Meeting of the ESSC 18-19.05.2016

1. ESSC 2015/29/EN
29th
Meeting of the
European Statistical System Committee
Luxembourg,
18th
and 19th
May 2016
SUMMARY RECORD

2. Items for opinion - comitology
Agenda item ESSC 2016/29/1
NUTS 2016 - regular revision of the common classification of territorial units for
statistics
Opinion
1. None of the Member States voted against.
2. None of the Member States abstained.
3. All of the represented Member States voted in favour. In favour: 28 Member States
representing a population of 100%.

3. Agenda item ESSC 2016/29/2
ESS Vision 2020
Opinion
1. The ESSC adopted the conclusions of the workshop on the modernisation of intra-EU
trade in goods statistics which can be found as an annex to this document.
2. The ESSC members welcomed the progress achieved on the implementation of the ESS
Vision 2020 as described in the overall report as well as in the individual documents
regarding the Validation, ESDEN and SERV projects. The Committee also endorsed the
actions and roadmaps proposed for the follow-up of the Validation project and phase 2
of ESDEN and SERV.
3. The Committee supported the concept of an ESS IT Security Framework worked out by
the dedicated ESS expert group. The ESSC also endorsed the corresponding roadmap of
implementation actions, including notably a pilot phase based on a self-assessment and
agreed to use its results for the finalisation of a common security assurance mechanism.
4. The ESSC appreciated the report on cooperation models within the ESS presented by
the Resource Directors Group Task Force on Cooperation Models to support the
implementation of the ESS Vision 2020. While considering the ideas put forward in
chapter 4 as premature at this stage, the ESSC members asked Eurostat to work on the
implementation of the other recommendations made by the Task Force.
Agenda item ESSC 2016/29/3
European Master in Official Statistics
Opinion
1. The ESSC unanimously approved the EMOS Board’s recommendation to award the
EMOS label to the nine recommended Master programmes.
2. The ESSC agreed to follow the recommendation of the EMOS Board to award the EMOS
label to an additional two Master programmes under certain conditions.
3. The ESSC decided not to award the EMOS label to the three Master programmes which
are not compliant with the EMOS requirements.
4. The ESSC recommended evaluating lessons learned for future developments before
launching a third call for EMOS Master programmes.

4. Agenda item ESSC 2016/29/4
Annual Work Programme 2017 and priority setting
Opinion
1. Most delegates expressed overall support for the draft Annual Statistical Work
Programme 2017 (AWP) but some raised concerns on its level of ambition in light of
resource constraints and asked for furthering joint efforts to secure additional funds for
the European statistical programmes.
2. Some delegates pointed out the difficulty of finding a balance between new statistical
demands and areas for simplifications. The Committee took note of the implementation
of negative priorities 2015.
3. Several delegates stressed the importance to be informed on the coverage of SDGs using
European statistics and its impact on the workload.
4. The delegations were invited to send their detailed comments on the AWP 2017 and
negative priorities, including new proposals, by 3 June 2016. These will be considered
when finalising the AWP.
Agenda item ESSC 2016/29/5
Follow-up of the February 2016 Workshop on Quality in the ESS
Opinion
1. The ESSC endorsed the proposed Mandate of the High-level Group on Quality.
2. The ESSC underlined that any future revision of the European Statistics Code of
Practice, considered as the cornerstone of the common quality framework of the ESS,
should be based on a consensus of the ESS members.
3. The ESSC mandated the High-level Group on Quality to finalise the Quality Declaration
of the ESS, in view of its adoption in the September 2016 ESSC meeting.
Agenda item ESSC 2016/29/6
ESS Surveys on ICT usage and e-Commerce - Priorities and Policy Context
Opinion
The ESSC supported the report of the reflection group.
1. Most delegations expressed general support for the proposals contained in the circulated
paper. This includes also keeping the annual frequency, noting the need for reliable
statistical information in the field of fast developing technologies.
2. Some delegates proposed taking steps for increasing the efficiency of the data
collections by using additional data sources, modern technologies and alternative data
collection methods. This will be emphasised in the future work.
3. The Information Society Statistics Working Group should take up the above proposals
and in addition enhance the current practices of annually rotating the subjects surveyed.
This would guarantee that the policy requirements are more extensively covered without
increasing the burden.

