Doc. MedDC/2011/Minutes ANNUAL MEETING OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE NSIS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN ENP COUNTRIES. Hilton Hotel Istanbul 13 April 2011.

Transcription

1 Doc. MedDC/2011/Minutes ANNUAL MEETING OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE NSIS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN ENP COUNTRIES Hilton Hotel Istanbul 13 April 2011 Minutes

2 Minutes of the joint Eurostat-Medstat meeting with the Directors of the National Statistical Institutes of the Mediterranean ENP Countries Istanbul, 13 April 2011 The 2011 joint Eurostat-Medstat meeting with the Directors of the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) of the Mediterranean ENP 1 countries was held in Istanbul on 13 April 2011, back to back with the OIC first Statistical Commission (on April). With the exception of the CAS of Lebanon, all Medstat NSIs were present at the meeting. The list of participants was completed by representatives of the UN-ESCWA, the World Bank, AITRS, SESRIC and ADETEF, the company contracted by EuropeAid to implement the Medstat III programme. With the agreement of EuropeAid, the meeting was chaired by Mr Pieter Everaers, Eurostat's Director for External Cooperation, Communication and Key Indicators. Mr Everaers welcomed the participants and introduced Mrs Claudia Junker, the new Head of Unit at Eurostat responsible for Statistical Cooperation with European and Mediterranean countries. Mr Lavina of EuropeAid also welcomed the participants and gave an outline of relevant European Commission (EC) activities related to the region. This included the review of the ENP policy and its financial instruments, which was launched in July The ongoing developments in the southern ENP countries, especially the movements towards more democratic systems in several countries, have influenced this review. The new shape of the ENP, expected to be published soon 2, will feature the main directions along which the EU intends to further develop its relations with its Mediterranean partners: democratic transformation and institution-building; a stronger partnership with the people; and sustainable and inclusive economic development. It will seek to strengthen individual and regional relationships between the EU and countries in its neighbourhood through a more funds for more reform approach - making additional funds available, but with more mutual accountability. The Union for the Mediterranean, which was created in 2008, now has a functioning Secretariat in Barcelona. The work of the Secretariat is to reinforce and intensify work on cooperation in the region, bringing together the EU member states, the candidate countries, the Mediterranean Partner countries and international organisations. Mr Everaers emphasised the importance of the ENP revision. He gave a brief review of developments in statistics from a European perspective, mentioning new challenges (Stiglitz report, macroeconomic and financial statistics, economic crisis versus statistics, etc.). It was underlined that Eurostat and other institutes needed to review, renew, update and re-prioritize their work programmes on statistics to take on board these new challenges. Nevertheless, it was considered that the effects on international cooperation would be limited; the key change was that the EU would be seeking more commitment from countries towards joint tools such as Eurotrace (the tool for foreign trade statistics) or Eretes (the tool for calculating national accounts). Additionally, after five years of implementation, the European Statistics Code of Practice will be fine-tuned and some recommendations will be sharpened. 1 The countries covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy 2 See A new response to a changing neighbourhood: A review of the European Neighbourhood Policy, Published on 25 May

3 1. Adoption of the agenda The draft agenda was adopted. The Palestinian representative suggested that point 3 on the agenda was crucial for the meeting but that it had not been allocated sufficient time. Strengthening cooperation with civil society within ongoing partnership programmes in the countries was discussed briefly. 2. The MEDSTAT III programme 2.1 Results of the Medstat III thematic Task Forces Mr José Cervera, the leader of the team contracted by EuropeAid to implement the Medstat III programme, presented the work programmes for Medstat III that were agreed at the relevant thematic Task Force meetings held between October 2010 and January He presented in detail the following topics: Medstat III programme ( ): At the time of the presentation, 17 regional events and 35 technical assistance missions to the countries had been organised. Sixteen more regional events were in the pipeline. Each of the 7 thematic Task Forces (TF) was composed of 2 members of the national statistical system per country, including ministries that are responsible for collecting data, as well as the national statistical institutes. This composition enabled discussion and collaboration not only between the countries but also between different institutions within a country. A second round of TFs would be held in The TFs are co-chaired by the EC and one of the participant countries, to emphasise the partnership. The work programmes cover regional and sub-regional training courses and workshops, study visits to EU countries, country-specific activities, etc. and will run until the end of Review of results of the Task Forces by sector: Agriculture statistics, Energy statistics, Migration statistics, Social statistics, Trade statistics, and Transport statistics, Training & Dissemination (cross-cutting themes). The objectives, work programme, coordination and cooperation with international initiatives for each sector were presented. In response to questions from the floor, the experts provided more information regarding the objectives and work programmes for the agriculture, migration and social statistics sectors. The Directors Committee (DC) then approved the work programmes for Medstat III. 2.2 Results of the Migration Task Force and the MED-HIMS project The MED-HIMS (MED-Household International Migration Survey) project was presented by Mr Giambattista Cantisani, the Key Expert on Migration statistics. He recalled the main results of the Medstat II and Medstat III Migration programme and presented the chronology, milestones, main features and prospects of the MED-HIMS project. This project was a response to requests from partner countries to develop a common migration survey. Model questionnaires have been developed and used successfully, with some local adaptation, by the Palestinian CBS to survey migration in 2010.

