Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics and repealing Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1101/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities, Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 on Community Statistics, and Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom establishing a Committee on the Statistical Programmes of the European Communities (Text with relevance for the EEA and for Switzerland) - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 87/164

To ensure the coherence and comparability of European statistics produced in accordance with the principles laid down in Article 285(2) of the Treaty, cooperation and coordination should be reinforced between the authorities that contribute to the development, production and dissemination of European statistics.

To that effect, the cooperation and coordination of those authorities should be developed in a more systematic and organised manner with full respect to the national and Community powers and institutional arrangements and taking into account the need to revise the existing basic legal framework in order to adapt it to the current reality, to better respond to future challenges, and to ensure a better harmonisation of European statistics.

It is therefore necessary to consolidate the activities of the European Statistical System (ESS) and to improve its governance, in particular with a view to further clarifying the respective roles of the national statistical institutes (NSIs) and other national authorities, and of the Community statistical authority.

Because of the specificity of the NSIs and the other national authorities responsible in each Member State for developing, producing and disseminating European statistics, they should be able to receive grants without a call for proposals in accordance with Article 168(1)(d) of Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2342/2002 of 23 December 2002 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities (4).

Taking into account the financial burden-sharing between the budgets of the European Union and the Member States relating to the implementation of the statistical programme, the Community should also, in accordance with Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities (5), make financial contributions to the NSIs and other national authorities in order to cover fully the incremental costs that the NSIs and other national authorities may incur in the execution of the temporary direct statistical actions decided by the Commission.

The statistical authorities of the Member States of the European Free Trade Association party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area (6) and of Switzerland should, as provided respectively for in the Agreement on the European Economic Area, in particular Article 76 thereof and Protocol 30 to that Agreement, and in the Agreement between the European Community and the Swiss Confederation on cooperation in the field of statistics (7), in particular Article 2 thereof, be closely associated with the reinforced cooperation and coordination.

Furthermore, it is important to ensure close cooperation and appropriate coordination between the ESS and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), notably to foster the exchange of confidential data between the two systems for statistical purposes, in the light of Article 285 of the Treaty and of Article 5 of the Protocol (No 18) on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and the European Central Bank annexed to the Treaty.

European statistics will thus be developed, produced and disseminated by both the ESS and the ESCB but under separate legal frameworks reflecting their respective governance structures. This Regulation should therefore apply without prejudice to Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the collection of statistical information by the European Central Bank (8).

Consequently, and although the members of the ESCB do not participate in the production of European statistics pursuant to this Regulation, following an agreement between a national central bank and the Community statistical authority, within their respective spheres of competence and without prejudice to national arrangements between the national central bank and the NSI or other national authorities, data produced by the national central bank may, however, be used, directly or indirectly, by NSIs, other national authorities and the Community statistical authority, for the production of European statistics. Similarly, the members of the ESCB may, within their respective spheres of competence, use, directly or indirectly, data produced by the ESS, as long as the necessity has been justified.

In the general context of the relations between the ESS and the ESCB, the Committee on monetary, financial and balance of payments statistics established by Council Decision 2006/856/EC (9) plays an important role, in particular through the assistance provided to the Commission in drawing up and implementing work programmes concerning monetary, financial and balance of payments statistics.

International recommendations and best practices should be taken into account in the development, production and dissemination of European statistics.

It is important to ensure close cooperation and appropriate coordination between the ESS and other actors in the international statistical system in order to promote the use of international concepts, classifications and methods, in particular with a view to ensuring more coherence and better comparability between statistics at a global level.

In order to align concepts and methodologies in statistics, an adequate interdisciplinary cooperation with academic institutions should be developed.

The operation of the ESS also needs to be reviewed as more flexible development, production and dissemination methods of European statistics and clear priority-setting are required in order to reduce the burden on respondents and members of the ESS and improve the availability and timeliness of European statistics. A European approach to statistics should be designed to this end.

