1. Helena OTTOSSON helena.ottosson@ec.europa.eu
Legal framework for European Statistics Working Group on Agri-environmental indicators Luxembourg June 2009
Helena OTTOSSON 1

2. Contents of the presentation
Introduction
Regulation on European Statistics
General provisions
Statistical governance
Production of European Statistics
Dissemination
Statistical Confidentiality
Conclusion

3. Introduction
Work started in 2002 (Palermo Conference on the Future of the ESS)
Several Task-Forces involved
Discussions at EP/Council from November 2007 to March 2009
The real challenge is ahead: exploiting the opportunities offered by the new legal framework

4. Subject matter and scope (Article 1)
Establishes a ”legal framework for the development, production and dissemination of European Statistics” (ES)
ES are ”relevant statistics necessary for the performance of the activities of the Community”
Determined by the European Statistical Programme
Reference to statistical principles and Code of Practice
ES are produced also by the ESCB under its own legal framework
General provisions

5. Statistical Principles and Definitions (Articles 2 and 3)
Professional independence
Statistics
Impartiality
Development
Objectivity
Production
Reliability
Dissemination
Statistical confidentiality
Data collection
Cost-effectiveness
Statistical unit
Confidential data
Use for statistical purposes
Direct/indirect identification
Officials/other staff of the Commission (Eurostat)
(a) professional independence", meaning that statistics must be developed, produced and disseminated in an independent manner, particularly as regards the selection of techniques, definitions, methodologies and sources to be used, and the timing and content of all forms of dissemination, free from any pressures from political or interest groups or from Community or national authorities, without prejudice to institutional settings, such as Community or national institutional or budgetary provisions or definitions of statistical needs;
(b) "impartiality", meaning that statistics must be developed, produced and disseminated in a neutral manner, and that all users must be given equal treatment;
"objectivity", meaning that statistics must be developed, produced and disseminated in a systematic, reliable and unbiased manner; it implies the use of professional and ethical standards, and that the policies and practices followed are transparent to users and survey respondents;
"reliability", meaning that statistics must measure as faithfully, accurately and consistently as possible the reality that they are designed to represent and implying that scientific criteria are used for the selection of sources, methods and procedures;
(e) "statistical confidentiality", meaning the protection of confidential data related to single statistical units which are obtained directly for statistical purposes or indirectly from administrative or other sources and implying the prohibition of use for non-statistical purposes of the data obtained and of their unlawful disclosure;
(f) "cost effectiveness", meaning that the costs of producing statistics must be in proportion to the importance of the results and the benefits sought, that resources must be optimally used and the response burden minimised. The information requested shall, where possible, be readily extractable from available records or sources.
As regards professional independence the following justification was given in the Communication of the Commission to the EP/C on the independence, integrity and accountability of Community and national statistical authorities: “The existing legislation satisfies the scientific independence requirement, i.e. the functional requirements for the production of high-quality statistics. The introduction of additional considerations on professional independence by the Code further reinforces the overall independence whilst respecting the different and sometimes diverging legal and administrative arrangements in the Member States, as an expression of their respective political and cultural traditions. Through the enhancement of this independence, it is expected that trust and public confidence in official statistics will increase."
General provisions

6. The European Statistical System (Article 4)
Partnership between
the Community statistical authority, which is the "Commission (Eurostat), and
the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) and other national authorities responsible in each Member State for the development, production and dissemination of European Statistics
Statistical governance

7. NSIs and other national authorities (Article 5)
NSI shall be designated by each MS
Coordinating role on national level
Contact point for the Commission (Eurostat)
The Commission maintains and publishes a list of all national statistical authorities
Authorities on the list may receive grants without call for proposals
Statistical governance

8. "Commission (Eurostat)" (Article 6)
The Community statistical authority as designated by the Commission
Coordinating role at Community level for all ES
Professional Independence ensured
Statistical governance

9. ESS Committee (Article 7)
Two kinds of tasks:
Comitology
Advisory
Composed of representatives of the NSIs
Replaces the Committee on Statistical Confidentiality
Tasks of the ESS Committee:
1) It shall provide professional guidance to the ESS;
2) It shall be consulted by the Commission in regard to:
(a) the measures which the Commission intends to take for the development, production and dissemination of European Statistics, their justification on a cost-effectiveness basis, the means and timetables for achieving them, the response burden of survey respondents;
(b) proposed developments and priorities in the European Statistical Programme;
(c) initiatives to bring into practice the reprioritisation and reduction of the response burden;
(d) issues concerning statistical confidentiality;
(e) the further development of the Code of Practice; and
any other question, in particular issues of methodology, arising from the establishment or implementation of statistical programmes that are raised by its Chair, either on its own initiative or at the request of a Member State.
3) It shall prepare the position of the ESS as regards international cooperation (Article 10);
4) It shall be consulted by the Commission on draft reports concerning the European Statistical Programme (Article 13);
5) It shall examine the initiatives for and the out-comes of collaborative networks (Article 15);
6) It shall receive for comments the annual statistical work programme of the Commission (Article 17);
Statistical governance 9

10. Provisions on Co-operation (Articles 8–10)
With other bodies (ESAC and ESGAB)
With the ESCB
International co-operation
Statistical governance

11. European Statistics Code of Practice (Article 11)
Ensure public trust in European Statistics
Self-regulatory instrument
Elaborates the statistical principles
Refers to best international statistical practice
In place since 2005
To be reviewed and updated by the ESS Committee
Follow-up of implementation on Community level by ESGAB
Statistical governance

