Page 325 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 2

STS496 Pilar M.
6. Monitoring activities: The peer reviews
In order to check, and to improve, the correct implementation of this Code
a system of peer reviews, compulsory for all Member States, and also adopted
by EFTA countries, is being organized roughly every five years. Two rounds
have been implemented up to now, in 2006-2008 and in 2024-2015, and a
third one is under preparation.
The peer reviews are used as an instrument of benchmarking and
monitoring on the basis of the explanatory indicators added to each principle
of the Code of Practice. They are carried out by teams of three persons,
comprising two high–level experts from NSI’s and one from EUROSTAT. The
process starts with the countries filling a self-assessment questionnaire, which
when completed is sent, together with some complementary information, to
the team for preparation of the interviews. Then a series of interviews, lasting
from three to five days, take place in the country, including the top-
management of the NSI, heads of main units, and providers of information
from administrative sources, as well as a selection of users, such as
government, the media, enterprises, social forces, academics and researchers.
The second wave of peer reviews covered not only the NSI but also the ONA’s
in the Member State.
As a result, the peer review team writes a report that is made public in the
EUROSTAT website. Also, where full compliance with the Code has not yet
being achieved, NSI’s, in agreement with the reviewers, identify improvement
actions and indicate a timetable. The list of improvement actions and
deadlines and its fulfilment are monitored by EUROSTAT.
The peer reviews introduce an external element in the implementation of
the Code of Practice that contributes to the transparency of the process. The
diversity of cultures and administrative organizations in Europe contributes to
the cross-fertilization process that derives from being monitored by external
eyes but from a peer’s perspective, and this is a source of added value to the
exercise
This practice has been extended to candidate countries, and also to other
European countries, such as Armenia (2014 and 2019), Azerbaijan (2010 and
2017), Belarus (2013), Georgia (2013), Moldova (2013) and Ukraine (2012),
through cooperation programs with ENP countries financed by the EU. Peer
reviews following the ESS pattern were also conducted in eight countries of
the ECLAC region (Colombia, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Panama,
Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay) in 2014¬15, as part of a project financed by the
Inter-American Development Bank, but in this case the reports have not been
made public.

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