International Cooperation

As a key stakeholder of the European Statistical System (ESS), Eurostat is ideally placed to provide support to non-EU countries and non-EU institutions that are looking to approximate their official statistics to EU and International statistical standards. As comparable, reliable and accurate data are provided, they enable evidence-based decision-making, monitoring and progress measurement.

Enlargement countries Eurostat's role in the enlargement policy is to support the European Commission's Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement negotiations in monitoring progress made by the national statistical systems of the enlargement countries. It provides technical assistance to the production and dissemination of harmonised and high-quality data, and verifies that national statistics comply with the acquis in the fields of statistics (Chapter 18).
European Neighbourhood Policy countries Eurostat's role in the European neighbourhood policy (ENP) is to support the European External Action Service (EEAS), the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement negotiations, and the Commission delegations in their activities regarding the EU's neighbours, many of whom aim to approximate their statistics to European standards. Technical assistance is provided to the countries aiming at producing more and better data and increasing the use and dissemination of improved and comparable statistics.
International statistical cooperation Eurostat's role in the development and co-operation policy is mainly to support EuropeAid 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 Millennium Development Goals to be assessed, priorities for the EU's development objectives to be set, as identified by the European Consensus on Development, and funds to be allocated. Eurostat also provides Technical assistance to the Pan-African initiatives to set up an African Statistical Institute.


Besides the support it gives to EU policy-making, Eurostat plays an active role in the statistical co-operation between international agencies and organisations. Eurostat represents the European Commission in the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC), in bilateral relationships with international financial institutions (e.g. IMF, World Bank and regional development banks) and in the OECD Statistics Committee (CSTAT). All these international statistical agencies co-operate 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 financially or technically support national statistical systems.