Eurostat approach to international statistical cooperation – ENP East

Eurostat context for international statistical cooperation EU sets political framework, actions support the EU's foreign policy agenda Actions so far financed from European Stats Programme, or external action budgets, but directed towards sub-regional activities (national or two countries involved) New ENP East regional programme planned (under Ext.Action budget) Broad details (amounts, beneficiaries, main aims of the programme) must be agreed by Commission, Parliament and Council (very long, slow process)

European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)

Political framework ENP represents a joint EU - Partner countries commitment to deliver tangible results for citizens across the region ENP-related activities are financed by the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) The ENP builds upon bilateral legal agreements between the EU and the partner countries: - Bilateral Association Agreements (including Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area agreements) – Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine - Partnership and Cooperation Agreements – Armenia, Azerbaijan - Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Belarus – signed but not ratified by the EU The Eastern Partnership Initiative (EaP) is a joint initiative between the EU, EU Member States, and 6 ENP-East countries, and combines both multilateral (regional) and specific national dimensions

Current activities in the ENP-East Activities largely financed through the European Statistical Programme Discussed and agreed with the ENP East NSOs through the High Level Seminar and Working Groups Strategy is unpublished Lots of quality work pursued so far Panels, Twinning & Taiex activities covered by the External Action budget

Towards an ENP-East regional programme for statistics (1) In 2016, EU approval for an ENP-East regional programme for statistics (from External Assistance budget) The programme would focus on the following priorities: Macro-economics inc. Trade, social inc. migration, labour market, poverty, business, SDGs demands inter alia strengthening the NSI and enhancing the institutional environment in such a way that the data are produced and disseminated in a professionally independent manner increasing the capacity of the NSS, so that they would be able to produce an increasing range of quality statistics in accordance with EU standards and to make them available through modern ways of dissemination

Towards an ENP-East regional programme for statistics (2) Estimated duration of implementation: 3 years, estimated budget: 5 million euro Activities will include: technical assistance provided by Member State experts in specific domains of statistics preparation of methodology for surveys and the implementation of pilot surveys joint technical seminars and workshops training courses publications Start date of the ENP programme is most likely Jan 2019

Lessons learnt from EU statistical cooperation (1) ENP East statistical systems have: Common history which makes a regional dimension to cooperation obvious, but … …specific national priorities and contexts have emerged which need to be taken into account The varying levels of political interest in potential EU membership is reflected in country interest in EU specific standards

Lessons learnt from EU statistical cooperation (2) Most influence is achieved when international partners collaborate to create common standards (e.g. the Generic Law on Statistics) Matching the task to the best cooperation modality (TAIEX, TWINNING etc.) can improve outcomes Having a mix of actions supported from the External Action budget and the European Statistical Programme is more labour intensive but the advantages are greater programming flexibility Language barriers between EU & ENP East statisticians are considerable and need active solutions