Cards statistical co-operation

Seminar on Strategic Programming

26-27 June 2003

The influence of the Acquis Communautaire in Strategic Programming in Western Balkan Statistics

  1. Introduction

The purpose of the paper is to describe, how and to what extent the statistical acquis communautaire and Eurostat programming together with member and candidate states can enhance and influence strategic programming of Cards countries.

The purpose of this paper is NOT to invite now all Cards countries/entities to go for total compliance and alignment with the statistical acquis immediately.

  1. Definitions

The famous “acquis communautaire” concept is a part of the European Community process and as such invoked in Article C of the TEU (even literally quoted in the English version of it). Real or near synonyms used are: "statistical acquis", "EU statistical requirements" or "EU standards".

It shall be defined as the totality of laws, rules and practices making up the European Community. By analogy the concept is extended to the second and third pillar of the European Union, whereas this is not in line with the above TEU Article. The Community acquis is, in the common understanding within the Institutions, based on very different types of legal fundaments ranging from Treaties to pure administrative practice convened in a working group and found practical.

The acquis communautaire can be broken down into several categories, which are different in many aspects, above all in accessibility and degree of obligation or origin of decision, which is the most pertinent criterion, graphically presented in a picture in the annex. Other criteria would be possible like the statistical area or the type of result wanted, like the creation of basic conditions (statistical units regulation) or production of statistics for a given period (examples are numerous).

  1. Scope and structure of the acquis communautaire in statistics

Several basic categories can be distinguished, they are in more detail described hereafter:

  • Genuine legal acts,
  • Agreements without legal acts,
  • Statistical part of other legal acts,
  • Acquis with impact on statistics.

Genuine legal acts

During the nearly fifty years of EC this hard kernel of the „statistical acquis“ grew from a rather small begin to an impressive compendium. A complete list, also on CD, of all acts is maintained by the legal service of Eurostat including acts in preparation.

Of course legal acts can be of very different nature and scope reaching from a once off labour cost survey in certain industries until the ESA 1995 or the Statistical Units Regulations. They contain in general complex provisions comprising a set of indicators, frequencies, coverage, representativity and more soft parts like transition periods, derogation possibilities, quality requirement, pilot studies etc. Quality in general is becoming an increasingly important topic for statistics in a period where important political and budgetary decisions are supported by and argued with statistical data.

From each legal act stem normally derived elements: granted derogations, Comitology decisions entrusted to the committee by the act itself, WG definitions of implementation rules not fixed by the law (e.g. transmission formats). Commission Decisions which are derived from Council Acts are subordinated, but belong technically to the group of legal acts.

The access to this part of the acquis is comparatively simple: the compendium is easy and the texts not too difficult to obtain (regularly published by Eurostat). Derived elements are more difficult to access by compiling documentation and regularly attending meetings of the competent WG’s.

Agreements without legal acts

Clearly this group has less compelling character but it represents still a big, but decreasing part of the „statistical acquis“. In itself it is heterogeneous, subcategories and distinctions influencing the importance of single elements can be:

  • Long and stable practice or once off operations;
  • Compelling general or Community requirements (Balance of Payments) nobody ever doubted or ad-hoc demand driven operations.
  • SPC endorsement or not available;
  • Contract supported actions, e.g. pilot surveys run by Member States only with Community finance available.

This part of the acquis is not as well known in its totality as the previous one, but still exists the Requirement Compendium, listing all of them.

Only way to access this part of the acquis and to know it in detail is to collect documentation from Eurostat units or in the framework of its working groups.

Statistical part of other legal acts

Within the „acquis communautaire“ driven by other DG’s a lot of directives and regulations can be found where reporting obligations and data compilations are put on Member States which have also statistical interest, quite popular in Internal Market type legislation. The data collected in virtue of these acts are often not looked at as statistics but as administrative or surveillance type of data.

This sort of data should not be looked at as competition for statistics, but is of great help:

  • The data itself can be used for statistical purposes, it should be possible to obtain them from the competent DG.
  • The existence of an administrative or surveillance type of data source can be used for statistics (existence and methodology of administrative source is then known).
  • The existence of these data proves directly the need for statistico-administrative data and helps the enlargement of the „statistical acquis“. Eurostat has in the past already taken over the data compilation from other DG’s.

There is hardly a systematic way to know this part of the acquis. It must therefore be assumed that the potential of this group is not totally exploited.

