The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs adopted the report by Roberto GUALTIERI (S&D, IT) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) No 99/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European statistical programme 2013-17, by extending it to 2018-2020.
The committee recommended that the European Parliament’s position, adopted at first reading following the ordinary legislative procedure, should amend the Commission proposal as follows:
Reliable and comprehensive European statistics: the amended text stressed the importance of prompt, reliable, relevant and publicly available evidence based on European statistics without unnecessary time lags in the provision of such statistics in measuring the progress and evaluating the efficiency of the Union’s policies and programmes, especially in the context of the Europe 2020 strategy and the Agenda for jobs, growth, fairness and democratic change.
Moreover, high quality statistics developed, produced and disseminated under the multiannual programme should contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to the 2015 Paris Agreement, through the monitoring of its objectives and targets.
Statistical infrastructure and objectives of the European statistical programme 2013 to 2020: Members stated that the statistical production should include, inter alia, the following:
- employment indicators distinguishing between part-time and full-time employment and between fixed-term contracts and permanent contracts, as well as indicators on unemployment that take into account people in activation policies such as training. That data should also include data on gender divides;
- statistical input for efficiently monitoring the economic inequalities that hamper economic growth;
- statistical information for a better understanding of the economic, social and environmental impact of globalisation;
- a set of high-quality macroeconomic indicators in order to better understand and analyse economic fluctuations as well as the evolution of economic inequalities and their effects on society;
- the production of indicators on income, wealth and consumption distribution across households;
- the development of a measurement framework of quality of life;
- the development of a conceptual framework for the measurement and analysis of gender inequality, with particular regard to the wage gap;
- the development of timely indicators on citizens using the portability of their social rights from one Member State to another;
- the development of comprehensive indicators on the situation of migrants within the Union;
- the provision of indicators for a comparison of the cost of providing public services, in particular education and health care, between regions.
Lastly, European citizens should be able to draw easily and without obstacles on European statistics to enable them to use such data for their education and decision-making.
Indicators should be published in a timely manner and, when at all possible, within 12 months of the end of the period of time covered. The Commission (Eurostat) should state publicly the reason for any unduly long delays that might occur.
Reports: by 30 June 2019, the Commission shall, after consulting the ESSC and the European Statistical Advisory Committee, submit an intermediate progress report of the programme to the European Parliament and to the Council.
The final evaluation report (to be presented by 31 December 2021 at the latest) shall evaluate in particular the outcome of reprioritisation and cost evaluation of statistical products, the progress on rendering access to official statistics easier and more user-friendly, including the provision of data on its website.