4 The next stage in the MED-HIMS project is to finalise the related manuals and to prepare relevant training for the efficient implementation of the surveys in the interested countries, particularly, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, for whom project plans had already been prepared under Medstat II, and Lebanon. The World Bank and the UNHCR had contributed funds to develop the next stages, and a coordination group had been set up to manage the work. The UNFPA had also agreed to provide some funds in its 2012 budget. It was suggested that MED-HIMS could perhaps be a model for post-medstat regional cooperation, as it involves developing and sharing methodological instruments as well as pooling financial resources from the international community at the regional level. The DC discussed a few points regarding migration (both internal and international), its indicators and effects, as this issue had become especially important in the last few months in the region. The DC approved the work programme and authorised the coordination group to set up a Project Steering Committee and to approach other possible donors, in order to find funds to carry out the surveys in the first group of four countries. The remaining three countries (DZ, MA, TN) would be covered in a second stage, if they were interested. 2.3 Development of a Common Set of Regional Harmonised Social Indicators A harmonised set of social indicators had been drawn up for the Medstat countries. Mr Bahjat Achikbache, the Key Expert for Social Statistics, explained that full consistency of national indicators with international standards was neither realistic nor achievable, as national indicators are driven by local conditions and national social priorities. However, there is a real need for harmonized social indicators to inform international donors active in the region and, in particular, as a basis for the economic and political dialogue between the EU and its Mediterranean partners. The Common Set of Social Indicators would also provide a methodological framework for comparisons within the Mediterranean region and with other countries, and would support the regular data collection of social statistics from the ENP South countries by Eurostat. The harmonizing process should, inter alia, build on existing national practices, promote the visibility of national outputs and up-grade national methods and definitions for improved consistency with international standards. Around 70 proposed indicators and international definitions were approved by delegates at the Medstat III Social Statistics Workshop held in Paris in March Some issues remain to be improved, such as education, employment, salary indices, etc. The March Workshop agreed to set up a small technical task force (TTF) to develop and adapt this list. This additional work would have implications for the countries and might require some fundamental methodological changes up-stream as well as better coordination, staff training, and the allocation of new resources. Cooperation with international partners would help in this process. Three outputs are expected from this work: a Common Set of Regional Harmonised Social Indicators, metadata files for each social indicator assessing the definitions and methodologies used by each of the Southern ENP countries compared with international standards, and Regional Guidelines for producing standardised Social Indicators in the Southern ENP countries. After a short discussion, the DC endorsed the list and agreed in principle to the participation of members of their staff to the TTF.

