1. The ESS VIP programme: a response to the challenges facing the ESS
Mariana Kotzeva, Advisor Hors Classe Dissemination Working Group October 2012

2. Challenges facing the ESS
the ever-increasing demand for high quality statistics;
request for reduction in the burden posed by data collection;
substantial cuts on the financial and human resources in the ESS;
rising need for measuring cross-cutting and complex phenomena;
competitiveness of non-official statistics.

3. Joint ESS Response to the challenges over recent years
Cracow Action Plan that resulted in new legal framework and governance of the ESS and revised Code of Practice;
ESSnets (cooperation networks at operational level) and Sponsorships (co-operation at management level) that allow for a group of member states to work together for the benefit of the whole ESS;
Renewal of the priority setting approach to European statistics and periodical screening;
Commission Communication 404 "The Production method of EU statistics: a vision for the next decade";
Joint ESS Strategy for the implementation of the Com (404) adopted by ESSC in May 2010.

4. How to respond to the challenges further on?
Through: Moving towards more common solutions and shared services and environment in order to make the ESS partners able to realise economies of scale, efficiency gains and share costs, and thus, meet growing challenges under current budgetary constraints.

5. A more integrated ESS system includes opportunities:
to exchange data, including micro data and use them for compiling statistics;
to share services that cover the whole production chain, i.e. to share dissemination tools and common IT applications for linking data from different sources;
to use system of inter-operable statistical registers in the statistics production;
to rely on a network of data warehouses , comprising data collected from multiple sources, allowing for their combination and serving a multiplicity of users' needs;
to rely on the appropriate legal framework and administrative mechanisms for sharing costs on common solutions;
to build up on better allocation of tasks along the MS-Eurostat production chain, in data validation for example.

6. ESS Architecture, current situation

7. Future state of the ESS production and dissemination
Users
Other Partners
OECD
IMF …
European Statistics - Dissemination
ESS Secure Bus
Shared Services
Storage
Production
Dissemination …
European Statistics – Production Processes
European Statistical System
European System of Central Banks
Other Statistical Actors
NSI
ESTAT
ECB
NCB
STAT
Interoperability standards & common metadata
Primary Collection Administrative Sources - Surveys – Official Sources – Private Sources

8. Are we too ambitious ?

9. The ESS- VIP Programme:
It consists of a group of related projects that aimed at building up common ESS architecture and frameworks allowing for sharing data and services among ESS partners;
The projects that are elements of the programme are called ESS VIPs to ensure the continuation and integration of the results from the internal Eurostat VIPs and ESS nets conducted so far;
The ESS VIP are combined in ESS VIP Programme in order to manage them in a coordinated way and to obtain benefits which may not be available from managing them individually;
It covers the period up to 2017 and is business driven.

10. The ESS- VIP Programme includes:
Five technical cross-cutting projects providing infrastructure for sharing data and services;
Seven business (domain oriented) ESS VIPs that pilot and release the sharing of data and services in different statistical domains;
Parallel work on general cross-cutting issues related to frameworks and organisation for sharing data and services.

11. Technical cross-cutting projects
Information models;
Networks/infrastructure for exchange of information;
Data Warehouses reference architecture;
Platform for shared services;
Validation-cross-cutting issues;

12. Seven business (domain oriented) ESS VIPs :
Administrative Data Sources;
National Accounts (National Accounts Production-Service project);
Price and Transport Statistics (PRIX and TRIX Data warehouses project);
Business registers (European system of Interoperable Statistical Business Registers project);
International trade in goods (SIMSTAT project);
Information and technology surveys (ICT statistical production and dissemination based on shared services);
Common Data Validation Policy.

13. SIMSTAT project for exchange of micro-data on intra-EU trade a core element of ESS VIP programme
All 4 projects under "SIMSTAT" umbrella cover all key elements of a more integrated ESS system based on shared data and services;
It paves the way towards running complex projects that covers simultaneously IT, statistical and procedural aspects;
It is pioneering one in terms of combining all instruments available (ESSnets, VIPs) for one final goal and for finding the optimal mix of allocation of tasks and project governance between ESS partners.

14. General Cross-cutting issues supporting frameworks and administrative mechanisms
Governance;
Legal framework;
Human resources;
Cost sharing and financial resources;
Communication.

15. Implementation of the ESS VIP programme
To start without delay the development of the technical cross cutting projects (INFORMATION MODELS, NETWORK, SHARED SERVICE, DATA WAREHOUSEs);
To continue the business ESS VIPs that are the most mature (ESBRs, SIMSTAT, Common Validation Policy);
To strengthen the business cases in collaboration with the MS for the remaining business ESS VIPs according to the roadmaps

16. Advantages of the proposed approach
produces short term benefit;
provides a smoother transition to future common solutions;
ensures MSs involvement in all dimensions;
foresees a more gradual investment path.

17. Challenges of the ESS VIP programme
to ensure that the common solutions and supporting frameworks developed for individual statistical domains such as international trade in goods and national accounts are generic enough to be further deployed in other domains;
to ensure timely deliveries from the technical cross-cutting projects that are the necessary inputs for the running business ESS VIPs.

18. The benefits to the ESS that ESS VIP Programme brings
It proposes a renewed collaborative approach within the ESS that will result in:
productivity and efficiency gains;
reducing redundancies and duplications in the production chain;
better allocation of tasks;
enhanced flexibility of the system to react to new requirements.

19. Next steps: The ESS VIP programme is still in process of preparation;
A decision on full list of projects, their prioritization and resource ensuring is under consideration;
The current state of play of the preparation of ESS VIP programme was presented to the DGs of NSIs at the HLG meeting held on 24th of September, 2012;
The proposal for the Porgramme will be discussed at ESSC in November 2012;
Meanwhile concrete projects and activities are discussed with NSIs at different expert level and at different meetings.

20. Dissemination in the ESS VIP Programme
National solutions based on subsidiarity principle
Coordinated common solutions when cost-effective and compatible
Shared :
Information
Infrastructure
Services
Costs
among ESS partners
ESS VIP Programme
Data collection
Data processing,
validation and analysis
Dissemination

21. Thank you for your attention!