1. Strategy for statistical cooperation 2014-2020
Torbiörn Carlquist, Eurostat
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

2. Background
financial framework for the EU as the basis for the external aid instruments, including IPA
IPA II Regulation with new rules for support
Need to prove that progress is made in the countries covered by the IPA programmes
IPA countries should be involved in the planning process
Common Task force of Eurostat and the countries
Work on the strategy document since November 2012
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

3. Objectives 1
The aim of EU and Eurostat is to support enlargement countries to proceed towards EU accession
Candidate countries (as of 2013) should become compliant with the EU acquis in most statistical areas by end of 2020
Potential candidates should make their statistical systems sustainable for the most important statistical domains
8 different countries covered by the strategy*
Regional approach for support to statistics (IPA MBP) is cost-efficient, has given good results and should continue
* For the time being, Iceland is a candidate country but it has been suspended from further IPA funding. With the adoption of the IPA II Regulation, it can be expected that the status of Iceland in relation to IPA will be confirmed.
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

4. Objectives 2 To make statistics a better tool for policy purposes
Policy makers should get confidence in the stable statistical environment
Dissemination policy should focus on improving the tools, on making statistics more visible, and on explaining statistics
Raise the quality of statistical data
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

5. Objectives 3 To integrate the NSI in the European Statistical System
Increase the knowledge about the EU acquis in the NSIs of enlargement countries
Improve communication between ESS and NSIs of enlargement countries
Involve other stakeholders of statistics more in ESS
Establish bilateral partnerships between NSIs in enlargement countries and in EU Member States
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

6. Objectives 4 To implement the European Statistics Code of Practice
Ensure the professional independence of the NSI
Improve the quality of statistical information
Strengthen the role of the NSI as the coordinator of the national statistical system
Measure the progress in implementing the Code of Practice
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

7. Objectives 5 To strengthen the management capacity of the NSIs
Increase the capacity for human resources management, including a specific HR policy
Increase the managerial capacity – senior statisticians will not necessarily become good managers!
Be able to adapt to changes
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

8. Key statistical areas Macro-Economic Statistics
Price Statistics, National Accounts including GDP, Government Finance Statistics, Purchasing Power Parities, Balance of Payments;
Agricultural Statistics
Agricultural Accounts, Agricultural Products;
Social Statistics
Labour Statistics, Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, Education Statistics, Demography statistics;
Business Statistics
Structural Business Statistics, Short Term Statistics, Energy Statistics, Transport Statistics;
International Trade Statistics;
Statistical Registers
Business Registers, Agricultural Registers;
Other statistics
Environment statistics, ICT statistics, regional statistics
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

9. Regional approach Working method of the ESS Economy of scale effects
Common training, workshops, and standards
Synergy and coordination effects
Harmonisation; measure relationships between countries
Timing aspects
EU negotiations require statistics for many policies; long lead times for development
Development of the acquis in statistics over time as a moving target
Good results of previous multi-beneficiary programmes.
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

10. Monitoring Under IPA II, increased monitoring of results (evaluation)
Indicators are proposed to measure the results
MGSC and PGSC to remain as bodies for coordination
Continue the monitoring of compliance with the EU acquis
Peer reviews and Global assessments
Monitoring of implementation of the Code of Practice
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

11. Instruments and costs
Grant or service contract depending on capacity of the countries
Peer reviews
Data collection projects - Pilot projects
Participation in meetings within the ESS
Training
Traineeships
Study visits and consultancies
Costs
The distribution of the budget by country will be determined when planning each annual statistical MB programme, taking into accounts the needs each time
For MBP, the estimated need is 10m EUR per year
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

12. Monitoring compliance with EU acquis
For a better monitoring information on current and expected compliance is needed by DG ELARG+EUD
Eurostat's difficulties to define specific % targets:
Combination of methods to measure compliance
Database; SMIS; AGA; Programming mission to countries
Quality dimension of data is difficult to quantify
Timeliness, size of revisions, quality improvements are not taken into account
Regulations are very different in scope
Trade , SBS with a huge number of datasets, STS with less data sets
How to define priorities in compliance
Which area is most important? Business, national accounts, trade?
The EU acquis is changing over time (change of target)
Eurostat measures the amount of data sent to Eurostat, validated and uploaded to the database by Eurostat
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

