Karo Nuortila Eurostat – Unit G5: International trade - production

1. From quality reporting to quality assessment – Experiences of the first quality assessment round in the frame of European trade statistics Karo Nuortila Eurostat – Unit G5: International trade - production

2. Trade statistics: some features • Consist of two components: intra- and extra-EU trade statistics • “Input-oriented” statistics • European aggregates play an important role • Huge volumes: richness of details, multidimensional, nearly exhaustive • Face major challenges • => Many issues to be taken into account in quality reporting Name of the presentation

3. Quality reporting practice before 2009 • Trade statistics was one of the first statistical domains to implement quality reporting • First Eurostat quality report issued in 2002 • Based on ad-hoc questionnaires and data at Eurostat • Legal basis in intra-EU trade from 2005 onwards • Annual quality questionnaire and Eurostat quality report • Conclusions from Intrastat simplification in 2007: • More emphasis need to given to quality as less data will be collected • Quality reporting seen as important tool to monitor quality Name of the presentation

4. New practice from 2009 onwards: from quality reporting to quality assessment • Issues with the old practice • Rigidity: based on the indicators described in legal text • One-way communication from Member States to Eurostat but not backwards • Quality reporting vs. compliance monitoring: some quality indicators are legal requirements • Inconsistency over time • New intra-EU and extra-EU legal acts adopted in 2009 • Include same quality articles • Consists of five successive steps Name of the presentation

5. New quality reporting and assessment procedure (1) • Agreement on annual quality assessment • Contrary to the previous legal acts, precise quality indicators are not listed in the implementing rules • In order to manage quality reporting and assessment in a more flexible way than legal acts, a Committee document (Doc MET 1000) is used as an instrument • Doc MET 1000 defines the precise quality items to report • Introduces requirements and recommendations for items • Adopted annually by the Intrastat/Extrastat Committee • Draft national quality report • Eurostat prepares a pre-filled draft quality report for each Member State • The report will be sent to Member States by the end of November following the reference year • National quality report • Member States need to send the completed report to Eurostat within eight weeks Name of the presentation

6. New quality reporting and assessment procedure (2) • Assessment report • Eurostat assess the quality of statistics and prepares an assessment report for each Member States • First assessment reports prepared in 2009/2010 • Compliance with legal requirements assessed • In case of non-compliance, action plans requested • Summary Quality Report • Eurostat prepares and disseminates a summary quality report • Targeted to users of statistics; aims at informing readers on the various factors affecting statistics • In 2009, the summary quality report was revised to be in line with ESS Standard for Quality Reports Name of the presentation

7. Conclusions of the first round • First quality reporting and assessment round undertaken in 2009/2010 • Conclusions very positive • Data and national methods were scrutinised at the same time and with same criteria for the first time • Some shortcomings noted and communicated to Member States • Member States’ reaction mainly positive; some improvements implemented immediately, some will take more time • In the future • The procedure will continue at annual basis • Some fine-tuning will be needed • Extension from requirements to recommendations • Need to reflect changes in underlying environment Name of the presentation