The Governance of the European Statistical Eurostat A1 Ms Åsa Jacob System (ESS) Mr Aaron Cachia Mr Dietmar Maass January 2018 Content of the presentation • Introduction to the European Statistical System (ESS) • Main governance bodies in the ESS • European Statistical System Committee (ESSC) • Partnership Group (PG) • DGINS Conference • European Statistical Advisory Committee (ESAC) • European Statistical Governance Advisory Board (ESGAB) • ESS Website
• Question Time 2 The European Statistical System • Partnership between Eurostat and the national statistical authorities • Defined in European Statistics Regulation 223/2009
Member states collect and Eurostat processes the received data process the national data and disseminates European official statistics
3 Regulation 223/09 on European statistics
• ESS is legally recognised and defined for the first time
• Introduces the statistical principles (Art 2): • professional independence • impartiality • objectivity • reliability • statistical confidentiality • cost effectiveness • Establishes the ESS Committee (Art 7)
• Introduces concept of collaborative networks (Art 15)
• Introduces European approach to statistics (Art 16) 4 The European Statistical System governance bodies
5 Statistical governance structure
Political level Commission Council Europ. Parliament
Strategic advice
ESSC DGINS ESF STC Strategic level PG
ESF Bureau
Management Directors Groups VIG level VIN
Working level Working groups Task forces ESCBFolie 6 The European Statistical System Committee (ESSC)
• At the heart of the ESS, established by Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the EP and Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics
• Article 7 of the Regulation lays down its task: The Committee "shall provide professional guidance to the ESS for developing, producing and disseminating European statistics…“
7 The ESSC
• Members: Eurostat and representatives of Member States (NSIs)
• Observers: EFTA countries' NSIs, ECB and OECD
• Meets 3 times a year
• Chaired by Eurostat Director-General
8 The ESSC agenda / Some background
¾ An agenda has different parts:
1. Comitology items
2. Opinions
3. Reports to the Committee
4. Discussion
5. Any Other Business
9 Comitology Items What is "Comitology"?
10 11 12 Comitology Items
Comitology? • Implementation of legal acts • Consult ESSC • Binding legal acts • Not: agreements, guidelines etc. • Qualified majority (changed as of 1/11/2014): • 55% of the MS, at least 16 delegations • Representing 65% of the total population of the EU • Blocking minority: 35% of the population, plus one Member State (min. 4 MS)
13 Items for Opinion
• No voting
• The ESSC agrees on a common statement at the end of the meeting
14 • Items for Opinion
15 ¾ Reports to the Committee
¾ Items for Discussion
¾ Any other business
16 Statistical governance structure
Political level Commission Council Europ. Parliament
Strategic advice
ESSC DGINS STC Strategic level PG
ESF ESF Bureau Management Directors Groups VIG level VIN
Working level Working groups Task forces ESCBFolie 17 The Partnership Group
Group of Directors General of the NSIs of the ESS
Mission: to ensure the effective functioning of the ESSC Main tasks:
Facilitate the work of the ESSC, prepare agenda and discussions at strategic level
Foster cooperation between NSIs
Strengthen the strategic capacities of the ESS through internal discussions, stakeholder dialogues, etc.
18 The Partnership Group
Members (10 +2):
Elected Chair from a Member State - currently Denmark
Eurostat’s Director General (Vice-chair) and Deputy DG
The Heads of NSIs of the previous, current and next Council Presidencies – currently EE,BG,AT
Four elected Heads of NSIs – currently FR,NL,PL,CH Meets 3 times a year, in between ESSC
meetings 19 Statistical governance structure
Political level Commission Council Europ. Parliament
Strategic advice
ESSC DGINS STC Strategic level PG
ESF ESF Bureau Management Directors Groups VIG level VIN
Working level Working groups Task forces ESCBFolie 20 The DGINS Conference Annual conference organised jointly by a hosting Member State and Eurostat Attended by Heads of NSIs, including Candidate Countries To discuss: A statistical topic of general interest o 2013, The Netherlands "Big Data" o 2014, Latvia "Towards global business statistics" o 2015, Portugal "Indicators for decision making and monitoring" o 2016, Austria "Statistics on income, consumption and wealth" o 2017, Hungary "Population Movements and Integration Issues - Migration Statistics" 21 Advisory bodies to the European Statistical System
22 Statistical governance structure
Political level Commission Council Europ. Parliament
Strategic advice
ESSC DGINS STC Strategic level PG
ESF ESF Bureau Management Directors Groups VIG level VIN
Working level Working groups Task forces ESCBFolie 23 European Statistical Governance Advisory Board (ESGAB) Members: • 7 members for 3-year-term, renewable once, non-remunerated • Nominated by Parliament and the Council • Eurostat represented as an observer • ESGAB was created in 2008; Annual report to EP and Council on compliance with the Code Opinion on: • Revision of the Code of Practice
24 European Statistical Advisory Committee (ESAC) Members: • 24 for 5-year-term, renewable once, non-remunerated • Members a mix of users, respondents, producers and stakeholders: o 11 appointed by the Commission o Eurostat Director General ex-officio o 12 appointed by EU institutions and bodies, ESSC, number of associations operating at European level • ESAC was created in 2008; • Opinions and advice: • Work programmes • Relevance of European statistics
25 The ESS Website
26 ESS website
27 European Statistics on Facebook
28 European Statistics User Forum
33 Questions? Contact us !
30 Useful links
• ESS: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/pgp_ess/ess/ess_news
• Eurostat: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home
• ESGAB: http://ec.europa.eu/esgab
• ESAC: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/esac/introduction
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