Archive:Enlargement policy and the acquis in statistics

Article last updated: December 2018.

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 some candidate countries. The candidate countries, taken together with the potential candidates, are 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.

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 statistical book (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.

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