Management Group on Statistical Co-Operation

Eurostat

Unit E4

Eighth Meeting of the

Management Group on Statistical Co-operation

23 - 24 March 2006

Luxembourg

Bech building, Room Ampère

Start: 10.00 am

Compliance database

Bulgaria

(Document MGSC/2006-1/05)

Point 2.2 of the Agenda

Compliance Monitoring

Experience of Bulgaria

Background information

The Compliance Monitoring process in Bulgariastarted in April 1998 with the first multilateral screening exercise of the legislation and with the preparation of the first National Programme for the Adoption of the Acquis. Two more screening exercises are carried out - one multilateral in 1999 and one only for Bulgaria in 2000. During the same year working groups according to Negotiations’ Chapters are created within the National Council for Coordination and Monitoring on EU matters.

Working group 12 “Statistics” submitted to the Intergovernmental Conferencea Position Paperbased on the acquis communautaire adopted by that time. It included all commitments in the field of statistics to be fulfilled by the date of accession, with concrete dates to achieve full harmonization. The Position states that “the Republic of Bulgaria accepts and will implement in full the acquis in the field of statistics and no transitional period or derogations will be requested.”

During all these years the compliance has been monitored by the European Commission on the one hand and the National Authorities on the other.

Monitoring by the European Commission

Eurostat

Special Management Information System

The Special Management Information System,SMIS (former Compliance Database) is an IT tool developed and set up by Eurostat and the Programme secretariat on the basis of the Statistical Requirements Compendium (SRC)structure and installed locally in every candidate and acceding country aiming at observing the progress made by statistical sectors. The SMIS application manages information related to:

-acquis communautaire by chapter, theme and topic following SRC structure. All important manuals and gentlemen agreements are taken into consideration. Information relevant to the responsible unit and person in Eurostat is also presented.;

-beneficiary country assessment by chapter, theme and topic according to the same structure.

The database is used for an annual assessment exercise – the country prepares and submits its self-assessment on chapter, theme and module levels (text information) describing:

-current situation in the respective field;

-progress achieved during the previous year and plan for the next period.

Initially, there was a task to prepare assessment even on legal act level, but later on the idea is dropped out due to the fact that countries repeat the same information provided on module level.

In 2003, a new section is added under each module -Data Availability (DA). The purpose of DA is to show whether the statistical office produces and submits to Eurostat certain data set/flow.

The SMIS application has two versions:

• A version created for Eurostat environment
• A version created for external users - beneficiary countries, independent experts, etc.

Stable organization was established in the Bulgarian NSIfrom the very beginning of the exercise. The model applied is centralized – an administratoris responsible for loading information into the database. Word format is used for self-assessment reports and excel format - for data availability. At the beginning Bulgariaused to produce the self-assessment reports in both languages – English and Bulgarian. But since 2004, due to relatively high burden and time limitations the self-assessment reports are drafted only in English language.

When the annual task is set by Eurostat and the new SMIS version is submitted and installed by the national administrator, the following set of documents is submitted to all members of the Working group 12 “Statistics”:

-the last electronic SRC version;

-the previous year version of the combined assessment;

-excel sheet with all data sets/flows with necessary instructions.

After the compilation of the reports of both exercises, usuallythe final draft version is sentby e-mail to all counterparts for approval. In some cases a special meeting of the Working group 12 “Statistics” is organized.

Once everything is compiled, agreed and loaded, it is sent to the responsible person in Eurostat for further consideration and approval by the Eurostat production units. Any feedback provided is taken into consideration.

After the completion of the exercise for the respective year, a brief analysis of the data availability is made in order to identify gaps and problematic issues. On this basis future projects are planned. (Annex 1)

Besides the above-described system, Eurostat Unit E-4 monitors the compliance by conducting Annual Missionsofthe country desk officers. The missions cover all statistical domains and aim at checking the implementation of all ongoing projects and planning of future activities.

In addition, permanent monitoringof the methodology implementation, data collection and analysis, and quality assuranceis conducted by Eurostat subject matter units.

Many seminars, working groups, training courses, study visits and traineeships organized by Eurostat pay also attention to compliance problems.

