Brussels, 22/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - “Quality statistics are vital for evidence based decision-making and the sound implementation of EU policies. They are also important in helping citizens to understand the EU and become involved in the democratic process”, said Algirdas Šemeta, the EU commissioner responsible for Eurostat, commenting on the adoption on Wednesday 21 December of the draft European Statistical Programme 2013-17 with a view to ensuring reliable, comparable and cost-effective statistics in the years ahead.
With a budget of €299.4 million, the programme will run for 5 years from 1 January 2013. The European Statistical System (Eurostat and national statistical institutes) will be responsible for implementing the multiannual programme, in accordance with the European Statistics Code of Practice and respecting the principles of independence, integrity and accountability. A large proportion of the budget will be allocated to the member states in order to support the implementation of the programme at national level.
The European Statistical Programme sets out three overriding objectives for 2013-17 - namely to provide high quality statistics to better design, monitor and evaluate EU policies; to implement more efficient methods of producing European statistics; and to strengthen the leading role of the European Statistical System in official statistics worldwide.
The programme breaks these general objectives down into more specific headings, with details on how they will be implemented. An annual work programme will be drawn up each year with concrete actions to meet these objectives. The need for information must be weighed against the resources available and the burden placed on businesses and citizens in responding to the necessary questionnaires and surveys to compile statistics. The European Statistical Programme therefore highlights certain areas which will be given priority focus. These follow the EU's broader priorities, such as EUROPE 2020, strengthened economic governance, climate change, growth and social cohesion, people's Europe and globalisation.
The Commission points out that while EU policy-making will largely influence the work of the European Statistical System in the coming years, any statistics produced under the new programme will also be available to other decision-makers, researchers, businesses and European citizens on an equal basis. (OL/transl.fl)