Eurostat's approach to international statistical cooperation – ENP South

Eurostat context for international statistical cooperation EU sets political framework, actions support the EU's foreign policy agenda Actions financed either from European Stats Programme, or external action budgets Broad details (amounts, beneficiaries, main aims of the programme) must be agreed by Commission, Parliament and Council (very long, slow process) Increasing partnership approach with third countries

European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) ENP South: 10 countries ENP East: 6 countries

Political framework ENP represents a joint EU - Partner countries commitment to deliver tangible results for citizens across the region In the Southern Neighbourhood region, the ENP is implemented through bilateral (tailor-made for each county), regional, neighbourhood-wide and Cross-Border cooperation programmes. Most of the regional cooperation activities support priorities agreed jointly by the partners in Ministerial meetings covering the region Regional cooperation is mainly financed through the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) ENP promotes reforms in the area of statistics in order to make partner's statistical data and systems reliable and independent, and to increase compliance with European and international standards

ENP-South Statistical Cooperation: overview (1/2) Assistance programmes aimed at improving the statistical systems of the ENP-South countries Based on partnership between statisticians within the EU and the ENP South countries who meet and decide actions at the Forum of Euro-Mediterranean Statisticians The Forum steers cooperation in the field of statistics between the EU and the National Statistical Systems of the ENP-South countries Actions can be regional in nature or country specific A mix of short and long term actions financed either from the External Action budget (MEDSTAT IV) or through the European Statistical Programme

ENP-South Statistical Cooperation: topics and types of action (2/2) Institutional and statistical networking and development across the NSOs in the region, via Euro-Mediterranean Working Groups on Statistical topics (Business registers, Energy, Labour Market, Migration, Trade & Transport) Institutional development, "horizontal" topics (training, quality in statistics, gender, dissemination) Support for annual data collection and dissemination exercise Support for global assessments (GA), peer reviews (PR) and sector reviews (SR) at country level if requested Ad-hoc experts missions for advice, training and technical assessment on wider topics (via Taiex, Twinning)

Lessons learnt from EU statistical cooperation (1/2) Having a mix of actions supported from the External Action budget and the European Statistical Programme is more labour intensive but the advantages are greater programming flexibility Action supported from the External Action budget should link to overarching EU-ENP South political priorities, whereas.. … actions supported via the European Statistical Programme can be wider, and support very technical issues of the NSO that would not be picked up in a more policy linked programme (such as SDMX, or roll out of the ESS's quality tools) Part of the EU's value is in effectively transferring working regional statistical tools such as the EU Code of Practice … … the ENP South Regional Code of Practice has been adopted by the NSOs in the region (as is based on the EU version)

Lessons learnt from EU statistical cooperation (2/2) Most influence is achieved when international partners collaborate to create and promote common standards (e.g. the Generic Law on Statistics) The Forum is a key governance and decision-making space for EU and ENP South government statisticians – important that is independent of major multi-annual service contracts The cultural sensitivities of the region, and the complex relations between the countries, must be handled carefully, and there is value in fewer changes of staff in the EU's relationship with some countries. The language is an issue for almost all the activities, translation to Arabic is highly appreciated.