Page 321 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 2

STS496 Pilar M.
Keywords
E.U legislation; code of practice; ESGAB; peer reviews

1. Introduction
The professional independence of statisticians is an essential component
for the healthy functioning of a democratic system. Political interferences in
the production of official statistics will undermine its credibility, so making
them useless for the main purpose for which they are produced: providing
impartial information for policy decision making.
Official statistics are a public good, to be used not only by governments,
but also by social forces, financial market participants, companies, citizens and
many other stakeholders. Accountability and transparency, as well as the
professional integrity and the compliance with ethical principles and good
practices have to be ensured.
The European Union has been aware, for a long time now, of the risks
inherent to political interferences, even in democratic regimes. Already the
introductory background of the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics
adopted by the Conference of European Statisticians, UN, in 1991 specifies
that “the need for a set of principles governing official statistics became
apparent at the end of the 1980s when countries in Central Europe began to
change from centrally planned economies to market-oriented democracies. It
was essential to ensure that national statistical systems in such countries
would be able to produce appropriate and reliable data that adhered to
certain professional and scientific standards”.
For that reason, a number of instruments have been devised for the
preservation of independence in the statistical production. Although they have
been produced by the European Statistical System (ESS) to be used within the
realm of the European Economic Area (EEA), some of them are being
employed in other European countries, and also in other Regions, mainly
through the support of cooperation programs. Therefore, they have now a
worldwide use and recognition. Some of them refer to legislation, or to
compilation of good practices, while others consist on monitoring activities or
on the performance of specific advisory bodies.
This paper intends to review these instruments and their effective
implementation

2. The European Statistical System
The ESS is the body in charge of the design and application of these
instruments. It is defined as a partnership between EUROSTAT and the national
statistical institutes or other national authorities in each EU Member State
responsible for developing, producing and disseminating European Statistics.

310 | I S I W S C 2 0 1 9