In November 2024, the legislative process amending the framework regulation on European statistics was completed. Regulation (EU) 2024/3018 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2024 amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics was published on 6 December 2024 in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This is the second amendment to the framework statistical regulation since its adoption in 2009. The first amendment, in 2015, focused primarily on strengthening the professional independence of statistical authorities and reinforcing provisions on access to administrative data and participation in the design of administrative registers.

The main changes compared to the previously applicable provisions concern:

• access to Privately Held Data (PHD). A new, comprehensive mechanism has been introduced enabling National Statistical Institutes and the Commission (Eurostat) to request data held by private entities where such data are strictly necessary for the production of European statistics and cannot be obtained by other means;
• crisis response. A mechanism has been introduced enabling the Commission (Eurostat) to take urgent statistical actions in crisis situations (e.g. health or energy crises), when urgent policy needs cannot be met within the regular European Statistical Programme;
• Statistics Under Development (SuD). A category of statistics under development has been introduced, which may be published without meeting all European statistics quality criteria, provided their status is clearly indicated. The aim is to enable faster deployment of innovation and new statistical methods using modern technologies and new data sources;
• data sharing within the ESS and between the ESS and the ESCB. Rules have been established for the mutual sharing of non-confidential data between authorities of the European Statistical System (ESS) and between the ESS and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). The Commission (Eurostat) is required to establish a secure technical infrastructure to facilitate such sharing;
• new and updated definitions. The Regulation introduces new concepts necessary in the context of the digital working environment of the European Statistical System (ESS): “data”, “metadata”, “data holder”, “data source”, “access to data”, and updates the definition of “use for statistical purposes” (extended to cover research and scientific purposes as well as the creation of statistical frames).

For more information on the European Statistical System and International Organisation, visit the Statistics Poland website.