Community statistics: income and living conditions in the Union EU-SILC

PURPOSE : to establish a common framework for the systematic production of Community statistics on income and living conditions ("EU-SILC"). COMMUNITY MEASURE : Regulation 1177/2003/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning Community statistics on income and living conditions. CONTENT : in order to carry out the tasks assigned to it, the Commission needs to be kept informed of income distribution and of the level and composition of poverty and social exclusion in the Member States. The best method of assessing the situation is to compile Community statistics using harmonised methods and definitions. The aim of this Regulation is to establish a common framework for the production of Community statistics, which encompass comparable and timely cross-sectional and longitudinal data on income and on the level and composition of poverty and social exclusion at national and European levels. The main points of the Regulation are as follows: - the EU-SILC covers cross-sectional data on income, poverty, social exclusion and other living conditions as well as longitudinal data restricted to income, labour and a limited number of non-monetary indicators of social exclusion; - the cross-sectional and longitudinal data will be produced annually as from 2004. In any given Member State, the timing of collection will be kept the same from one year to the next as far as possible; - Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom may start the annual cross-sectional and longitudinal data collection in 2005; - in order to permit multi-dimensional analysis at the level of households and persons and in particular investigation of major issues of social concern that are new and require specific research, all household and individual data will be linkable in the cross-sectional component, and in the longitudinal component. - longitudinal micro-data do not need to be linkable with cross-sectional micro-data; - the longitudinal component must cover at least four years; - cross-sectional and longitudinal data will be based on nationally representative probability samples. Germany, however, will supply cross-sectional data based on a nationally representative probability sample for the first time for the year 2008. For the intervening period, there are special provisions; - there are provisions on the access for scientific purposes to EU-SILC confidential data; - for the first four years, Member States will receive a financial contribution from the Community towards the cost of the work involved; - the Commission must submit a report to the Council and Parliament by 31/12/07. ENTRY INTO FORCE : 23/07/03.