5 UN-ESCWA short presentation on issues related to energy statistics As a complement to the discussions on the Medstat III Work Programme, the UN- ESCWA representative, Mrs Wafa Aboul Hosn, distributed a document and presented the latest developments in the field of energy statistics. ESCWA had received funds to develop energy statistics in the region, and would like to work closely with Eurostat/Medstat in this field (for instance joint training and workshops). ESCWA had already approached the Islamic Development Bank for funds to carry out surveys of final energy consumption in the countries. As Morocco was currently carrying out a survey on final energy consumption by transport, with EU funding, it was proposed that before launching work in other countries, feedback from the Moroccan experience should be reviewed. In the meantime, work could start on developing questionnaires for energy consumption surveys, associated manuals, etc, similar to the work done for MED-HIMS. The DC endorsed these proposals. Mr Everaers agreed that a meeting between Eurostat and ESCWA would be organised in the short-term to develop this work. 2.4 Extension of the Medstat III programme Mr Lavina (EuropeAid) gave a brief introduction on the extension of Medstat III. An additional EUR 3 million has been allocated to allow the Medstat III programme to continue through until the end of The current plan was now to finalize activities in countries by June 2013 and to use the second half of the year to complete all reporting activities and as a transition phase, to prepare the regional strategy for the post-medstat period. Three different approaches on how best to use the additional time were presented and discussed by delegates: one simply called for more time to cover the same activities; a second suggested including new activities in the same sectors; the third proposed including new sectors, such as health statistics (an enlargement of the scope of Medstat). The overall objectives of the programme would remain the same. The Medstat contractors presented some first ideas on what could be covered during the Medstat III extension period. A few possible topics of work were suggested: a) for agricultural statistics - economic accounts for agriculture and agrienvironmental indicators, b) for energy statistics more intense work on energy consumption surveys, c) for migration statistics assuming that the MED-HIMS would be implemented, work on data analysis and the dissemination of results, d) for social statistics the inclusion of health indicators, e) for transport statistics increasing the capacity for analysis and the dissemination of transport indicators, f) for trade statistics the dissemination of detailed data and mirror exercises for different countries with the EU, g) for training & dissemination strengthening the capacity of national training centres and the training of trainers, developing on-line courses for the region, and publishing manuals. When the extension of the programme was announced at the end of 2010, it was proposed by EuropeAid and Eurostat that Health statistics should be covered as an

6 additional sector under Social Statistics, as this had been identified by the partner countries as a priority at the end of Medstat II. As no document was disseminated prior to the meeting, it was agreed that further discussions would be needed to define the exact scope of additional work and this point would be put on the agenda of the next DC meeting. During the second round of Task Forces in 2012, agreement on other work for the extension period would be sought. 3. Regional Strategy for statistical cooperation post-medstat III Mr Lavina (EuropeAid) reminded the participants of the context that had led to the extension of Medstat III and to the development of the common regional strategy. He highlighted two important elements for this cooperation: a long-term common vision, and the step-by- step nature of the work. EuropeAid had engaged short-term experts to assist in the development of a long-term and sustainable regional strategy to replace Medstat. Two of the experts (T. Paccoud and H. Fdhil) presented their mandate and the work undertaken so far. The work has shown that there was overall satisfaction in the partner countries with the three Medstat programmes and a strong commitment to pursue EU-Med cooperation in statistics at regional level. In the scoping study phase, the appointed experts studied and analysed papers and work done so far, in order to take on board all countries expectations and to produce a common basis for the strategy that would cover the period after the end of the Medstat programme. The study should assist in creating a shared, feasible and sustainable approach that would build on and continue the work already done in the Medstat programmes. It would help in the transition to the post-medstat strategy, in discussing the contribution from all partners and in building a consensus on key issues. The strategy should aim to improve the quality and availability of statistics. The work of the experts had started recently (in the first quarter of 2011) with consultations, surveys and meetings and would continue through until mid-autumn At the end of this phase, a discussion document would be produced. The consultants first contacts with the partner countries identified a number of issues that could form part of a regional strategy. Some of transversal issues identified were governance, statistical law, the code of practice, quality, training of trainers, use of administrative sources, and technology-4-statistics. The thematic issues identified included migration, social statistics, employment/unemployment, energy, agriculture, SNA 2008, business and shortterm statistics, and measuring progress. Additionally, the question of sharing resources, selecting tools and cooperating with other international partners was raised. Mr Paccoud ended the presentation with a short explanation of the next steps to be undertaken in the development of the strategy; these would cover further contacts with the countries and potential partners (through questionnaires and direct contacts), presenting a detailed proposal and holding a topic-specific discussion at the end of The chairman commented that there was a close link between the extension of the Medstat III programme and the development of the regional strategy that should be taken into account in the discussion and planned work. The way to search for and approach potential donors was also discussed. The chairman underlined the point that the process should be demand- and not supply-driven. The role of the EC was to facilitate developments rather than to initiate them. During the discussions that followed, some participants felt that this list was too long and that the focus should be given to a few themes. In some areas (agriculture, national accounts, etc) other international bodies were active (example FAO, ESCWA, the Arab League), so

