The Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) has approved the 2021 conclusions on EU statistics during the ECOFIN Council meeting on 9 November.
The Ministers reviewed the progress related to information requirements in the economic and monetary union (EMU), statistics for the excessive deficit procedure (EDP) and surveillance of macroeconomic imbalance, and structural statistics.
It was concluded that Eurostat and the European National Statistical Institutes, in cooperation with the European System of Central Banks, have continued to ensure that high-quality official statistics are disseminated to deadline, and have responded to new user needs.
One such endeavour has been the European Statistical Recovery Dashboard that has been updated monthly since its first release in late 2020, and that has been continuously enriched with new indicators and functionalities. Furthermore, the European Statistical System (ESS) has been involved in the statistical aspects of the initiatives within the “Next Generation EU” programme, and notably the Recovery and Resilience Fund. In addition, the European Green Deal has been afforded strong statistical support, based on initiatives in energy statistics, transport statistics, and environmental economic accounts.
Commissioner Gentiloni, the European Commissioner responsible for Eurostat, stressed that ensuring sustainable access to administrative data and new data sources, including emerging digital sources, is crucial for providing timely, relevant and detailed official statistics. In this regard, the ESS Committee has published a common position paper on the future Data Act proposal, with the aim to enable and enforce a legislatively framed access to and re-use of privately held data for official statistics purposes by the National Statistical Authorities.
For more information:
- The ECOFIN Council is responsible for EU policy in three main areas: economic policy, taxation issues and the regulation of financial services. It is made up of the economic and finance ministers from all member states and approves EU statistics every Autumn, with a view to review progress achieved with respect to the priorities of the previous year and provide guidance for further work.
- The Council conclusions on EU statistics 2021
- The main results from the ECOFIN Council meeting on 9 November
- Eurostat Statistical Recovery Dashboar