International statistical cooperation - instruments for technical assistance

Article last updated: March 2024

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 in the context of enlargement policy, European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and European Development Policy. This article presents Eurostat's role in assessing the statistical systems in the enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy context. It also presents the activities that are offered to assist the candidate countries and potential candidate and the ENP countries to better comply with European statistical standards, and lists the various instruments used for financing.

Full article

Assessment of statistical systems

As part of the process towards membership of the EU, the candidate countries and potential candidate progressively apply the same concepts, definitions and main principles governing the production of statistics as the other members of the European Statistical System (ESS). The European Statistics Code of Practice sets the standards for developing, producing and disseminating European statistics for all members of the European statistical system (ESS). The Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System describes the tools and procedures put in place to ensure that any statistics that are produced are of high quality: effectively, it serves as a guide on how to implement the code.

Eurostat conducts annual reviews of the compliance of the candidate countries and potential candidate with the acquis in statistics. The purpose of these reviews is to monitor progress towards EU standards (reported upon in the European Commission's annual progress reports) and then to plan and coordinate better the technical assistance in statistics provided in the context of statistical cooperation.

In recent years, Eurostat has also carried out three types of external assessments of the candidate countries and potential candidate, and other ENP countries, for example global assessments (GAs), peer reviews and sector reviews. The results of these reviews can be found under Regional cooperation - Assessments in the dedicated section on International cooperation on Eurostat's website.

Global assessments (GAs)

Global Assessments (GAs) are a thorough screening of the National Statistical Institutes and of the national statistical systems. The aim of conducting GAs is to provide an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the institutional, organisational and technical capacity of the countries to produce official statistics that comply with European and/or international standards, such as the European Statistics Code of Practice and the UN Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics. GAs are conducted at the request of the countries and are adapted to their needs. They are generally carried out in partnership between Eurostat, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and EFTA.

GAs focus on the implementation of the UN Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics / European statistics Code of Practice by the national statistical system and on the assessment of the compliance with European/international standards for all statistical domains, they are a unique opportunity for governments, national authorities, users and other national and international stakeholders to obtain a comprehensive picture of the overall state of development of a given national statistical system.

GA reports provide detailed recommendations for the sustainable development of the assessed national statistical system that, ideally, are incorporated into statistical capacity-building programmes and strategies (e.g. Master Plans or National Strategies for the Development of Statistics). These strategies are then made operational through annual statistical work programmes and implemented by the beneficiary countries, with the support of the international community. Global assessments have been conducted in most of the enlargement and ENP-East countries, as well as in Tunisia. The reports are published on Eurostat's dedicated page for assessments in non-EU countries.

Peer reviews

Peer reviews are assessments of how a country's statistical system adheres to the European Statistics Code of Practice. The peer reviews result in a set of improvement recommendations, the implementation of which is followed up and monitored by Eurostat. The objective of this review mechanism is to enhance the integrity, professional independence, and accountability of the statistical authorities.

A new round of peer reviews in the candidate countries and potential candidate, and Armenia will be implemented between 2025 and 2027. The methodology for the upcoming peer reviews in these countries was developed on the basis of the third round of peer reviews which took place in the ESS between 2021 and 2023.

Eurostat conducted a previous round of peer reviews in Western Balkans and Türkiye between 2015 and 2018. The methodology of these reviews was similar to the one of the peer reviews carried out in the EU Member States and Eurostat between 2014 and 2015. Peer reviews were conducted in Türkiye in 2015; in Kosovo* ^[1], North Macedonia and Serbia in 2017; and in Albania and Montenegro in 2018. Reports and improvement actions have been published. It should be noted that the 2011 version of the European Statistics Code of Practice was used in Western Balkans and Türkiye in this latest round of peer reviews.

Light peer reviews were implemented in Western Balkan countries between 2008 and 2011. They followed a similar approach used for the EU countries in the first round of ESS peer reviews, and did not include quantitative assessment of compliance with each indicator of the European Statistics Code of Practice.

Eurostat has also organised two light peer reviews and two peer reviews in the ENP-countries. The light peer reviews were conducted in Palestine ^[2] in 2012 and in Armenia in 2014. The peer reviews took place in Jordan in 2017 and Armenia in 2019.

Furthermore, under the Pan-African Statistics Programme (PAS I), managed by Eurostat, 16 peer reviews were organised in African countries in 2018 - 2020. The results of these assessments were published by STATAFRIC, the African Union Institute for Statistics.

Sector reviews

Sector reviews analyse the statistical production processes of specific sectors (or domains) in detail. They are specifically tailored to partner countries that aim to align important areas of statistics with European standards. The objectives of these reviews are to:

assess the administrative and technical capacity of the reviewed statistical systems to produce statistics in the sector concerned;
assess the statistical production in the relevant sector;
assess the statistical production against the EU acquis;
review the medium and long-term planning within the sector;
propose a list of recommendations to be undertaken to improve the data delivery and functioning of the sector under review.

