Doc. EUROSTAT / E4 / Min /2015
Version 1.0
WORKING GROUP MEETING FOR REGIONAL, URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT STATISTICS
Working group meeting for Regional and Urban statistics and Rural development
held in Luxembourg,
bech – quettlet
on 19.10.2015 AND 20.10.2015
19 October 2015
1. Introduction
General information
Participants were representatives for theNational Statistical Institutes (NSIs) of the EU Member States (MSs) as well as the NSIs of Turkey, Serbia,Kosovo and Switzerland. The Directorate Generalsfor Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) and Agriculture and Rural development (DG AGRI) of the European Commission also participated with the Committee of the Regions (CoR) also represented. The OECD and ESPON also took part in the meeting as well as several Units from Eurostat.
Documents and presentations are available from the CIRCABC Interest Group "Regional and Urban Statistics" at:
1.1 Welcome and introduction
The meeting was chaired by the Head of Unit E4, Mr GunterSchäfer, who opened the meeting, welcomed the participants and briefly described the context of the subjects discussed by the Working Group.
1.2 Adoption of the agenda
The agenda was adopted without comments.
1.3 Adoption of the minutes
The minutes of the previous meeting (Eurostat/E4/Min/2014) were accepted without further change.
2. Highlights in 2014/2015
2.1 New mandate for the Working Group
Document: E4/REG/2015/21
Introduction
The revision of the DIMESA mandate in November 2014 paved the way forthe update of the mandates of the Working Groups (WGs) that report to DIMESA. The mandate of the Regional Statistics Working Group has not been revised since its establishment in 2001. Eurostat highlighted some of the major milestones from the past 15 years and portrayed some of the achievements. The tasks of the Working Group and the role of the Regional Statistics Co-ordinators (RESCOs) were presented in more detail.
Discussion
Several delegates proposed amendments and modifications to the proposed mandate. These modifications included:
- refer to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
- mention spatial statistics
- specify as objective territorial cohesion
- specify as task the support of the supply of statistics
- highlight co-operation with GISCO and other thematic WGs
Delegates remarked that the name of WG could be reconsidered as well.
Conclusion
Eurostat concluded that, in general, Delegates are supportive of the new mandate. It also welcomed the proposals received for modifications and committed itself to reflect upon them. A revised mandate will be circulated to the Delegates later on. Since no major objections were noted, Eurostat will ask the Delegates to approve the new, revised mandate in a written procedure.
2.2 Eurostat regional yearbook 2015
Presentation: 2 2 Eurostat regional yearbook 2015
Introduction
TheEurostat regional yearbook 2015 was presented, the online version of thispublication was released in Statistics Explained atthe beginning of August and the print/PDF version, together with the updated version of the Statistical Atlas, was released on the 9th October 2015, just in time to be presented at the Open Days – 13th European Week of Regions and Cities organised by DG Regio and the Committee of the Regions in Brussels.
The 2015 edition contains 15 chapters and has three new topics: "Regional policies and Europe 2020", "Focus on Gender statistics" and "Focus on quality of life". The chapter on "Population" has been entirely rewritten to include results from Census 2011, a new dataset on Enterprise demography is presented in the "Structural business statistics" chapter and the timeliness of data has been improved with one reference year for LFS and GDP data (mainly concerning the chapters "Education", Labour market" and Economy").
Discussion
A question regarding geographical coverage was raised and Eurostat explained that regional data is in principle shown for all 28 Member States of the EU, the four EFTA countries and the five candidate countries, but there can of course be exceptions in data availability in which case it's marked with dark grey on the maps or mentioned in footnotes.
One delegate asked if Eurostat could communicate in advance which indicators would be selected for the next edition of the Regional yearbook to give National statistical offices a chance to send complementary data. The answer was that this would be very difficult due to time constraints and very tight internal deadlines for each step in the publication process.
2.3 New release of Statistics Illustrated, dedicated websites and vislets
Presentation: 2.3 Statistics illustrated
Introduction
Eurostat gave an overview of the improvements made to the interactive visualisations of regional data on the Eurostat website. Regional Statistics Illustrated, City Statistics Illustrated and Typologies Illustrated are now also available in French and German. The Eurostat websites dedicated to regional, urban, rural development and maritime economy statistics now feature specific interactive visualisations, eg. on metropolitan regions or showing data by degree of urbanisation. Furthermore, Eurostat is working on adding regional data to the widgets (small visualisations of basic data that can be embedded in other websites) available on the Eurostat website.
In the discussion, DG REGIO underlined the need for functionalities that allow users to check the characteristics of the area/region they are living in. Eurostat will look into incorporating such features.
Conclusion
Eurostat will continue to improve its visualisations to promote the sub-national data available and the associated territorial typologies. Feedback from Member States on their experience with visualisations of regional data is appreciated.
2.4 Mobile app on regional data
Presentation: 2.4 Mobile app on regional data
Introduction
Eurostat presented a first demo version of a new Eurostat app on regional data. The app is designed to give a quick overview of indicators by NUTS 2 region, and allows the comparison of the data of up to three regions. The app will use the GPS location to select the region where the user is located in, and also features time line graphs, national maps at NUTS 2 level and EU-wide rankings on the different indicators. The release of the first version is planned at the end of 2015 for both iOS and Android.
