Regulation 2019/1700 - Common framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

LI 261/1

Statistical data and indicators are the backbone of responsible evidence‐based policies. In the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy and the strengthening of economic governance, social indicators play an essential role in informing and supporting the Union’s key priorities. Those priorities relate in particular to inclusive and sustainable growth and job creation; social cohesion; the reduction of poverty, inequalities and social exclusion; the inclusion of people with disabilities, and equal treatment; and skills, mobility and the digital economy. In particular, social indicators are needed to provide a sound statistical basis for developing and monitoring the policies introduced by the Union and the Member States to address those priorities. High‐quality social statistics are needed to improve the resilience of the Union and its cohesion targets and to preserve its welfare levels. Sound data are also of utmost importance as a bulwark against misinformation.

To strengthen the social goals of the European semester, social statistics have a paramount role, and it is essential to improve the availability of social indicators in order to ensure that they are provided in due time for the relevant policy frameworks. Enhancing the social dimension of the European semester would improve the resilience of the Union and its cohesion targets, and would ensure that welfare levels are maintained.

In line with the ‘Beyond GDP’ initiative, it is important to address social aspects of progress with strong indicators focusing on the situation of citizens, describing the distributions of material living conditions and inequalities as well as investigating better the multiple dimensions of quality of life.

European social statistics should be provided on the basis of equal treatment of all types of users, such as policy‐makers, public administrations, researchers, trade unions, students, civil society representatives including non‐governmental organisations, and citizens, which should be able to access statistics freely and easily through Commission (Eurostat) databases on its website and in its publications. In that regard, the timeliness and user‐friendliness of the Commission (Eurostat) website should be further improved.

It is therefore of paramount importance that social indicators are of the necessary high quality, in particular in terms of their accuracy, timeliness, usability and accessibility, their relevance, their adaptability to new users’ requests, as well as their comparability, coherence and efficiency. In particular it is essential to improve the timeliness of social indicators so that they are available in due time for the relevant policy frameworks, including the European Semester. Moreover, more accurate and timely indicators could significantly benefit the monitoring of the United Nations...