Eurostat

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Eurostat
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Stadtteilzentrum Kirchberg, rue Alphonse Weicker - 2006.jpg
Directorate-General overview
TypeStatistical office
Headquarters Kirchberg District Centre, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Directorate-General executive
Parent department European Commission

Eurostat (European Statistical Office; DG ESTAT) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statistical information to the institutions of the European Union (EU) and to promote the harmonisation of statistical methods across its member states and candidates for accession as well as EFTA countries. The organisations in the different countries that cooperate with Eurostat are summarised under the concept of the European Statistical System.

Contents

Organisation

Eurostat operates pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. [1] Since the swearing in of the von der Leyen Commission in December 2019, Eurostat is allocated to the portfolio of the European Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni. [2]

The Director-General of Eurostat is Mariana Kotzeva, former Deputy Director-General of Eurostat and President of the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria. [3] [4]

History

Directors General

NameNationalityTerm
Rolf Wagenführ Flag of Germany.svg  West Germany 1952–1966
Raymond Dumas Flag of France.svg  France 1966–1973
Jacques Mayer Flag of France.svg  France 1973–1977
Aage Dornonville de la Cour Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 1977–1982
Pieter de Geus Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 1982–1984
Silvio Ronchetti Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 1984–1987
Yves Franchet Flag of France.svg  France 1987–2003
Michel Vanden Abeele Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium 2003–2004
Günther Hanreich Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 2004–2006
Hervé Carré Flag of France.svg  France 2006–2008
Walter Radermacher Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 2008–2016
Mariana Kotzeva (acting 2017–2018)Flag of Bulgaria.svg  Bulgaria 2017–current

Regulations

The Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 [1] of 11 March 2009 on European statistics establishes the legal framework for the European statistics. [8]

The amending Regulation (EU) 2015/759 [9] of 29 April 2015 clarifies that heads of NSIs coordinate national level activities for European statistics and decide on processes, methods, standards and procedures of their respective statistics. [8]

Previous Eurostat regulations were a Decision on Eurostat (2012/504/EU), and the earlier Decision on Eurostat (97/281/EC).

Main areas of statistical activities

European regions by GDP in percentage of the EU average.png

European regions by GDP, expressed as a percentage of the EU average

Statistical work

The Eurostat statistical work is structured into Themes and Sub-themes. [10]

General and regional statistics
Economy and finance
Population and social conditions
Industry, trade and services
Agriculture and fisheries
International trade
Transport
Environment and energy
Science, technology, digital society

General statistical activities

General statistical activities related to the European Statistical system are:

Geographical scope

EU data

Currently, and since Brexit on February the first 2020, Eurostat data are aggregated at the EU-27 level, known as EU-27. [11] [12] Before Brexit Eurostat data was aggregated at the EU-28 level, known as EU-28.

Since Brexit occurred on February the first 2020, data has to be computed for the EU-27 because by definition Brexit makes the UK a third country to the EU.

Nonetheless, to avoid confusion with the previous EU-27 group of 27 member states — which was used in the series of statistical data before the accession of member state number 28 — another name for the current EU 27 without the UK is defined as EU27_2019 in February 2019 and EU27_2020 since March 2020 according to Eurostat. [12] [13]

The name changed from EU27_2019 to EU27_2020 due to a British constitutional delay which resulted in Brexit being delivered in 2020 rather than the initially planned 2019.

The concept of the EU 28 has been used since 1 January 2014, also according to the Eurostat methodological manual on city statistics, 2017 edition.

Local data are also computed at the NUTS level.

Statistical cooperation in and around Europe

Eurostat is also engaged in cooperation with third countries through the European Statistical System, Enlargement Policy, and European Neighbourhood Policy. [14]

In 2021, European Statistical System includes 4 EFTA countries, that is 3 EEA countries and Switzerland. [15]

EU Enlargement Policy includes "candidate countries" in the process of joining the EU and other potential candidates. [15]

In 2021, European Neighbourhood Policy covers 16 countries such as 6 ENP-East countries — Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine — and 10 ENP-South countries — Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia. [15]

The trade and cooperation agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom — since 1 January 2021 — includes a provision on statistical cooperation that foresees the establishment of a specific future arrangement. [15]

Access to Eurostat statistics

The most important statistics are made available via press releases. They are placed on the Eurostat website at 11:00 in the morning. This is also the time that the press release content may be distributed to the public by press agencies.

Eurostat disseminates its statistics free of charge via its Internet and its statistical databases that are accessible via the Internet. The statistics are hierarchically ordered in a navigation tree. Tables are distinguished from multi-dimensional datasets from which the statistics are extracted via an interactive tool.

In addition various printed publications are available either in electronic form free on the internet or in printed form via the EU Bookshop. Only larger publications are charged for as printed copies.

Since September 2009 Eurostat has pioneered a fully electronical way of publishing, Statistics Explained, [16] like Wikipedia based on Mediawiki open source software and with a largely similar structure and navigation. Statistics Explained is not only a dissemination format, however, but also a wiki working platform for producing flagship publications like the Eurostat Yearbook. [17]

Statistical data for research purposes

Microdata, which in principle allows the identification of the statistical unit (e.g., a person in the labour force survey or a company for innovation statistics), is treated as strictly confidential. Under tight security procedures various anonymised datasets are provided to research institutions for validated research projects.

Location

Eurostat has been based in the Joseph Bech building, in the northeast of the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, since the building was opened in 1998. [18] The Directorate-General will relocate to the Jean Monnet 2 building, in the Kirchberg's European district, following the completion of the first phase of the building, expected in February 2023. [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. 1 2 Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics and repealing Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1101/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities, Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 on Community Statistics, and Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom establishing a Committee on the Statistical Programmes of the European Communities
  2. "Paolo Gentiloni". European Commission. 12 November 2019. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  3. "Meet our acting director-general". europa.eu . European Commission. Archived from the original on 18 October 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  4. "Meet our Director-General". europa.eu . European Commission . Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  5. "Report on Greek Government Deficit and Debt Statistics". Eurostat. European Commission: 30. 8 January 2010. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 8, 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2024., 52010DC0001
  6. Castle, Stephen; Saltmarsh, Matthew (15 February 2010). "Greece Pressed to Take Action on Economic Woes". The New York Times . Retrieved 26 June 2019. ... the European Commission proposed powers for Eurostat to audit the books of national governments
  7. "European Statistics Code of Practice". eurostat. European Commission. 13 July 2010. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  8. 1 2 "Eurostat and the European Statistical System - Statistics Explained". Eurostat. 26 April 2019. ISSN   2443-8219 . Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  9. Regulation (EU) 2015/759 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2015 amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics
  10. "Browse statistics by theme - Eurostat". ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  11. "Database - Eurostat".
  12. 1 2 "Brexit - Eurostat".
  13. European Commission. Statistical Office of the European Union (2017). Methodological manual on city statistics. Eurostat. p. 53. doi:10.2785/708009. ISBN   978-92-79-67746-5. ISSN   2315-0815.
  14. "Statistical cooperation in and around Europe". Eurostat. European Commission. 24 September 2018. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  15. 1 2 3 4 "Statistical cooperation in and around Europe".
  16. "Statistics Explained". Epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu. 11 April 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  17. "Europe in figures - Eurostat yearbook 2010". Eurostat. 11 August 2011. Archived from the original on August 12, 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  18. 1 2 Management Plan 2019 (PDF) (Report). Office for Infrastructure and Logistics in Luxembourg, European Commission. 19 December 2018. Ares(2018)6565888. Retrieved 28 January 2020.

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