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Third round of Peer Review 2021-23 on the implementation of the European Statistics Code of Practice
The European Statistical System (ESS), composed of Eurostat, the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) of the EU and the Other National Authorities (ONAs) of the Member States, which are responsible for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics, is strongly committed to adhering to the principles contained in the European Statistics Code of Practice.
The Code is the cornerstone of the Common Quality Framework for the European Statistical System. Adopted in 2005 and revised for the second time in 2017, the Code is a self-assessment tool based on 16 principles covering the institutional environment, statistical processes and statistical outputs. These principles set the standards for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics. The indicators developed for each principle, 84 in total, constitute the benchmarks for assessing the implementation of the Code.
The ESS periodically monitors the implementation of the Code’s principles through peer reviews to member countries, according to a methodology approved by the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC). Over the time, two rounds have already been conducted in 2006-2008 and 2013-2015 respectively, and the ESS has decided to carry out a third round in the period 2021- 2023.
INS and ONAs will be involved in this evaluation process, which includes the completion of a self-assessment questionnaire on the implementation of the Code and, subsequently, a visit to the National Statistical Institute by a team of independent international experts.
Jennifer BANIM is the Assistant Director General responsible for Economic Statistics. She sits on the Irish CSO’s Management Board and has responsibility for compilation and development of: national accounts; financial accounts; Government accounts; balance of payments, international investment position, foreign direct investment and international trade in service statistics, and external trade statistics.
Jennifer joined the Central Statistics Office as a Statistician in October 1991 and has worked in a number of areas including Balance of Payments and Financial Statistics, Statistical Methodology and Technology.
Jennifer studied at Dublin City University, graduating in 1989 with a BSc in Applied Mathematical Sciences. She also holds a Diploma in Project Management from University College Cork.
Tina STEENVOORDEN has been working for Statistics Slovenia for more than 15 years and is currently the head of the Standards Section. She has been working on setting up the internal standards on metadata and quality reporting, and has been involved in the implementation of the GSBPM model and in the preparation and analysis of user satisfaction surveys.
Tina acted as a national peer review coordinator in the second round of peer reviews. She has been in charge of monitoring the implementation of the ES CoP in the office and at other national authorities.
Tina is an active member of the WG on Quality, where she participated in the TF on updating QAF 2.0, as well as in the preparation of the methodology for the third round of peer reviews.
Tina holds a master’s degree in official statistics from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Michail SKALIOTIS is currently providing ad hoc consultancy services in official statistics, big data analytics and evaluation of statistical systems.
Following his normal retirement in 2019 from Eurostat, Michail also became an Active Senior of the European Commission. During his 37 years in Eurostat, he worked in all areas of social and demographic statistics and undertook management responsibilities early in his career.
He has participated in the first two rounds of Peer Reviews, and has also served as Member of the Governing Board of the Unesco’s Institute for Statistics from 2002 to 2005.
His current research interests include the role and quality of official statistics in digital times. Michail has an academic background in statistics, econometrics and auditing, respectively from the Athens University of Economics&Business, and the K.U.Leuven.
Pierre BISCHOFF is Adviser to the Director-General of Eurostat since 2014.
Prior to that, he was the Head of the Legal and Institutional Affairs Unit in Eurostat (2007-2013). During his time, the Unit was notably responsible for the revision of the governance framework of the European statistical system, which led in particular to the adoption of Regulation N°223/2009 on European statistics (2009) as well as to the Commission Decision on Eurostat (2012).
Pierre also took part in the work of the Task Force that produced the first version of the European statistics Code of Practice (2005) and was the main author of the Communication on the independence, integrity, accountability of the national and Community statistical authorities and of the Recommendation on the implementation of the Code, subsequently adopted by the Commission (2005).
Pierre participated in the previous round of peer reviews in 2015 as Eurostat observer for two countries (United Kingdom and Italy).
At the end of the visit, the team will draw up a final report assessing the degree of compliance with the Code. The final report will be published on Eurostat’s website together with the set of improvement actions to address any recommendations.
The visit of the international experts will take place at INS from 13th to 17th February 2023.
During May- September 2022 INS organised the several working meetings dedicated to ONAs on the implementation of the European Statistics Code of Practice and the new round of peer review 2021-2023.
A last review took place in October 2022 when INS focused on the 3 selected ONAs to be part of the February 2023 exercise addressing the final version of the Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) filled in by the ONAs, as well as the communication campaign and the Quality Assurance Framework.
CoP implementation is monitored through peer reviews - Click here for more details
EUROSTAT