Conclusion
Both Member States and DG REGIO welcomed the initiative as a useful measure to promote regional data to users. Member States will be informed when the app gets launched and are asked to promote it and provide feedback for further improvements. As the app will also feature data from EFTA and candidate countries, a neutral title such as "My region" will be proposed.
2.5 Labour market areas. Labour Market Areas in Italy: products for users and tool for policy
Presentations: 2.5 Labour Market Areas ESTAT, 2.5 2.5 Labour Market Areas ISTAT
Introduction
Eurostat started with some background information on the concept of the Labour Market Areas (LMA) as well as important information on the state of play with respect to the forthcoming project. The NSIs that applied for a grant and summary of their proposals have been presented. The framework of the project will focus on trainings for countries not covered by a grant, production of scientific papers and methodological guidelines, delineation of cross-border LMAs besides the national ones, translation of the script into another programming language, etc.
ISTAT presented the history of the LMAs in Italy, the reasons to develop LMAs, as well as the LMAs as core geography for examination of the country. The various examples given pointed out the extensive use of LMAs as geography for interpretation of socio-demographical characteristics based on censuses, identification of homogeneous functional areas according to their prevailing product specialisation, labour cost and productivity, analyses based on integrated data and further characteristics of society and land, a study of cities through LMAs geography, etc. A further use of the LMAs has been demonstrated through the delineation of Industrial districts. Currently theyrepresent about one-fourth of the Italian economic system, both in terms of LMAs, labour force and local units. ISTAT emphasised that the production of statistics at a regular interval of time allows them to use LMAs as a powerful tool for policy throughidentifying the areas on where to concentrate resources and to monitor changes over the time.
Finally, the delegate from ISTAT took the opportunity to invite the interested NSIs to two training courses (either in Italy or in another MS) where the method used for delineation of LMAs will be discussed and the experience will be shared with respect to the methods for small areas estimation, industrial district identification, release of statistics by LMAs, etc. This is a part of the grant program recently launched by Eurostat.
Discussion
The MSs highly appreciated the work done by ISTAT. The working group was most interested in the various use cases based on LMAs.
Further to the request for clarification on the method used for classification of the LMAs in Italy, ISTAT promised to make the related methodological documentation available in English.
Following the question from DG REGIO, Eurostat confirmed that each country will have the possibility to define their own optimal set of parameters butfollowing the common harmonised methodology. DG REGIO expressed their concerns about the potential replacement of the Functional Urban Areas with the LMAs while agreeing that the LMAs are a good complement to the NUTS.
Conclusion
Eurostat, together with seven NSIs that will participate in the project, will continue their work. In one-year's time, there will be more clarity of the state of play of the harmonisation and use of the LMAs.
3. Regional policy developments
Presentation: 3.1 Regional policy developments
Introduction
DG REGIO provided an overview of the latest development linked to regional policy. This included:
- Almost all the Cohesion Policy programmes have been adopted. In December 2015, the article 16 report will summarise the results of the negotiations.
- A number of partnership agreements and programmes contain an ex-ante conditionality of statistical systems. The full list will be shared on Circabc
- DG REGIOalready shares data on allocations by theme, expenditure, output and results on cohesiondata.ec.europa.eu
- The lagging regions will analyse low growth and low income regions to identify the impact of macro-economic imbalances, governance, structural reforms and the investment mix. The goal of this project is to boost development in these regions and avoid the middle income trap.
- DG REGIO and the JRC have regionalised the economic projections behind the ECFIN ageing report into a territorial scenario. These will support the discussions on the future of Cohesion Policy, territorial impact assessments and the lagging regions project.
- The Europe 2020 index is a composite indicator at the national, regional and degree of urbanisation level. It captures the distance to the EU and national targets. It shows the less developed regions tend be farthest removed from these targets.
- The EU regional Social Progress index measures three dimensions and 12components of social progress. This composite indicator does not include any economic indicators such as GDP, income or employment rates. It shows that there is a link to GDP per head, but that the link weakens as GDP increases.
Discussion
MSs asked about the underlying methodology for the scenarios and indices presented. DG REGIO provided some further detail on the sources and methods used.
Conclusion
DG REGIO informed Delegates on the status of the Cohesion Policy 2014-2020.
4. Regional, rural and urban statistics – objectives for the future
4.1 Eurostat Work Plan – addressing policy needs
Presentation: 4.1 AWP for Eurostat
Introduction:
Eurostat presented its assessment of the current situation which was the basis for the entries to the AWP. As the main conclusion, Eurostat considers that the regional and urban statistics are in fully operational mode. In particular, the good cooperation between all parties has been emphasised. Thus the main focus is on further gradual improvements.
The AWP is structured in a hierarchical way with not too many operational details. Thus, the presentation showed the link of regional and urban statistics to the various overall objectives, such as their role within the Commission's 10 key objectives.
Specific attention was given to reactions of Member States on the planned TERCET Regulation. It was positive in principle pointing out some remaining details to be clarified.
