EUROSTAT
Directorate E: Agriculture and Environment Statistics; Statistical Cooperation
Unit E-4: Statistical Cooperation with European and Mediterranean countries /
Doc. MGSC/2008/09
Tenth meeting of the
Management Group on Statistical Cooperation
24 - 25 April 2008
Luxembourg, BechBuilding
Room Ampere
Start: 10h00 am
Phare/MBP and Transition Facility programmes - status of implementation of grant agreements and service contracts
Point 3.2 of the Agenda
1
The aim of this document is to summarise the content and the present status of implementation of the ongoing statistical cooperation programmes Phare 2004, TF 2004, MBP 2005,TF 2005 and MBP 2006. Phare 2003 and earlier programmes have all been completed at technical level. Work to close down the early programmes also at administrative level has progressed since the last MGSC.
1.Structure of the multi-beneficiary programmes
The overall objectives of all programmesinclude preparing the statistical authorities in the beneficiary countries for the full application of the acquis communautaire(the body of EU law) in statistics by aligning their present methodologies and practices with the statistical acquis and integrating them into the European Statistical System.This includes strengthening the position of the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) and their co-ordinating role of the statistical system.The purpose of successive programmes is to continue upgrading and strengthening the statistical systems in the beneficiary countries, thereby improving the availability, quality, comparability and timeliness of statistical data.
All the programmes contain both data collection projects (also called "pilot projects") and technical assistance. The pilot projects have been designed primarily by the Eurostat production units on the basis of identified weaknesses and gaps in data supply, of new acquis and of regular compliance monitoring ("SMIS") including the information collected during the assessment missions to beneficiary countries by Eurostat unit E4 and other Eurostatunits.
When designing a pilot project it is carefully considered if only the work by beneficiaries is required, supported by direct grants, or if also transfer of knowledge and experience via service contracts is required. When both elements are required, the key elements of the pilot project (content, timetable, expected results) will often be similarfor the grants and for the service contract.A key difference is that the grants description is more specific on tasks to be carried out be the beneficiary while the service contract details the tasks of the contractor.
The technical assistance (participationin meetings, training, study visits, secondments etc.) is supported mainly via grants. Thus the grant agreementsconcluded with the beneficiaries contain two elements: the work related to pilot projects and the technical assistance.
In all programmes the majority of pilot projects are supported by grants. Details about the projects covered in each programme and about the use of grants, service contracts or both can be found in annex. The beneficiaries are supposed to carry out the work as defined in the respective project descriptions of the grant agreements. Eurostat will give the necessary guidance and information on the acquis where required.
2.Phare 2004 Multi-beneficiary Programme for Statistical Cooperation
The 2004 Phare programme covered Bulgaria and Romania. All activities under this programme were completed bythe end of December 2007.
The total contracted value (without co-financing) of the programme was 2.99M€, in other words 99.6 % of the available total budget of 3 M€. The major part, 2.55 M€, was direct grants to the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries contributed to the implementation by 2 % of co-financing. Grants were supported by a service contract for a total of about 0.44 M€. The service contract covered projects for which an additional technical advice was necessary.
2.1Grants
The grant contracts were signed with the beneficiary countriesin December 2005 for a total amount of 2.55 M€. The implementation period ran from 01.01.2006 until 31.12.2007. Activities eligible for funding under task 1 were attendance to Eurostat Working Group meetings, training and secondment of trainees. Task 2 provided the participation to data collection projects in 23 statistical areas (see list of projects in annex). Although the contracts ran until 31December 2007, the duration of the data collection projects varied. Activities under task 3 covered the provision of tailor-made expertise through study visits and consultancies.
All activities under the grant contracts have been completed. In March 2008, both beneficiary countries submittedtheir final reports to Eurostat for approval.
2.2Service contract
A contract covering 10 pilot projects (see annex for detail) was signed with ICON-Institut (Germany) for a value of 437,920 €. The service contract was completed on 30November 2007. The final report provided by the contractor has been approved by the Commission.
3.2004 Transition Facility programme
The TF 2004 covered the 10 "new" Member States[1]. The beneficiaries were the NSIs.The TF 2004 has been successfully implemented and all activities were completed by the end of December 2007.
The total contracted value of the programme (without co-financing) was6.67M€, in other words 74.1 % of the available budget total of 9 M€. The major part, 5.65 M€, was direct grants to the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries contributed to the implementation by 2 % of co-financing.
