European Safety Survey : News on the draft Council and European Parliament Regulation Task Force Victimisation 17 February 2011

Activities of the Task Force in the last 12 months February/March 2010 Pilot exercises were being concluded April 2010 Evaluation of pilot exercises and modification of questionnaire at TF meeting June 2010 Further development of methodology July 2010 Written consultation of Task Force September 2010 Presentation of proposal to Directors of Social Statistics (DSS) February 2011 Presentation of revised draft Council/EP Regulation to European Statistical System Committee (ESSC) Task Force Victimisation 17 February 2011

Draft opinion of ESSC 1. A majority of Member States in principle welcomed the proposal as a new source of information for statistics on safety from crime. 2. Delegations expressed some concerns with regard to administrative burden, costs and the financial support to be provided. Furthermore, they called for additional work on methodology and the content of the questionnaire in particular in order to improve comparability of results. 3. Some Member States also questioned the need to include reference to a delegated act in the proposal and requested that all issues be covered in the basic act. In any case, the standard clause on delegated acts as discussed in the December 2010 Partnership Group meeting should be reflected in the final draft regulation. 4. Eurostat confirmed that the points made would be taken into account in the further work. Task Force Victimisation 17 February 2011

ESSC discussion 10 February – general issues Budget issues Cost of household surveys Stockholm Programme states political priority given to justice and home affairs, and gives mandate for improvements in crime statistics EU funding up to 90% of total eligible costs Comparability Development of SASU stressed international comparability (UN manual, HEUNI & Intervict studies, use of best practice from national and international surveys) Countries with national surveys wish to avoid two sets of results Future plans Further surveys will be conducted, depending on results To be included in modernisation of social statistics Need for a ‘sunset clause’ to set an end date Most Regulations specify end date, to avoid mounting workload This is redundant if only one implementation Task Force Victimisation 17 February 2011

ESSC discussion 10 February – specific issues As this is a single survey, technical details can be included in Regulation, so no need for a delegated act Speed up dissemination procedure Reduction of sample size from 5,000 to 3,000 persons for countries with population over 16 under 0. 5 million Belgium request derogation to conduct survey in first half 2013 (like France and Luxembourg) Ireland request derogation on covering violence between family members Small parts of the national territory may be excluded from the survey New comitology procedure Task Force Victimisation 17 February 2011

ESSC discussion 10 February – implementation of requested changes As this is a single survey, technical details could be included in Regulation, so no need for a delegated act - Delete Recital 11, Art. 4.4 & Arts. 12-14, amend Art. 3.1, add Annex 1 Speed up dissemination procedure – Art. 9 & Art. 7.2 Reduction of sample size from 5,000 to 3,000 persons for countries with population over 16 under 0. 5 million – Art. 5 Belgium request derogation to conduct survey in first half 2013 (like France and Luxembourg) – Art. 4.2 Ireland request derogation on covering violence between family members – Art. 3.2 Small parts of the national territory may be excluded from the survey – add Art. 6.2 & Annex 2 New comitology procedure – Recital 10, Arts. 8, 10, 12 Task Force Victimisation 17 February 2011

Thank you for listening Geoffrey.Thomas@ec.europa.eu Task Force Victimisation 17 February 2011