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- Legal acts to be repealed- Gentlemen’s agreements to be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