EUROSTAT
Directorate D: External cooperation, communication and key indicators
Unit D-1: Statistical Cooperation with European and Mediterranean countries /
Doc. MGSC/2010/11
Twelfth meeting of the
Management Group on Statistical Cooperation
18 - 19 March 2010
Luxembourg, BechBuilding
Room Quetelet
Start: 10:00 am
IPA statistics multi-beneficiary programmes 2011 – 2013
A three-year plan for aligning the candidate and potential candidate countries with the EU acquis in statistics
Point 4.3 of the Agenda
1
Table of content
Introduction
1The sector working group on statistics
2The role of official statistics in the enlargement process
3Current situation in statistics in the IPA beneficiaries
4The need for a multi-beneficiary (regional) approach
5Priority areas to be covered by the three-year plan
5.1Priority order for the development of statistics at country level
5.2Institutional and statistical infrastructure
5.3Statistical classifications and registers
5.4Sector statistics
6Instruments
6.1Technical assistances
6.2Support for data collection
7Budget requirements for the IPA 2011-2013 multi-beneficiary programmes
8Implementation arrangements
8.1Coordinating bodies
8.2Procedures for programme implementation
8.3Monitoring the results
9Links to other sources of assistance and donor coordination
9.1National IPA Programmes
9.2Technical Assistance and Information Exchange (TAIEX) Instrument
9.3Programmes of other donors
9.4Donor coordination
Introduction
Reliable and comparable statistics is indispensable for managing the accession and association process with the candidate and potential candidate countries. The field of statistics is one of the priority sectors chosen for the multi-beneficiary approach under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA)[1]. This document presents a plan for the programming of assistance in the field of statistics under the IPA multi-beneficiary programmes for 2011, 2012 and 2013.
This plan identifies the areas where multi-beneficiary support is expected to have the highest added value, the instruments for providing the assistance and the methods for preparing and implementing the support under the IPA programmes 2011, 2012 and 2013. The plan provides the lines of support covered by the IPA multi-beneficiary programmes and helps the IPA beneficiaries, the European Commissionand the other donors in their annual and multi-annual planning. The plan is also a basis for the IPA Multi-annual Indicative Planning Document (MIPD) for 2011-2013 which will be adopted in 2010.
The plan covers Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Iceland[2], the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia as well as Kosovo under UNSCR 1244/99, and Turkey. These countries are at very different stages of the accession and association process. They are also at very different levels of development of theirnational statistical systems.
This plan was developed by the Sector Working Group on statistics on the basis of the'Strategy for statistical cooperation with candidate and potential candidate countries 2010 – 2013 - a multi-annual framework for aligning candidate and potential candidate countries with the EU acquis in statistics'. The strategy was approved by the Policy Group for Statistical Cooperation for candidate and potential candidate countries (hereafter PGSC) at its meeting in Budva (Montenegro) on 8-9 October 2009.The Sector Working Group on statisticsdiscussed a draft version of this plan at the Budva meeting. A revised draft version of the plan was subject to a wide consultation of beneficiaries, international organisations and Member States in December 2009 and January 2010. This final version of the plan incorporates the comments received after the Budva meetingandduring the wide consultation.
1The sector working group on statistics
For each IPA multi-beneficiary priority sector, a Sector Working Group has been established in order to develop a plan for the multi-beneficiary programming under IPA 2011-2013. For some priority sectors existing platforms have been used in which this planningtook place.
For the priority sector of statistics, the platform used was the PGSC. The heads of the statistical offices of the IPA beneficiaries are members of the PGSC. The PGSC is a Working Group chaired by the Commission (Eurostat) The mandate of the PGSC states: 'The PGSC (….) advises the European Commission and notably Eurostat on the contents and implementation of the European Commission statistical cooperation programmes.'
The membership of the PGSC was extended to form the Sector Working Group on statistics by including a representative of the European Commission's Directorate General for Enlargement, the principal donors and a representative of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC). The Sector Working Group on statistics met on 8-9 October 2009 in Budva (Montenegro) to discuss a first draft of this plan. Eurostat acted as the secretariat of the Sector Working Group for the development of this plan and coordinated the drafting process. The Sector Working Group on statistics completedits work in February 2010 with the submission of this plan to DG Enlargement.
2The role of official statistics in the enlargement process
Official statistics is a tool for national and international policy makers, businesses and the society at large when making decisions and measuring their effects and is consequently an essential basis for the development of democratic and market-oriented societies.
Statistics plays a dual role in the Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP) and in the EU membership negotiations. First, statistics is one chapter of the acquisand has to be implemented in the pre-accession period. Second, statistics provides the data needed for other chapters and policy areas. This dual role is in particular evident in the areas of economy, finance, agriculture and regional policy where reliable and comparable statistics is a precondition for successful negotiations.
