PURPOSE: to establish a common framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples.
PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.
BACKGROUND: in the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy and the strengthening of economic governance, social indicators play an essential role in informing and supporting the Union's key priorities for growth and job creation, the reduction of poverty and social exclusion, skills, mobility and the digital economy.
The EU needs reliable and timely social statistics to monitor the social situation and the impact of economic developments and policies on social conditions in the Member States and their regions, and on the situation of different groups in the population.
European statistics relating to persons and households are currently collected on the basis of a number of legislative acts covering surveys on persons and households, demographic statistics, population and housing censuses and statistics mainly collected from administrative sources. Some data are also gathered from business surveys.
Despite significant improvements in recent years there is a need to further integrate the collection of statistics based on surveys conducted on persons and households.
IMPACT ASSESSMENT: on the basis of the results of the impact assessment, the policy options consist of: (i) consolidating existing Regulations, ‘defragment’ production processes; and (ii) in the longer run, integrate governance of European social statistics collected from samples, defragment production processes used for different data collections were selected to address the fragmentation of European social statistics collected from samples.
CONTENT: the purpose of the Regulation is to establish a common framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples.
The statistics covered by the Regulation are organised into the domains and topics detailed in Annex I of the proposed Regulation.
The data collection shall be organised into the following domains: (a) labour market, (b) income and living conditions, (c) health, (d) education and training, (e) use of information and communication technologies, (f) time use, (g) consumption.
The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts:
The Commission should also be empowered to adopt implementing measures on the technical specifications of the data sets, the standards for transmission and exchange of information, the characteristics of the sampling frames and the quality reporting.
Member States are expected to start data transmission to the Commission under the new Regulation in 2019.
In addition, the proposal:
Lastly, the proposed Regulation consists of five Annexes which set out the detailed information on the topics to be covered, the precision requirements, the sample characteristics, the periodicity and the deadlines for the transmission of data.
BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS: there is a phasing-in period for the implementation of the proposal lasting seven years, from 2019 to 2025, the programme should however continue afterwards. Only the years of the current Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) have been considered in the legislative financial statement.
For years 2019 and 2020, funding will come from the existing allocations to programmes and no additional funding is required. The total appropriations for 2019 and 2020 are estimated at EUR 28.814 million.
DELEGATED ACTS: the proposal contains provisions empowering the Commission to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.