Page 323 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 2

STS496 Pilar M.
A good example of this safeguarding exercise has been the Amendment
of Regulation 223, published in April 2015. It deals, among other issues, with
two crucial points for the safeguard of the independence of statisticians: the
appointment and removal of the Chief Statistician and the coordination of
national statistical systems as a protection against political interference.
As it is now, practically all Member States specify in their legislation that
the appointment of the Chief Statistician should be made on the basis of
professional criteria, academic degree, career record or management
expertise. But these requirements are in some cases rather vague. A fixed term
of office for the Head of NSIs, generally with a limited renewability, is
established in most Member States, but not in all of them. Moreover, not all
countries enumerate in their regulations possible reasons for his/her dismissal,
which obviously leaves a door open for political interference. And direct
appointment by the government is still the norm in some of them, thus setting
some restrictions to the application of the principle of equal opportunities.
Article 5a (4) of the Amendment to Regulation 223 specifies that “Member
States shall ensure that the procedures for the recruitment and appointment
of Heads of NSI’s and, where appropriate, statistical Heads of ONAs producing
European statistics are transparent and based only on professional criteria.
These procedures shall ensure that the principle of equal opportunities is
respected, in particular with regard to gender. The reasons for dismissal of
heads of NSIs or their transfer to another position shall not compromise
statistical independence”. Now all Member States will have to adapt their
current legislation in order to comply with these requirements.
The risks of political interference are higher in Other National Authorities
(ONA’s) producing official statistics. In many cases, the responsible for the
production of European statistics in these ONA’s are heads of units in
ministries, and they often assume some other responsibilities too. In these
cases the producers of statistics can be induced to follow the rules and
practices of the corresponding ministry, which do not necessarily comply with
the norms established by the statistical legislation.
The ESS has been fully conscious of this problem. The Amendment to
Regulation 223, in article 5 (1), establishes that the National Statistical
Authority in each Member State shall be the sole contact point for the
Commission (EUROSTAT) on statistical matters and will assume the
responsibility for coordinating all activities at national level for the
development, production and dissemination of European statistics,
determined in the statistical program -with inclusion of the statistical activity
carried out by ONA’s. This is meant to extend the usual good practices of NSI’s
to ONA’s and provide a better safeguard for the independence of all producers
of official statistics.

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