Working Group on Urban and Regional Statistics
Doc E4/REG/2010/13
EUROSTAT
Directorate D: Economic and Regional Statistics
Unit E-4: Regional indicators and geographical information /
Working Group on Regional and Urban Statistics
Meeting of 27-28September 2010 in Luxembourg,
BECH building, AMPERE room
Document E4/REG/2010/13
Final Minutes
Page 1
Working Group on Urban and Regional Statistics
Doc E4/REG/2010/13
Content:
1.Introduction
2.Progress Report 2010 and Work Programme 2011
2.1. Achievements and future milestones at Eurostat
2.2. A regional development strategy for 2020
2.3. INSPIRE and statistics
3.Spatial units
3.1. The NUTS amendment
3.2. LAU data transmission
3.3. WebILSE
3.4. Dedicated web site on NUTS
4.Regional statistics
4.1. Labour market statistics
4.2. New regional indicators
4.3. Regional Accounts
4.4. A revised urban/rural typology
4.5. TASK applied to the revised urban rural typology
4.6. Regional Government Expenditure statistics (RGES)
4.7. Regional poverty statistics
4.8. State of play of the OECD work
5.Urban statistics
5.1. State of play of the current Urban Audit collection
5.2. A transnational Urban Audit for Geneva
5.3. Small area estimations applied to Urban Audit
5.4. The 27th SCORUS Conference in Latvia
5.5. A legal framework for the Urban Audit
5.6. The 2009 perception survey in 75 cities
5.7. The second "State of European Cities Report"
6.Dissemination
6.1. Cities' and Regions' Profiles (CARP)
6.2. Regional Yearbook
6.3. The Eurostat metadata handler
7.Highlights of recent work in National Statistical Offices
8.Conclusions
Annex: List of Participants
Member States
Candidate countries
EFTA and other countries
Commission
Other
1.Introduction
The chairman, Mr Schäfer, welcomed the participants to the Working Group meeting. He introduced the new member of the team, Ms Daniela Scirankova, who had replaced MsFernande Klapp as the database manager responsible for labour market data.
All EU Member States except Bulgaria, Italy and Cypruswere represented; representatives fromTurkey, Serbia, Switzerlandand Norwaywere also present (see the attendance list in annex).
The proposed agenda was adopted and the minutes of the previous year’s meeting were approved.
The director responsible in Eurostat, Mr Díaz Muñoz, emphasised the strong policy interest in regional and urban statistics. The objective of territorial cohesion in the EU is set outin the Lisbon Treaty. The forthcoming 5th Cohesion Report,which is under preparation inDG REGIO, will provide a comprehensive analysis of the current trends.
The policy objectives present a significant challenge for the European Statistical System to provide anextensive set of high quality statistics to support policy making. The ESS has recently underlined theimportant principles governing how this statistical work must be carried out. There is aneed to consider the costs for data collection and the burden on respondents. Where possible a decentralised data collection should be organised which is based as far as possible on existing data and existing administrative records. The ESS strategy set outin the vision paper points towards integrated systems of statistics. Emerging technology, such as the use of geo-referenced microdata and small area statistics, can also be of considerable help. Regional and urban statistics,as with all other statistical domains, need to focus on the relationship between costs and benefits.
Some recent initiatives have been taken to respond to this situation:
- Within Eurostat a coordination group for regional statistics was set up to discuss regional statistics and to improve cooperation between thevarious statistical domains.
- A further initiative aimed at better cooperation was the creation of a coordination group 'Spatial Dimension in Statistics'atdirectors' level.
- A UNECE Seminar on Spatial Statistics had underlined the need to introduce geo-referenced statistics in order to create the preconditions for small area analysis, which are required in the context of quality of life studies.
- The aim of theTASK project is to broaden the uses of microdata in the analysis of territorial development.
- Eurostat is preparing a number of tools to improve access to regional, urban and spatial statistics. The City and Regional Profile (CARP) will be presented atthe meeting. Furthermore, the annual Regional Yearbook is due to be published very soon.
A particularly important subject is the drafting of a strategy paper on sub-national statistics, covering regional, urban and spatial statistics. The aim of the paper is to strengthen the integration of these domains into the spirit of the ESS vision. The paper will be discussedat the Working Group meeting, but also in other strategically oriented contexts. The paper was requested by the Eurostat management in order todiscuss the potential legal basis for Urban Statistics.
Mr Díaz Muñoz mentioned two specific aspects discussed in the Working Group as being particularly significant: (1) the NUTS revision,which was to be voted on by the ESSC on 1 October and (2) the new classification of regions into urban, rural or intermediate, which had been agreed between DG REGIO and DG AGRI.
As a final comment, Pedro Diaz expressed his opinion that regional and urban statistics would playa leading role in exploring new ways of producing statistical data, using new technology and also using information that is outside the traditional boundaries of official statistics.