13. Monitoring compliance with EU acquis – different ways / different results
Eurostat did efforts to produce compliance monitoring indicators for the enlargement countries using different approaches:
Data points in Eurobase
Data sets sent via eDAMIS
Data included into the pocketbook on enlargement countries
Estimations from the enlargement countries on when they will be compliant according to their long term strategies
Data included into the statistical annex to the progress report
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

14. What do we measure specifically?
Statistical domains are usually governed by one or several EU Regulations.
Regulations can have detailed specifications of transmission programmes in the form of variables, length of time series, hyper-cubes etc.
Data sets as defined in eDAMIS. A data set can have a few values (data points) or many thousand values
Data points are stored in the cells of the dissemination database (Eurobase). In a time series, each period or point in time corresponds to a data point. Currently, Eurobase holds a little more than 1 billion data points.
Benchmark for compliance: either the "best" Member State, or the potential full compliance (theoretical maximum)
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

15. Example 1 of current compliance
Data sets transmitted through eDAMIS are monitored
Number of data sets received during one year ending on 30 June 2013:
Country on time after % received *
EU %
Croatia % (new MS)
FYROM %
Iceland % (EEA relevance)
Montenegro %
Serbia %
Turkey %
* Expressed as % of 1 068, the maximal number of data sets requested from a country
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

16. Example 2b of current compliance
Eurobase holds 1 bn data points (109 values)
We extracted national data from all data base tables
Around 550 million data points in extraction
Examples of availability of data – some not yet calculated (best country=100):
EU (average for MS)
Albania not yet available
Bosnia and H. not yet available
Croatia (new MS)
FYROM
Iceland (EEA relevance)
Kosovo not yet available
Montenegro not yet available
Serbia not yet available
Turkey
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

17. Example 3 of compliance Statistical annex of the Progress Reports
Base: Targeted data collection by Eurostat contractor
A maximum of 102 data points per year
Country data 2012 data
Albania 34% 75%
Bosnia and H. 59% 61%
Croatia 82% New MS
FYROM 73% 75%
Iceland 76% 80%
Kosovo* 32% 38%
Montenegro 59% 45%
Serbia 77% 82%
Turkey 71% 76%
* 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.
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

18. Example 4 of compliance
Estimates provided by Eurostat to DG ELARG based on a mixture of all available information
Information on a sample of statistical domains in Eurobase (not datasets)
Information from the countries asked for in the framework of the strategy development
Information on quality requirements
Estimations on the acquis as a moving target
Estimations on large methodological changes such as ESA 2010
A base line of compliance for reference year 2013
Degree of compliance with the acquis by end of 2017 and end of 2020 (intervals)
Degree of compliance and IPA programmes are linked
* 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. AL BA IS
XK * MK ME RS TR
2013
12%-18%
7%-13%
30%-36%
4%-10%
21%-27%
11%-17%
19%-25%
2017
20%-30%
24%-34%
81%-91%
28%-38%
57%-67%
43%-53%
67%-77%
42%-52%
2020
70%-80%
88%-98%
53%-63%
84%-94%
85%-95%
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013

19. Questions
1. What parts of the strategy are applicable to your country and how do you judge the overall content?
2. Which of the means and methods for implementing the strategy will help your country in particular to develop and are the most useful ones?
3. How do you rate the progress to be made – what kind of pace is appropriate for your country?
4. What would be the best balance between national and MBP IPA programmes?
5. Are arguments missing in some part of the strategy? Which arguments and regarding which chapter in the strategy?
6. What is your opinion about the aims to achieve in the next seven years?
7. What is your opinion about the expected results in chapter 5? What is your opinion about the indicators measure the progress?
8. What is your opinion about the implementation mechanisms detailed in chapter 6 and 7?
9. How should the compliance levels be presented in the strategy?
PGSC, Skopje Oct 2013