Changes from adopted text to adopted text

RemovedP9_TA(2024)0361

AddedP10_TA(2025)0261

Statistics on population and housing

ChangedCommittee foron Employment and Social Affairs

RemovedPE746.665

AddedPE778.283

ChangedEuropean Parliament legislative resolution of 2413 AprilNovember 20242025 on the proposalCouncil forposition at first reading with a view to the adoption of a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on European statistics on population and housing, amending Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and repealing Regulations (EC) No 763/2008 and (EU) No 1260/2013 (COM(2023)0031(09858/1/2025 – C9-0010/2023C10-0230/2025 – 2023/0008(COD))

Changed(Ordinary legislative procedure: firstsecond reading)

The European Parliament,

Changed– having regard to the CommissionCouncil proposalposition toat Parliamentfirst andreading the(09858/1/2025 Council– (COM(2023)0031),C100230/2025),

Removed– having regard to Article 294(2) and Article 338(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C90010/2023),

Removed– having regard to Article 294(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

– having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee of 27 April 2023,

Change 1

Removed– having regard to Rule 59 of its Rules of Procedure,

Added– after consulting the Committee of the Regions,

Changed– having regard to theits opinionsposition ofat thefirst Committeereading on Civil Liberties,the JusticeCommission andproposal Hometo AffairsParliament and the Committee on RegionalCouncil Development,(COM(2023)0031),

Changed– having regard to theArticle report294(7) of the CommitteeTreaty on Employmentthe andFunctioning Socialof Affairsthe (A9-0284/2023),European Union,

Change 2

RemovedAdopts its position at first reading hereinafter set out;

Added– having regard to the provisional agreement approved by the committee responsible under Rule 75(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

RemovedCalls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it replaces, substantially amends or intends to substantially amend its proposal;

Added– having regard to Rule 68 of its Rules of Procedure,

Added– having regard to the recommendation for second reading of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (A10-0207/2025),

Added1. Approves the Council position at first reading;

Added2. Notes that the act is adopted in accordance with the Council position;

Added3. Instructs its President to sign the act with the President of the Council, in accordance with Article 297(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union;

Added4. Instructs its Secretary-General to sign the act, once it has been verified that all the procedures have been duly completed, and, in agreement with the Secretary-General of the Council, to arrange for its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union;

5. Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.

Change 3

RemovedP9_TC1-COD(2023)0008

RemovedPosition of the European Parliament adopted at first reading on 24 April 2024 with a view to the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2024/… of the European Parliament and of the Council on European statistics on population and housing, amending Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and repealing Regulations (EC) No 763/2008 and (EU) No 1260/2013*

Removed(Text with EEA relevance)

RemovedTHE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

RemovedHaving regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 338(1) thereof,

RemovedHaving regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

RemovedAfter transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments,

RemovedHaving regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee,

RemovedHaving regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions,

RemovedActing in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure,

RemovedWhereas:

Removed(1) European statistics on population and housing play a central role in policy-making and decision-making processes and, as such, are required for the design, implementation and evaluation of Union policies, in particular those addressing the demographic change, the green and digital transformations, the framework for the promotion of energy efficiency, economic, social and territorial cohesion, the implementation of the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda in so far as they fall within the scope of this Regulation.

Removed(2) Statistics on population are an important denominator for a wide range of policy indicators and used as reference across European statistics, particularly for providing sampling frames for conducting representative surveys of persons and households, under Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

Removed(3) The Economic and Financial Affairs Council regularly gives a mandate to the Economic Policy Committee to assess the long-term sustainability and quality of public finances based on population projections produced by Eurostat. The population projections are also used for policy analysis in the context of the European semester. The Commission (Eurostat) should have at disposal all the necessary statistics to produce and publish population projections according to the information needs of the Union.

