REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the ‘Commitments on Confidence in Statistics’ by Member States as required by Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009
Date: 2020-07-03
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU Member State, EU statistics, activity report, application of EU law, code of conduct, official statistics, public awareness campaign

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 3.7.2020  COM(2020) 278 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the ‘Commitments on Confidence in Statistics’ by Member States as required by Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009    
 
 
1. 

1.1. 

INTRODUCTION 

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics 

This  is  the  second  report  drawn  up  in  accordance  with  Regulation  (EC)  No  223/2009  on 
European statistics1, and in particular Article 11(4) establishing that: 

‘The Commitments by Member States shall be monitored regularly by the Commission on the 
basis of annual reports sent by Member States and shall be updated as necessary. 

… 

The Commission shall report to the European Parliament and the Council on the published 
Commitments and, where appropriate, progress reports, by 9 June 2018 and every two years 
thereafter.’ 

The first report was published in 20182. 

1.2. 

Commitment on Confidence in Statistics 

The concept of Commitment on Confidence in Statistics (‘Commitment’) began with the aim 
of improving the quality management framework for statistics. It is described for the first time 
in  a  Communication  from  the  Commission  in 20113.  The  idea  was  to  involve  national 
governments  in  assuming  responsibility  for  a  country's  compliance  with  the  European 
Statistics Code of Practice4.  

The  European  Statistics  Code  of  Practice  sets  the  standard  for  developing,  producing  and 
disseminating  European  statistics.  It  is  based  on  16  principles  that  guide  the  institutional 
environment, statistical processes and outputs. It aims to ensure that statistics produced within 
the  European  Statistical  System  are  not  only  relevant,  timely  and  accurate  but  also  comply 
with  the  principles  of  professional  independence,  impartiality  and  objectivity.  The 
Commitments  establish  a  link  between  the  European  Statistics  Code  of  Practice  and  a 
Member State government, which was previously missing.  

According  to  Article  11(3)  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  223/2009,  the  Commitments  are 
instruments that ‘shall further aim to ensure public trust in European statistics and progress in 
the  implementation  of  the  statistical  principles  contained  in  the  Code  of  Practice’,  to  be 
established by both Member States and the Commission.   

Recital  17  of  amending  Regulation  (EU)  No  2015/7595  also  states  that  the  Commitments 
‘should include specific undertakings by the government of that Member State to improve or 
maintain the conditions for the implementation of the Code of Practice’. 

1 

2  

3 
4 
5 

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics of the European Parliament and of the Council of 
11 March 2009 and repealing 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, Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 on Community Statistics, and Council 
Decision  89/382/EEC,  Euratom  establishing  a  Committee  on  the  Statistical  Programmes  of  the 
European Communities (OJ L 87, 31.3.2009, p. 164). 
COM 
content/EN/TXT/?qid=1574866259293&uri=CELEX:52018DC0516  
COM (2011) 211. 
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-32-11-955 
Regulation (EU) 2015/759 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2015 amending 
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (OJ L 123,19.5.2015, p. 90). 

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

(2018) 

final: 

516 

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2. 

OVERVIEW  OF  COMMITMENTS  ON  CONFIDENCE  AND  REPORTS  BY  MEMBER 
STATES 

2.1. 

General provisions 

According to Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009, Member States must establish and 
publish  a  Commitment  on  Confidence  in  Statistics,  or  at  least  send  to  the  Commission  and 
publish  a  progress  report  on  the  implementation  of  the  Code  of  Practice  and  the  efforts 
undertaken towards the establishment of a Commitment. The Commission regularly monitors 
the Commitments, on the basis of annual reports sent by Member States.  

According  to  the  same  Article,  before  the  establishment  of  a  Commitment,  Member  States 
submit  to  the  Commission  and  make  public  a  progress  report  on  the  Code  of  Practice’s 
implementation or where applicable, on the efforts undertaken towards the establishment of a 
Commitment. Progress reports must be updated every 2 years. 

As was the case for the 2018 Commission report under Article 11(4) of Regulation (EC) No 
223/2009,  the  majority  of  Member  States  reported  in  parallel  with  their  reports  on  the 
implementation  of  the  improvement  actions  emanating  from  the  second  round  of  peer 
reviews, under which Member States report to the Commission (Eurostat) in January of each 
year about any action they have taken to follow up the respective peer review process.  

In order to serve as the progress report on the Commitment, the Member State must publish 
the part of the peer review report which serves as a report on the Commitment. 

2.2. 

Form of the Commitment 

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 contains no rules about the form of the Commitment, but the 
objective  of  gaining  public  trust  through  a  governmental  commitment  to  provide  the 
conditions for high-quality statistics must be achieved. 