2.Progress Report 2010 and Work Programme 2011
2.1. Achievements and future milestones at Eurostat
Eurostat presented the major achievements in regional and urban statistics during the previous twelve months and the milestones of its Work Programme for the coming year. The main areas where Eurostat will concentrate its work in 2011are:
- Cities and Regions’ Profiles (CARP): go public
- Urban Audit : continue to collect and validate data
- Draft a comprehensive strategy paper on the integration of NUTS data, urban statistics and geo-referenced data
- Improve the tool for “Web Index of Locations for Statistics in Europe” (WebILSE)
- Conduct a feasibility study on applying a Europe wide methodology for Labour Market Areas
2.2. A regional development strategy for 2020
DG REGIO gave an overview of the analytical results of the 5th Cohesion Report. This builds on the "GDP and Beyond" and the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi report and now covers a much wider range of indicators than before, including objective and subjective well-being indicators and also climate change related indicators.
The first chapter focuses on the analysis of economic, social and environmental trends at the regional level. On many of these issues, the regional disparities are large and could be reduced with the help of Cohesion Policy. National public investments are also geographically differentiated, with some Member States allocating a higher share to the capital city region, while others target less developed regions or regions with specific geographical characteristics. The assessment of the contribution of other EU policies to cohesion suggests that a territorial impact assessment during the development of a policy and an ex-post evaluation that also looks at the territorial dimension could be beneficial. The last chapter evaluates the impact of Cohesion Policy. It shows that Cohesion Policy has made a significantcontribution to the development of the EU and in particular to that of the less developed regions. Nevertheless, the policy could be further improved by means of greater targeting/concentration and closermonitoring of implementation.
In the discussion, the German delegate said that he had been impressedby this presentation. He asked what statistics DG REGIO needed for its analytical work. DG REGIO replied that there would be bilateral negotiations with the Member States in order identify the areas by country where statistics should improve. So far the Europe 2020 indicators are at the EU level, but national targets would be discussed.
2.3. INSPIRE and statistics
Eurostat presented the state of play of INSPIRE, focusing on its growing importance for statistics.
In the discussion,the question was raised as to whether INSPIRE is more interested in content data (statistics) or in regional references. The chairman replied that INSPIRE was not created for content, but as a portal to access content; hence, its purposeis to create standards that make data accessible.
The German delegate emphasized that the Commission and all its DGs should also set out their user needs and provide reference data. The chairman explained that patience was necessary in orderto build the INSPIRE infrastructure one step at a time.
3.Spatial units
3.1. The NUTS amendment
Eurostat presented the state of play of the current NUTS amendment procedure. There are very few changes in the regional breakdown this time. The Commission Regulation on the requirement to send historic time series in case of a NUTS amendment will be prepared next.
For the next round of NUTS amendments, Eurostat plans to improve the comparability, compliance and coherence of the regional classification. In order to facilitate the exchange of views, Eurostat proposed extending the phase of informal discussions with Member States in the next revision round. Eurostat also emphasizedthat it is working continuously on publicizing NUTS as a regional classification for statistics.
For the statistical regions, informal discussions have been heldwith Iceland, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia.
In the discussion, The Netherlands asked whether comments from Member States on the proposed obligations on historic time series were welcome. Eurostat replied that such comments would be very welcome.
Poland welcomed the proposal to start the discussion on the next NUTS amendment at this stage. It asked whether administrative and non-administrative regions can be mixed for a given NUTS level. Eurostat replied that there were already such cases in the current versionof NUTS.
The German delegate asked which political decisions were linked to NUTS. DG REGIO replied that eligibility and funding of the Commission's Cohesion Policy was linked to NUTS. However, any analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of economies are also carried out in the NUTSframework.
3.2. LAU data transmission
Eurostat's presentation focused on the extensive use of the annual LAU data provided by NSI. It wasgood news for the users that the group of data suppliers had been extended to includefour non-Member States.
For the use of the annual LAU lists it wascrucial that the confidentiality constraintapplying tothe attached administrative data (total population, surface area) waslifted as soon as possible. Twelve out of 27 NSI hadnot yet given their written approval. Therefore, Eurostat reminded the relevant NSI to take appropriate steps.
In the discussion, DG REGIO underlined that LAU data are used extensively by different Commission services. These data should be accessible from a single entry point.
3.3. WebILSE
WebILSE is an online tool that supports the regional coding of data on transport statistics which are provided by Member States on the basis of annual surveys. So far the application has been owned by the Transport Statistics unit in Eurostat and it will be broughtwithin the remit of the unit on Regional Statistics and Geographical Information as of 1 January 2011.