While European statistics are usually based on national data produced and disseminated by the national statistical authorities of all Member States, they may also be produced from non-published national contributions, subsets of national contributions, specifically designed European statistical surveys or harmonised concepts or methods.

In those specific cases, and where duly justified, it should be possible to implement a European approach to statistics, which consists of a pragmatic strategy to facilitate the compilation of European statistical aggregates, representing the European Union as a whole or the euro area as a whole, which are of particular importance for Community policies.

Joint structures, tools and processes could also be established or further developed through collaborative networks, involving the NSIs or other national authorities and the Community statistical authority and facilitating specialisation by certain Member States in specific statistical activities for the benefit of the ESS as a whole. These collaborative networks between partners of the ESS should aim to avoid duplication of work and therefore increase efficiency and reduce the response burden on economic operators.

At the same time, particular attention should be paid to coherent treatment of data collected from a variety of surveys. To this end, interdisciplinary working groups should be established.

The improved regulatory environment for European statistics should, in particular, respond to the need to minimise the response burden on survey respondents and contribute to the more general objective of a reduction of administrative burdens arising at European level, in line with the Presidency Conclusions of the European Council of 8 and 9 March 2007. The important role played by the NSIs and other national authorities in minimising burdens on European businesses at national level should, however, also be emphasised.

In order to enhance trust in European statistics, the national statistical authorities should in each Member State, as should the Community statistical authority within the Commission, enjoy professional independence and ensure impartiality and high quality in the production of European statistics, in accordance with the principles laid down in Article 285(2) of the Treaty as well as the principles further elaborated in the European statistics Code of Practice endorsed by the Commission in its Recommendation of 25 May 2005 on the independence, integrity and accountability of the national and Community statistical authorities (incorporating the European statistics Code of Practice). The Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics adopted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe on 15 April 1992 and by the United Nations Statistical Commission on 14 April 1994 should also be taken into account.

This Regulation ensures the right to respect for private and family life and to the protection of personal data, as set out in Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (10).

This Regulation also ensures the protection of individuals as regards the processing of personal data and specifies, as far as European statistics are concerned, the rules laid down in Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (11) and in Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data (12).

The confidential information which the national and Community statistical authorities collect for the production of European statistics should be protected, in order to gain and maintain the confidence of the parties responsible for providing that information. The confidentiality of data should satisfy the same principles in all the Member States.

For that purpose, it is necessary to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

The availability of confidential data for the needs of the ESS is of particular importance in order to maximise the benefits of the data with the aim of increasing the quality of European statistics and to ensure a flexible response to the newly emerging Community statistical needs.

The research community should enjoy wider access to confidential data used for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics, for analysis in the interest of scientific progress in Europe. Access to confidential data by researchers for scientific purposes should therefore be improved without compromising the high level of protection that confidential statistical data require.

The use of confidential data for purposes that are not exclusively statistical, such as administrative, legal or tax purposes, or for the verification against the statistical units should be strictly prohibited.

This Regulation should apply without prejudice to Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public access to environmental information (13) and to Regulation (EC) No 1367/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 September 2006 on the application of the provisions of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters to Community institutions and bodies (14).

Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the establishment of a legal framework for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective, and is therefore without prejudice to national modalities, roles, and conditions specific to national statistics.

The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (15).

In particular, the Commission should be empowered to adopt measures concerning the quality criteria for European statistics and to establish the modalities, rules and conditions under which access can be given to confidential data for scientific purposes at Community level. Since those measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation by supplementing it with new non-essential elements, they must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC.

The measures set out in this Regulation should replace those in Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1101/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council (16), Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 (17) and Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (18). Those acts should therefore be repealed. The implementing measures set out in Commission Regulation (EC) No 831/2002 of 17 May 2002 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 on Community Statistics, concerning access to confidential data for scientific purposes (19) and Commission Decision 2004/452/EC of 29 April 2004 laying down a list of bodies whose researchers may access confidential data for scientific purposes (20) should continue to apply.

The Statistical Programme Committee has been consulted,

‘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;

‘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;

‘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;

‘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.