As  was  established  already  in  the  2018  report  under  Article  11(4)  of  Regulation  (EC)  No 
223/2009, the majority of Member States consider certain parts of their respective legislation 
to constitute the Commitment. This situation has been confirmed. 

The  group  of  Member  States  having  established  ‘stand-alone’  Commitments  has  grown 
slightly  but  remains  smaller.  The  following  presents  an  overview  of  recently  reported 
significant developments regarding both groups of Member States: 

2.2.1.  National laws constituting the Commitment 

Those Member States who consider the Commitment to be constituted by national law have 
referred to the legal provisions that are relevant for improving or maintaining the  conditions 
for implementation of the Code of Practice and have reported on relevant developments. For 
the observation period 2018 to 2019, the most significant or typical developments reported by 
this group of Member States were the following: 

Bulgaria:  The  Bulgarian  statistical  institute  was  able  to  improve  overall  the  quality 
management  system,  both  internally  and  in  the  national  system  as  a  whole  regarding 
cooperation with other national authorities (ONAs) producing official statistics. For instance, 
it  established  common  guidelines  on  dissemination.  Regarding  its  coordinating  role,  the 
national  statistical  institute  has  been  given  stronger  coordinating  powers  throughout  the 
national statistical system. 

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Regarding  the  planned  ‘stand-alone’  Commitment  on  Confidence  in  Statistics,  the  national 
statistical  institute  has  finished  the  draft  and  sent  it  to  the  government.  The  government  is 
about to start discussion on its adoption. 

Croatia:  The  adoption  procedure  for  the  new  act  on  official  statistics  by  the  Croatian 
government and parliament is in its final stage.   

The  new  act  clearly  recognises  that  official  statistics  are  developed,  produced  and 
disseminated  in  line  with  the  principles  laid  down  in  Regulation  (EC)  No  223/2009,  thus 
ensuring the full establishment of the Commitment on Confidence in Statistics by giving the 
national  statistical  institute, the Croatian Bureau  of Statistics, the professional  independence 
and support it needs to maintain and improve the conditions for implementing the European 
Statistics Code of Practice. 

Denmark:  A  revised  act  on  official  statistics  and  the  national  statistical  institute,  Statistics 
Denmark, entered into force 1 July 2018. It includes specific provisions on the status of the 
national statistician, statistical independence, and the coordinating role of Statistics Denmark 
for official statistics. 

The  provisions  include  a  clear  procedure  to  implement  the  European  Statistics  Code  of 
Practice  in  the  system  for  official  statistics.  The  national  statistician  has  prepared  a  set  of 
quality guidelines based on the Code of Practice which all official statistics must comply with.  

The  compliance  with  these  guidelines  is  monitored  by  Statistics  Denmark  via  yearly  self-
assessments  by  the  ONAs  and  regular  peer  review  visits  from  Statistics  Denmark.  On  the 
basis of this monitoring, each  year the national  statistician produces a report on compliance 
with the guidelines which is presented to the government. 

France: The powers of the ‘Official Statistics Authority’ (ASP), a supervisory body created 
in  2009  to  guarantee  compliance  with  the  principle  of  professional  independence  in  the 
design, production and dissemination of official statistics, were clarified further6:  

The  ASP's  role  in  complying  with  the  European  Statistics  Code  of  Practice  is  now  more 
clearly  stated  and  a  watertight  partition  is  established  to  separate  the  dissemination  of 
statistics  from  any ministerial  communication. Furthermore, the ASP now issues an opinion 
on their professional competence in the field of statistics to the hearing committee when the 
most senior managers of France’s statistical service are appointed. This reinforces the ASP’s 
remit  to  ensure  compliance  with  the  principle  of  professional  independence  throughout  the 
entire French official statistical service. 

Italy:  Recently,  the  focus  has  been  on  measures  to  improve  compliance  with  the  quality 
principle. Since 2018, the national statistical office, Istat, has been carrying out a programme 
on quality assessment by conducting audits on ONAs to assess their statistical processes.  In 
addition, a training programme is enhancing the quality management skills of the ONAs.  

In 2019, a corporate convention with all Istat employees at all levels from top management to 
staff  level  was  organised  in  order  to  share  the  new  organisational  structure,  strategies, 
challenges and opportunities with respect to the commitment on quality.  

6  

Decree no. 2018-800 of 20 September 2018, amending Decree no. 2009-250 of 3 March 2009 relating 
to the Authority. 

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The  efforts  to  establish  a  ‘self-standing’  Commitment  on  Confidence  are  continuing.  A 
specific Commitment will again be put  forward for  inclusion in the next three-year national 
statistical programme for 2020-2022, which has to be adopted by the Council of Ministers on 
a proposal from the President of the Council and enacted by a decree of the President of the 
Republic. 

