Statistical cooperation - introduction

Article last updated: June 2024.

This article is part of a set of background articles which introduce the statistical cooperation activities of the European Union (EU) with non-member countries (also known as non-EU countries or third countries), in the context of enlargement policy, European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and European Development Policy.

Eurostat, plays a leading role in the European Statistical System (ESS) and has accumulated a wide range of experience, know-how and knowledge, relating to the development of both statistics and statistical systems. It shares this expertise with non-member countries within the context of statistical cooperation activities, which through capacity development, aim to support, upgrade and enhance the statistical systems of these non-member countries. The beneficiaries of this support include:

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Republic of Moldova ^[1], North Macedonia, Georgia, Albania, Serbia, Türkiye, Ukraine and Kosovo* ^[2], also called enlargement countries or the candidate countries and potential candidate. Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine are also ENP-East countries.
European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) countries;
- ENP-East countries;
- ENP-South countries;
African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries;
Latin American countries;
Asian countries.

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Why statistical cooperation?

Why do we need official statistics nationally, within the EU and internationally?

Official statistics are statistics produced within a national statistical system. National statistical systems include statistical organisations and units within a country that jointly collect, process and disseminate official statistics on behalf of the national government. Official statistics are usually collected within a legal framework, and in accordance with basic principles which ensure minimum professional standards, such as independency and objectivity. Official statistics serve as a basis for decisions for politicians and policy makers: democratic societies cannot function properly without a solid basis of reliable and objective statistics. They also guide operational decisions in the private sector. However, official statistics are not only for decision makers, they concern citizens as well. They can answer questions posed at different occasions in everyday life: Is society heading in the direction promised by politicians? Is unemployment up or down? Are there more CO2 emissions compared with ten years ago? How many women have a job? How is my country's economy performing compared to other countries? Reliable official statistics are therefore crucial for planning, monitoring and evaluating policies, holding governments accountable to citizens and fighting the disinformation that is spreading so rapidly in our time. Thus, official statistics are key components of governance nationally (for instance, monitoring economic performance), within the EU (for example the European Green Deal), and globally (for example, concerning climate change, education for all or the 2030 agenda for sustainable development), as well as providing information to the public.

The increased availability of high-quality statistics helps countries in many ways, for example with:

issues to be identified, such as regional inequalities in income and wealth;
policies to be designed or refined, such as economic policy and employment policy;
forecasts to be made, for example, concerning the sustainability or not of public debt;
recent or current policies to be measured, for example, whether an increase in healthcare expenditure has an impact on the infant mortality rate.

The increasing demand for statistics calls for data that are comparable over time and geographically, in other words, between regions and countries. To achieve comparability, statisticians must agree on harmonised definitions, concepts and classifications, and implement these in data collection and production processes. In this respect, Eurostat and statistical agencies of other international organisations play a central role.

Why do we have cooperation in statistics?

Cooperation in statistics has gradually become an integral part of broader development policies as well as enlargement policy. Despite an improvement in the statistical capacity of many countries, data gaps remain, and support is therefore targeted to compensate for the fact that some countries lack optimal financial and human resources, administrative systems or equipment on which to build data collection systems.

Eurostat cooperates actively in the field of statistics with the candidate countries and potential candidate. This statistical cooperation feeds into the wider context of the EU’s enlargement policy, with statistics being seen as a fundamental part of the public administration in these countries. Indeed, statistics are the basis for monitoring the progress of the candidate countries and potential candidate towards alignment with the EU acquis and they support accession negotiations by providing good quality data in key areas, such as macroeconomics, business, agriculture or social statistics. Statistical offices in Western Balkans and Türkiye are beneficiaries of the EU’s Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA), in which statistics are supported under both national and multi-country programmes. The aim of the support is to help Western Balkans and Türkiye to develop sustainable and reliable statistical systems capable of producing statistics in compliance with the EU acquis and the European statistics Code of Practice. Currently Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine are supported with resources from the European Neighbourhood Policy (see paragraph below). They also benefit from Eurostat capacity building projects within the group of ENP-East countries.

Regional cooperation activities for the ENP-East countries include an annual high-level seminar for heads of national statistical offices, training courses in statistics adapted to their needs and standardised assessments and reviews of their statistical systems. Until its ending in July 2022, they also benefited from the regional statistical cooperation programmes for the ENP-East counties. The ENP-South countries have benefited from regional cooperation activities such as within the MEDSTAT programme and annual forum meetings. ENP-East and ENP-South countries benefit from the release of statistics and dedicated publications that are based on the data they provide.