12. Statistical quality (Article 12)
7 quality criteria:
Relevance – Accessibility
Accuracy – Comparability
Timeliness – Coherence
Punctuality
To be specified in sectoral legislation
Implementing powers given to the Commission concerning ES in general
Statement on quality reporting
(a) 'relevance', which refers to the degree to which statistics meet current and potential needs of the users;
(b) 'accuracy', which refers to the closeness of estimates to the unknown true values;
(c) 'timeliness', which refers to the period between the availability of the information and the event or phenomenon it describes;
(d) 'punctuality', which refers to the delay between the date of the release of the data and the target date (the date by which the data should have been delivered);
(e) 'accessibility' and 'clarity', which refer to the conditions and modalities by which users can obtain, use and interpret data;
(f) 'comparability', which refers to the measurement of the impact of differences in applied statistical concepts, measurement tools and procedures where statistics are compared between geographical areas, sectoral domains or over time;
(g) 'coherence', which refers to the adequacy of the data to be reliably combined in different ways and for various uses.
Statistical governance

13. European Statistical Programme (Article 13)
Framework programme for European Statistics
Maximum of 5 years
Decided by the European Parliament and the Council
Impact and cost effectiveness shall be assessed, involving independent experts
Prioritisation
Resources required
Response burden
Respondent’s costs
Annual Work Programmes (Article 17)
Production of European Statistics

14. Implementation of the European Statistical Programme (Article 14)
3 types of individual statistical actions
Co-decision
Commission decision
Gentlemen agreement (in writing)
The Commission shall provide
the justification
the objectives and expected results
a cost-effectiveness analysis
the ”how”
The ”how” means the ways in which the action is to be carried out, including its duration and the role of the Commission and the Member States
Production of European Statistics 14

15. Temporary direct statistical actions decided by the Commission
Maximum of 3 reference years
Already available or accessible data, or
data directly obtainable (European sampling)
Financial contributions from the Community
Production of European Statistics

16. Collaborative networks (Article 15)
Joint structures, tools and processes
Connected to individual statistical actions
Sharing of expertise and results
With the purpose of
fostering specialisation
avoiding duplication of work
increasing efficiency
reducing response burden for the benefit of the ESS as a whole
Production of European Statistics

17. European Approach to Statistics (Article 16)
A ”pragmatic strategy” (Recital 16)
Specific and duly justified cases and within the framework of the European Statistical Programme
Full involvement of Member States and decided in individual statistical actions
Aims at
maximising the availability of European aggregates,
improving the timeliness of European Statistics
reducing the burden on respondents and national authorities
Production of European Statistics

18. European Approach to Statistics
Production of European Statistics by use of
Non-published national contributions,
National contributions from a sub-set of Member States
Specifically designed survey schemes
Partial information by modelling techniques
Dissemination of aggregates at European level by applying specific statistical disclosure control techniques
Coordinated release and revision policy
Production of European Statistics

19. Dissemination measures (Article 18)
Obligation on both Eurostat and national authorities
To disseminate
To provide support to users
Reference to statistical principles, in particular confidentiality and impartiality
Public use files (Article 19)
Dissemination of completely anonymised individual data
Not confidential
National authority which provided the data must approve
Dissemination

20. Protection of confidential data (Articles 20-25)
Basic rule: protection of confidential data and use for statistical purposes only
Exceptions:
Statistical unit has agreed to dissemination or to use for other purposes
Codecision act allows dissemination even if the statistical unit can be identified and the unit has not requested protection (passive confidentiality)
The statistics have been obtained from data from public sources
Statistical confidentiality

21. Protection of confidential data – Statistical Disclosure Control (Article 20)
Obligation on Eurostat and national authorities
To ensure protection
To harmonise rules and guidelines
Implementing power given to the Commission
Statistical confidentiality

22. Transmission of confidential data (Article 21)
From one ESS authority to another, or
From one ESS authority to an ESCB member (necessity must be justified)
For the efficient development, production or dissemination of ES, or
For increasing the quality of ES
Any further transmission must be approved by the authority that collected the data
Transmission of data with direct identifiers allowed
The possibility to transmit data with direct identifiers follows from the use in this article of the term ”confidential data”, without limitation or conditions, combined with the definition of the term in Article 3(7)
Statistical confidentiality

23. Protection of confidential data in the Commission (Eurostat) (Article 22)
Basic rule: access only for officials
In exceptional cases for other staff
Within their “specific domain of work”
Statistical confidentiality

24. Access to confidential data for scientific purposes (Article 23)
“The research community should enjoy wider access to confidential data ... for analysis in the interest of scientific progress in Europe.”
Only indirectly identifiable data
Eurostat and national authorities at their respective level
Must be approved by the national authority that transmitted the data
Implementing powers given to the Commission
Recital 26
Current Regulation 831/2002 remains in force but should be replaced within a foreseeable future. ESS Committee replaces the Confidentiality committee.
Statistical confidentiality

25. Access to administrative records (Article 24)
Basic rule that such access shall be given
In order to reduce response burden;
When necessary for the development, production and dissemination of European Statistics
Conditions to be laid down by Member States and the Commission, respectively
Statistical confidentiality

26. Conclusions The ES Regulation provides
the foundation for addressing the current and future statistical challenges;
enabling clauses and principles without imposing specific limitations or boundaries;
a flexible framework for modernisation of the ESS;
full exploitation of its potential is a responsibility shared by all ESS authorities!