‘statistics’ means quantitative and qualitative, aggregated and representative information characterising a collective phenomenon in a considered population;

‘development’ means the activities aiming at setting up, strengthening and improving the statistical methods, standards and procedures used for the production and dissemination of statistics as well as at designing new statistics and indicators;

‘production’ means all the activities related to the collection, storage, processing, and analysis necessary for compiling statistics;

‘dissemination’ means the activity of making statistics and statistical analysis accessible to users;

‘data collection’ means surveys and all other methods of deriving information from different sources, including administrative sources;

‘statistical unit’ means the basic observation unit, namely a natural person, a household, an economic operator and other undertakings, referred to by the data;

‘confidential data’ means data which allow statistical units to be identified, either directly or indirectly, thereby disclosing individual information. To determine whether a statistical unit is identifiable, account shall be taken of all relevant means that might reasonably be used by a third party to identify the statistical unit;

‘use for statistical purposes’ means the exclusive use for the development and production of statistical results and analyses;

‘direct identification’ means the identification of a statistical unit from its name or address, or from a publicly accessible identification number;

‘indirect identification’ means the identification of a statistical unit by any other means than by way of direct identification;

‘officials of the Commission (Eurostat)’ means the officials of the Communities, within the meaning of Article 1 of the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Communities, working at the Community statistical authority;

‘other staff of the Commission (Eurostat)’ means the servants of the Communities, within the meaning of Articles 2 to 5 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities, working at the Community statistical authority.

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 on survey respondents;

proposed developments and priorities in the European statistical programme;

initiatives to bring into practice the reprioritisation and reduction of the response burden;

issues concerning statistical confidentiality;

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.

‘relevance’, which refers to the degree to which statistics meet current and potential needs of the users;

‘accuracy’, which refers to the closeness of estimates to the unknown true values;

‘timeliness’, which refers to the period between the availability of the information and the event or phenomenon it describes;

‘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);

‘accessibility’ and ‘clarity’, which refer to the conditions and modalities by which users can obtain, use and interpret data;

‘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;

‘coherence’, which refers to the adequacy of the data to be reliably combined in different ways and for various uses.

by the European Parliament and the Council;

by the Commission, in specific and duly justified cases, in particular to meet unexpected needs, in accordance with the provisions in paragraph 2; or

by means of agreement between the NSIs or other national authorities and the Commission (Eurostat), within their respective spheres of competence. Such agreements shall be in writing.

the action does not provide for data collection covering more than three reference years;

the data are already available or accessible within the NSIs and other national authorities responsible, or can be obtained directly, using the appropriate samples for the observation of the statistical population at European level with the adequate coordination with the NSIs and other national authorities; and

the Community shall, in accordance with Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 make financial contributions to the NSIs and other national authorities to cover the incremental costs incurred by them.

the reasons justifying the action, notably in the light of the aims of the Community policy concerned;

the objectives for the action and the expected results;

a cost-effectiveness analysis, including an assessment of the burden on respondents and of the production costs; and

the ways in which the action is to be carried out, including its duration and the role of the Commission and the Member States.

maximising the availability of statistical aggregates at European level and improving the timeliness of European statistics;

reducing the burden on the respondents, the NSIs and other national authorities based on a cost-effectiveness analysis.

the production of European statistics by use of:

the dissemination of statistical aggregates at European level by applying specific statistical disclosure control techniques without national dissemination provisions being impaired.

the actions which the Commission considers to have priority, bearing in mind Community policy needs and both national and Community financial constraints as well as the response burden;

initiatives regarding the review of priorities and the reduction of the response burden; and

the procedures and any legal instruments envisaged by the Commission for implementation of the programme.

where specific conditions and modalities are determined by an act of the European Parliament and of the Council acting in accordance with Article 251 of the Treaty and the statistical results are amended in such a way that their dissemination does not prejudice statistical confidentiality whenever the statistical unit has so requested; or

where the statistical unit has unambiguously agreed to the disclosure of data.