At EU level the statistical law[3] defines the conditions and procedures governing official statistics as well as the division of responsibilities between national and Community statistical authorities. Statistical authorities are, at national level, the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) and other bodies in charge of producing and disseminating official statistics and, at Community level, Eurostat. The law gives Eurostat the coordinating role on the EU level and the NSIs on the national level. Eurostat is the centre of the European Statistical System (ESS) which comprises the statistical institutes, ministries, agencies and central banks that collect official statistics in EU Member States, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The ESS coordinates its work with international organisations such as the OECD, the UN, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The European Statistics Code of Practice sets out 15 principles for the production and dissemination of European statistics and the institutional environment under which national and Community statistical authorities operate. The Code of Practice reflects the United Nations' Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics and the United Nations' Principles Governing International Statistical Activities.
In the candidate and potential candidate countries, the NSIs shall act as the principal contact points with the ESS, and coordinate the activities of their partners in their national statistical systems. This role is essential for ensuring a coherent and up-to-date statistical system and for building confidence among data providers and users.
3Current situation in statistics in the IPA beneficiaries
In the candidate countries the framework for producing statistics is in place in many areas. Efforts should therefore focus on enhancing the quality and comparability of statistics, especially in areas indispensable for accession negotiations. In Iceland, as a long-time member of the European Economic Area and of the ESS, parts of the acquis in statistics apply already whereas other parts need to be developed urgently. Many potential candidate countries still need to complete the development of the statistical infrastructure including statistical registers, methodologies and classifications according to international and EU requirements.
All candidate and potential candidate countries have centralised statistical systems with a major part of official statistics being produced by the NSIs. There are other important providers of official statistics such as central banks, customs offices, ministries and other public bodies. A basic legal framework is in place in most countries. The framework gives the NSIs and other authorised producers of statistics a legal basis for their activities.
In general good progress has been made in the candidate and potential candidate countries not least due to previous and ongoing technical assistance programmes which laid the foundation for production of harmonised statistics.
In all countries, the NSIs are the coordinating body of the statistical systems and the national focal points for methodologies, classifications and procedures for data collection. Partnerships with main stakeholders such as ministries of finance, central banks or tax authorities managed through signed protocols or memoranda need to be established.
Several offices are facing high staff turnover and understaffing due to budget restrictions. While new recruitments are indispensable to strengthen the capacity of the statistical offices, the NSIs also need to develop policies for the flexible use of existing human resources including measures to reduce staff turnover. Sound human resources policies exist in some offices and should be introduced in the others.
The staff within the NSIs is mainly trained with the support of international experts and through participation in meetings, workshops and seminars organised by Eurostat and by other members of the international community.
All countries are preparing to conduct population and housing censuses in 2011. Agricultural censusesare planned just before or after the population and housing censuses in several countries.
The situation for macro-economic statistics still differs a lot across countries. Most countries are advanced in calculating purchasing power parities (PPP). Several countries already include the non-observed economy into their national accounts and produce quarterly national accounts in constant and current prices. However, not all countries base themselves fully on the ESA 95. Basic statistics needed for good quality national accounts are still not always available.
All countries have developed good external trade statistics. Some business statistics data are available for trade, industry, tourism, transport, construction and services. The harmonisation of short-term statistics (STS) and structural business statistics (SBS) still needs further efforts. The quality of the statistical business registers is often not yet good enough.
Agricultural statistics are widely available but significant improvements are still needed in several countries. Environmental statistics still needs to be developed to a greater extent.
The situation for demographic statistics, labour force surveys and household budget surveys is generally good. For other areas of social statistics such as living conditions and income, the availability of data is more limited.
In many countries dissemination of statistical products needs to be further improved. Some of the countries need to make more publications available in English, in addition to the national languages. Future developments must reflect the growing importance of electronic data dissemination and the increased demands for comparability, timeliness, reliability and accuracy of statistics.
Several offices suffer from insufficient levels of staffing, a lack of budgetary resources and inadequate buildings. The information technologies (IT) are at an acceptable level in most countries but strategies ensuring the regular upgrading of IT capacities are often not in place. IT experts are the staff group with the highest turnover in several statistical offices.
4The need for a multi-beneficiary (regional) approach
The aim of technical assistance in the field of statistics is to develop the statistical capacities of the candidate and potential candidate countries, and to harmonise their statistical methods and standards with European Union norms in order to provide impartial, reliable and comparable statistical data for the EU and national decision makers, other stakeholders and international organisations to monitor the economic and social transition process.
For the countries that are in the process of adopting the acquis in statistics, it is important to receive external financial support since the budgets provided by the governments of the respective countries are generally not sufficient to fulfil all requirements, especially as regards the costs of transition to a statistical system that is in line with EU standards. After the end of the EU support, the national governments are expected to guarantee the sustainability of statistical production from their own budgets.