3.4. Dedicated web site on NUTS
Eurostat presented this new website containing background information on NUTS. The UK delegate commended its user-friendliness and clarity.
4.Regional statistics
4.1. Labour market statistics
The NUTS level 2 data collection from the Labour Force Survey had been completed; data would be published in mid-October. For NUTS level 3 Eurostat collects LFS data where they exist; otherwise registered unemployment data are collected. The request for collection had recently been sent out.
So far no data at NUTS level 3 were collected for the EFTA countries, but Eurostat would very much welcome the launch of such an exercise.
In the discussion,DG REGIO underlined its interest in publishing data on the revised urban-rural typology based on NUTS 3 data. In addition, it expressed its desire to change the urban-rural definition in the LFS, which was based on LAU data. A representative of unit F2 (Labour market statistics) confirmed that this could be done without changing the LFS Regulation. Only the agreement of the stakeholders would be needed.
4.2. New regional indicators
Over the past five years, the availability of regional indicators had improved considerably. Eurostat was now publishing data on poverty, demography and patents at regional level. Furthermore, Eurostat wasinvestigating the possibility of collecting more environmental indicators and business demography at the regional level. The need for more data at NUTS 3 level was underlined in the light of the agreed urban-rural typology.
In the discussion, the United Kingdominquiredabout the precise policy needs for these new indicators. DG REGIO replied that the latest Cohesion Report sets out the policy needsvery well, but other policy reports,such as those of DG AGRI, are also using the data.
4.3. Regional Accounts
As regards the collection of data from Member States, Eurostat drew attention to thelow compliance levels for GFCF (Table 1000 of ESA 1995). Some Member States are more than three reference years behind in their legal obligations. Therefore, NSIs need to catch up with the transmission of this indicator as a matter of urgency. The UK delegate announced that more recent GFCF data would be transmitted shortly, noting that Eurostat had been advised about concerns over the quality ofthe data.
Concerning the candidate countries, Eurostat welcomed the fact that Turkey had resumed transmission of regional GVA data, albeit only at T + 36 months and only at regional level 2. The Turkish NSI should therefore concentrate its efforts on accelerating the production of regional GVA data with a view to catching up with the T + 24 months deadline of the ESA95 Regulation.
Concerning the Task Force on Methodology of Regional Accounts, Eurostat reported that the final report (available in the CIRCA interest group Regional Accounts) had been approved by TF participants and was now awaiting approval by the National Accounts Working Group or the ESA Review Group. Eurostat would endeavour to obtain this approval in time for the implementation of the new Extra-Regio method for estimating regional GDP in the context of the regional GDP release in February 2011.
In the discussion, DG REGIO asked when the sector division change to NACE rev2 was due to take place. Eurostat replied that transmission of data according to the new industry breakdown was due as from 31 December 2011. NSIs are required to transmit back data as from reference year 2000by the end of 2012.
DG REGIO also emphasized that GFCF data are very important for the analytical work and should be improved.
4.4. A revised urban/rural typology
DG REGIO presented the methodology used in project, whichhad become increasinglynecessary in order to reconcileinconsistent statements made by different DGs about the urban and rural population in Europe. A two-year discussion between DG REGIO, AGRI, Eurostat and the JRC was finalised in spring 2010. The need to improve and to move away from LAU data as a basic input to grid data stemmed from the wide variation in the size of LAU areas, which in the original OECD typology leads to some implausible results forBelgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden.
In the discussion, the OECD delegate recalled that the OECD typology had changed in 2009; the refined typology now includes distance from urban areas and therefore discriminates between remote rural regions and regions that are close to urban centres. For the time being, the OECD and EC typologies will therefore differ.
As Portugalhad deplored the big differences between the revised typology and the original version, the DG REGIO representative assured delegates that this new typology was for analytical purposes only, and would not be used for allocating funds.
4.5. TASK applied to the revised urban rural typology
Eurostat presented the initial results in the form ofcalculations of employment and unemployment figures for Bulgaria, Estonia, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Sweden and Slovenia. These very impressive figures reveal some unexpected differences between rural, intermediate and urban areas in the countries concerned.
The chairman stressedthat this was a very good example of making better use of existing statistics. The project will be monitored more intensively in 2011.
The colleague from unit F2 (Labour market statistics) emphasised that the costs of adding a NUTS code to the transmitted data were negligible. However, he pointed out that the calculations of the reliability of the data were rather complex.
4.6. Regional Government Expenditure statistics (RGES)
The chairman explained that there had been a justified need for RGES in DG REGIO for monitoring purposes for many years. Data delivery is due in the revised ESA programme from 2014 onwards. The original plan was for the Member States to conduct a pilot study, financed by grants. Because of the negative feedbackfrom many Member States, this project was earmarked as a "negative priority". It has now been postponed until 2012.