Ref. Ares(2020)2323525 - 30/04/2020
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
EUROSTAT
The Director-General
Luxembourg,
ESTAT-DG/MK/eo/D(2020)
NOTE FOR THE ATTENTION OF
DIRECTORS-GENERAL AND PRESIDENTS OF THE NATIONAL STATISTICAL INSTITUTES
OF THE EUROPEAN STATISTICAL SYSTEM
Subject:
European Statistical System’s response to COVID-19 / number 4
Dear colleagues,
Let me first thank you again for the very inspiring discussion last Friday and the rich set
of proposals on how the ESS could further respond to the challenges triggered by the
COVID-19 outbreak, including proposals on a more active coordination role of Eurostat.
In response to your request for providing regular information about COVID-19 related
actions, I would like to let you know the following:
43rd ESSC meeting on 13 and 14 May 2020
I can confirm that the 43rd meeting of the ESSC will be held as a videoconference in two
sessions. Session I will start at 14.30 and will end at 16.30 on 13 May 2020. Session II will
start at 9.30 and will end at 11.30 on 14 May 2020. The draft ESSC agenda is presented in
Annex I to this letter. You can find all documents on CIRCABC/Eurostat/European
Statistical System Committee (ESSC) and you can express your opinion in the related
exchange of views before the meeting. The comitology items that were foreseen on the May
ESSC agenda will be handled via a separate written procedure. Therefore, no comitology
vote will be carried out in the meeting, only discussions will take place. You will receive
shortly a formal invitation with technical details on the ESSC meeting.
New Covid-19 related initiatives and projects at national level
Following the discussions last Friday, with this letter Eurostat would like to launch the
collection of information on initiatives and projects that you have already launched or
planned for the next months at national level to measure better the economic and social
consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak. Based on that information Eurostat will suggest
actions to facilitate the exchange of good practices, support innovations and promote those
initiatives at EU level. A special focus will be given to the use of new data sources with the
view to ensure sustainable data access for statistical purposes and continuation of the projects
beyond the period of the pandemic.
European Commission, 2920 Luxembourg, LUXEMBOURG - Tel. +352 43011
Office: BECH A4/078 - Tel. direct line +352 4301-33407
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat
In that regard, I would kindly like to invite you to:
list and describe in brief flash estimates, new statistics and statistical products that you
have launched as well as statistics that you have started to publish more frequently, to
measure the COVID-19 economic and social impact;
describe in brief any dedicated COVID-19 surveys for businesses and households that
you have initiated or planned to do so in the coming months;
summarise the new data sources you have gained access to; specify whether the data
are aggregates, confidential or anonymised microdata; indicate for how long the
access has been granted (e.g. for the period of lockdown, until the end of the
pandemic, permanently) and whether it has been free of charge.
In addition, feel free to provide any link or document concerning those new initiatives and
projects that you consider useful to be shared within the ESS.
In order to be able to put together the replies and provide them as an input to the Covid-19
discussions at the ESSC on 14 May, I would like to ask you
to send your replies by 10.00
am Monday, 11 May 2020. Please send your replies to the functional mail box:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
Grant on gender based violence survey
In my letter of 26 March 2020, I informed you that only a very limited number of calls for
new grants with a higher priority will be launched before the middle of June 2020, in order to
take into account the capacity difficulties you are currently facing. Exceptionally, a call for
proposals covering the implementation of the gender based and interpersonal violence survey
(
GBV survey) in 2021 or 2022 was launched on 29 April 2020 with a deadline for
submission 8 July 2020. This grant concerns mostly ONAs, is part of a grant programme
spread over three years and is organized in three waves due to the gradual funds availability.
It is important to launch this call for proposals now to allow the costs eligibility period to
start early, and thus to support the preparatory work needed for the national surveys that are
scheduled for next year.
Weekly deaths reporting
Thanks to the high commitment and efforts by your teams, the weekly
data on deaths in 2020
and back series over past years are now available
in the COVID-19 section of the Eurostat
website. This allows specialists to analyse the deaths time series, independently from their
causes, in order to assess the additional direct or indirect mortality in the current period.
These data, collected on a voluntary basis, are highly demanded by users. Therefore, Eurostat
warmly thanks the participating countries and reiterates the invitation to the NSIs to
participate. For, those already participating, Eurostat invites them to improve the length of the
series by including progressively the most recent weeks and by extending the breakdowns
they provide.
2
Guidelines and methodological notes
Eurostat has pursued the development of guidelines and methodological notes in the context
of the COVID-19 in cooperation with NSI experts. The documents are published in the
COVID-19: support for statisticians section of the Eurostat website as and when they are
ready. Eurostat is investigating a quick way of informing DGs when new notes are released to
support their implementation.
New dedicated COVID-19 section on Eurostat website
Finally, I would like to inform you that today Eurostat has launched a dedicated COVID-19
section on its website that covers a range of topics related to the economy, society and work,
population and health as well as agriculture, energy, transport and tourism. For each topic,
users can find the latest releases, an interactive data visualisation, links to more in-depth
information in Statistics Explained and a list of relevant datasets. The dedicated COVID-19
section contains links to the similar sections on the websites of the NSIs.
Yours sincerely,
(eSigned)
Mariana Kotzeva
Annex: Draft ESSC agenda
3
DRAFT AGENDA
43RD MEETING OF THE EUROPEAN STATISTICAL SYSTEM COMMITTEE
(ESSC)
101ST EEA CONFERENCE
LUXEMBOURG, 13 AND 14 MAY 2020
FIRST DAY, 13 MAY, AFTERNOON
VIDEOCONFERENCE
STARTING: 14H30
Time
Duration
Introduction by the Chair
14h30
5
Comitology items
/
Items for opinion during the virtual meeting
1.
