Public commitment on European Statistics by the ESCB

The ESCB’s statistical function is based on a legal mandate to collect all necessary and relevant data in order to produce and disseminate impartial, reliable, appropriate, timely, consistent and accessible statistics in the areas under the ESCB’s responsibility. Where appropriate, these statistics comply with European and internationally agreed standards, guidelines and good practices. The independence granted to the ESCB under Article 130 of the  Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union entails, among other things, that there is no political interference in the compilation and dissemination of statistical information.

The ESCB attaches great importance to the quality of its statistics. It therefore takes into consideration internationally agreed quality standards, such as those formulated in the IMF’s Special Data Dissemination Standard and Data Quality Assessment Framework, which are in turn rooted in the UN’s Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics. Without prejudice to the  Protocol on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank (hereinafter referred to as “the Statute”), it collaborates with the European Statistical System (ESS), which comprises Eurostat (the Statistical Office of the European Communities), the national statistical institutes and other national statistical authorities, and takes account of the principles laid down in the European Statistics Code of Practice for the National and Community Statistical Authorities

The ESCB aims to perform its statistical function effectively and to use resources efficiently when collecting, compiling and disseminating statistics. In accordance with primary and secondary Community law (Article 108 of the Treaty and Article 5 of the Statute, and Council Regulation 951/2009 respectively), the aim is to collect the necessary statistical information of an appropriate quality while keeping the reporting burden on respondents to a minimum, guaranteeing their privacy and protecting the confidentiality of the non-public information they provide. The possible reuse, for administrative purposes, of confidential statistical information supplied by individual reporters to the ESCB is limited to information on businesses that would otherwise have to submit the same information to the ESCB twice (e.g. for minimum reserves purposes) and must be provided by law. In addition, the ESCB guarantees that confidential statistical information provided by an ESS authority is used for statistical purposes only.

In the performance of its statistical function the ESCB is committed to good governance and the highest ethical standards, as well as to executing its tasks in a spirit of cooperation and teamwork.

In short, and in line with the  Eurosystem Mission Statement, ESCB statistics are governed by the principles of impartiality, objectivity, professional independence, cost-effectiveness, statistical confidentiality, minimisation of the reporting burden and high output quality (including reliability), as defined in more detail below.

• “Impartiality” means that ESCB statistics must be developed, produced and disseminated in a neutral manner. Furthermore, they must be equally accessible to all users in order to maintain public confidence in the integrity of the policy decisions of which they form the basis.
• “Objectivity” means that ESCB statistics must be developed, produced and disseminated in a systematic, reliable and unbiased manner. It implies adherence to professional and ethical standards and that the policies and practices followed are transparent to users and respondents.
• “Professional independence” has two dimensions in the context of the ESCB’s statistical function. First, the independence of the ESCB is guaranteed by Article 108 of the Treaty and Article 7 of the Statute. This applies to all tasks performed by the ESCB and implies that there is to be no political interference in the ESCB’s performance of its statistical function. In accordance with the Statute, the ESCB shall not “seek or take instructions from Community institutions or bodies, from any government of a Member State or from any other body”. Second, the production of ESCB statistics must meet the criterion of scientific independence, which implies that the choice of sources, definitions, methodologies and statistical techniques for the development and production of ESCB statistics, as well as decisions about the timing and content of all forms of dissemination, must be guided solely by statistical considerations.
• “Cost-effectiveness” means that the costs of producing ESCB statistics must be in proportion to their merits and that resources must be used optimally. Where appropriate, the information to be collected must be extracted from available records or sources.
• “Statistical confidentiality” means the protection of confidential statistical information that relates to single statistical units and is collected by ESCB members either directly from reporting agents or indirectly from ESS authorities or other national/international entities. Confidential statistical information that is transmitted between an ESS authority and an ESCB member should not be used for purposes that are not exclusively statistical, such as for administrative or tax purposes, legal proceedings or for verification or sanctioning in accordance with Articles 6 and 7 of Council Regulation 2533/98. Such information should only be accessible to those staff performing statistical tasks within the specific domain to which the information relates. Moreover, the ESCB must take all regulatory, administrative, technical and organisational measures that are necessary to protect confidential statistical information from unlawful disclosure or use.
• “Minimisation of the reporting burden” means that the ESCB must establish appropriate procedures to enable user requirements to be met while minimising the burden on reporting agents and without compromising the quality of ESCB statistics.
• “High output quality (including reliability)”
  High output quality encompasses the following five principles: relevance; accuracy and reliability (including stability); consistency (or coherence) and comparability; timeliness (including punctuality); and accessibility and clarity.
  • “Relevance” means that ESCB statistics must fulfil stated or implied user needs. These needs may alter over time as a result of changes in the economic environment.
  • “Accuracy and reliability (including stability)” means that ESCB statistics must provide accurate and reliable information on the phenomenon that they are intended to measure. “Accuracy” can be defined as the closeness of the statistical output to the (unknown) true value of the variable that is being measured, while “reliability” refers to the closeness of revised estimations of a specific statistic to the initial value released.
  • “Consistency and comparability” means that ESCB statistics must be consistent (1) over time; (2) within the dataset that is published in a single release; (3) across datasets; and (4) across different frequencies for the same dataset, as well as to the fact that, where appropriate, they must be (5) comparable with statistics of other regions and countries. In this context, the coherence of statistical information refers to the degree to which it can be successfully combined with other statistical information within a broad analytical framework and over time. Consistent statistics also facilitate international comparisons. The use of standard concepts, classifications and target populations promotes coherence, as does the use of a common methodology across surveys.
  • “Timeliness (including punctuality)” means that ESCB statistics must be timely and punctual, whereby “timeliness” refers to the time lag between the availability of the information and the event or phenomenon to which it relates and “punctuality” refers to the time lag between the actual date of release of the data and the date by when the data should have been released.
  • “Accessibility and clarity” means that information on data and metadata must be presented in a clear and understandable form, as well as easily and readily available to all users.