1. Meeting of the Strategic Development Group
Point 4: Update on the EPSS project and next steps
17 June 2009

2. Meeting of the Strategic Development Group
Background
Context:
Increasing demand (content, responsiveness and timeliness) at European level for social statistics (disabilities, victimisation, ageing society…);
Development of social surveys topic by topic (without any integration): need for rationalisation.
2005-September 2008: development of EHS/E4SM (sytem of survey modules).
September 2008-January 09: Revised concept (new name: EPSS).
Special DSS meeting held on 13 January 09.
17 June 2009
Meeting of the Strategic Development Group

3. EPSS: the medium-term strategic project for social surveys
1st quarter 2009: Discussions in Eurostat on the production method of EU statistics in the next decade
EPSS to be revised in order to be fully in line with the new overall strategy;
EPSS, a 3-year rolling programme, is a first step of a complete re-engineering of social statistics (to be implemented after the next Census round);
Proposed starting date: 2012 (with as a transitional period);
Use of art 14.2 of the new Statistical Law for new modules not covered by a framework regulation;
17 June 2009
Meeting of the Strategic Development Group

4. Beyond EPSS: Long-term re-engineering social statistics - first tracks
Challenge to achieve a complete re-engineering of social statistics;
Implementation of the strategy (key components):
Consistent programming of social surveys (EPSS);
Setting-up of the basis for comprehensive data integration
(« core variables project » as first basis);
Increased use of administrative data;
Use of new data sources;
Increased ESS-wide collaboration
proposal to create an ESSNet on data linking and an horizontal ESSNet in 2010.
17 June 2009
Meeting of the Strategic Development Group

5. Meeting of the Strategic Development Group
Next steps
September 2009: in-depth discussion during the DSS meeting (theme of the workshop: “Re-engineering of social statistics: a perspective”);
EPSS rolling programme to be discussed in DSS meeting of September 2009 and endorsed by the ESSC later on in 2009.
17 June 2009
Meeting of the Strategic Development Group

6. Meeting of the Strategic Development Group
Conclusion
The SDG is invited to discuss on the overall proposed strategy for social statistics and more particularly:
The proposed implementation of EPSS, covering social surveys, as the first step of this strategy;
The very first proposed outline for the second step aiming at defining an overall re-engineering of social statistics;
Integration as a key element of this long-term strategy;
The increased use of administrative sources;
The use of new tools (in particular ICT tools);
The possibility and usefulness to create in 2010 an ESSNet either dedicated to the overall re-engineering of social statistics or focussed on data linking.
17 June 2009
Meeting of the Strategic Development Group