/ EUROPEAN COMMISSION
EUROSTAT
Directorate A: Cooperation in the European Statistical System; International cooperation; Resources
Unit A3: Statistical cooperation

Doc. MGSC/2015/27

Seventeenth meeting of the

Management Group on Statistical Cooperation

19 - 20 March 2015

Luxembourg, Bech Building

Room Ampère

Start: 9:30 am

Multi-beneficiary IPA programmes in the enlargement countries – state of play

Point 10.3 of the Agenda

This document presents the status of implementation of the on-going multi-beneficiary programme IPA 2012(MBP IPA 2012) in statistics and provides some information on the next multi-beneficiary IPA 2014 programme.

1.Principles governing multi-beneficiary statistical cooperation

The purpose of multi-beneficiary statistical cooperation programmes is to improve the availability and quality of official statistics of the beneficiary countries.

Each multi-beneficiary programme defines concrete objectives to be achieved through implementation of pilot projects in various statistical domains; and through statistical assistance activities such as study visits or participation in meetings. The various activities are funded by grants to the NSIs of the beneficiaries (covering for example data collection) or through service contracts (e.g. transfer of knowledge through private experts). The tendency over time is to rely more on grants rather than service contracts, thus supporting more directly the statistical activities in the countries, increasing ownership of the projects by the countries and providing the possibility to learn how to manage EU funds (in a similar way as Member States do).

2.On-going programme

2.1IPA 2012 multi-beneficiary cooperation programme

The MBP IPA 2012 has a statistics component like in the previous IPA programmes for approximately 9.30 M€ (mainly because it combines the 2012 and 2013 IPA programmes as there was no separate 2013 IPA programme). Of this amount, 4.40 M€ is reserved for the service contract, mainly benefitting Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo[*] and Montenegro, while 4.91 M€ is reserved for grants to Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. When Statistics Iceland had to withdraw from the application procedure for political reasons, part of the available budget was redirected towards the remaining four grant countries, who subsequently revised their grant applications by adding more ad hoc data collection projects. Unfortunately it was not possible to make use of all the available funds.

Both service and grant contracts were signed in November 2013. Implementation started in December 2013 for the service contract and in January 2014 for the grant contracts. The duration will be 23-24 months, as the end date of implementation is November 2015.

The IPA 2012 multi-beneficiary statistical cooperation programme covers activities in the following statistical domains:

  • National accounts methodology
  • Regional gross value added
  • Regional household accounts
  • LUCAS
  • Agri-monetary statistics
  • Annual crop statistics
  • Animal production statistics
  • Structure of earnings survey (SES)
  • Social Protection statistics (ESSPROS)
  • Education statistics – implementation of ISCED 2011
  • Research and development statistics and CIS
  • Environmental accounts
  • Short-term business statistics (STS)
  • International trade in goods statistics
  • International trade in services statistics
  • Income and living condition statistics (SILC)
  • Price statistics (PPPs)
  • Price statistics (HICP)

Some of these statistical domains are for the countries benefitting from a grant only. In addition, some of those countries proposed one or two ad hoc projects in statistical domains covered by the EU acquis.

2.1.1Service contract

The service contract awarded to GOPA Consultants was signed in November 2013. The implementation started in December 2013 for a period of 24 months. It will end in November 2015. It is intended primarily for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro.

The support is given both for implementing selected pilot projects and for technical assistance. The support for pilot projects consists of transfer of methodological advice via external experts and support for the countries' own work such as data collection and making inventories. The technical assistance part covers participation in pilot project workshops, Eurostat working group meetings, international events, study visits, training and secondment of trainees to Eurostat and the NSIs of EU Member States and EFTA countries.

The full implementation of the contract started only in July 2014, after the end of the previousIPA 2011 service contract (June 2014).A coordination workshop with the beneficiary countries, Eurostat and the contractor took place on 29 April 2014 to officially launch the project. Beneficiary countries supported by a grant contract also participated.

The first two 6-monthly progress meetings with the contractor took place on 4 July 2014 and on 20 January 2015 respectively. Activities are running according to plans.

2.1.1.1Technical assistance

The budget for technical assistance is more generous compared to previous programmes. The IPA 2012 service contract provides for approximately 840 participants in meetings (working groups, conferences, etc.), 30 trainees as well as the participation of beneficiaries’ experts in 14 workshops, 15 training courses and 24 study visits. In addition 150 working days are also available for ad-hoc expert assistance.

