1. The ESS.VIP Programme: a response to the challenges facing the ESS Mariana Kotzeva, ESS VIP Programme Coordinator Advisor Hors Classe ESTAT

2. Challenges facing the ESS ever-increasing demand for high quality statistics; request for reduction in the burden posed by data collection; substantial cuts on the financial and human resources in the ESS; rising need for measuring cross-cutting and complex phenomena; competitiveness of non-official statistics. ESTAT

3. Joint ESS Response to the challenges over recent years Cracow Action Plan that resulted in new legal framework and governance of the ESS and revised Code of Practice; ESSnets (co-operation networks at operational level) and Sponsorships (co-operation at management level) that allow for a group of Member States to work together for the benefit of the whole ESS; Renewal of the priority setting approach to European statistics and periodical screening; Commission Communication 404 "The Production method of EU statistics: a vision for the next decade"; Joint ESS Strategy for the implementation of the Communication 404 adopted by ESSC in May 2010. ESTAT

4. How to respond to the challenges further on? Through: Moving towards more common solutions and shared services and environment ESTAT in order to make the ESS partners able to realise economies of scale, efficiency gains and share costs, and thus, meet growing challenges under current budgetary constraints.

5. A more integrated ESS system includes opportunities: to exchange data, including micro data and use them for compiling statistics; to share services that cover the whole production chain, i.e. to share dissemination tools and common IT applications for linking data from different sources; to use system of inter-operable statistical registers in the statistics production; to rely on a network of data warehouses, comprising data collected from multiple sources, allowing for their combination and serving a multiplicity of users' needs; to rely on the appropriate legal framework and administrative mechanisms for sharing costs on common solutions; to build up on better allocation of tasks along the MS-Eurostat production chain, in data validation for example. ESTAT

6. ESS Architecture, current situation ESTAT

8. Are we too ambitious ? ESTAT

9. What is the ESS.VIP Programme? It aims at: realising economies of scale and productivity gains through sharing information, services and costs; at developing a common ESS infrastructure and appropriate legal framework and new administrative mechanisms that will allow for sharing of information, services and costs among ESS partners. ESTAT

10. The ESS VIP Programme and the Statistical Business Processes National solutions based on subsidiarity principle Coordinated common solutions when cost-effective and compatible National solutions based on subsidiarity principle Coordinated common solutions when cost-effective and compatible Shared : Information Infrastructure Services Costs among ESS partners Shared : Information Infrastructure Services Costs among ESS partners National solutions based on subsidiarity principle Coordinated common solutions when cost-effective and compatible National solutions based on subsidiarity principle Coordinated common solutions when cost-effective and compatible ESTAT ESS VIP Programme Data collection Data processing, validation and analysis Data processing, validation and analysis Dissemination

11. The ESS.VIP Programme consists of three parts: 1.Building up common infrastructure for sharing information services; 2.Piloting the sharing of information, services and costs in selected statistical domains; 3.Developing frameworks and administrative mechanisms for sharing information, services and costs. ESTAT

12. 1. Building up common infrastructure through technical cross-cutting projects Information models and standards; Networks/infrastructure for exchange of information; Data Warehouses reference architecture; Shared services; Validation-cross-cutting issues; ESTAT

13. 2. Sharing information, services and costs through projects in selected statistical domains Administrative Data Sources; National Accounts (National Accounts Production-Service project); Price and Transport Statistics (PRIX and TRIX Data warehouses project); Business registers (European system of Interoperable Statistical Business Registers project); International trade in goods (SIMSTAT project); Information and technology surveys (ICT project); Common Data Validation Policy. ESTAT

14. 3. Developing frameworks and administrative mechanisms Governance; Legal framework; Human resources; Cost sharing and financial resources; Communication. ESTAT

15. Projects in statistical domains Technical cross-cutting projects Frameworks and administrative mechanisms ADMIN Information models and standards Communication NAPS Network for information exchange Governance ESS DW PRIX and TRIX Data warehouses reference architecture Human resources EGR / EBRsShared services Sharing costs Financial resources SIMSTATValidation architectureLegal framework ICT Implementing strategy Common data validation policy ESS.VIP Programme components ESTAT

16. The state of play of the ESS.VIP Programme in December 2012 The overall direction and goals of the Programme approved by the ESSC in November 2012; The first three projects of the Programme launched (SIMSTAT, Common Data Validation Policy and European System of Statistical Business Registers); Further elaboration of the Programme with the active involvement of the Member States in the next 6 months; The next elaborated outline of the ESS.VIP Programme to be presented to the ESSC in May 2013. ESTAT

17. Advantages of the proposed approach produces short term benefits; provides a smoother transition to future common solutions; ensures MSs involvement in all dimensions; foresees a more gradual investment path. ESTAT

18. Challenges of the ESS.VIP programme to ensure that the common solutions and supporting frameworks developed for individual statistical domains such as international trade in goods and national accounts are generic enough to be further deployed in other domains; ESTAT to ensure timely deliveries from the technical cross- cutting projects that are the necessary inputs for the domain-oriented ESS VIPs.

19. ESS.VIP Programme Governance: ESTAT

20. The benefits to the ESS that ESS.VIP Programme brings It proposes a renewed collaborative approach within the ESS that will result in: productivity and efficiency gains; reducing redundancies and duplications in the production chain; better allocation of tasks; enhanced flexibility of the system to react to new requirements. ESTAT