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

The Council Working Party on Statistics (CWPS) held its fourth meeting in Brussels on 25 October. The group is chaired by the president of the INE, Elena Manzanera, and includes delegations from the 27 Member States and Eurostat. The European Central Bank (ECB) also took part as an observer at this meeting.

STATIS analyses, from the perspective of the national statistical institutes, the draft regulations that will form part of the statistical regulation before their joint negotiation with Eurostat and the European Parliament.

The main item on the agenda of the fourth meeting was the discussion of the proposal to revise the framework regulation for the production of European statistics.

Thus, as a result of the work carried out by the INE’s international relations unit, the Spanish presidency presented for discussion a first compromise text to the Member States, drawn up on the basis of Eurostat’s initial proposal and the comments received from the delegations and the ECB.

Second proposal

As a result of the intense debate on the different parts of the regulation, in particular the one concerning the possibility opened up by this new framework for the use of private databases to produce European statistics, the presidency will revise the text in order to draw up a second compromise proposal that can draw sufficient support from the countries and thus complete its processing in the Council.

In addition to the proposal for a framework regulation on the production of European statistics, the Spanish presidency’s team will shortly begin discussion in the STATIS group of another proposal for a regulation on the labour market in companies.

In addition, it will begin negotiations with Eurostat and the European Parliament on two proposals for regulations that are at an advanced stage. One on the preparation of new environmental accounts, and the other on population statistics.

The next meeting of the STATIS Group will take place on 22 November at the headquarters of the Council of the European Union in Brussels.