On the African continent, the European Union supports the integration process in Africa led by the African Union (Agenda 2063) in line with the Joint Africa-Europe Strategy (JAES) and the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa (SHaSA 2) via the Pan-African Statistics Programme II (PAS II). Developing and strengthening cooperation in statistics is based on a strategic partnership between the national statistical offices and international organisations (such as Eurostat). These partnerships enhance the shared accountability between the parties, as illustrated by the Marrakech action plan for statistics and the subsequent Busan Action Plan for Statistics, and the Dakar declaration on the development of statistics. From the beneficiaries’ perspective, statistical development is now considered an important part of national strategies for poverty reduction, while a strong statistical system may also be viewed as a key component for good governance. From the donors’ perspective, aid and development policies require statistics that have been produced and disseminated according to international standards. Only such statistics make it possible for donors to assess whether their aid has been used effectively and to measure the resulting impact on policy objectives, such as the European consensus on development. Furthermore, the EU has vast experience in developing its own regional statistical system and this experience may well be of interest to other regional organisations across the globe who are seeking to create similar systems, for example, the African Union or the ASEAN.

Why is Eurostat involved, how is work coordinated within the European Commission and how is statistical cooperation undertaken with other (international) agencies?

As the statistical office of the EU and as a key stakeholder in the ESS, Eurostat’s role is to provide the EU with statistics to enable comparisons between countries and regions, as well as to provide statistics for the EU as a whole. Within the broader context of international relations, Eurostat is involved in cooperation policy because it has the technical lead within the European Commission (EC) for statistics.

In this context, Eurostat can be seen as the interface between national statistical systems and the various services of the European Commission. Besides its role in setting up European statistical standards, Eurostat assists beneficiary countries in developing and improving their statistical systems. Through its involvement in statistical cooperation, Eurostat supports the enlargement policy, European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and European development policy.

Eurostat’s role in the enlargement policy is to support the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) and EU delegations in monitoring the national statistical systems of the candidate countries and potential candidate. It provides technical assistance in the production and dissemination of harmonised, high-quality data that conform to European and international standards. It also verifies that the respective national practices in a wide range of statistical domains comply with the EU acquis in statistics (as described in Chapter 18 of the EU acquis). This role is detailed in Eurostat’s IPA strategy for 2021-2027. The strategy, prepared in 2021, does not yet cover the three new candidate countries: Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine.
Eurostat’s role in relation to the ENP is to support the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), the European External Action Service (EEAS), and EU delegations in their activities with many of the EU’s neighbours. From the statistical perspective, Eurostat encourages ENP countries to develop their statistical systems in line with best European practice in order to produce and disseminate good quality statistics.
Eurostat’s role in development cooperation policy is to support the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) and the EEAS in enhancing development policies and overseeing the programming of aid. To this end, improved statistics allow progress towards poverty reduction and the agenda for sustainable development to be assessed — as identified by the European consensus on development — and funds to be allocated. Eurostat supports cooperation partners to build their statistical capacity and to advance their statistics so that they align with international standards.

As a result of these activities, the European Commission (including Eurostat) benefits from greater availability of quality data collected from non-EU countries.

Besides the support it gives to EU policymaking, Eurostat also plays an active role in statistical cooperation between international organisations. Eurostat represents the European Commission in the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC), in the Conference of European Statisticians (CES) from UNECE and in the OECD's committee on statistics and statistical policy (CSSP). Eurostat also has bilateral relationships with international financial institutions (such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). All the statistical departments of these international organisations cooperate to set-up international standards for statistics, to improve the comparability of statistical information, to improve the coordination of international statistics-related activities, and to support national statistical systems.

Forms and areas of Eurostat cooperation in statistics

What forms do Eurostat’s cooperation activities take?

According to the tenth Fundamental Principle of Official Statistics: ‘Bilateral and multilateral cooperation in statistics contributes to the improvement of systems of official statistics in all countries.’. Cooperation activities in statistics encompass all aspects of the statistical infrastructure and every stage of the statistical production processes. They can also focus on specific statistical domains according to the beneficiary country’s primary needs (eg. poverty, health, economic statistics etc.). They usually involve the exchange of information and practices, methodological advice, co-authorship of statistical publications, and organisation of workshops and seminars. Cooperation activities help to reinforce the institutional framework of national statistical systems, for instance, through the adoption of the United Nations’ Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, the European Statistics Code of Practice, the African Charter on Statistics and the Statistics Code of Practice for ENP-South countries.

Eurostat encourages ENP countries to use best European and international practices to develop their statistical systems, verifies that statistical production in the candidate countries and potential candidate complies with the EU acquis in statistics, and also supports the design and implementation of national strategies for the development of statistics in partner countries. With the enlargement countries, statistical cooperation is broader and also more intensive than with other countries, as cooperation aims at preparing them for accession to the EU and ensuring full compliance with the EU acquis and standards.

The transfer of know-how or direct investment from Eurostat to beneficiaries also aims to improve the ability of the beneficiaries to respond to user needs. This can be achieved by improving the capacity of their national statistical systems to deliver high-quality, reliable data promptly and to adapt swiftly to emerging needs.

Assistance may be organised through multi-beneficiary programmes with several beneficiary countries when synergies between countries can be established, or bilateral national programmes in the case of more country-specific needs. Western Balkans and Türkiye benefit from IPA programmes, of which there are both multi-beneficiary programmes and national programmes. In practice, assistance takes several forms, such as peer reviews, support for data collection or the publication of statistical books or leaflets, and transfer of know-how through participation in meetings within the ESS, high level seminars in partner regions to share EU values and standards in statistics, technical assistance provided by experts, statistical training courses, support for the use of common statistical tools, traineeships and study visits.