The TF 2004 contained only pilot projects andactivities related to these pilot projects (incl. participation in related workshops and organisation of related bilateral activities, such as consultancies and study visits).
3.1Grants
The grant contracts were signed with the 10 beneficiary countriesin December 2005 for a total amount of 5.65 M€. The implementation period ran from 01.01.2006 until 31.12.2007. The grants allowed the beneficiary countries to participate in 21 data collection projects (see list of projects in annex) and in some country-specific ad-hoc projects.
All beneficiary countries submitted their final technical reports for approval to Eurostat. At the time of writing, several of these reports had already been approved.
3.2Service contracts
Two contracts had been signed between the European Commission and ICON Institute (Germany) for a total value of 1.02 M€.
This external support consisted basically of technical assistance and training. The execution of tasks ended on 30November 2007. The final reports provided by the contractor have been approved by the Commission.
4.MBP 2005
The multi-beneficiary programme (MBP) 2005 which is financed from the Phare budget covers Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Turkey (beneficiary countries). The beneficiaries are the NSIs.
The total contracted value (without co-financing) of the programme is 5.37 M€, in other words 93.4 % of the available total budget of 5.75 M€. The major part, 4.78 M€, is direct grants to beneficiaries. The beneficiaries contribute to the implementation by ±2 % of co-financing. In total, 2.89 M€ are allocated for pilot projects and 1.89 M€for technical assistance. Grants are supported by 2 service contracts for a total of about 0.59 M€. Service contracts cover projects for which an additional technical advice was necessary.
4.1Grants
The grant contracts were signed with the beneficiary countriesin December 2006 for a total amount of 4.78 M€. The implementation period runs from 01.01.2007 until 31.12.2008. Activities eligible for funding under task 1 are participation in Eurostat Working Group meetings, training and secondment of trainees. It must be noted that so far 24 trainees have been seconded to Eurostat (17) and to NSIs of EU Member States (7). Task 2 provides the participation to data collection projects in 22statistical areas (see list of projects in annex). Activities under task 3 are provision of tailor-made expertise through study visits and consultancies.
4.2Service contracts
The contract for Lot 1 (5 pilot projects on macro-economic and social statistics[2]) was signed with ICON-Institut (Germany) and for Lot 2 (3 pilot projects on agricultural and environmental statistics[3]) with ASA Institut (Germany) in consortium with Umweltbundesamt (Austria).
The implementation of both contracts started on 1 January 2007 and has progressed as scheduled. Due to unforeseen developments such as inevitable postponement of seminars and other events it was necessary to prolong the implementation period of two pilot projects (national accounts and government finance statistics) within the overall implementation period of 24 months. For various reasons some experts have been replaced, duly approved by Eurostat. No particular problems emerged during the regular quarterly follow-up meetings.
Concerning the pilot project "pesticide indicators" it was decided at the inception meeting that the implementation will be carried out in close coordination with a similar pilot project under the Transition Facility 2005 programme. This turned out to be most useful allowing wider exchange of experience and more effective organisation of workshops. Any financial overlap in funding of various events has been carefully avoided.
5.TF 2005
The Transition Facility 2005 programme covers the 10 "new" Member States[4]. The beneficiaries are the NSIs.
The total contracted value of the programme (without co-financing) is 2.67 M€, in other words 76.4 % of the available budget total of 3.50 M€. The major part, 2.49 M€, is direct grants to beneficiaries. The beneficiaries contribute to the implementation by 10 % of co-financing.
5.1Grants
The grant contracts were signed with the 10 beneficiary countriesin December 2006 for a total amount of 2.49 M€. The implementation period runs from 01.01.2007 until 15.12.2008. The grants allow the beneficiary countries to participate in 8 data collection projects (see list of projects in annex) and some country-specific ad-hoc projects.
5.2Service contracts
The contract for Lot 1 (a pilot project on external trade statistics and Intrastat) was signed with ARTEMIS (Luxembourg) and for Lot 2 (a pilot project on Pesticide Indicators) with ICON-Institut (Germany). Both contracts count for a total of 0.18 M€.The implementation period of both contracts is 18 months.
The implementation of both contracts started on 1 January 2007 and has progressed as scheduled. For various reasons some experts have been replaced, duly approved by Eurostat. No particular problems have emerged during the regular quarterly follow-up meetings.
