Eurostat
Unit A5 Phare
Second Meeting of the
Policy Group on Statistical Co-operation
Phare
21 - 22, October 1999
Sofia
Start: 10.00 am
Minutes of the first policy meeting of
Directors of Statistical Offices from South-Eastern Europe
(Document PGSC/99-1/13)
Point 1.5 of the Agenda
/ EUROPEAN COMMISSIONSTATISTICAL OFFICE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
Directorate A: Statistical information systems; research and data analysis; technical cooperation with Phare and Tacis countries
Unit A-5: Technical cooperation with Phare and Tacis countries /
First policy meeting for Directors General
of Statistical offices
from the south-eastern Europe
Luxembourg, 18.06.1999
Draft Minutes
1.Welcome
Mr. Y. Franchet, Director General of EUROSTAT welcomed the participants and debriefed on the last CES meeting (Conference of European Statisticians) held in Neuchatel from 14 to 16 June 1999. An informal working group has been constituted to evaluate the needs and areas of statistical cooperation with the countries of Western Balkan. The conclusions of this group will be presented to the next ISI meeting in Helsinki in August.
2.Adoption of the Agenda
The agenda was adopted without amendments.
3.Political Background
The initial objective of this meeting was to adapt the Phare programme to the different needs of the countries that are not candidates for accession to the EU. The recent events in Kosovo and the plans for reconstruction adopted by the international community has moved the initial purpose of the meeting to the need of building a new strategy for statistical cooperation with the countries of the region.
3.1.Albania
The presence in Albania of co-operating agencies, military forces and international institutions has created a demand for reliable and accurate statistical data. The INSTAT of Albania needs to increase its speed of data production and areas covered. The creation of a prospective cell would help to plan a long-term strategy for development of the statistical system. The office is not directly involved in the census of refugees arrived from Kosovo.
Some international institutions produced statistics on their own and for their specific needs, creating difficulties to harmonise the methodology in the country and risking an overlapping.
3.2.Bosnia & Herzegovina
In order to address the need for aggregation and publication of statistics for B&H as a whole, the Bosnia & Herzegovina Agency for Statistics has been set up following the decision of the B&H Council of Ministers of 20th August 1998. The BHAS is the focal point for the international community and will coordinate the cooperation with and between the statistical offices of the two entities. An important effort from the international community is needed to build up the statistical system of B&H. The World Bank and the IMF have until now been in charge of providing data on the refugees. These two institutions also aggregate data collected by the statistical offices in some areas. A Law on Statistics and a Law on census will be prepared. A very limited budget and a lack of human resources are major obstacles for the development of the statistical system.
3.3.The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
The Statistical Office of the FYR of Macedonia is adapting its activities towards the compliance with the EU statistical standards. The political situation does not influence the situation in the office. The master plan developed by the statistical office intends to transform the whole system and make it compliant with the acquis communautaire. Some departments have been reinforced to produce data considering the flow of refugees and military troops as well as the embargo on the Republic of Yugoslavia. The impact of the war on the economy, trade, tourism, transport and population has been analysed by the statistical office and other organisations.
4.European Policy towards south-eastern Europe
The conclusions of the last European Council summit were presented and discussed.
The last version of the Phare guidelines were drawn up in 1994 and during the last months they have been updated and oriented more and more towards the accession to the EU and the adoption of the acquis communautaire. The Phare programme has invested 18 MEUR in statistical cooperation for the Western Balkan countries. Therefore the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) announced by the EU intends to build a new framework adapted to the needs of the Western Balkan countries and intermediate between the accession tools and the association agreements.
The EU has defined some areas of activity in a first step:
to facilitate, together with the UNHCR, the return of refugees,
reconstruction of Kosovo. This programme is now under discussion.
assistance to the region. The current programmes for cooperation will be reinforced and extended to all the countries fulfilling the political conditions of democracy and respect of human rights. A conference of donors will meet in September to discuss the financial framework.
The European Commission will amend the Regulation for the Obnova program to extend it and adapt it to the new needs.
The European Council has approved a new Agency in charge of the reconstruction, first for Kosovo, later for all the Western Balkan countries. An initial Task force (before the Agency) is expected to start working in September and the Agency (based in Thessaloniki) to be operational in December.
The Council of the EFTA has recently agreed to work together with the EU in the reconstruction of the region.
The participants agreed on the necessity to adopt new programmes focused rather on the reinforcement of know-how and human resources. To stop the turnover of staff and improve their qualifications is more important for consolidation of the statistical system than promoting immediate results. Therefore the new programme should allow the NSOs to recruit qualified staff and provide assistance to encourage the staff to continue working in the statistical offices. Financing focused exclusively on activities and results is limited to the absorption capacity of the NSOs. Therefore it would rather concentrate on creating the conditions necessary to reach the results.
