News
BackThat high-quality statistics are indispensable for political decisions has been clearly demonstrated since the start of the financial crisis in 2008. In its new annual report, the European Statistical Governance Advisory Board (ESGAB) urges national governments to play their part in strengthening the credibility of official statistics. In 2012, the seven-strong ESGAB will begin its second term, with strong participation of Austrian statistics expertise: two of the seven advisors come from Austria.
Austrian statistics expertise is highly appreciated in Brussels: in 2012, Margit Epler, Chief Statistician of the Vienna Chamber of Labour and President of the Austrian Statistical Society, who has been a member of the Advisory Board since 2008, will be joined by Thomas Wieser, Director General for Economic Policy and Financial Markets, Federal Ministry of Finance, who will assume the role as Chair.
The European Statistical Governance Advisory Board is still faced with plenty of work and challenges. According to the ESGAB, the modernisation of statistics legislation, which had been demanded for years, had to be continued. Over the past years, respective legislative measures had been pursued at European level. However, reminds the Board, 40 percent of the 275 improvement measures in official statistics had not yet been completed. There were obviously still a few countries that had no intention of adjusting their statistic laws, criticises the ESGAB in its current annual report.
The term of the newly appointed Board will expire at the end of 2014. Based on experiences, which unfortunately were not always positive, one can only hope that the ESGAB will be able to announce at the end of term at the latest, that the fundamentals of the so-called Code of Practice will be adhered to throughout the entire European Statistical System without exception in order to strengthen and to unreservedly restore confidence in official statistics all over the EU.
Annual report 2011 of the European Statistical Governance Advisory Board (only in German);
European Statistics Code of Practice
The European Statistical Governance Advisory Board is still faced with plenty of work and challenges. According to the ESGAB, the modernisation of statistics legislation, which had been demanded for years, had to be continued. Over the past years, respective legislative measures had been pursued at European level. However, reminds the Board, 40 percent of the 275 improvement measures in official statistics had not yet been completed. There were obviously still a few countries that had no intention of adjusting their statistic laws, criticises the ESGAB in its current annual report.
The term of the newly appointed Board will expire at the end of 2014. Based on experiences, which unfortunately were not always positive, one can only hope that the ESGAB will be able to announce at the end of term at the latest, that the fundamentals of the so-called Code of Practice will be adhered to throughout the entire European Statistical System without exception in order to strengthen and to unreservedly restore confidence in official statistics all over the EU.
Annual report 2011 of the European Statistical Governance Advisory Board (only in German);
European Statistics Code of Practice