Poland:  The  law  of  29  June  1995  on  public  statistics7  was  officially  declared  as  the  Polish 
Commitment on Confidence in Statistics. The law is the most important Polish act regulating 
the functioning of official statistics in a comprehensive manner; the law guarantees that those 
compiling  the  statistics  have  full  independence  from  political  influences,  thus  ensuring  the 
high quality of the statistical data produced.  

The law  contains an obligation for the Polish public administration to act  in accordance with 
the  Union  law  provisions  to  which  it  directly  refers.  Thus,  it  is  intended  to  lead  to  public 
confidence  in  the  statistics  elaborated  in  the  country,  including  the  statistics  for  European 
needs.  

In addition, the law contains a direct obligation for Polish official statistics to be produced in 
accordance with the rules of the European Statistics Code of Practice, thus guaranteeing the 
highest level of quality of the data. 

Spain: Since 2016, the Commitment on Confidence has been included in a specific article of 
each  annual  programme  under  the  national  statistical  plan  for  2017-2020.  Additionally,  in 
2018,  a  specific  section  was  set  up  to  address  this  topic  on  the  website  of  the  national 
statistical  institute.  This  section  includes  a  summary  for  citizens  of  the  Commitment,  with 
links to all annual programmes. 

Other  countries  consider  the  Commitment  to  be  constituted  by  national  law  but  are  not  
mentioned  in  the  list  above  due  to  less  significant  developments  in  the  last  2  years.  These 
countries  are:  Germany,  Estonia,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Luxembourg,  Hungary,  the 
Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovakia, Finland and the United Kingdom. 

2.2.2. 

‘Stand-alone’ Commitments on Confidence 

The  established  ‘stand-alone’  Commitments  take  different  forms,  each  one  reflecting  the 
specific features of the national statistical system concerned. 

The  first  report  on  the  Commitments  from  2018  presented  (in  chronological  order)  the 
following Member States’ ‘stand-alone’ Commitments: 

in  Statistics8  was  signed  on 
Greece:  The  Greek  Commitment  on  Confidence 
29 February 2012 by the Greek Prime Minister and the Member of the European Commission 
responsible for taxation and customs union, audit and anti-fraud. 

Sweden:  The  Commitment  on  Confidence  in  Statistics9  was  presented  in  the  Swedish 
Government’s  budget  bill  for  2017.  Subsequently,  it  was  also  published  on  the  Swedish 
statistical institute’s website. 

7  

8 

on: 

available 

Document 
http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=wdu19950880439 
http://prawo.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/download.xsp/WDU19950880439/U/D19950439Lj.pdf  
http://www.statistics.gr/documents/20181/c5b9264e-815e-4f74-9955-467d14cad474  (Available  only  in 
English). 

https://bip.stat.gov.pl/en/law/law-on-public-statistics/ 

or  
or  

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Slovenia:  The  Government  of  Slovenia  adopted  the  Commitment  on  Confidence  in 
Statistics10 on 5 January 2017. It was subsequently published, together with the corresponding 
citizen's summary, on the website of the Slovenian statistical institute.  

Ireland: The Irish Commitment on Confidence in Statistics11 was adopted by the Government 
of Ireland on 30 May 2017 and subsequently published on the website of the Irish statistical 
institute.  

Belgium: On 31 May 2017, the Belgian Commitment on Confidence12 was approved by the 
Consultation  Committee  where  the  federal  government  and  the  governments  of  the  regions 
and communities are represented, and subsequently published on the website of the Belgian 
federal statistical institute and the regional statistical authorities. 

Romania:  The  Romanian  Commitment  on  Confidence  was  adopted  by  the  Romanian 
government at its meeting of 9 June 201713. 

Malta:  For  the  Maltese  government,  the  Prime  Minister  signed  the  Commitment  on 
Confidence in Statistics on 17 May 201814. 

The following new ‘stand-alone’ Commitments have been established since: 

Czechia: The Commitment on Confidence in Statistics in the Czech Republic15 was published 
on 28 February 2018 on the website of the national statistical authority.  

It reflects the respective provisions of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009, and states that they are 
already fulfilled by the valid legislation defining the activities of the Czech statistical service, 
first  of  all  Act  No  89/1995  on  the  state  statistical  service,  but  also  other  acts  like  the 
Constitution or the government’s rules of procedure. This system of regulations provides the 
conditions  necessary  to  fulfil  all  principles  of  the  European  Statistics  Code  of  Practice 
concerning the institutional environment. 

Cyprus:  The  Commitment  on  Confidence  in  Statistics  was  approved  by  the  Council  of 
Ministers on 16 October 201816. Additionally, the Council authorised the Minister of Finance 
to give instructions to the director of the statistical service to proceed with the publication of 
the Commitment. 