Statistics is a field which includes many different areas and requires a high degree of technical knowledge to be developed and applied. Developing a statistical system is a long-term task. The acquis on statistics is evolving. Therefore, the statistical systems of the candidate and potential candidate countries must be strengthened to be able to reach and maintain harmonisation and to incorporate changes in the acquis. Technical assistance in the field of statistics aims at developing the statistical capacity of the countries and at providing the statistics needed for the management of EU policies.
Regional cooperation based on a multi-beneficiary approach is the backbone of the EU technical support for developing sustainable and reliable statistical systems in the candidate and potential candidate countries in accordance with the acquis. The multi-beneficiary approach was already successfully used when developing the statistical systems of the new Member States that joined in 2004 and 2007. Also the candidate and potential candidate countries already have very good experience with this approach under Cards and IPA.
The IPA beneficiaries from the Western Balkans participated in the CARDS 2001 and CARDS 2003 regional programmes. Croatia and Turkey participated in the Phare 2005 and 2006 multi-beneficiary programmes. Multi-beneficiary programmes have been programmed under IPA 2007, IPA 2008 and IPA 2009.
The multi-beneficiary approach allows addressing common goals and features in an efficient way, allows for economies of scale and allows for flexibility in the application of instruments. A stable level of support is essential to ensure capacity building in a sustainable way.
The approach helps the beneficiaries to build networks, to share experiences and learn from each other. Regional programmes ensure that issues relevant for all or most NSIs receive adequate attention within a network of interested experts that can share forces and experience, thereby finding solutions and identifying best practices at lower costs. As part of a multi-beneficiary approach the NSIs of the candidate and potential candidate countries can themselves be a source of expertise for their neighbouring countries and for their partners in the national statistical systems.
Regional programmes ensure efficient use of the scarce expertise available within the bodies providing assistance such as Eurostat and the Member States’ statistical offices. For the European Commission, the approach allows for economies of scale by covering more countries simultaneously and by ensuring comparable results. For example, training courses, workshops and seminars can be organised for the whole group of countries. Assessments of statistical areas can be undertaken in several countries by one team of experts.
A multi-beneficiary approach is more flexible than an assistance system built on supporting each country individually. The multi-beneficiary approach can adapt to new needs and new developments very quickly and can deploy resources to the places where they are needed. The multi-beneficiary approach in statistics is based on the use of both service contracts and coordinated direct grants to the NSIs. Service contracts ensure the provision of a basic support where it is needed. The coordinated direct grants fully benefit the institutions most in need (usually the NSIs directly). The grants are based on a unified set of topics to allow several countries to progress together while at the same time being flexible. Coordination and cooperation among countries is ensured by the common structure of the grants and by the centralised management by Eurostat. Where necessary, service contracts are used to provide a support structure, e.g. workshops bringing together all countries on a specific topic, or assessments and support by a single expert team provided in a harmonised way to all countries. The strategy is to gradually increase the proportion of direct grants in the future IPA programmes in order to allow the beneficiaries to take full ownership of the assistance.At the same time, the management of direct grants will strengthen the monitoring and reporting systems of the beneficiaries.
The overall purpose of the multi-beneficiary programmes is to continue upgrading and strengthening the statistical systems of the beneficiaries and thereby improve the availability, quality, comparability and timeliness of statistical data.
5Priority areas to be covered by the three-year plan
This plan refers to the IPA budget years 2011 – 2013. The operational implementation of the technical assistance funded from these budget years will start in early 2012 and will be completed by early 2016 when the activities under IPA 2013 will come to an end.
Assistance will focus on the following main areas:
- Institutional and statistical infrastructure. This includes IT, staff resources, management capacity, staff training and horizontal elements such as modern dissemination of statistics, user orientation and quality of statistics.
- Statistical classifications and registers. This includes the development in the local languages and the use of statistical classifications not only by the statistical institutes but also by theirpartners in the statistical systems. Registers of the population, of businesses and of farms are indispensible for producing modern statistics in a cost-effective way. These registers need to be kept up to date. Registers held by different parts of the administration must be made compatible.
- Sector statistics. This includes a large number of areas of statistics as presented in the Community Statistical Programme[4]. This includes macroeconomic statistics, statistics on prices, purchasing power parities, external trade, foreign direct investment, balance of payment, structural business statistics, short-term statistics, ICT statistics, transport statistics, tourism statistics, energy statistics, household budget surveys, survey on income and living conditions, health statistics, education statistics, labour statistics, agricultural statistics (agricultural accounts, livestock and production statistics in particular), regional statistics, structural indicators and gender statistics, and other areas.
Support under the IPA multi-beneficiary programmes cannot cover all areas in full. Support needs to focus on key areas of strengthening the management and coordination of statistical systems, developing the capacity to produce sector statistics and improving the quality. On the other hand, the long-term target is that all beneficiaries become compliant with the full EU acquis on statistics. In order to achieve this objective, the priorities can not be too narrow.