The Commission presents a report on the implementation of Decision (EC) No 1297/2008/EC on a programme for the Modernisation of European Enterprise and Trade Statistics (MEETS).
The report documents the activities carried out by Member States under the MEETS Programme together with the Commission (Eurostat), with respect to the provisions of the MEETS Decision and the associated Commission Decisions on the annual work programmes for 2009 and 2010, both adopted in 2009. The MEETS project follows very closely the main orientations set out in the Commission’s Communication to the European Parliament and the Council of 10 August 2009 on the production method of EU statistics: a vision for the next decade.
Since the adoption of Decision No 1297/2008/EC and the adoption of the first work programme in April 2009, more than 25 projects have been launched for the four MEETS objectives. Major progress has been made in setting up the collaborative networks that are undertaking activities in the following six main areas:
In addition, several projects were launched to support the development and implementation of the EuroGroups Register in the Member States. It should be mentioned, however, that Member States have a limited absorption capacity as regards the additional co-ordination activities involved in the networks.
All the studies that were carried out and finalised will be evaluated together with the main stakeholders from Commission services and 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 on priority setting, simplification and reduction of response burden in the field of Community statistics.
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 the reducing the burden on businesses and to help the European Statistical System in responding to new needs for statistical information. In total, EU funding amounted to around EUR 5 million and EUR 10 million for the 2009 and 2010 work programmes respectively, covering more than 25 projects. Grants, either through ESSnets or individual grants, were the most common instrument for financing the actions (around 90%).Thirty-one grants totalling around EUR 13.5m were co-financed and 13 external studies for a total of around EUR 1.5m were subcontracted. In addition, workshops and task forces were financed to develop the actions.
Owing 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.