CHAPTER IU.K.GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1U.K.Subject matter and scope
This Regulation establishes a legal framework for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics.
In compliance with the principle of subsidiarity and in accordance with the independence, integrity and accountability of the national and the Community authorities, European statistics are relevant statistics necessary for the performance of the activities of the Community. European statistics are determined in the European statistical programme. They shall be developed, produced and disseminated in conformity with the statistical principles as set out in Article 285(2) of the Treaty and further elaborated in the European statistics Code of Practice in accordance with Article 11. They shall be implemented in accordance with this Regulation.
Article 2U.K.Statistical principles
1.The development, production and dissemination of European statistics shall be governed by the following statistical principles:
[(a) ‘ professional independence ’ , meaning that statistics must be developed, produced and disseminated in an independent manner, particularly as regards the selection of techniques, definitions, methodologies and sources to be used, and the timing and content of all forms of dissemination, and that the performance of those tasks is free from any pressures from political or interest groups or from Union or national authorities;]
(b)‘impartiality’, meaning that statistics must be developed, produced and disseminated in a neutral manner, and that all users must be given equal treatment;
(c)‘objectivity’, meaning that statistics must be developed, produced and disseminated in a systematic, reliable and unbiased manner; it implies the use of professional and ethical standards, and that the policies and practices followed are transparent to users and survey respondents;
(d)‘reliability’, meaning that statistics must measure as faithfully, accurately and consistently as possible the reality that they are designed to represent and implying that scientific criteria are used for the selection of sources, methods and procedures;
(e)‘statistical confidentiality’, meaning the protection of confidential data related to single statistical units which are obtained directly for statistical purposes or indirectly from administrative or other sources and implying the prohibition of use for non-statistical purposes of the data obtained and of their unlawful disclosure;
(f)‘cost effectiveness’, meaning that the costs of producing statistics must be in proportion to the importance of the results and the benefits sought, that resources must be optimally used and the response burden minimised. The information requested shall, where possible, be readily extractable from available records or sources.
The statistical principles set out in this paragraph are further elaborated in the Code of Practice in accordance with Article 11.
2.The development, production and dissemination of European statistics shall take into account international recommendations and best practice.
Article 3U.K.Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:
1.
‘statistics’ means quantitative and qualitative, aggregated and representative information characterising a collective phenomenon in a considered population;
2.
‘development’ means the activities aiming at setting up, strengthening and improving the statistical methods, standards and procedures used for the production and dissemination of statistics as well as at designing new statistics and indicators;
3.
‘production’ means all the activities related to the collection, storage, processing, and analysis necessary for compiling statistics;
4.
‘dissemination’ means the activity of making statistics and statistical analysis accessible to users;
5.
‘data collection’ means surveys and all other methods of deriving information from different sources, including administrative sources;
6.
‘statistical unit’ means the basic observation unit, namely a natural person, a household, an economic operator and other undertakings, referred to by the data;
7.
‘confidential data’ means data which allow statistical units to be identified, either directly or indirectly, thereby disclosing individual information. To determine whether a statistical unit is identifiable, account shall be taken of all relevant means that might reasonably be used by a third party to identify the statistical unit;
8.
‘use for statistical purposes’ means the exclusive use for the development and production of statistical results and analyses;
9.
‘direct identification’ means the identification of a statistical unit from its name or address, or from a publicly accessible identification number;
10.
‘indirect identification’ means the identification of a statistical unit by any other means than by way of direct identification;
11.
‘officials of the Commission (Eurostat)’ means the officials of the Communities, within the meaning of Article 1 of the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Communities, working at the Community statistical authority;
12.
‘other staff of the Commission (Eurostat)’ means the servants of the Communities, within the meaning of Articles 2 to 5 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities, working at the Community statistical authority.