Acquis with impact on statistics

This group does not belong strictly to the „statistical acquis“, its maintenance and evaluation is not the responsibility of Eurostat, but it is important to know the elements. The group consists of legal acts which do not oblige to collect any statistics or create any other purely statistical provisions, but they are part of the general economic and regulatory environment. As they are valid in all Member States they are source of definition and methodology and create pressure towards harmonisation also for statistics. They can furthermore open comparable access to administrative sources and are in this quality extremely important for the ESS.

Prominent examples are to be found in the administrative environment of companies: 4th directive of company law (and the specialised ones for the financial sector) providing for comparable business accounts plus some other company law directives, VAT directives harmonising indicators which can be used for short term statistics. Other examples can be found in the secondary law on EMU or in provisions concerning asylum seekers or migrations. In a certain sense some pieces of custom law belong also to the group but here the connection with external trade is anyway extremely close.

The number of those acts with large impact is not too high. It should normally be possible to access this part of the acquis in contact with the competent Eurostat units, but no systematic compilation is available. Indirectly it will be often referred to in concerned WG meetings.

  1. Input into strategic programming

There are a number of ways in which the statistical acquis can serve as input into strategic programming. Many of them are taken as a light analogy with the process run through by candidate countries, the intensity has to be debated in each case though. This approach seems logic, as the SAA process and documents themselves are inspired by the accession process.

How far to go with the statistical acquis

The statistical acquis communautaire concerns Member States of the EU and of course recognised candidate countries during the enlargement process. This is not the case yet for any of the Western Balkan countries/entities, only Croatia so far has filed an application for membership. The question how far in the adoption of the acquis those countries shall go cannot be answered in a general way for all of them and for all times. The principles outlined hereafter can though serve as a general guideline for decision:

  • There should be no decisions going against the principles of the statistical acquis, especially when it comes to basic infrastructure options (e.g. statistical units).
  • Basic conditions prescribed by the statistical acquis (units, classifications, …) are more important than technical details (e.g. frequency of a survey or data collection).
  • Parts of the acquis stemming directly from specific EC policies (e.g. agriculture) are not the first priority. On the other hand it appears useful to fulfill the requirements set out in the SAA'S or their drafts, given the long preparation time for the introduction of statistics.
  • There should be not taken large efforts for the only purpose of compliance with the statistical acquis. That means that data and conditions to be obtained must have direct use and usage and not only the abstract later compliance.
  • Intensity of compliance efforts shall grow with the proximity in the enlargement process.

Even when following the guidelines above there may be margins of action, which shall be filled of course with a sound strategic programme of the statistical office in question.

From an operational point of view it is advisable to consult with Eurostat before taking very burdensome action on alignment with the acquis.

Eurostat 5-year Statistical Programme

Currently we are running the period 2003-2007, a new programme has just been adopted some months ago. This programme, according to the Statistical law of the EC is the basis for communication inside the European Statistical System, and notably between Eurostat and the national statistical offices. It is the basis for all reporting and decisions and provides a general nomenclature of statistical issues. Not only it contains a classification of the acquis in terms of chapters/themes/modules, but covers also statistical activities not strictly being acquis (e.g. statistical training and co-operation). The Statistical Requirements Compendium is based on the classification of the (previous) Programme and all communication with candidate countries in the enlargement process (screening, yearly work plan, report on compliance, compliance data base) is based on that classification.

It appears extremely logic and appropriate to use the same classification for strategic programming, it will enhance and facilitate communication with member and candidate states.

Just because of the entry into force of a new programme, reaching until 2007, it appears particularly appropriate and advantageous to convert programming and reporting to the scheme of Eurostat/Member States/Candidate countries. As shown in the annex, it should be recovering for the vast majority of operationa in a statistical office.

Statistical Requirements Compendium

This compendium, updated permanently and edited once per year gives an overview of the acquis communautaire in statistics, presented in the classification of the Statistical programme. Of course it does not give any direct information, but references to legal acts, methodological manuals as well as indications on the responsible unit in Eurostat.

It is highly recommendable to have a sufficient number of copies in the office. They can be obtained from Eurostat-A5, also in form of a PDF file. The Cards team of unit A5 will also be ready to intermediate with concerned units for obtaining methodological documents required by Cards countries/entities.