DG Enlargement

The annual Comprehensive Monitoring Report and Strategy Paper issued by the Commission reflect not only the fulfilment of the political and economic criteria for accession, but also the adoption of the acquis communautaire.

Twice a year, the WG 12 prepares detailed Progress Reports and Monitoring Tables in order to show the fulfilment of commitments.

Within the frame of the Europe Association Agreement, Chapter 12 “Statistics” is covered by the Sub-Committee No. 4 “Economic and Monetary Issues, Capital Movements and Statistics”.In the submitted report on the progress made by NSI during the reference period there is a section describing the future plans for harmonization with the acquis in statistics.

The Technical Assistance and Information Exchange Unit (TAIEX) elaborated a Progress Editor database which shows the transposition of the EU legislation into the national one by negotiation chapters. The database is loaded regularly and incorporates the national steps undertaken to implement, transpose and approximate the EU legal acts.

Compliance monitoring on national level

Council of Ministers

A national tool for monitoring the Bulgarian commitments is the Annual Action Plan, based on the National Strategy for Acceleration of the Negotiation Process. Under Chapter 12 “Statistics” of this plan measures are envisaged, addressing on one hand all recommendations from the EC Regular Report, and on the other hand all commitments undertaken in the Position Paper.

Another national tool is the Annual Report andPlan on the AdministrativeCapacityBuilding.The assessment of the administrative capacity, structural reorganizations and availability of human resources find their due place under Chapter 12 “Statistics”. Future steps and measures for strengthening the administrative capacity are also presented.

Two additionalweb-based databaseson country levelserve the monitoring of:

-Bulgarian commitments in the EU accession process;

-Objectives, results and financial issues of all implemented, ongoing and plannedprojects by different donors.

Internal monitoring

Aworking group consisting of 5 experts from NSIEuropean Integration division is created to carry out internalmonitoring and also evaluation on a monthly basis of allundergoing projectswithin the PhareProgramme. The used instrumentarium is developed mainly on the basis of EMS Manual “Practice and Management of Interim Evaluation and Monitoring”. Regular reports are submitted to NSITop-Management.

An internal overall monitoring tableis elaborated which shows the links between the main acquis and data availability on one hand, and the project activities and financial sources on the other hand. This table is used to identify the gaps, missing data sets and to plan future activities. (Annex 2)

The Bulgarian experience on defining priorities for harmonization with the acquis has been shared with the Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia within the project Europe Aid/114790/C/SV/AM under TACIS programme.

The experience has been shared also with the CBS of Croatia, during their official visit to NSIwithin the concluded bilateral cooperation agreement.

Future steps

The 2006 SMIS round of assessments starts in March and will be carried out through the assistance of Artemis Information Management S.A. The deadline for preparation of inputs by countries is in April and delivery of Eurostat feedback is expected in June 2006.

Another exercise of great importance for the country at present is the pre-notification of EC Directives, incl. legislative dossiers in statistics, which is currently in progress and has to be finalized by the end of 2006. In the field of statistics, there are 11 Directives adopted by now, as follows:

• National accounts:Council Directive 89/130/EEC, Euratom on the harmonization of the compilation of gross national product at market prices
• Transport statistics: Council Directive No: 80/1119/EEC of 17/11/1980.: OJ: L339 of 15/12/1980statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods by inland waterways; and Council Directive No: 95/64/EC, Euratom of 08/12/1995.: OJ: L320 of 30/12/1995statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea (fully transposed)
• Tourism statistics: Council Directive No: 95/57/EC of 23/11/1995.: OJ: L291 of 06/12/1995on collection of statistical information in the field of tourism (partially transposed by law; ordinance under preparation)
• other 7 Directivesare in the field of agriculture statistics (2 ordinances under preparation)

There is an idea to carry out an exhaustive survey on the implementation and transposition of the acquis communautaire into the national legislationin the sense of the forthcoming EU membership.

Annex 1: Data availability results (example)

Note: Figures are indicative, only to show the Bulgarian approach

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Annex 2: NSI overview monitoring table

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