Conclusion:
The WG agreed to the view of Eurostat on this point.
5.Spatial references and geographical information
5.1 NUTS Regulation
Document: E4/REG/2015/51 – 5.1 NUTS regulation,
Presentation: 5.1NUTS
Introduction
The current version of the NUTS classification (NUTS 2013) has beenin force since 01/01/2015, so all datasets sent fromthat date should respect the new territorial breakdown.
The implementing regulation on the historical time series for the changed NUTS regions passed the scrutiny period of the Council and the European Parliament and is expected to be adopted by the Commission by the end of 2015. Member States which had changes in the NUTS from 2010–2013 will have to transmit their time series of the domains mentioned in the annex of the implementing regulation by01/01/2018.
The NUTS amendment round 2016 was launched by an official letter from Eurostat in July 2015. The deadline to introduce proposals to amend the breakdown is 01/02/2016. The Member States are invited to discuss proposals with E.4 before introducing them officially.
Conclusion
The Working Group took note of the information presented. Several Member States indicated that they intend to propose amendments to the NUTS.
5.2 Management of territorial classifications (workflow of updates)
Document: E4/REG/2015/52 – Legal base for territorial classifications
Presentation: 5.2 TERCET
Introduction
Eurostat presented the latest revision of the legislative proposal on the inclusion of territorial typologies into the NUTS Regulation. The objectives of the proposal are to establish legal recognition of the typologies and ensure a harmonised application.
Based on feedback received on the proposal, Eurostat clarified that uniform conditions for a harmonised implementation of the typologies will be established by an Implementing act, as suggested by a number of Member States. It was made clear that Eurostat would manage the grid and calculate and evaluate the typologies to the regions, areas and grid cells.
Discussion
Further feedback received before and during the Working Group raised the following remaining concerns:
- The historical time series should be managed by implementing instead of delegated acts;
- The inclusion of a data requirement (population data on LAUs) should be dropped;
- It should be clarified that delegated acts amending annexes 2 and 3 have to follow on corresponding changes in the Member States;
- Some Member States prefer the old labels of DEGURBA units (densely populated, intermediate and thinly populated areas);
- A number of smaller issues need to be corrected (some definitions to be added, a few names in annexes 2 and 3 to be modified, a reference to be changed, etc.);
- Some concepts are not clearly defined, for instance the definition of maritime region.
Eurostat agreed to change the delegation concerning the historical time series from delegated to implementing acts, to drop the population data requirements on the LAUs, to clarify the delegations concerning annexes 2 and 3, to add the old DEGURBA labels as alternative names and to execute the fine-tuning as suggested by the Member States.
Eurostat is requested to define the technical details for the collection of addition information on LAU and City changes as soon as possible.
Conclusion
The Working Group agreed that a corrected proposal should be sent within 3-4 weeks, and that the members of the Working Group would then give their agreement to advance the procedure to the next steps (DIMESA, Commission Inter-service Consultation and ESSC) in writing.
5.3 Management of NUTS change in Portugal
Presentation: 5.3 NUTS 2013 PT
Introduction
The Portuguese Statistical Institute (INE) presented how their extraordinary amendment of the NUTS breakdown was managed.
An extraordinary amendment became necessary as the administrative reform in Portugal was finalised only after the regular amendment round was already ongoing. Portugal and Eurostat decided to apply the new breakdown as from 01/01/2015, one year ahead of the legal starting date, in order to be in line with the timing of the regular amendment round.
The large-scale administrative reform implied numerous changes at NUTS 3-level. Following the change, 659 indicators were to be updated, of which 424 were already available at the time of the working group meeting. Furthermore, INE disseminated the NUTS changes across the national administration and organised a dedicated seminar, accompanied by a specific publication on the changes.
The publications of INE issued in 2015 were already based on NUTS 2013.
Conclusion
The Working Group took note of the presentation.
5.4 Developments in GISCO
Presentation: 5.4 GGIM progress report
Introduction
E.4's GISCO team presented recent developments in geospatial information management in the ESS, in particular the GEOSTAT projects and the UN-GGIM activities.
The three GEOSTAT projects aim at 1) the establishment of a population grid for Europe, 2) a point-based spatial reference framework for statistics and 3) a statistical-geospatial framework for the ESS.
While GEOSTAT 1 is finalised with the production of a European population grid, GEOSTAT 2 will run from 2015-16 to produce recommendations on a system of geocoded addresses and dwelling points for statistics. GEOSTAT 3 is under discussion and will aim at providing a generic framework for the production of geospatial statistics.
The UN-GGIM activities target the integration of statistical and geospatial information, and the use of this for the monitoring of sustainable development.
Related future ESS activities include:
- UN-GGIM as a priority for Eurostat to make progress on the integration of statistics and geospatial information;
- ESSnet projects: GEOSTAT 2 and GEOSTAT 3;
- Grants for projects on merging statistics and geospatial information;
- Development of a statistical-geospatial framework;
- Support to the European Forum for Geography and Statistics as the cooperation network of NSIs and NMCAs;
- Promotion of the Census 2020/21 as a flagship project for the integration of statistical and geospatial information.
Conclusion