Monitoring progress and compliance

Several years ago the need was arising in the framework of the enlargement process to have a tool for monitoring the situation of a statistical system with respect to the statistical acquis, with full coverage. It turned out to be very laborious to collect each time from many units information and not to store them in a central place. The so-called compliance database was established, again in the form of the Statistical Programme, and disseminated to all candidate countries. A central copy containing the information of all countries is of course held at Eurostat.

The main content, in the systematic of the Requirements Compendium, is a self-assessment of the countries, comments and assessments of concerned Eurostat units and a synthesis called "combined assessment". It turned out to be very useful to print listings providing an overview of statistics in a given country. As a side effect the data base contains also the structure of the acquis and can serve as communication instrument for changes.

In the course of time the compliance data base may become obsolete for the new Member States joining 1.5.2004, it is though intended to keep the instrument for use by other interested countries.

  1. Conclusion

Hereafter follow some practical steps in dealing with the statistical acquis communautaire, as an input to programming in statistical offices of Western Balkan countries.

First step: get information about programmes, classifications, new developments in the acquis etc.

Second step: reflect and consult about the choice of scope to be applied in your country. At least make sure that there is no violation of acquis principles in the approach you wish to take.

Third step: Get adequate help and advice, plan this as a long term activity taking into account Cards programmes. Use approximation needs to the acquis also as input for setting up requests under Cards national envelops. As source of expertise in this area statisticians in member and candidate states are available.

Closing remarks

The question of enlargement of the Union has made it appropriate and required to look at the „statistical acquis“ in its totality. This has not been the case before, where the acquis was handled in sections by the various Eurostat units in pair with their homologues in Member States. A second reason for a holistic approach is surely the acquis's rapid progression with new treaties and reinforced policies: a good example of this is the growing legal background of social statistics as a consequence of the social and employment policies. A third and not the smallest reason is that comparable/harmonised statistical data collected by Eurostat from Member States have growing direct financial or political impact: examples are convergence criteria for the Monetary Union and the evaluation of the contributions of Member States to the EC budget.

The acquis as it stands now has always been the result of a negotiation process, thus a compromise of conflicting interests. Not always it therefore reflects the “best” or “most scientific” approach to a problem. We believe that in a world with the need for international comparison the disadvantage induced by deviation from the acquis weighs heavier than the gain stemming from a “perfect scientific” method, applicable in just one national context.

Five year Statistical Programme 2003-2007:
Eurostat work Themes

Chapter (Activity)
Theme (Action)
I Support for statistical outputs, technical infrastructure
10 / Quality management and evaluation
11 / Classifications
12 / Statistical training
13 / IT-infrastructures and services for Eurostat
14 / IT-normalisation and collaborative infrastructures for the ESS
15 / Reference data and meta-data warehouses
16 / Information
17 / Dissemination
18 / Statistical coordination
19 / Statistical cooperation with the candidate countries
21 / Statistical cooperation with other third countries
22 / Statistical research and methodology
25 / Data security and statistical confidentiality
II Demographic and social statistics
31 / Population
32 / Labour market
33 / Education
34 / Culture
35 / Health and safety
36 / Distribution of incomes and living conditions
37 / Social protection
38 / Other work in the field of demographic and social statistics
39 / Consumer protection
III Economic statistics
III A Macro-economic statistics
40 / Annual economic accounts
41 / Quarterly accounts
42 / Financial accounts
43 / Monitoring own resources
55 / Prices
57 / Statistics for business cycle analysis
III B Business statistics
44 / Statistics on the economic activity of enterprises4
45 / Energy
48 / Transport
49 / Information society
50 / Tourism
51 / Business registers
III C Monetary, financial, trade and balance of payments statistics
52 / Money and finance
53 / Trade in goods
54 / Trade in services and balance of payments
IV Agriculture, forestry and fisheries
61 / Land use and landscape
62 / Agricultural structures
63 / Agricultural monetary statistics
64 / Crop production
65 / Animal production
66 / Agro-industry statistics
67 / Coordination and reform of agricultural statistics
68 / Forestry statistics
69 / Fisheries statistics
V Multi-domain statistics
70 / Sustainable development
71 / Environment statistics
72 / Regional statistics
73 / Science and technology
74 / Geographical and local information
VII Resources and management
91 / International and inter-institutional relations
92 / Management and statistical programmes
93 / Management of human resources
94 / Management of financial resources
95 / Management of legal bases
96 / Audit
97 / General administration
99 / Decentralized management

1

1