5.Strategic Programmes for the National Statistical System
5.1.The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
The main objectives of the statistical office are to provide data in accordance with the acquis communautaire and to provide data to support the stability of the region. The master plan was presented and distributed to the participants.
The priorities by areas of development are:
- Macro-economic statistics (including foreign trade and investments, hidden economy and quarterly accounts at regional level),
- Business statistics
- Population statistics,
The NSO of FYROM prefers to implement the cooperation through national programmes rather than regional programmes. The situation and needs are deeply different in each country and must be treated separately. Only some areas could benefit of a multilateral programme.
5.2.Bosnia & Herzegovina
The reinforcement of the BHAS must be considered in the framework of the general institution building. Institutions providing data must also be strengthened. The BHAS will prepare a master plan containing a list of priorities and support required from the EU and other donors.
5.3.Albania
The master plan was presented and discussed. Agriculture and population census as well as business registers are the main priorities for the INSTAT. The government must approve this master plan and it will serve to receive support from donors. A medium-term objective is to reach the same level of international cooperation as the candidate countries.
5.4.Reactions
The INSEE representative reminds the importance of defining some (few) objectives, ambitious but realistic. In order to keep a good cooperation with the West Balkan countries, the following pre-conditions must be fulfilled:
–Defined work programme,
–Sufficient training for all the staff,
–Good management skills,
For the European Commission, the initial objective of the Phare programme was not to apply the acquis communautaire but to build a statistical system.
The acquis communautaire on statistics is only suitable for the Member States that apply the rest of the European legislation to which it is directly linked in some areas. The complexity of some European regulations in statistics is only justified for its close relation with other EU policies, such as the Common Agricultural Policy.
It is desirable that all the West Balkan countries use the same methodology, definition, calculations as the EU, but it is not possible nor recommended transposing the EU legislation into their national legislation.
Building a Training Centre for the region could be a solution to reinforce the capacity of staff.
6.Future cooperation
All participants agree on the most important areas of cooperation for the future:
–Training: a long-term training programme including foreign language, IT, and covering many statistical areas.
–Equipment: continue with the initial effort on informatic equipment and extending it to other areas, such as furniture, building, transport, etc.
–Human resources: stop the turnover of staff and reinforce the teams by supporting new recruitment and reinforcing the salaries.
–Support to the legal basis of statistics (Statistical Law, Law for Census) and reinforce the position of the NSOs inside the government.
The willingness of the countries to work together in a regional programme is an indispensable pre-requisite and the experience of the SO of the FYR of Macedonia could be used in this programme. Eurostat will also endeavour to set up a communication forum (the Balkan CIRCA) to promote exchange of experience and regional co-operation.
7.Other
The Chairman informs the participants about the evolution of the Conference on Demography of the Balkans. The date of this conference has been postponed to April 2000 to assure a good preparation. The scientific group has already received the contribution from FYROM and contributions from other participants are expected.
8.List of participants
MrsMilva EkonomiINSTAT (Albania)
MsMimoza EnesiINSTAT (Albania)
DrHasan ZolicBHAS (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
MrSahrudin SarajicBHAS (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
Mr Byron Kotzamanis BHAS (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
MrsSvetlana AntonovskaFYR of Macedonia
MrsMira TodorovaFYR of Macedonia
MrLars Erik GewalliDanmarks Statistik
MrsSophia BallaPermanent Representation of Greece
Mrs Annie MilletINSEE (France)
MrsMicaela JouvenalISTAT (Italy)
Mr Olli JanhunenStatistics Finland
MrLars LundgrenStatistics Sweden
MrRaul SuarezSwitzerland
MrsCarol MottetSwitzerland
MrJosé CremadesCouncil of Europe
MrYves FranchetEurostat
MrPhotis NanopoulosEurostat
MrHeikki SalmiEurostat
MrNikolaus WurmEurostat
MrMiguel CeballosEurostat
MrsClaudia JunkerEurostat
MrsKarien ReinigEurostat
MrsIsabelle VançonEurostat
MrFrançois BegeotEuropean Commission
MsJolanta SzcerbinskaProgramme Secretariat
MrFrançois BigotProgramme Secretariat
MrArmin MathyCESD-C
MrDermot MurphyCESD-C
MrRonald DelémontCESD-C (EFTA rep.)
Excused:Mr Ivan RusanCroatia
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