PURPOSE: to extend the European statistical programme (ESP) 2013-17, for the period 2018-2020.
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 Council.
BACKGROUND: the implementation and monitoring of EU policies relies on comparable and high-quality statistical information about the economic, social and environmental situation in the EU and its components at national and regional level. European statistics are also indispensable if ‘Europe’ is to be understood by the general public. The current ESP, as laid down in Regulation (EU) No 99/2013 and covering the period from 2013 to 2017, is the eighth programme of its kind.
Although national statistical systems have made a significant effort to modernise their production methods with the support of the 2013-2017 European statistical programme (ESP), the current statistical production infrastructure is still not flexible enough to deliver new statistics when needed, while also limiting the associated cost and administrative burden.
In order to satisfy the information needs stemming from the Commission’s 10 political priorities, a number of urgent statistical gaps need to be addressed. Furthermore, the timeliness of some European statistics needs to be improved urgently, so that they provide the more up-to-date information needed in the context of the European Semester exercise.
IMPACT ASSESSMENT: the preferred option is an amended ESP, including new statistical outputs to align statistical production with the Commission’s 10 political priorities, complemented by major initiatives to reduce the burden on respondents and costs to NSIs, and increased annual budget
CONTENT : by amending Regulation (EU) No 99/2013, the aim of the proposal is to extend the ESP 2013-2017 for the period 2018-2020 and provide the financial support that the European statistical system (ESS) needs in order to be able to:
- provide high-quality statistical information and close the statistical gaps that need to be addressed most urgently, focusing on a number of priority areas that reflect the Commission’s 10 political priorities for jobs, growth, fairness and democratic change and other Union policies such as the European Semester, the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, and the European Energy Union;
- implement new methods on production of European statistics aiming to achieve efficiency gains and improvement in quality;
- strengthen partnership within the ESS and beyond in order to further increase its productivity and secure its leading role in official statistics worldwide.
In specific terms, the proposal amends the ESP 2013-2017, including new statistical outputs to align statistical production with the Commission’s 10 political priorities, complemented by major initiatives to modernise the methods for producing statistics, reduce the burden on respondents and costs to national statistical institutes (NSIs).
In particular, the initiative will underpin Union policies in the following areas:
- social indicators to strengthen the EU social dimension, European monetary union and the social impact analysis of macroeconomic policies;
- further statistical work to analyse the growth and employment impact of technological change and innovation and to put in place a circular economy monitoring system;
- more detailed data on energy consumption and better early estimates of energy balances;
- statistics on online cross-border selling for the ‘digital single market’ priority (accessing services provided by intermediaries in content distribution; trust in online platforms and intermediaries; barriers faced by households making crossborder purchases);
- a harmonised house price index and related statistics in the context of assessing Member States’ structural reforms;
- statistics to help the EU to steer and monitor the impact of its external policies and assistance programmes, and to contribute to good governance and democratic debate in partner countries.
BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS: the total amount to be borne by the EU budget for the extension of the programme (2018-2020) is EUR 218.1 million (current prices).