As mentioned above, the pilot project "pesticide indicators" is implemented in close coordination with the similar project under the MBP 2005 programme/Lot 2, with a very positive experience.
6.MBP 2006
The multi-beneficiary programme (MBP) 2006 which is financed from the Phare budget covers Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Turkey (beneficiary countries). The beneficiaries are the NSIs.
The total contracted value of the programme is 11.98 M€ (without co-financing), in other words 99.9% of the available budget total of 12 M€. The major part, 11.00 M€, is direct grants to beneficiaries. The beneficiaries contribute to the implementation by 2 % of co-financing. In total, 6.84 M€ are allocated for pilot projects and 5.14 M€for technical assistance. There are two service contracts to facilitate transfer of expertise (0.98 M€).
6.1Grants
The invitations to apply for grants were sent to the beneficiary countries in June 2007 and the evaluation of applications was completed in November 2007. The grant contracts were signed with the beneficiary countries in December 2007. The implementation period runs from 01.01.2008 until 31.12.2010.
The grants cover 21data collection projects (see list of projects in annex) and some country-specific ad-hoc projects. 5 of the 21 data collection projects are also implemented via service contracts.
6.2Service contracts
The tendering process was launched in May 2007 for 2 lots. Lot 1 covered pilot projects on agricultural and external trade statistics[5], and Lot 2 covered 5 pilot projects on macroeconomic and transport statistics[6] . Out of 8 interested companies for Lot 1 and 5 for Lot 2, two were invited to tender for Lot 1 and 4 for Lot 2.
After evaluation of the tenders received from all invited companies, the contract for Lot 1 was signed with SOGETI Luxembourg SA (Luxembourg), in consortium with Statistics Denmark and for Lot 2 with ICON-Institut (Germany), in consortium with Artemis (Luxembourg) and CBS (Netherlands). The contracted amount is 0.35 M€ for Lot1 and 0.63 M€ for Lot2).
The implementation started on 1 January 2008. Kick off meetings have been organised in January-February 2008 and the inception meeting with ICON Institut in March 2008.
The implementation of both contracts started according to the work programmes and all pilot projects are supposed to be completed within 24 months for Lot 1 and 30 months for Lot 2.
6.3Service contract but no grant
The beneficiaries do not participate in all pilot projects proposed for grants and have on the other hand proposed additional projects, according to their national priorities and availability of resources. Eurostat found this fully justifiable even though the multi-beneficiary approach does not fully materialise.
One outcome of this is that there are a few cases where a service contract relates to a pilot project for which abeneficiary has decided not to apply for a grant due to other priorities. It is recommended that in these cases the transfer of expertise via the service contract is accepted by the beneficiary as this will be beneficial in the longer run.
Annex: Projects under the statistical cooperation programmes
(Please note that not all beneficiary countries participate in all projects!)
Projects in the 2004 Phare programme
Projects / Grant / Service contractMacro-economic statistics
Purchasing power parities / x
Quarterly national accounts / x
Production of inward and outward FATS / x
Research and development statistics / x
Business statistics
Business register / x
Structural business statistics (SBS) / x / x
Survey on vocational training in enterprises / x
Short term statistics (STS) / x
Transport statistics / x / x
ICT usage survey on enterprises / x
ICT usage survey on households / x
Social statistics
Statistical time use database / x
Unemployment statistics / x / x
Labour cost and earning statistics / x / x
Migration statistics / x
European core health interview survey / x / x
Causes of death / x / x
Wave approach for the labour force survey / x
Agriculture, regional and environment statistics
Meat statistics / x / x
Farm register / x
Milk statistics / x
Urban audit / x
Waste statistics / x / x
Water statistics / x / x
Projects in the 2004 Transition facility programme
Projects / Grant / Service contractMacro-economic statistics
GNI inventories / x / x
Quarterly national accounts / x
Foreign Affiliates Statistics / x
HICP / x / x
R&D (Innovation) statistics / x
External Trade and INTRASTAT / x
Business statistics
Business register / x
Structural business statistics / x / x
Survey on vocational training in enterprises / x
Short term statistics (STS) / x
Data quality of the PEEI / x
Transport statistics / x / x
