6 June 2017
The Maltese Presidency successfully concluded negotiations on the Commission’s proposal to extend the European Statistical Programme with the European Parliament in today’s political trilogue (6 June). The first political trilogue was held on 11 May 2017.
Through this agreement the regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) No 99/2013 on the European statistical programme 2013-2017, will be extended to the 2018-2020 period in order to provide the financial support that the European statistical system needs to:
• provide high-quality statistics with a focus on the priority areas that reflect the Commission’s 10 political priorities;
• build permanent capacity to respond more quickly to emerging needs;
• adapt the statistical infrastructure so as to harness potential new data sources;
• strengthen partnerships within the European statistical system and beyond.
Salient issues in the Regulation include: the social indicators to be provided by the European statistical system, indicators which go beyond GDP, statistics on poverty and risks of social exclusion, on job quality, and gender-based statistics with a specific focus on gender-based violence. Other statistics refer to innovation, research and development, the environment, climate change, energy and transport. This entire body of statistical information provided for in the European statistical programme 2013-2020 should allow for the monitoring of progress of the Europe 2020 Strategy and of the objectives and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to be set at Union and Member States level. Furthermore, the European statistical programme provides for the modernisation of existing legislation in the areas of business, social and agricultural statistics by implementing a common legal basis, common infrastructure and common tools, in line with the Commission Regulatory Fitness Programme (REFIT).