Archive:Enlargement policy and the acquis in statistics

This article is part of a set of background articles which introduce the international statistical cooperation activities of the European Union (EU) with non-member countries and focuses on the EU acquis in statistics and the role of statistics in the accession negotiations which are underway with candidate countries and potential candidates (taken together, these two groups are also known as enlargement countries).

These negotiations concern the candidates’ ability to fulfil the obligations of EU membership. They focus on the conditions and the timing of the candidates’ adoption, implementation and application of EU rules, also known as the EU acquis. To facilitate negotiations, the entire body of EU laws is divided into chapters, each generally corresponding to a policy area. For candidate countries, this is essentially a matter of agreeing on how and when to adopt and implement the EU rules and procedures. For the EU, it is an important process as it allows European institutions to obtain guarantees on the date and the effectiveness of each candidate’s implementation plans.

The EU acquis in the field of statistics

Before negotiations start, the screening of each chapter allows the European Commission and the candidate country to determine how well the candidate country is prepared. When negotiations on a chapter are opened, the European Commission monitors and reports (to the Council and the European Parliament) on the progress in applying EU legislation.

Official statistics are part of the EU acquis, and are contained in Chapter 18. Statistics also form a component of other chapters as they allow screening and monitoring of the progress toward accession criteria through annual country reports for the enlargement countries.

For the EU, the Statistical Law (Regulation 223/2009 of 11 March 2009 on European statistics) defines the basic conditions, procedures and general provisions governing official statistics as well as the division of responsibilities between national and EU statistical authorities. National statistical authorities are the national statistical offices, institutes, agencies or bureaux as well as other bodies in charge of producing and disseminating official statistics. The EU statistical authority is Eurostat.

Confidence in official statistics depends to a large extent on the respect of the widely accepted guidelines laid down in the European statistics Code of Practice. This code sets out 15 key principles for the production and dissemination of official statistics in the EU and the institutional environment under which national and EU statistical authorities operate. The code reflects the United Nations’ Fundamental principles of official statistics and the United Nations’ Principles governing international statistical activities.

The EU acquis in the field of statistics requires the existence of a statistical infrastructure and includes the legal basis, methodologies and data requirements in different statistical domains; it is dynamic and changes over time. Therefore, the statistical systems of enlargement countries must be strengthened in order to maintain their level of harmonisation and to incorporate any changes in the EU acquis.

Statistical requirements compendium

The legal basis, methodologies and data requirements of the EU acquis are presented in the Statistical requirements compendium. It summarises the key reference information for European statistical production in all statistical domains, grouped by priority areas:

Europe 2020;
economic governance;
economic and social performance (macroeconomic statistics);
environmental sustainability;
business statistics;
people's Europe (demographic and social statistics);
geospatial, environmental, agricultural and other sectoral statistics;
multipurpose statistics and efficiency gains in production.

It also includes the EU acquis related to support for statistical output, including quality, evaluation, statistical coordination and classification, data security and statistical confidentiality.

Outcomes

The enlargement countries are expected to increase progressively their data collection activities and their transmission of statistics to the European statistical system (ESS) in the context of the EU accession process. Enlargement countries already provide a large volume of data on an annual basis which are disseminated through various channels:

Eurostat’s freely accessible reference database: Enlargement countries
a pocketbook (paper version and free online version) with comparative tables and figures on a full range of thematic indicators with analytical text;
leaflets on particular statistical topics.
a set of articles on Statistics Explained covering specific statistical topics.

These data are also used by the European Commission when preparing the statistical annexes for the annual country report on each enlargement country.