Brussels, 13/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - In two years, major progress has been made on the modernisation of European enterprise and trade statistics (MEETS). However, due to the complex nature of action taken, this must be continued. These, in a nutshell, are the conclusions reached by the report on the subject adopted Tuesday 11 January by the Commission.
Since the adoption of Decision No 1297/2008/EC of 16 December 2008 relating to a programme for the modernisation of European enterprise and trade statistics, and the adoption in April 2009 of a first work programme, over 25 projects have been launched for the four MEETS objectives (review of priorities and finalisation of a series of targeted indicators for new areas; a simplified framework for enterprise statistics; support for implementation of the most effective method for producing statistics on enterprise and trade; and modernisation of Intrastat). The Commission considers that major progress has been made in setting up cooperative networks for activity in the following six key areas: - consistency of concepts and methods, profiling large and complex multinational enterprise groups, microdata-linking and data warehousing in statistical production, linking micro-data on ICT usage, methodology for modern business statistics and the use of administrative and accounting data. In addition, several projects were launched to support the development and implementation of the EuroGroups Register in the member states. The Commission notes, however, that member states have a limited absorption capacity as regards the additional coordination activities involved in the networks.
The report indicates, moreover, that all the studies carried out and finalised will be evaluated together with the main stakeholders from Commission services and the member states. Developed methodologies will be piloted. The identification of areas of lesser importance will be further integrated into the general overall strategy of Eurostat on priority setting. This strategy is based on the communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on priority setting, simplification and reduction of response burden in the field of Community statistics.
Finally, the report notes that adequate EU funding has been guaranteed by two annual work programmes adopted by the Commission in order to help member states to achieve the goals in respect of reducing the burden on businesses and to help the European statistical system in responding to new needs for statistical information. Thirty-one grants totalling around €13.5 million were co-financed and 13 external studies for a total of around €1.5 million were subcontracted. In addition, workshops and taskforces were financed to develop the actions. The Commission underlines that, due to their complexity, all actions will be continued and more detailed information on the progress made will be provided in the annual reports, which will continue to be produced until 2013. (O.L./transl.jl)