1999/126/EC: Council Decision of 22 December 1998 on the Community statistical programme 1998 to 2002

• Published date: 16 February 1999
• Subject Matter: información y verificación,informations et vérifications,informazione e verifiche
• Official Gazette Publication: Diario Oficial de las Comunidades Europeas, L 42, 16 de febrero de 1999,Journal officiel des Communautés européennes, L 42, 16 février 1999,Gazzetta ufficiale delle Comunità europee, L 42, 16 febbraio 1999

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1999/126/EC: Council Decision of 22 December 1998 on the Community statistical programme 1998 to 2002

Official Journal L 042 , 16/02/1999 P. 0001 - 0045

COUNCIL DECISION of 22 December 1998 on the Community statistical programme 1998 to 2002 (1999/126/EC)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 213 thereof,

Having regard to the draft Decision submitted by the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (2),

Whereas, in accordance with Article 3(1) of the Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community statistics (3) a Community statistical programme should be established;

Whereas economic and monetary union is imposing substantial demands on the supply of monetary, balance of payments and financial statistics for the Community;

Whereas in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 322/97, the Community should be able to have timely access to statistical information comparable between the Member States which is up to date, reliable, pertinent and produced as efficiently as possible for the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of its policies;

Whereas the availability of up-to-date comparable statistics of good quality is often a necessary condition for implementing Community policies;

Whereas, in order to insure the consistency and comparability of statistical information in the Community, there is a need to establish a medium-term Community statistical programme which identifies the approaches, the main fields and the objectives of the actions envisaged in respect of these priorities;

Whereas in certain areas covered by various Community policies a breakdown of data by gender is important;

Whereas the specific method of drawing up Community statistics requires particularly close cooperation within a developing community statistical system via the Statistical Programme Committee, set up by Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (4), as regards the adaptation of the system, notably via the introduction of legal instruments necessary to establish the said Community statistics and whereas account is to be taken of the burden on respondents, be they business, households or individuals;

Whereas, in accordance with Article 3(1) of Regulation (EC) No 322/97 before submitting its draft Decision, the Commission has submitted the guidelines for establishing the programme to the Statistical Programme Committee, the European Advisory Committee on Statistical Information in the Economic and Social Spheres and the Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payment Statistics;

Whereas in the implementation of the programme the principles stated in Article 10 of Regulation (EC) No 322/97, in particular the principles of impartiality and reliability, apply;

Whereas a reference to a statistical action in the annexed framework programme does not affect the powers of the budgetary authority as defined in the Treaty,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

The Community statistical programme for the period from 1998 to 2002 (hereinafter 'the programme`) is hereby set up. The programme is annexed hereto. It defines the approaches, the main fields and the objectives of the actions envisaged during that period.

Article 2

Taking account of the available resources of the national authorities and the Commission, the programme shall cover the principal Community policy priorities of:

- economic and monetary union,

- competitiveness, growth and employment,

- European Union enlargement,

and shall also ensure the continuation of existing statistical support for decisions in current policy areas and the additional requirements arising from new Community policy initiatives.

Article 3

The programme shall be implemented in accordance with the rules and principles laid down in Regulation (EC) No 322/97.

Article 4

During the third year of implementation of the programme the Commission shall prepare an intermediate report showing its stage of development and present it to the Statistical Programme Committee.

At the end of the period covered by the programme the Commission, after consulting the Statistical Programme Committee, shall present an appropriate evaluation report on the implementation of the programme, taking into account the views of independent experts. That report is to be completed by the end of 2003 and subsequently submitted to the European Parliament and the Council.

Article 5

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 22 December 1998.

For the Council

The President

C. EINEM

(1) OJ C 328, 26.10.1998, p. 227.

(2) OJ C 235, 27.7.1998, p. 60.

(3) OJ L 52, 22.2.1997, p. 1.

(4) OJ L 181, 28.6.1989, p. 47.

ANNEX I

COMMUNITY STATISTICAL PROGRAMME (1998 to 2002): APPROACHES

INTRODUCTION

(i) The need for statistical information for EU policy

Statistical information is of primary importance if the Institutions of the EU, and indeed the public at large, are to have any means whatsoever of determining on a factual basis both the need for European policy initiatives as well as the progress such initiatives are making. Eurostat (the Statistical Office of the European Communities) has as its main task the provision of such statistical information across a wide range of social, economic and environmental factors to support existing and future policies of the EU.

Structure of the Annex

This Annex provides a summary of European statistical requirements viewed from the perspective of the policy needs of the European Union. These needs are broken down by the 17 titles identified in the Treaty on European Union, treaties establishing the European Communities and subsequent legislation. An 18th 'title` has been added to accommodate policy requirements from funding of the European Union (VAT and GNP, the third and fourth resource) and also the activities concerning enlargement.

For each of these policy titles, this Annex provides:

- the principal orientation of the statistical work to be carried out within this five-year period for each policy area and the specific action plans envisaged,

- the specific Treaty provisions and main legal acts which provide the impetus for such work,

- the presence of any policy documents which form the basis of the statistical requirements,

- an indication of the foreseeable regulatory frameworks related to statistics for the policy (to be finalised in the annual programme each year as envisaged in the Council Regulation on Community statistics),

- the areas of statistical work which support the policies of the title according to the CSS classification for work themes, set out in Annex II,

- those themes for which insufficient resources exist to assure completion of the work in the requisite timescale.

This Annex concentrates on the policy determinants of the programme of work.

(ii) Programme strategies

Throughout the programme of work the strategic guidelines will target:

(a) users: to meet the requirements of Community policies and to adapt statistical information to the needs of the users;

(b) priorities: the requirement to clearly identify priorities such as to show the work which will and will not be possible given the resource perspectives;

(c) work planning: within the priority framework, to organise in an efficient way the activities necessary to achieve the production targets; major projects, whether in infrastructure or sectors, will be developed using project management techniques;

(d) coordination: to assure regular communication between the Commission services as policy users of Community statistics and the suppliers within a developing Community statistical system upon whom the provision of data depends;

(e) quality: continually to seek ways to improve the quality (including the timeliness) of Community statistics and achieve more uniform standards and relevance;

(f) efficiency: to ensure that the data supply process is as cost efficient as possible;

(g) response burden: to reduce to an absolute minimum possible the burden on respondents;

(h) international standards: Community statistics will be made comparable with those for other areas of the world by taking into account the standards approved by relevant international organisations.

These aspects will be subject to monitoring during the course of the programme and the findings included in the programme evaluation.

(iii) Priority management

The priorities for statistical work are managed according to three different categories of activity. These priorities are reviewed by the Commission, after consultation with the Statistical Programme Committee, on an annual basis so that they take into account the coming years of the programme. New actions and priorities should be based on a comprehensive view of statistical demands and taking into account the ability of Member States to fulfil them. New demands should be weighed against existing statistics.

(a) Major Community policy requirements

The implementation of Community policy initiatives will give rise to a need for new statistical outputs. The policy and related statistical requirements judged to be of the highest priority are as follows:

- economic and monetary union, stage three: the statistical requirements of the stability and growth pact, short-term indicators of demand, output, labour market activity and costs,

- competitiveness, growth and employment and the 'Pact for employment`: the structure of the costs and outputs of business enterprises, structure of the labour market,

- EU enlargement: significant demands for reliable and comparable statistical information for the candidate countries.

(b) Statistical support to ongoing policies

Statistical activities which support existing Community policy areas, such as agriculture, economic and social cohesion and...