Priority setting, simplification and reduction of response burden in the ESS Walter Radermacher, DG...

Priority setting, simplification and reduction of response burden in the ESS

Walter Radermacher, DG EurostatChief Statistician of the EU

Conference on Administrative Simplification in Official Statistics SIMPLY 2010Ghent, 2 December 2010

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Context

ESS

Budget cuts

Limited HR

Response burden

Legal obligations

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Our objective: high-quality statistical information

Response burden on citizens and enterprises (obstacle for economy)

Production costs of producers of statistics (limited resources for new, development work)

Constraints:

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Effectiveness approach (priority setting)

Efficiency approach (new production method of EU statistics)

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Principles

1. Strategy-driven

approach

2. Minimizing

unhappiness of users

4. Cooperation in the ESS

3. Good communication

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Elements

2. Sunset clauses

3. Annual review:

- Legal acts to be repealed- Gentlemen’s agreements to be

stopped

- Simplification

1. Joint ESS strategy/new production

method of EU statistics

Implementation

- As far as possible for 2011

- Fully for 2012 and later

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Win-win solution

1. Lighten burden on:

- NSIs and other producers AND respondents: citizens and enterprises

2. Have spare resources for development work and new user needs

3. Improve strategic planning process in the ESS

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Commission-wide initiatives

Shift from burden reduction to simplification of legal requirements

Relation between EU policy and statistics:

1) Free movement of goods - introduction of Intrastat

2) Simplification of accounting - statistical data needed instead

Some examples from the past:

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Forward-looking initiatives and trends

Growing understanding of linkage between various requirements, e.g:

Consistency between public accounting system and the ESA;

ERP systems

ICT developments (scanner data for

price statistics, etc.) Increasing use of existing data

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Thank you for your attention!