7 cooperation with these bodies would be essential in order to avoid duplication. A regional strategy for statistics should try, therefore, to involve other international organisations active in the area. Ideally, a single reference document could then be used by different stakeholders. Most countries have national strategies for statistics with their national priorities, and the countries with advanced status partnerships with the EU have Action Plans that include sections on statistics. A regional strategy would need to build on these priorities, but should also take account of the key areas addressed by the European Neighbourhood Policy, such as trade, energy, transport, the environment, labour, and migration. While Medstat I and II focused on methodology, there was now a need through Medstat III to improve the whole data production and dissemination cycle. The strategy should be developed for the next 5-15 years, and would have to be sustainable, manageable and feasible. The DC now has about two years to prepare this strategy and a longterm cooperation plan should be set. In conclusion, it was agreed that the consultants should continue their round of visits to the countries and other partners, and should further develop their ideas in the coming months. EuropeAid and Eurostat would also take up the discussion internally to define the objectives of such a strategy from a more strategic and policy driven point of view. It was agreed to hold a second DC meeting in 2001, to discuss the results. The meeting would be held in Luxembourg in November 2011, and EU Member States would be invited to participate in the discussions. 4. Peer Reviews and Global Assessments As time was short, it was decided to postpone the discussion on point 4 on the agenda until the November meeting data collection exercise and publication plans Following up on a letter sent to countries earlier this year, Mr Francesco Natalini Raponi from Eurostat presented the state of play in foreign trade statistics, and asked countries to agree to restart the monthly transmission of trade data in the COOP400 standard format. It was also explained that Mediterranean partner country data currently in COMEXT was not publicly available; the countries were asked to give their agreement to the proposal to allow their trade data to be opened to the general public. Partner countries were encouraged to use a standardised transmission system on a regular, scheduled basis. The functioning of COMEXT was explained and examples of data shown to delegates. The training on the COMEXT system by Eurostat was available to ENP countries. CAPMAS (Egypt) agreed to the full dissemination of its trade data. The Syrian CBS does not hold monthly trade data, only annual data, which could be made available publicly. Morocco would check with the Office des Changes, the owners of the data. The countries that had not already replied to Eurostat were asked to do so by 15 May, so that their data could then be made publicly available in COMEXT. Mr Edward Cook from Eurostat presented an overview of the latest round of data collection and publication plans, including the Country Profiles that were distributed in the meeting. He reminded the participants of the four key objectives in Medstat III related to this point: to produce better quality statistics; to consolidate the data collection exercise; to improve the dissemination of results and to improve the understanding of the statistics.

8 He then presented the four phases of the annual data collection cycle (planning & design, executing, monitoring and closing phase). In the planning and design phase, the questionnaire had been made more user-friendly, with an accompanying manual. It had been stressed to the national co-ordinators that the questionnaire should not be tampered with and that all staff concerned (especially any new staff) should be made aware of their role in the process. In the execution phase, questionnaires had gone out on schedule, but replies were late and that the volume of data sent back was substantially down on what had been delivered during previous data collections. A fast delivery of data and a greater volume of data were crucial for the success of the whole cycle. As it stood, the delays in receiving data would have a knock-on effect regarding the publication of the next pocketbook (probably in September 2011). In the monitoring phase, a number of questions set out on a thematic basis had been sent back to the countries as part of the data validation procedure. The partner countries should try to reply as soon as possible, to avoid further delays in publication. Participants were asked to ensure that the deadline of April 20 th for these replies was respected. Regarding the closing phase, Mr Cook reminded participants that Eurostat publications and the database were available for download free of charge on the Eurostat website. New products were being created such as the Country Profiles and Wikipedia-type articles in Eurostat's Statistics Explained. This meant that official statistics from the Medstat programme would be freely and easily available, adapted to new user needs, providing more explanatory information whilst improving the visibility of the Medstat. Countries agreed to try to respect the new deadlines and that bilateral talks with Mr Cook would be opened if any problems arose. 6. Any other business The date of the November DC meeting was agreed: November 2011, in Luxembourg. The participants were also informed that the 2012 DC meeting would be held back-to-back with the Quality Conference in Athens, Greece in the week of 28 May 1 June The newly launched dedicated webpage on the Eurostat website regarding the European Neighbourhood Policy and Medstat was communicated to delegates. As there was no other business, Mr Everaers thanked the participants for the rich discussions and closed the meeting at