Eurostat has developed a set of strategic, programming and operational tools to support development partners at regional and national level in establishing sustainable statistical systems and processes. The objective is to strengthen the capacity to produce quality statistics in line with international standards and user needs. Providing assistance at strategic, programming and operational level, the tools are of use for a broad range of stakeholders involved in development cooperation. For instance:

Eurotrace: software which supports countries and regions to manage their international trade statistics (managing data, treating data, carrying out quality checks, calculating aggregates and indices);
Eretes: software which is used to compile national accounts statistics according to the 2008 system of national accounts (SNA);
Essential SNA: a practical handbook for the national accounts implementation on the basis of the 2008 SNA. This capacity building tool supports partner countries also through the provision of e-learning material;
Snapshot: a user-friendly tool which provides partner countries with an assessment of the maturity of their statistical systems and the quality of their key indicators. The tool was initially based on the extensively tested and refined statistical quality framework developed by the European Statistical System (ESS). The 2023 version, available in four languages, covers also other international frameworks, in particular the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics and the United Nations National Quality Assurance Framework.

These tools have been tested, reviewed, and updated over a number of years. Many partner countries and EU delegations use them on a regular basis.

Moreover, Eurostat developed the "Guide to statistics in European Commission development cooperation". It is an important tool to support the European Commission Directorates and the EU delegations, in order to improve the efficiency and the quality of their cooperation in statistics. It provides information on how to identify and develop actions in support of essential statistics and how to use data and indicators to define and follow-up cooperation programmes.

Which regions/country groupings does Eurostat provide statistical cooperation to?

Types of statistical cooperation vary according to policy frameworks, which in turn depend on the geographical region in question. Eurostat has a global engagement, cooperating with the candidate countries and potential candidate, ENP countries, African, Asian and Latin American countries.

Official statistics play a double role in the enlargement process for the candidate countries and potential candidate: they are part of the EU acquis as screened through Chapter 18 on statistics (enlargement package); and they serve other EU policy areas by providing data for monitoring changes and assessing the impact of policies chosen.
The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) countries are divided into two broad geographic groups: ENP-East countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus ^[3], Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) and ENP-South countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine ^[4], Syria ^[5] and Tunisia). Within the overall package of ENP initiatives, ENP countries are supported in the process of approximating their statistical systems to those of the EU.
For the candidate countries and potential candidate and the ENP countries, practical assistance is also provided through Twinning programmes and the technical assistance and information exchange instrument (TAIEX), addressing civil servants
Besides the candidate countries and potential candidate and the ENP countries, Eurostat has developed statistical cooperation activities with other non-member countries, which are grouped together either on a geographic or income basis: African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, Asian and Latin American countries on one hand and low-income, lower-middle-income, upper-middle-income and high-income economies on the other.
Within Africa, Eurostat supports the African Union Commission (AUC) working in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), to implement the Strategy for the Harmonisation of Statistics in Africa (SHaSA). The strategy was adopted by heads of state and government in 2010 as Africa’s first continent-wide strategy for statistics. Its main purpose was to enable the African statistical system to produce timely, reliable, and harmonised statistical information, covering all aspects of political, economic, social, and cultural integration for Africa. It aims to advance the continental integration agenda, a pivotal goal for African heads of state and government. In 2018, a revised version (SHaSA II), taking account of the African Charter on Statistics and new developments, was adopted. The African Charter was developed by the African statistical system and its partners, assisted by Eurostat, and entered into force in 2014.

Eurostat provides support within Africa in the form of training and expertise (in particular within the fields of national accounts, trade and agricultural statistics, as well as a range of information technology (IT) tools and statistical capacity building tools (see above for examples). As of 2022, Eurostat manages four components of the Pan-African Statistics programme II (PAS II), as part of an overall Pan-African programme. The overall objective of the programme is to support African integration by improving the availability and quality of statistical information required for informed decision-making and policy monitoring. The programme provides technical assistance to enhance harmonisation and coordination of statistics on the continent and to foster institutional capacity building.

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Notes

↑ On 14-15 December 2023, the European Council decided to open accession negotiations with Moldova and Ukraine, and granted the status of candidate country to Georgia. These three countries are also ENP East countries.
↑ * This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.
↑ Cooperation with Belarus has been suspended as of March 2022.
↑ This designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine and is without prejudice to the individual positions of the EU Member States on this issue.
↑ Cooperation with Syria is currently suspended.

[1] On 14-15 December 2023, the European Council decided to open accession negotiations with Moldova and Ukraine, and granted the status of candidate country to Georgia. These three countries are also ENP East countries.

[2] * This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.

[3] Cooperation with Belarus has been suspended as of March 2022.

[4] This designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine and is without prejudice to the individual positions of the EU Member States on this issue.

[5] Cooperation with Syria is currently suspended.

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