Draft 2021 Financing Decision / Annual Work
14h35
30
Programme
ESSC 2020/43/1
The ESSC will be invited to give its opinion on the
draft 2021 Financing Decision / Annual Work
Programme.
2.
Detailed methodology for the next round of peer
15h05
30
reviews
ESSC 2020/43/2
Based on several discussions in the ESSC, the work
of the ESS Task Force on peer reviews and the
quality working group, a first part of the full package
of the methodology for the third round of peer
reviews will be presented to the ESSC for opinion.
This part of the package will contain the overall
methodology for the peer reviews (adjusted version
of the general methodology presented to the ESSC in
October 2019), some of the supporting tools and
instruments (the self-assessment questionnaires for
the NSIs/Eurostat and the ONAs, the information and
list of core documents to be provided by the
NSIs/ONAs/Eurostat together with these self-
assessment questionnaires, the procedure to select
the ONAs for participation in the peer review, the
structure of the peer review report) as well as a
proposal for a coordinated communication strategy
4
for the third round of peer reviews.
This part of the package of the methodology for the
peer reviews as endorsed by the ESSC meeting and
the second part of the package (the guides or the
NSIs/ONAs and for the peer reviewers together with
their annexes) to be endorsed in written procedure in
June 2020 will constitute the basis for implementing
the third round of peer reviews in the ESS in 2021-
2023.
3.
High-value datasets
15h35
45
ESSC 2020/43/3
Eurostat will present a first draft proposal for a list
of high-value datasets for statistics. The ESSC will be
invited to discuss and provide its opinion on the list.
4.
Actions enabling the use of privately held data for
16h20
30
official statistics
ESSC 2020/43/4
Following the discussion in May 2019 on Trusted
Smart Statistic, during which the ESSC stressed the
importance of access to new data sources, the
DIME/ITDG had in July 2019 set up a “Group on
using privately held data for official statistics”. This
document will present the outcome of the Group’s
work and propose a framework of actions. The ESS
Committee will be invited to discuss and provide its
opinion, taking into account the recommendations of
the Expert Group on B2G data sharing.
End foreseen
Approx.
16h50
5
DRAFT AGENDA
43RD MEETING OF THE EUROPEAN STATISTICAL SYSTEM COMMITTEE (ESSC)
101ST EEA CONFERENCE
LUXEMBOURG, 13 AND 14 MAY 2020
SECOND DAY, 14 MAY, MORNING
VIDEOCONFERENCE
STARTING: 9H30
Time
Duration
Items for opinion during the virtual meeting (continued)
5.
ESS response to Covid-19 including an update from 09h30
60
the Task Force on ESS Strategic Communication
ESSC 2020/43/5
Exchange of views on the implications of the
Covid-19
outbreak on the ESS’s statistical
production, including an update on the work of the
Task Force on ESS Strategic Communication.
Report during the virtual meeting
6. Oral report to the ESSC on the results of the
10h30
30
Exchange of Views
Eurostat will report on the results of the Exchange of
Views related to items 7 to 13 of the agenda.
Any other business
The ESSC will be invited to endorse the results of the
11h00
5
election of a new PG member.
Discussion/approval of the opinions
11h05
15
Acknowledgments by the Chair
6
End foreseen
Approx.
11h20
Items for discussion via Exchange of Views - summary and conclusions during the virtual
meeting under Item 6
7. Eurostat monitoring report on NSI compliance with
ESSC 2020/43/7
the European statistics Code of Practice: situation as
of 31 December 2019
Every year Eurostat reports on the implementation of
the European statistics Code of Practice by the NSIs
of the EU Member States/EFTA countries, based on
the improvement actions designed after the second
round of peer reviews (2013-2015). This is the fifth
annual monitoring report; it will take stock of the
already implemented improvements and highlight
those improvement actions posing particular problems
for the NSIs.
Reports to the Committee
Comments via Exchange of Views - summary and conclusions during the virtual meeting
under Item 6
8. Presidency
ESSC 2020/42/8
Plans for the next Presidency (Germany)
9. Second Report on Commitments on Confidence in
ESSC 2020/43/9
Statistics
ESSC Members are informed about the upcoming 2nd
Report on Commitments on Confidence in Statistics,
which is scheduled for June 2020. The Commission
shall report for the second time to the European
Parliament and the Council on the Commitments on
Confidence in Statistics by 9 June 2020. The first
report was published in 2018. The Commitments are
monitored regularly by the Commission, based on
annual reports sent by Member States.
10. 2020 DGINS Conference in Warsaw, Poland – state
ESSC 2020/43/10
of play
The ESS will be informed about the preparation of the
2020 DGINS Conference to be held on 7-8 October,
7
including the agenda for the event, jointly prepared by
Eurostat and Statistics Poland.
11. European Statistics Day 2020
ESSC 2020/43/11
The ESSC will be briefed about the initiatives that
Eurostat intends to take to celebrate the 2020
European Statistics Day.
12. Partnership Group
ESSC 2020/43/12a
ESSC 2020/43/12b
a) Report from the meeting on 20/03/2020
ESSC 2020/43/12c
b) Report from the virtual PG meeting 17/04/2020
c) Draft agenda of the next meeting, 11/09/2020
13. Reports from Directors’ Groups
ESSC 2020/42/13
The ESSC will be informed about the strategic
activities of the Directors’ Groups.
DSS (Directorate F)
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