1. Véronique van der Zande
Policy Group on Statistical Cooperation
18-19 October 2018, Kruševo
Commitments on Confidence: State-of-play in the EU and enlargement countries
Point 8 of the agenda
Doc. PGSC/2018/19
Véronique van der Zande
Eurostat

2. Form of the commitment and reports EU and enlargement state-of-play
Content
Background
Form of the commitment and reports
EU and enlargement state-of-play
Summary and outlook
Eurostat

3. 1. Background
Included in Amended Regulation 223/2009 on European statistics of 29 April 2015
MS and EC obliged to take measures for maintaining confidence in European statistics
Commitments on confidence in statistics by MS and EC aim at ensuring public trust
To be monitored by EC in annual reports by MS by 9/6/2017 or report on CoP implementation
Strengthening of commitment of the government to implement CoP in entire NSS
Eurostat

4. 1. Background (cont.) Quality levels in statistics
Conceptual
Methodological
Mathematical
Institutional
Contextual
Eurostat

5. 2. Form of the commitment + reports
No rule on commitment form in Regulation
9/6/2017: stand-alone commitments in 6 MS
16 MS reported that certain pieces of their legislation constitute the commitment on confidence and some announced that they will not sign any stand-alone commitment (in dialogue with Eurostat)
Viable for the EC, but conditional: political element needs to be in and there has to be an added value compared to the law itself: government provides means and political backing (a law adopted by the parliament may be insufficient and a mere promise to abide by the law is not intended)
Eurostat

6. 3. EU and enlargement state-of-play
Stand-alone commitments: Greece, Sweden (as part of the Government`s budget bill for 2017), Slovenia, Ireland, Belgium, Romania, Albania, Montenegro and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Examples of other developments: Denmark, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia
Eurostat

7. 4. Summary and outlook
Introduction of Commitment on Confidence in Regulation 223/2009 raised the awareness of governments about the importance of their contribution to maintaining and improving public trust in official statistics.
Resulting additional guarantees for the high quality of official statistics is expected to lead to the desired effect of strengthening public trust.
Interaction with users and reassuring the general public are crucial for official statistics.
Eurostat

8. Points for discussion
Have Albania and Montenegro experienced more public trust since the adoption of the Commitment on Confidence?
Have the other countries approached their governments? Which progress has been achieved?
Which form of a Commitment on Confidence are you considering and could you explain your reasons?
Eurostat