Social statistics
Time use survey / x
Unemployment statistics / x / x
Labour cost and Earning statistics / x / x
Migration statistics / x
European Core Health Interview survey / x / x
Improvement of statistics on Causes of Death / x / x
Agriculture, regional and environment statistics
Meat statistics / x / x
Data coverage for Local territorial units / x / x
Waste statistics / x / x
Water statistics / x / x
Projects proposed by the beneficiaries / Country
Acting as a European Ring Country for the ICP 2004-2006 / EE
Improvement of data quality of the PEEI / LV, SK
Pilot study on carriage of passengers by road / PL
Transport statistics:Preparation of Polish locality list with the postcodes for gazetter index end-user application (called ILSE) / PL
Operation 2007 / PL
Quality improvement through QMS according to ISO 9001:2000 / SK
Price indices on agricultural products / SK
Survey on service life of fixed assets / SK
STS: price indices of selected services / SK
STS: non- domestic price indices split to Eurozone/non-Eurozone / SK
Analysis on Regional Sample (Regional Coverage) for the HICP / SK
ICP Eurostat-OECD Ring Comparison / SI
Investment Data / SI
Projects in the 2005 MBP programme
Projects / Grant / Service contractNational Accounts / x / x
FATS / x
Government Finance statistics / x
Purchasing Power Parities / x
Innovation Statistics / x
Careers of Doctorate Holders / x
Business register / x
ICT expenditure and investment survey / x
ICT enterprise survey / x
ICT household survey / x
Labour cost survey - ad hoc module / x
Labour cost index / x / x
Annual and 4-yearly earnings statistics / x
Adult education survey / x
Crop production / x / x
Direct consumption of animal products / x
Meat statistics / x
Farm register / x
Subsistence and semi-subsistence farms / x
Urban audit / x
Portrait of regions / x
Statistics on rural areas / x
Water statistics / x / x
Environment related indicators /Pesticide indicators / x / x
Dissemination of statistics / x
Projects in the 2005 TF programme
Projects / Grant / Service contractInnovation statistics / x
Careers of doctorate holders / x
Revision of NACE / x
External trade statistics and Intrastat / x / x
Preparation for 2010 population census / x
Migration statistics / x
Morbidity statistics / x
Pesticide indicators / x / x
Ad-hoc projects / x
Projects in the MBP 2006 programme
Projects / Beneficiary countries / Grant / Service contractMacro-economic statistics
GNI Inventories / BG, HR, RO, TR / x / x
Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices / BG, HR, RO, TR / x
Purchasing Power Parities / BG, HR, RO, TR / x
External Trade Statistics / BG, HR, RO, TR / x / x
Integrated Government Finance Statistics / HR, TR / x
Business statistics
Short Term Statistics / BG, HR, RO, TR / x / x
Structural Business Statistics / HR / x
Statistical Business Registers / BG, HR, RO / x
Agriculture and environment statistics
Land Use and Land Cover Area Frame Statistical Survey (LUCAS) / BG, HR, RO, TR / x / x
Georeferencing of the agricultural holdings / RO / x
Environmental accounts / HR, RO, TR / x
Education, science and culture statistics
Innovation statistics / BG, HR, RO / x
Statistics on Careers of Doctorate Holders (CDH statistics) / BG, HR, RO / x
Social statistics
Labour force survey / HR / x
Social protection statistics / BG, HR / x
Health care statistics / HR / x
European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) / HR / x
Causes of Death Statistics / HR / x
Transport statistics
Transport statistics / BG, HR, RO, TR / x / x
Statistics on information society
Survey on individuals, households and the information society / BG, HR, RO / x
Survey on enterprises and the information society / BG, HR, RO / x
Survey on ICT expenditure and investment / BG, HR, RO / x
Dissemination of statistical data
Dissemination of statistics: user support on European statistics / BG, HR, RO, TR / x
Projects proposed by the beneficiaries
Tourism statistics / RO / x
Development of the methodology on real estate (residential) sector / RO / x
Animal production statistics / TR / x
Agricultural holdings / TR / x
1
[1] Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and the Republic of Slovenia
[2] National accounts, FATS, government finance statistics, labour cost index and annual and 4-yearly labour cost accounts
[3] Crop statistics and early estimates, water statistics and pesticide indicators
[4] Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and the Republic of Slovenia
[5] External Trade Statistics and Land Use and Land Cover Area Frame Statistical Survey (LUCAS)
[6] GNI inventories, HICPs, integrated government finance statistics, short term statistics and transport statistics