Removed(4) Pursuant to Article 175(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Commission is to report, every three years, on the progress made towards achieving economic, social and territorial cohesion to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Regional and local data including for different territorial types, such as border regions, cities and their functional urban areas, metropolitan regions, rural regions, mountain and island regions are necessary for the preparation of those reports and for the regular monitoring of demographic developments and of possible future demographic challenges in the Union territory.

Removed(5) Pursuant to Article 16(4) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), a qualified majority of the members of the Council is to be defined, inter alia, on the basis of the population of the Member States. For that purpose, pursuant to Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council Member States are currently obliged to provide the Commission (Eurostat) with data on the total population at national level.

Removed(6) In 2017, the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC) endorsed the Budapest Memorandum, which stated the need for annual statistics on the size and on certain social, economic and demographic characteristics of the population and improved statistics on migration. For the observance of the principles of equality and non-discrimination with regard to its citizens in all activities and the citizens’ rights as enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and Articles 10 and 19 TFEU, and for the purpose of monitoring progress towards the implementation of the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights, the Union needs reliable and comparable statistics. Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 provides a framework for data collections from samples that allow to collect data on equality and non-discrimination in so far as this is feasible on samples and to analyse some aspects of equality and discrimination by producing socio-economic indicators and information on experience of discrimination. In addition, the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) and the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) carry out specific studies and dedicated surveys that can further extend the availability of equality statistics at Union level. In addition, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) provides data and information collected by means of surveys on living and working conditions. Cooperation and coordination between Member States, the Commission (Eurostat) and those agencies should be further enhanced to meet growing user demands for reliable and comprehensive data on equality and diversity in the Union.

Removed(6a) The Budapest Memorandum also called for an improved statistics on migration and the development and implementation of common population and migration-related definitions, taking into account the need to establish concepts and definitions that are statistically sound, relevant and applicable in light of emerging types of migration. Past and ongoing events, such as the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union and, the consequences of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and other humanitarian crises underline the importance of timely and detailed migration and international protection statistics, which are essential to establishing an overview of migratory flows to, within and from the Union.

Removed(7) To achieve the targets of the European Green Deal, the development and evaluation of effective policies require enhanced statistics relating to the energy use and efficiency of housing, detailed geographical data on the distribution of the population as well as deeper studies of the relationship between population and housing. The COVID-19 pandemic manifested the need for reliable, high frequency and timely statistics on deaths in the Union. While data needs were met with a voluntary data collection from Member States to the Commission (Eurostat), the Union needs an adequate mechanism for mandatory collection of such data within the European Statistical System (ESS), subject to the necessary frequency, timeliness and detail.

Removed(7a) To monitor progress in the implementation of the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights, of the headline targets of the related Action Plan and of the European Child Guarantee at the national level and to assess the distributional impact of climate change and policies in general, the Union needs an adequate mechanism for the mandatory collection of such data within the ESS, subject to the necessary frequency, timeliness and detail.

Removed(8) UN Economic and Social Council, on the proposal of the UN Statistical Commission, every ten years adopts resolutions regarding the World population and housing census and invites UN member countries to conduct population and housing censuses in line with international and regional recommendations and by upholding the integrity, reliability, accuracy and value of the population and housing census results. European statistics on population and housing should take into account these recommendations.

Removed(9) Streamlining reporting obligations and reducing administrative burden is a central objective of the Commission. The Commission communication of 16 March 2023, entitled ‘Long-term competitiveness of the EU: looking beyond 2030’ aims to rationalise and simplify reporting requirements by 25 % for undertakings and administrations, while not undermining the related policy objectives. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council established a legal framework for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics, based on common statistical principles. That Regulation sets out the quality criteria and refers to the need to minimise the response burden on survey respondents and to contribute to the more general objective of reducing the administrative burden. A new legal framework for European statistics on population and housing should implement and build upon the quality criteria set out in that Regulation and reduce the administrative burden by embracing effective and efficient reuse of available data sources including administrative data.

Removed(10) The evaluation of existing statistics on the population and housing censuses in the Union, statistics on international migration flows, migrant stocks and acquisitions of citizenship and demography statistics has shown that the current legal framework comprising Regulations (EC) No 862/2007, (EC) No 763/2008 and (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council has led to significant overall improvements of statistics compared to the 2005 situation without the current legal framework in force. That framework, however, has potential for a lack of consistency and comparability, which should be addressed.

Removed(11) Climate change, the digital transformation, the evolving demographic situation and recent migration trends have created demands for timelier, more frequent, and more detailed European statistics on population, socio-economic developments, vital events and housing including details of topics or groups that have become politically and societally relevant during the past decade. In addition, the existing legal framework is not flexible enough to adapt to evolving policy needs and to enable the use of new sources at national and Union level. Furthermore, the structure of the existing legal framework in the form of three separate regulations, adopted at different times, has led to intrinsic inconsistencies of the statistics. Finally, as Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 will cease to apply on 31 August 2028, a new legal basis is required for the demographic statistics collected under that Regulation. It is therefore necessary to replace the current legal framework by a new, more consistent and flexible one that should amend relevant parts of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and to repeal Regulations (EC) No 763/2008 and (EU) No 1260/2013.

Removed(12) Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 covers statistics on the country of citizenship and place of birth of the resident population (migrant stocks), on changes of residence between countries (international migration flows) and on acquisitions of citizenship of the resident population, whereas the other statistics under that Regulation concern administrative and judicial procedures relating to immigration legislation and international protection. Statistics as referred to in Article 3 of that Regulation are therefore closely linked and should be consistent with the statistics on the resident population and its demographic changes provided under Regulations (EC) No 763/2008 and (EU) No 1260/2013. To ensure intrinsic consistency, those statistics should therefore be integrated into a single legal basis while deleting Article 3 from Regulation (EC) No 862/2007.

Removed(13) The rapidly changing nature of some population and housing characteristics, in particular in relation to demographic, socio-economic and migration phenomena, and the corresponding need for a prompt targeting and adaptation of policies means that there is a need for statistics to be available on a timely basis soon after the reference period. The periodicity and timeliness of statistics should be therefore tangibly advanced, where possible through the use of administrative data and administrative records. To that end, the Member States should provide adequate resources for their national statistical institutes.

Removed(14) Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishes a grid-based methodology for the definition of territorial typologies based on the population distribution by 1 km2 grid cells. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1799 as a temporary direct statistical action accompanying the 2021 population and housing censuses provides for key census outputs on a pan-European 1 km2 grid. A legal framework should ensure the continued dissemination of georeferenced population statistics based on grids and its extension to housing statistics.

Removed(15) Territorial units and statistical grids should be defined in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003.

Removed(16) For geocoding of location, the statistical units theme in accordance with Annex III to Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council should be used.

Removed(17) The current legal framework for European statistics on population and housing needs to be updated to ensure that the presently separate statistical processes are adequately integrated in a common framework which allows the ESS to respond effectively to new information needs of the Union and encourage statistical innovations. Statistical output must be enhanced to remain relevant in the face of demographic, migratory, social and economic changes and challenges, supporting policy and decision-making.

Removed(18) The enhanced regular (annual and infra-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.

Removed(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 combination of different sources including sources related to the Internet of Things and the provision of digital services on the basis of the conclusion of protocols between the national statistical institutes of the Member States and providers of data from private databases. They should respect the privacy of personal data by establishing the needed safeguards for personal data collection to avoid any potential misuse and guarantee fundamental rights. They should also be used to re-establish the demographic baseline and include surveys of the coverage of administrative data sources.

Removed(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, it is crucial that national statistical authorities get timely access and are allowed 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 Council. National statistical authorities should be able to fully reuse, in a regular and timely manner, administrative data from the interoperable databases for the energy performance of buildings that are available nationally according to Directive (EU) 2024/1275 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The national statistical authorities 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.