9 

10 
11 
12 

13  

14  

15  
16  

http://www.scb.se/contentassets/bbe78b2a144143c7955b165f76fb4d52/regeringens-atagande-om-att-skapa-
fortroende-for-statistiken.pdf and http://www.scb.se/om-scb/samordning-av-europeisk-statistik-i-
sverige/regeringens-atagande-om-att-skapa-fortroende-for-statistiken/ (Available only in Swedish).  
See also pages 28 and 29 of the Official Statistics of Sweden– Annual report 2017 
http://www.scb.se/contentassets/fd60f41a3abc4d2c8a791e425357ba5b/ov9999_2017a01_br_x43br1802.pdf 
(Description of commitment in English). 
http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/News/Index/6458 (Available only in English and Slovenian). 
http://cso.ie/en/media/csoie/aboutus/documents/CoCS.pdf (Available only in English).  
https://statbel.fgov.be/en/about-statbel/quality/commitment-confidence  (Available  only 
French, German and Dutch).  
http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/eurostat/angajament_de_sprijinirea_credibilitatii_statisticii_oficiale_nationale.pdf 
(Available only in Romanian). 
https://nso.gov.mt/en/nso/Pages/Commitment-on-Confidence.aspx and 
https://msa.gov.mt/en/public_information/Pages/Commitment-on-Confidence.aspx (Available only in 
English).  
https://www.czso.cz/csu/czso/commitment-on-confidence-in-statistics-in-the-czech-republic  
Decision no. 85.964. 

in  English, 

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Iceland,  which  participates  in  the  European  Statistical  System  in  its  capacity  as  a  member 
country  of  the  European  Economic  Area  (EEA),  has  also  established  a  ‘stand-alone’ 
Commitment:  A text  regarding the Commitment on Confidence in  Statistics was inserted in 
the documents of the 2020-2024 budget plan and approved by the country’s Parliament17. It 
reaffirms  that  the  credibility  of  public  statistics  is  one  of  the  prerequisites  for  trust  in 
economic  and  social  statistics  used  for  policy  making  and  for  assessing  the  impact  of 
government  decisions  in  a  neutral  way.  The  text  also  states  that  in  order  to  maintain 
confidence in official statistics, it is imperative that the principles of the European Statistics 
Code  of  Practice  are  adhered  to.  Moreover,  it  is  made  clear  that  the  national  statistical 
authority,  Statistics  Iceland,  is  ensured  the  professional  independence  and  working 
environment  necessary  to  enforce  those  rules  when  implementing  new  projects,  collecting 
data, and processing and disseminating statistics. 

Finally,  it  is  also  worth  mentioning  that  although  outside  the  European  Statistical  System, 
three  Western  Balkans  countries  also  formally  adopted  Commitments  on  Confidence  in 
Statistics:  Albania  on  10  November  2017,  Montenegro  on  22  February  2018  and  North 
Macedonia on 17 October 2018. 

3. 

CONCLUSION 

For the majority of Member States, the Commitment is inherent in their statistical legislation. 
It  is  apparent  from  their  reports  that  the  obligation  to  establish  a  Commitment  is  leading  to 
constant  improvements  in  the  relevant  statistical  legislation,  with  a  view  to  better 
implementing the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice.  

For this group of Member States, a government commitment regarding the European Statistics 
Code of Practice, which is necessary to increase public trust in official statistics, is adhered to 
by involving governments in the creation of the relevant legislation. Moreover, this aspect is 
present in the provisions on directly reporting to the government on the implementation of the 
measures  guaranteeing  compliance  with  the  principles  of  the  European  Statistics  Code  of 
Practice. 

Among the  countries  which established ‘stand-alone’ Commitments or are in  the process  of 
doing  so,  the  differences  in  the  forms  chosen  reflect  the  specific  features  of  the  national 
statistical system as well as the legal system. Since the Commitment’s establishment depends 
on a political decision, it is a lengthy process to finalise. The countries which are still working 
on  their  ‘stand-alone’  Commitments  are  making  progress.  In  the  meantime,  they  have  also  
further  improved  the  implementation  of  the  principles  of  the  European  Statistics  Code  of 
Practice. 

Overall, it can be observed that governments and national statistical authorities throughout the 
European  Union  are  becoming  more  and  more  aware  of  the  importance  of  ensuring  public 
trust  in  European  statistics  by  better  implementing  the  principles  in  the  Code  of  Practice. 
Moreover,  it  is  apparent  that  the  conditions  for  implementing  the  Code  of  Practice  are 
gradually and sustainably improving. 

17  

https://www.stjornartidindi.is/Advert.aspx?RecordID=de627e49-2146-45cb-b1eb-969072b8deac  
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