Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to report parliamentary committee draft

RemovedRecital 13: deleted

RemovedRecital 18: (18) The enhanced regular (annual) statistics on population and housing based on administrative sources should be complemented with information from coordinated population and housing censuses in the Union conducted every ten years in accordance with the UN Principles and Recommendations. Equally important, population and housing censuses provide a unique opportunity for official statistics to be visible, both in terms of operations and results.

RemovedRecital 19: (19) The Union censuses should become more cost-effective through making full use of the rich set of administrative data available across the Member States or a conclusion of protocols between the national statistical institutes of the Member States and providers of data from private databases. They may be also used to re-establish the demographic baseline and include surveys of the coverage of administrative data sources.

RemovedRecital 20: (20) Member States and the Commission (Eurostat) should have sustainable access to the widest possible range of data sources to produce European statistics on population and housing of high quality and in a cost-effective manner. In this regard, national statistical authorities should be able to get access and are able to use promptly the administrative data owned by public administrations at national, regional and local level, in accordance with Article 17a of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. For example, statistics on energy efficiency of buildings can be based on administrative data relating to the issuance of energy certificates of buildings under Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council31. The national statistical institutes also need to be involved in decisions concerning the design and redevelopment of relevant administrative data sources to ensure that they can be further reused for compilation of official statistics.

RemovedRecital 23: (23) Privately held data can improve the coverage, timeliness and crisis response capacities of European statistics on population and housing or to enable statistical innovation. Such data have the potential to complement existing demography and migration statistics, bring statistical innovation and even serve for production of early estimates. The national statistical institutes and other competent national authorities and the Commission (Eurostat) should have access to and use such data through the conclusion of specific data-sharing protocols. It is necessary for national statistical institutes to be involved in decisions regarding the design of protocols regarding sources of data from private databases.

RemovedRecital 24: deleted

RemovedRecital 26: (26) European statistics on population and housing should meet the quality criteria on relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, comparability and coherence specified in Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. Their quality should be enhanced as far as the needs of the Union evolve. Appropriate results from the quality assessment carried out by the Commission (Eurostat) should be publicly available to statistics users. Access to these statistics should be free and easy through Commission (Eurostat) databases on its website and in its publications. The Commission (Eurostat) will be required to facilitate the dissemination of its database content by making application programming interfaces available to users.

RemovedRecital 30: (30) When data sharing entails processing of personal data according to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council37 or Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, the provisions of these regulations should be implemented in full. In particular, the principles of purpose limitation, data minimisation, storage limitation and integrity and confidentiality should be fully applied. To this end, data sharing mechanisms based on privacy enhancing technologies that are specifically designed to implement these principles should be preferred over direct data transmission. In addition, data sharing should be subject to appropriate safeguards, including anonymisation and pseudoanonymisation, for the purposes of processing with a view to archiving in the public interest, in the interest of historical or scientific research or for other statistical purposes.

RemovedRecital 34: (34) European statistics on population and housing should evolve to take into account emerging data needs stemming from changes in the demographic, migratory, social or economic situation in the Union. The Commission (Eurostat) and the Member States, especially their national statistical institutes or other statistical authorities, should undertake pilot studies assessing the feasibility of the adaptations concerned as appropriate and should take into account aspects such as costs and administrative burdens on Member States and the availability of appropriate data sources.

RemovedRecital 35: deleted / (deleted)

RemovedThe provisions of this recital can only be adopted by means of a codecision procedure with the European Parliament acting as colegislator.

RemovedRecital 38: (38) Where the implementation of this Regulation, or of implementing acts adopted pursuant thereto, would require major adaptations to the national statistical system of a Member State for data provision with periodicity of less than 10 years, the Commission should be able, in duly justified cases and for a limited period of time, to grant derogations to the Member States concerned.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 2 – point b a (new): (ba) Where the circumstances described in point (a) or (b) cannot be verified, ‘usual residence’ shall mean the legal or registered place of residence;

RemovedThe provisions of Article 2(d) of Regulation No 763/2008 and Article 2(d) of Regulation No 1260/2013 should be reintroduced, given that population registers do not fully encapsulate the concept of ‘population base’ contained in the Commission proposal, which refers to periods of residence. Harmonisation of this concept for future purposes can only be provided for by modifying existing registration systems or by drawing up new registers.

RemovedArticle 5 – paragraph 3: deleted

RemovedAmendments to the annex to this Regulation should only be made through an ordinary legislative procedure with Parliament acting as colegislator.

RemovedArticle 5 – paragraph 4: deleted

RemovedAmendments to the annex to this Regulation should only be made through an ordinary legislative procedure with Parliament acting as co-legislator.

RemovedArticle 6 – paragraph 1: 1. Member States shall produce European statistics on population and housing annually and multi-annually, and in a decennial population and housing census.

RemovedData regarding the population base should be required at annual intervals, given the difficulties in providing infra-annual data using current administrative models.

RemovedArticle 6 – paragraph 5: 5. The first reference date for which annual statistics on the topic ‘population stocks’ are to be provided shall be 31 December 2026. The first reference time for which any other statistics under this Regulation are to be provided shall be in 2027.

