Article 1 Establishment of the statistical programme
The Community statistical programme for the period from 2008 to 2012 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘programme’) is hereby established. The programme is set out in Annexes I and II.
Article 2 Policy priorities
1. Taking account of the available resources of the national authorities and the Commission, the programme shall be guided by the principal Community policy priorities of: (a) prosperity, competitiveness, innovation and growth; (b) solidarity and human development; (c) economic, social and regional cohesion, sustainable development and demographic challenges; (d) security; and (e) further enlargement of the European Union. 2. The overall priorities and general objectives for the programme shall be subject to detailed annual planning in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 322/97.
Article 3 Statistical governance and quality
The programme shall be implemented in accordance with the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice with a view to producing and disseminating high-quality, harmonised Community statistics disaggregated by gender, where appropriate, and ensuring the proper functioning of the European statistical system as a whole. National authorities and the Community statistical authority shall: (a) establish an institutional and organisational environment which promotes the effectiveness and credibility of national and Community statistical authorities producing and disseminating official statistics, including regional statistics based on the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS); (b) observe European standards, guidelines and good practices in the processes used by the national and Community statistical authorities to organise, collect, process and disseminate official statistics and strive for a reputation for good management and efficiency to strengthen the credibility of those statistics; (c) ensure that Community statistics comply with the European quality standards and serve the needs of European Union institutional users, governments, regional authorities, research institutions, civil society organisations, enterprises and the public generally; (d) cooperate with statistical bodies at international level in order to promote the use of international concepts, classifications and methods in line with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics adopted by the UN Statistical Commission on 14 April 1994, in particular with a view to ensuring more coherence and better comparability between statistics at a global level; (e) provide, where requested and warranted, the necessary technical support in the area of statistical organisation, and enable good practices to be shared with other bodies or third countries; and (f) place emphasis on the quality of the statistical information, in particular its reliability and comparability, taking due care to ensure the chronological continuity of the data collected and the possibility of scientific processing thereof.
Article 4 Prioritisation, efficiency and flexibility
1. The programme shall ensure continued statistical support for decisions and evaluations in current Community policy areas and provide statistical support for important additional requirements arising from new Community policy initiatives. 2. The Commission shall, in the preparation of the annual statistical work programmes, take account of the cost-effectiveness of the statistics produced and ensure an ongoing review of statistical priorities, with a view to making best use of available resources of the Member States and the Commission and to minimising the burden imposed on respondents. Prioritisation shall aim at balancing additional costs and burdens for new statistical requirements by reducing statistical requirements in existing domains of Community statistics and shall take place in close cooperation with the Member States. 3. When preparing the annual statistical work programmes, the Commission may carry out ex-ante studies of the financial implications of any planned new statistical activities which impose significant additional burdens on the Member States. 4. The programme shall ensure the development of instruments to re-prioritise statistical activities, increase the flexibility of the European Statistical System and improve its ability to respond in a timely manner to changing user needs. 5. The programme shall ensure transparency, with account being taken, inter alia , of Article 1(1) and (2) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1104/2006 of 18 July 2006 amending Regulation (EC) No 831/2002 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 on Community Statistics, concerning access to confidential data for scientific purposes ( 8 ) .
Article 5 Financing
1. The financial envelope for the implementation of this programme for the period 2008 to 2012 is hereby set at EUR 274 200 000. 2. The annual appropriations shall be authorised by the budgetary authority within the limits of the financial envelope.
Article 6 Reports
1. The Commission shall, after consulting the Statistical Programme Committee, present an interim progress report and shall submit it to the European Parliament and the Council no later than June 2010. That report shall address, in particular, the period of the second half of the current programme and the issue of the period to be covered by the next multiannual statistical programme, taking into account the term of office of the European Parliament. In relation to the implementation of the programme, the Commission shall also provide a preliminary analysis of the competitive effects on small and medium-sized enterprises brought about by the proposed cuts in the administrative burden, and of the financial burden-sharing between Community and Member State budgets. The Commission shall also pay special attention to the issue of necessary datasets, tools and methodologies which shall serve as the basis for the production of unbiased and objective analysis of the social and economic impacts of important areas which are in need of constant monitoring and review such as the common agricultural policy, the services in the internal market and the next multiannual financial framework. 2. At the end of the period covered by the programme, the Commission, after consulting the Statistical Programme Committee, shall present an evaluation report on the implementation of the programme, taking into account the views of independent experts. That report shall be completed by the end of 2013 and subsequently submitted to the European Parliament and the Council. 3. Reporting on the outcome of reprioritisation, including estimations of costs and burdens for statistical projects and fields covered by this statistical programme, as well as an assessment of emerging statistical needs, in particular for new Community policies, shall form part of the intermediate progress report and the final evaluation report.
Article 7 
This Decision shall enter into force on the third day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .