1. Point 5 : Progress of the work on the EHS since the last DSS meeting
EUROSTAT –Unit F3 Living conditions and social protection statistics
Point 5 : Progress of the work on the EHS since the last DSS meeting
Two main long term regular households/individuals surveys have been put in place at Community level, for specific purposes linked to the Union’s policies: LFS focusing on employment and SILC focusing on income and living conditions. Both surveys offer an annual possibility of specific ad-hoc modules, allowing for a limited number of additional variables to be collected, providing these variables are related to the main purpose of the surveys.
Other general population data collections either have been, are being or will be established with greater or lesser degrees of harmonisation at EU level, like the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) household survey, the Adult Education Survey (AES), the Household Budget Survey (HBS), the Time Use Survey (TUS) and the Health Interview Survey (EHIS). Two of these data collections (HBS and TUS) have already existed for some time, but most of them have been recently implemented (ICT) or they are still in a development phase (AES, EHIS).
At the same time, requests for new data collections are emerging and it is likely that they will increase in the future. There is consequently a need to look at possibilities to rationalise the data collection system and at the same time to create a flexible tool to quickly answer to new policy demands or existing policy demands which are not yet fulfilled. This is the reason why Eurostat has been, since 2005, working on the development of a new instrument, the EHS (European Household Survey or European System of Social Statistical Survey Modules). The system should have flexibility as a key characteristic aiming at improving timeliness and responsiveness.
Several Commission DGs (in particular DG EMPL, SANCO, EAC, JLS) have already expressed a strong interest for this project. 1

2. Brief presentation of EHS

3. In a nutshell A system of social statistical modules
…with two objectives:
To rationalise existing and future household surveys
To increase flexibility and timely response to user needs
…providing a coherent overall design structure for social statistics
Alternate EHIS-BI and AES (every 2 years) is still in discussion
To increase flexibility at the EU level and timely response to user needs: importance of the irregular modules to answer New Commission Needs
This new project would lie somewhere in-between the Eurobarometer surveys producing quick results based on small sample sizes and including a high number of opinion questions on one side and heavy, structural surveys such as the LFS and the SILC surveys for which the degree of flexibility is limited on the other side 1

4. System of household survey composed of:
Regular modules:
 core variables module 10’ (annual)
 and a module corresponding to the current full ICT household survey 20’ (annual)
 EHIS mini-module 15’ (annual) + possibly the comprehensive EHIS survey (5-year survey)
and an AES modules (5-year or annual survey) 35’
Irregular modules (short-term and long-term) to answer new policy Commission needs (NCN) 15-35’

5. The EU recommended schema: basic requirements
Maximum average interview duration: 45 min
EU-27 sample of persons (current working hypothesis).
Sample size of each module: interviews (possible over a 2-year period for the EHIS minimodule and some NCN)
Systematic inclusion of the core variables module
The EU recommended schema is only a proposal (flexibility principle)

6. Integration of the ICT module (1)
Current situation:
ICT framework regulation (EC) No 808/2004 of 21 April 2004
Reference period= first quarter of the year N
Fieldwork period= second quarter of the year N
Thus, data available in October of year N
Results issued in December of year N and published in the spring report of year N+1
ICT 2006
All countries except one carried out the fieldwork during the 1st semester
18/30 countries carried out the fieldwork during the 2nd quarter of the year 2006

7. Integration of the ICT module (2)
Integration in EHS: possible problems of ICT fieldwork during the 2nd quarter only
NSIs already overburdened in spring
Seasonal effects
3 scenarios considered:
Keep the current schedule
ICT fieldwork on a continuous basis
Data collection during the first semester (January-June)

8. Integration of AES 2 possibilities considered:
Integration of the comprehensive AES every 5-year on a individual sample
Integration of the comprehensive AES every year on a reduced ( individual) sample, and cumulating
 Currently: the first scenario is privileged

9. The schema proposals

10. Schema 1 (ICT fieldwork during the 2nd quarter, 5-year AES)

11. Schema 2 (fieldwork ICT during the 2nd quarter, annual AES)

12. Preparation milestones for NCN modules

13. NCN module on « ageing society: society adapted to all »(2010)
Context: communication to the needs of an ageing society to be issued in October 2008 (DG EMPL)
Other groups may be considered: young people, disabled people, migrants…
Timetable (provisional)
April 2008: discussion on the list of variables during the EHS TF meeting
June or July 2008: presentation of the list of variables for information and opinion at the SDG meeting
September 2008: adoption of the list of variables by the DSS
February 2009: decision taken by the SPC to launch or not EHS. In case of positive decision, adoption of the NCN module on ageing society
June-September 2009: pilot data collection
January 2010: implementation of the survey

14. Next steps
Discussion in the EHS Task Force meetings planned for April, June and September 2008
the objectives are to take final decisions on the EU recommended schema, to evaluate the results of the pilot data collection and to make a concrete proposal for all modules to be included in 2010 and 2011
Discussion in SDG and 'Living Conditions' Working Group in June 2008
Presentation to the DSS in September 2008 for opinion
Presentation to the SPC in September 2008 for information
Decision taken on implementation in the SPC meeting of February 2009 (following Eurostat Directors meeting opinion at the end of November 2008).