Technical assistance activities

The assessment of national statistical systems in the the candidate countries and potential candidate, as well as the ENP countries, makes it possible to better identify the needs of these countries. Assistance programmes to develop and improve the statistical systems in these countries can be designed from this information. Several instruments for statistical technical assistance are available only to Western Balkans and Türkiye, others are available to all the candidate countries and potential candidate and some are also available to the rest of the ENP countries.

On the African continent, statistical technical assistance is available via the six components of the Pan-African Statistics Programme II (PAS II). International organisations and European national statistical institutes provide assistance in some specific domains, facilitating knowledge-sharing among practitioners.

Data collection support

Official statistics are included in Chapter 18 of the acquis, and also form a component of other chapters; through annual progress reports, the monitoring of progress towards the accession criteria can be performed. To meet European data requirements (as specified in the statistical requirements compendium), the candidate countries and potential candidate should set up the necessary infrastructure to collect high-quality data, for example, through surveys or the use of administrative data. To reach this goal, the candidate countries and potential candidate, with the assistance of Eurostat, develop their data collection infrastructure (registers, sampling methods, information technology resources, etc.) and their knowledge of the EU statistical methodologies with which they have to comply. The increased availability of data according to EU standards in the candidate countries and potential candidate is an important outcome of the process. These data are disseminated nationally and internationally, for example, through Eurobase, Eurostat's reference database.

Transfer of know-how

The transfer of know-how from the European Commission and the EU Member States to the candidate countries and potential candidate, as well as ENP countries, is a key element in the success of adopting the statistical acquis and of becoming familiar with the functioning of the ESS. Statisticians from the Western Balkans and Türkiye thus have the opportunity to take part in the following activities: participation in meetings within the ESS, statistical training courses, management training, traineeships, study visits to national statistical authorities in the EU and EFTA Member States and ad-hoc consultancies. Some of these activities are available to all the candidate countries and potential candidate and to the rest of the ENP countries.

Participation in meetings within the ESS: seminars, working groups, task forces and other meetings within the ESS are fora, where Member States discuss and develop statistical methodologies and standards used across the EU. Participants therefore have the opportunity to learn about current issues regarding the implementation of the acquis and also to participate in the drafting of the new acquis in different statistical domains.
Statistical training courses: as in any professional field, lifelong learning is essential for statisticians. Statisticians need training courses to ensure that they will provide statistics in line with the EU's quality standards and to become familiar with the working mechanisms of the ESS. Training courses can be provided for groups of countries or individual countries. The candidate countries and potential candidate are eligible to take part in training organised in the frame of the European Statistical Training Programme (ESTP), led by Eurostat.
Management training: top and middle managers of national statistical authorities need to be trained in planning and management practices and techniques. In statistics, such training usually leads to the development of strategies, the definition of statistical infrastructure, correct handling of user requests and the implementation of new initiatives in the national statistical authorities.
Traineeships: under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA), staff from the national statistical authorities of Western Balkans and Türkiye may be seconded to Eurostat or the national statistical authority of an EU or EFTA Member State for up to three months where they will observe and participate in the functioning and daily work of these institutions.
Study visits to national statistical authorities: the national statistical authorities of Western Balkans and Türkiye have the opportunity to send one or two of their specialists to visit national statistical authorities in the EU or EFTA Member States. The aim of these visits is to acquire new knowledge or to discuss specific technical or methodological shortcomings or problems within their own authority and try to overcome these through examples of best practice. The candidate countries and potential candidate can also host visits from experts from EU and EFTA Member States.
Ad-hoc consultancies in areas which are important and urgent for the countries. The ad-hoc consultancy is requested by one of the countries or by Eurostat and its duration may vary between 2 and 10 working days under IPA, which covers the Western Balkans and Türkiye. There are also possibilities to finance ad-hoc consultancies from the TAIEX instrument, which covers also all ENP countries.

The transfer of know-how also operates through 'statistical projects' where Eurostat or internationally-trained statisticians provide support to the national statistical authorities. Through such projects, the candidate countries and potential candidate, and all the other ENP countries can progressively improve their capacity to produce statistics in selected statistical domains and, transmit the resulting data to Eurostat. This results in an increased volume of data that may be disseminated, describing developments in beneficiary countries. In the African continent, the design of the Pan-African Statistics Programme II (PAS II) includes six components managed by different entities in view of facilitating the creation of a community of practitioners and to promote knowledge-sharing:

PAS II Service contract, managed by ESTAT;
Grant to OECD on Revenue statistics, managed by DG INTPA;
Grant to FAO on Agriculture statistics managed by DG INTPA;
Grant to ESS NSIs on Economic and Business Statistics (ECOBUSAF), managed by Eurostat;
Grant to ESS NSIs on Social statistics (SOCSTAF), managed by Eurostat;
Grant to UNECA on support on SDGs and capacity building on the use of data source, managed by Eurostat.

Assistance funding and instruments

All activities are part of or funded by the relevant cooperation instrument:

Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) for Western Balkans and Türkiye;
Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) for neighbourhood, development and international cooperation.

Direct access to

Notes

↑ * 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.
↑ 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.

[1] * 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.

[2] 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.

[1]

[2]