Outcome of the third meeting of the Council Working Party on Statistics

As part of the six-month Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Council Working Party on Statistics (CWPS) met for the third time on 4 October in Brussels. Elena Manzanera, President of INE, was in charge of the meeting, which was attended by delegations from the 27 EU Member States and the Commission (Eurostat), supported by the General Secretariat and the Legal Service of the Council. In addition, the European Central Bank delegation was also present on an ad hoc basis.

Headed by the President of INE, the Spanish delegation also included the INE's International Relations team and the Director General of Economic Statistics.

During the meeting, the Commission's proposal on the reform of the framework regulation on European statistics (Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council n. 223/2009) was analysed for the second time and each of its parts was discussed on a working document that INE had prepared as a result of the discussion at the previous meeting. Moreover, the European Central Bank was given the opportunity to express its opinion on the proposal, which is required by the Treaty on European Union for the management of this dossier.

There were discussions on the articles concerning definitions, the European Statistical System's response in times of crisis, the reinforcement of the use of administrative registers and the use of and access to private databases for the production of European statistics and, finally, the exchange of data between statistical offices for statistical purposes.

Once due note has been taken of the contributions of all delegations and the Commission, the Spanish delegation will try to agree as soon as possible on a compromise text between the countries that can be adopted by the Council as a mandate for its negotiations, at first reading, with the European Parliament.

The next meeting will take place in Brussels on 25 October.