The Commission supports the position of the Council which reflects the political agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Council on 3 December 2014 and includes elements proposed by both institutions.
The Commission accepts in particular:
· the main amendments as regards the specific situation of national statistical institutes (NSIs), which aim to limit the scope of the statistical decision-taking power of the Heads of NSIs, notably to matters within their own institutions and the provision on professional independence which is extended to cover, in addition to Heads of NSIs, the ‘statistical heads of other national authorities”;
· the focus on the professional independence of the Director General of Eurostat and the formalisation of a statistical dialogue which will enable every year for a direct exchange of views between the Director-General of EUROSTAT and the relevant Committee of the European Parliament on statistical matters;
· in response to the European Parliament's request, the introduction of measures foreseeing publication of Commission’s concerns regarding the quality of national contributions to European statistics;
· the reference to the cooperation between the European Statistical System and the European System of Central Banks on compilation of European statistics.
The Commission notes that the provision on establishment by Member States of ‘Commitments on Confidence in Statistics’ is weakened but combined with a more detailed description of the applicable monitoring and reporting process by the Commission.