RemovedArticle 6 – paragraph 6: deleted

RemovedAmendments to the annex to this Regulation should only be made through an ordinary legislative procedure with Parliament acting as co-legislator.

RemovedArticle 7: deleted / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted)

RemovedArticle 8 – paragraph 2 – point a: deleted

RemovedData regarding the population base should be required at annual intervals, given the difficulties in providing infra-annual data using current administrative models.

RemovedArticle 8 – paragraph 3 a (new): 3a. This provision shall only apply to data compiled at Member State level, in accordance with the definitions and requirements laid down in this Regulation and its implementing regulations.

RemovedArticle 10: deleted / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted)

RemovedSee amendment to recital (20). Article 17a of Regulation (EC) N° 223/2009 already provides for the possibility of data reuse. No additional provision is therefore needed in this Regulation.

RemovedArticle 14 – paragraph 2: 2. Member States shall participate in those studies, ensuring their representativeness at Union level.

RemovedArticle 14 – paragraph 3: 3. The results of those studies shall be evaluated by the Commission (Eurostat), together with Member States. The Commission (Eurostat) shall, together with the Member States, prepare reports on the findings of those studies.

RemovedArticle 15 – paragraph 1 – introductory part: 1. Financial contribution shall be provided from the general budget of the Union to the national statistical institutes and other national authorities referred to in Article 5(2) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009, for:

RemovedArticle 15 – paragraph 1 – point b a (new): (ba) the enhancement of technical and human resources to provide a qualified and stable workforce by enabling the national statistical institutes or other competent authorities to recruit and retain staff and provide training.

RemovedArticle 17: deleted / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted)

RemovedArticle 19 – paragraph 1: 1. Where the application of this Regulation, or the implementing acts adopted pursuant thereto, requires major adaptations to be made to a Member State’s national statistical system, the Commission may grant, by means of implementing acts, derogations to Member State, for a maximum duration of three years.

RemovedArticle 19 a (new): Article 19a / Purposes / The provisions of this Regulation, and the statistical data covered by it shall have as their sole purpose the compilation, production and dissemination of European statistics on population and housing as provided for in Article 1 and shall, under no circumstances, constitute grounds for deepening asymmetries between States or for sanctions or infringement proceedings.

RemovedEXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

RemovedStatistical knowledge is an important tool when it comes to finding ways of addressing the often multidimensional problems faced by the public.

RemovedIndeed, accurate knowledge is, above all, essential to identify existing difficulties and better address issues such as poverty, social and economic inequalities and lack of access free of charge to quality universal public infrastructures and services, together with housing, gender equality inside and outside the workplace and energy assessment of homes, to name but a few.

RemovedDevelopments with regard to statistical systems, together with the digital compilation, storage and dissemination of statistics now allow us to make more informed decisions. They do not, however, ensure that decisions taken on the basis of this information are conducive to progress. That is the task of policy makers.

RemovedStatistics on population and housing form part of a set of core data that has for some time allowed comparisons to be drawn between different countries covering migration and other areas. For example, the 10-year censuses carried out in the Member States provide helpful information regarding population and housing trends, with extremely valuable contributions being made by the national statistical institutes or other competent authorities in the Member States.

RemovedThese institutions must accordingly be equipped with the necessary technical and human resources to carry out their work and ensure that reliable information is provided. We are aware that, in a number of Member States, work undeniably remains to be done in this area to achieve the desired results. In view of this, and given the differences between national statistical systems in certain specific areas, the rapporteur deems it necessary to ensure that this Regulation will not have a disproportionate impact on the Member States and their national statistical bodies. For this reason, the minimum reporting interval is set at one year, obviating the need for mandatory infra-annual statistics.

RemovedThe national statistical systems of the various Member States are structured differently, each with their own specific characteristics and levels of development. Harmonisation of the concept of a constant population base relating to periods of residence, as set out in the proposal for a Regulation, could accordingly have a disproportionately adverse impact on certain Member States, especially those using administrative sources. Moreover, it is the responsibility of the Member States to decide how their statistical data and population records are kept. In certain Member States, such a population-based concept would require the restructuring or introduction of statistical population records, which is not considered desirable. The rapporteur therefore recommends that the wording of Article 2(d) of Regulation No 763/2008 and Article 2(d) of Regulation No 1260/2013 be maintained.

RemovedThe powers granted to the European Commission under her proposal allow the programme to be amended and extended unilaterally and for its frequency and reference periods to be adjusted by means of delegated acts, thereby calling into question the necessary legal certainty and predictability regarding costs and planning for national statistical bodies or other competent authorities. We therefore consider that any such amendments should be tabled through the ordinary legislative procedure, allowing those concerned to express their views and giving them time to prepare.

RemovedIt is also necessary to ensure the highest standards of data protection and privacy through compliance with the appropriate anonymisation and pseudoanonymisation requirements, particularly with regard to the availability, processing, dissemination and sharing of statistical data.