General technical assistance will allow, where relevant:

  • participation of beneficiaries' experts in technical meetings including working group meetings, task force meetings and seminars organised by Eurostat alone or jointly with international organisations such as UNECE, OECD, etc. or by other Commission services
  • participation of beneficiaries' experts in pilot project workshops
  • training courses (organised within the European Statistical Training Programme or by the contractor upon beneficiaries' specific needs)
  • study visits to statistical offices or other official statistics providers in Europe
  • ad hoc consultancy (ad-hoc expert assistance in areas not covered by the pilot projects but which are important and urgent for a beneficiary i.e. assessments/review of the whole statistical system, support to the development of web site, etc.)
  • traineeships of statisticians from the beneficiaries at Eurostat, EU Member States and EFTA countries
  • translation and dissemination of the relevant documentation

The table below gives an overview of the technical assistance activities carried out as of end of January 2015:

Activities / No. of activities / No. of participants
Working Groups, seminars etc. / 82 / 339
Pilot project workshops / 6 / 97
55 AL, BA, ME, XK + 42 RS, MK, TR, HR
ESTP Training courses / 15 / 26
Training courses organized by the contractor / 3 / 44
33 AL, BA, ME, XK + 11 RS, MK, TR, HR
Other training courses / 0 / 0
Study visits / 3 / 18
Traineeships / 31 / 31
TOTAL / 129 / 555
502 AL, BA, ME, XK + 53 RS, MK, TR, HR
Ad hoc consultancies / 12 missions / 12 different assignments carried out by 13 experts

Beneficiaries' experts from countries supported by a grant contract can also attend training courses organized by the contractor and pilot project workshops.

Two rounds of traineeships were already organised. In total 20 trainees participated: 12 trainees were hosted at Eurostat and 8 were hosted in EU Member States – mainly in Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Portugal.

A third round of traineeships is taking place from 19 January to 19 June 2015. In total there are 11 trainees as follows: 7 trainees are hosted at Eurostat and 4 are hosted in EU Member States – mainly in Poland, Portugal and Slovenia.

Finally a last final round of traineeships will run from 1 September to 27 November 2015. The selection procedure is still on-going.

Technical assistance activities are carried out in accordance with the guidelines developed by Eurostat in cooperation with the contractor. These guidelines are based on previous programme procedures and serve to facilitate and standardise the work process. They provide a full overview of eligible activities and are harmonised with the coding system of different activities used in other multi-beneficiary programmes. This is also done in view of the future transition from service contracts to grants. The procedures for the selection of participants and the organisation of participation in events are described in more detail. These guidelines together with the templates to be used (terms of reference for study visits and consultancies, justification for additional participants, activity reports, etc.) were disseminated to the countries. Countries are asked to follow the instructions given in the guidelines i.e. to keep the deadlines set and to pay particular attention to the quality of the documents provided. Only a system of sound management and proper coordination can ensure smooth and efficient implementation of the activities.

In addition, as stated in the guidelines for participation in activities, the countries are obliged to inform Eurostat in case any participant covered by other funds (other donor, national budget etc.) will participate in an activity financed by MBP IPA 2012.

The Code of principles in international cooperation adopted at the 2007 PGSC meeting has also to be observed in the implementation of the MBP IPA 2012 service contract.

2.1.1.2Pilot projects

The principal activities for the 11 pilot projects include:

  • expert missions to countries to assess the domains where improvements are most urgently required
  • expert missions to countries to give on-the-spot guidance for improvement of areas where weaknesses have been identified
  • organising workshops and seminars for countries to disseminate best practices and exchange views among the beneficiaries' experts
  • help desk function to give continuous assistance (e.g. on the use of classifications and statistical methods)
  • finance data collection surveys and methodological reports prepared by countries

The implementation of the pilot projects is running in general according to the implementation schedule and many activities have taken place.

2.1.2Grant contracts

The MBP IPA 2012 grant contracts were signed in November 2013 by 4 countries - Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. The implementation started in January 2014 and will run 23 months. It will end in November 2015.

The technical assistance part covers participation in pilot project workshops, Eurostat working group meetings, study visits, training courses and secondment of trainees to Eurostat and the NSIs of EU Member States and EFTA countries.

