of  the 
feasibility studies might have consequences for European population statistics and consequently 
for the consistency with data provided under Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007. 

6. 

CONCLUSIONS 

Regulation  (EC)  No  862/2007  has  resulted  in  clear  improvements  to  European  statistics  on 
migration and international protection. Moreover, since the 2015 Report, further improvements in 
terms  of  data  availability,  completeness,  quality  and  timeliness  have  been  observed.  Data 
collections  under  the  Regulation  have  undergone  additional  methodological  and  technical 
developments,  leading  to  improved  guidance  for  Member  States.  The  quality  of  data  received 
under  the  Regulation  has  also  benefited  from  the  entry  into  force  of  Regulation  (EU) 
No 1260/2013 and related implementing measures. Quality improvements should continue in the 
future,  notably  to  increase  data  timeliness,  improve  accuracy,  tackle  under-  and  over-coverage 
and fill data gaps. 

25 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/EN/migr_eil_esqrs.htm (available in English only); 
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/en/migr_res_esms.htm (available in English only). 

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There  has  been  a  corresponding  increase  in  the  use  made  of  all  of  these  statistics  by  official 
bodies at European and national level, by non-governmental bodies and by the general public. 

However,  due  to  its  structure,  the  Regulation  can  no  longer  properly  respond  to  new  user 
requests. Because  of this, new data gaps identified by the Commission have been addressed by 
other data collection approaches such as voluntary data collections. Examples include first-time 
asylum applicants, types of return of irregular migrants and residence permits, broken down by 
age and sex and cross-classified with other breakdowns. These voluntary data transmissions have 
worked quite well, with all or almost all Member States. Other identified data gaps, such as the 
breakdown  of  population  data  under  Article  3  by  individual  country  of  citizenship  as  well  as 
immigration/emigration  by  single  previous/next  country  of  residence,  cannot,  however,  be 
addressed on a voluntary basis. Moreover, constant dialogue with policy users shows some other 
policy needs that will have to be addressed in the future, in particular as regards residence permits 
data: the (too)  large number/share of valid  residence permits reported as  "other  reasons" which 
prevents  a  full  understanding  of  the  nature  of  migration  and  meaningful  comparison  across 
Member States; the lack of data on intra-EU mobility of legally residing third-country nationals; 
the  imperfect  matching  between  asylum  data  (positive  decisions)  and  asylum-related  residence 
permits  (both  stock  and  flows);  the  need  to  increase  the  added  value  of  recently  launched 
voluntary  data  collection (e.g. on newly granted permanent/long-term residence permits and on 
family  reunification  with  beneficiaries  of  protection)  by  having  more  Member  States  reporting 
this data. This requires flexibility to create EU aggregates that are not currently available - such 
as the main citizenships of EU citizens living in other Member States.  

Considering that:  

 
 

the data required under the Regulation should reflect the evolving needs of the users and 
the capacity and means of the data providers should be taken into account 

the following strands of action are being undertaken: 

1.  Amending Articles 4 to 7 (international protection and managed migration) of the Regulation 
to  support  the  European  Agenda  on  Migration.  This  will  involve  providing  EU  policy-  and 
decision-makers  with  better  and  timelier  policy-relevant  statistics  so  that  they  can  respond 
more  forcefully  to  the  challenges  posed  by  migration.  In  particular,  the  initiative  will 
strengthen quality by giving a legal basis to statistics currently collected on a voluntary basis. 
Amending  Regulation  (EC)  No 862/2007  will  deliver  better  completeness,  timeliness, 
reliability  and  certainty  than  Member  States’  current  voluntary  data  transmissions.  In 
particular, it will provide statistics in those areas where the stakeholders have expressed clear 
needs:  on  returns  (higher  frequency  and  more  mandatory  disaggregations),  resettlement, 
residence  permits  and  children  immigration.  It  will  also  provide  the  required  flexibility  in 
response to new and emerging data needs. The Commission adopted the proposal on 16 May 
2018.26 

2.  Promoting the exchange of knowledge and good practices with a view to facilitating access to 

national administrative data in some Member States to improve migration data quality.  

26 COM (2018) 307 final. 

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3.  Without  prejudice  to  the  relevant  legal  instruments,  and  in  full  respect  of  the  purpose 
limitations provided therein, exploit the possibilities that will be offered by the future central 
repository  for  reporting  and  statistics  that  will  be  hosted  by  eu-LISA.  This  repository  will 
contain  anonymised  data  extracted  from  EURODAC,  SIS,  VIS  and  upcoming  ETIAS  and 
EES,  which  may  be  used  in  the  production  of  European  migration  statistics  with  a  view  to 
eventually replacing parts of the current national data collections. 

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