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The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) aims to enhance statistical cooperation with partner countries through a regional programme. This programme will focus on strengthening national statistical systems, producing quality statistics, and improving dissemination methods.
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Eurostat approach to international statisticalcooperation – ENP East
Eurostat context for international statistical cooperation • EU sets political framework, actions support the EU's foreign policy agenda • Actions so far financed from European Stats Programme, or external action budgets, but directed towards sub-regional activities (national or two countries involved) • New ENP East regional programme planned (under Ext.Action budget) • Broad details (amounts, beneficiaries, main aims of the programme) must be agreed by Commission, Parliament and Council (very long, slow process)
Political framework ENP represents a joint EU - Partner countries commitment to deliver tangible results for citizens across the region ENP-related activities are financed by the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) The ENP builds upon bilateral legal agreements between the EU and the partner countries: • - Bilateral Association Agreements (including Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area agreements) – Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine • - Partnership and Cooperation Agreements – Armenia, Azerbaijan • - Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Belarus – signed but not ratified by the EU The Eastern Partnership Initiative (EaP) is a joint initiative between the EU, EU Member States, and 6 ENP-East countries, and combines both multilateral (regional) and specific national dimensions
Current activities in the ENP-East Activities largely financed through the European Statistical Programme Discussed and agreed with the ENP East NSOs through the High Level Seminar and Working Groups
Towards an ENP-East regional programme for statistics (1) In 2016, EU approval for an ENP-East regional programme for statistics (from External Assistance budget) The programme would focus on the following priorities: • Macro-economics inc. Trade, social inc. migration, labour market, poverty, business, SDGs demands inter alia • strengthening the NSI and enhancing the institutional environment in such a way that the data are produced and disseminated in a professionally independent manner • increasing the capacity of the NSS, so that they would be able to produce an increasing range of quality statistics in accordance with EU standards and to make them available through modern ways of dissemination
Towards an ENP-East regional programme for statistics (2) Estimated duration of implementation: 3 years, estimated budget: 5 million euro Activitieswill include: • technical assistance provided by Member State experts in specific domains of statistics • preparation of methodology for surveys and the implementation of pilot surveys • joint technical seminars and workshops • training courses • publications
Lessons learnt from EU statistical cooperation (1) • ENP East statistical systems have: • Common history which makes a regional dimension to cooperation obvious, but … • …specific national priorities and contexts have emerged which need to be taken into account • The varying levels of political interest in potentialEU membership is reflected incountry interest in EU specific standards
Lessons learnt from EU statistical cooperation (2) • Most influence is achieved when international partners collaborate to create common standards (e.g. the Generic Law on Statistics) • Matching the task to the best cooperation modality (TAIEX, TWINNING etc.) can improve outcomes • Having a mix of actions supported from the External Action budget and the European Statistical Programme is more labour intensive but the advantages are greater programming flexibility • Language barriers between EU & ENP East statisticians are considerable and need active solutions