Since MBP IPA 2012 and MBP IPA 2011 grants overlapped for 8 months. For the first 8 months most of the technical assistance activities were still financed from MBP IPA 2011 budget until the budget of this programme was exhausted; and only then activities started to be financed from MBP IPA 2012 budget. However there are some exceptions - activities related to MBP IPA 2012 data collection projects (PP workshops, study visits related to certain IPA 2012 data collection project, etc.) have been financed from MBP IPA 2012 programme from the start date of this program.

Part of the data collection projects was already launched from January 2014 by the 4 countries. Some of the projects started later due to the overlap with MBP IPA 2011 data collection projects or for other reasons.

The guidelines for planning and reporting during the implementation of the IPA grant contracts were revised and sent to the 4 countries. The guidelines developed by Eurostat are based on previous programmes and aim to help the countries in fulfilling their planning and reporting obligations. They provide a full overview of the different eligible activities through a coding system. They also provide templates to be used (quarterly financial and technical reports, terms of reference for study visit/consultation, justification for additional participants, activity report, etc.). Countries are asked to follow the instructions given in the guidelines i.e. to keep the deadlines set and to pay particular attention to the quality of the documents provided.

Eurostat is monitoring closely the contractual obligations of the grant countries and the delivery of the required reporting documents. All countries are providing the required quarterly reports for Data Collection Projects and for Technical assistance on a regular basis. Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia have submitted interim reports in the 1st quarter of 2015. These reports are verified at the moment by Eurostat. Turkey has requested the postponement of the interim report and has to submit interim report until 30 June 2015.

From January 2014 to November 2015 three rounds of traineeships will take place. One round of traineeships was already organised. In total 12 trainees participated: 4 trainees were hosted at Eurostat and 8 were hosted in EU Member States – in Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Poland and Slovenia.

A second round of traineeships is taking place from 19 January to 19 June 2015. In total 12 trainees participate: 5 trainees are hosted at Eurostat and 7 are hosted in EU Member States – in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Portugal and Slovenia.

Finally a last final round of traineeships will run from 1 September to 27 November 2015. The selection procedure is still on-going.

3. Future programmes

3.1Beyond IPA 2012

There is no statistics programme under IPA 2013.

IPA programmes on statistical cooperation under the multi-annual financial framework 2014-2020 areof 56M€ for the period 2014-2020, which means 8 M€ per year. The requested budget amounts were set out in the Strategy for Statistical Cooperation with the Enlargement Countries 2014-2020 and served as the basis for discussions with DG NEAR (Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations)on support to statistics in enlargement countries in the reference period.

The IPA II regulation puts more emphasis on monitoring the results of the assistance and, therefore measurable indicators are in the process of being developed. Several indicators will be based on statistical data and thus requested from the statistical office in each enlargement country. The new IPA II regulation brings about as well a new element – a performance award for those countries demonstrating good progress in theimplementation of reforms and complying with the commitments made in the enlargement process.

Eurostat has developed specific compliance indicators to be used for the monitoring of the results of statistical cooperation programmes. These indicators focus on data availability in of data in key areas; their design and targets have been discussed with the statistical offices of the enlargement countries.

Statistical cooperation is expected to continue to be supported from both multi-beneficiary and national IPA programmes, as they complement each other. A dedicated discussion on the complementarity was held in the PGSC meeting in October 2013, which concluded that there is good complementarity between the two types of IPA programmes and that the combination of the two approaches is the optimal way for IPA support in statistics.

Multi-beneficiary IPA programmes (MBP) promote a regional co-operation and networking environment in the area of statistics among enlargement countries and support them in the alignment of their statistical data with the EU standards and finally prepare them for the EU accession. They provide common training on methodology and in the working modes of the European Statistical System and ensure harmonisation of applied methodology. National IPA programmes focus their support more on national needs of the countries, especially for large surveys like censuses, for upgrading of the infrastructure and for fundamental changes to statistical domains.

As for the design of the 2014 multi-beneficiary IPAprogramme for statistical cooperation, in early 2014 Eurostat production units proposed pilot projects important from their perspective while all the beneficiary countries were also asked to provide their proposals for pilot projects. After receiving the requested input, Eurostat developed a consolidated list of pilot projects by taking into account both the proposals of Eurostat production units and of the countries.

Eurostat prepared an action fiche for MBP IPA 2014 and submitted it to the DG ELARG in May 2014. The action fiche was approved by the IPA Committee in the 4th quarter 2014.Eurostat started the contracting procedure. The intention of Eurostat is to allow a short overlap in implementation between MBP IPA 2012 and the future MBP IPA 2014.

1

[*]This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ

Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.