5. Annex
ESSC workshop
on modernisation of intra-EU
trade in goods statistics
Luxembourg, 18th
May 2016
Conclusions

6. 1. The ESSC expressed high appreciation to Eurostat for the very well prepared Workshop
on Modernisation of the intra-EU trade in goods statistics.
2. The members of the ESSC acknowledged the work done in the ESS.VIPs SIMSTAT and
REDESIGN and thanked everybody involved in the Member States and in Eurostat for
the high quality work done. The ESSC members appreciated the co-operation between the
Member States and the collaborative nature of the work which was an important factor for
success. The ESSC also thanked the PG task force for their commitment and valuable
contribution provided within a very limited time available.
3. The ESSC supported the general approach to modernising the intra-EU trade in goods
statistics aimed at ensuring a substantial reduction of the response burden, while at the
same time maintaining a sound level of quality and responding to changing user needs.
The ESSC agreed that the future system will: 1) ensure a reduction in the overall response
burden in the context of intra-EU trade in goods statistics of at least 25%; 2) provide a
sound level of quality in response to stakeholders’ (i.e. users and respondents) needs; 3)
allow for flexibility in data sources and compilation methods used by Member States; and
4) prepare international trade statistics for the challenges brought by globalisation.
4. To this end, the following key elements of the targeted modernised system of intra-EU
trade in goods statistics were agreed:
a) Harmonised statistical output: Member States will continue to provide monthly
statistics for both intra-EU exports and imports broken down by commodity codes and
trading partner and fulfilling quality requirements related to statistical outputs.
b) Multiple data sources: Member States could use multiple data sources for compilation
of statistics as far as strict minimum quality requirements on the statistical output to be
laid down in EU legislation are met.
c) An additional data source – exchanged micro-data on intra-EU exports: in accordance
with the "ESS core principles for the exchange of confidential data on businesses for
statistical purposes", an additional data source will be created by making the exchange of
micro-data on intra-EU exports among Member States mandatory; the use of the
exchanged micro-data, in contrast, will be voluntary.
d) Innovative and flexible compilation methodologies: the availability of multiple sources
gives Member States a high degree of flexibility and allows the introduction of innovative
methodologies for compiling the required statistical output, subject to strict minimum
quality requirements on the statistical output to be laid down in EU legislation.
e) Modernisation through evaluation: the evaluation of the functioning of the modernised
system, including the adequacy of the breakdowns and frequency of the statistics
produced, is foreseen in 3 to 5 years after entry into force of the relevant legislation.
5. While a vast majority of Member States were in favour of the mandatory exchange of
micro-data on intra-EU exports and their voluntary use, some countries were opposed and

7. raised concerns about the acceptability of such exchange and the risks it entails. There
was a common understanding that those concerns need to be addressed.
6. It was also agreed that appropriate consultations with key stakeholders and well-planned
communication measures will be needed.
7. The ESSC acknowledged that the maximum value added of the exchange of micro-data
on intra-EU exports can only be achieved if the partner ID number is included in the
exchanged data and encouraged the experts to examine the use of the VIES system for
that purpose. As regards the country of origin variable, while its usefulness was
recognised (e.g. for describing global value chains), this has to be balanced against the
additional burden that its collection could entail. In this context, the ESSC agreed that the
response burden on export side should not increase as a result of modernisation.
8. The ESSC members mandated the technical experts (ITGS SG and BSDG) to incorporate
the key elements of the modernised intra-EU trade in goods statistics as identified by the
ESSC and in accordance with the “ESS core principles for the exchange of confidential
data on businesses for statistical purposes”. In particular the experts are requested to:
− make suggestions for minimum quality requirements for statistics on both exports and
imports;
− quantify the overall response burden reduction potential of the proposed scenarios;
− recommend common confidentiality rules for the exchanged micro-data.
The Partnership Group will continue to follow the work done at the expert level, provide
its guidance and report to the ESSC.
9. The work should be finished in time in order to fit in the FRIBS timetable (opinion of the
ESSC in November 2016).

8. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
Member States
BE Institut National de Statistique
BG National Institute of Statistics
CZ Czech Statistical Office
DE DESTATIS
DK Statistics Denmark
EE Statistical Office of Estonia
IE Central Statistics Office
EL National Statistical Service Greece
ES Instituto Nacional de Estadistica
FR Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques
HR Central Bureau of Statistics of Croatia
IT Istituto Nazionale di Statistica
CY Statistical Service of Cyprus
LT Statistics Lithuania
LV Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia
LU Statec
HU Hungarian Central Statistical Office
MT National Statistics Office
NL Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek
AT Statistik Österreich
PL Central Statistical Office
PT Instituto Nacional de Estatìstica
RO National Institute of Statistics
SI Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia
SK Slovak Statistical Office
FI Statistics Finland
SE Statistics Sweden
UK Office for National Statistics
EFTA/EEA
Iceland
Liechtenstein
Norway
Switzerland