Memorandum from Eurostat
TOPIC 1: THE ROLE OF EUROSTAT
1. THE TASK
OF EUROSTAT
Eurostat is the Statistical Office of the European
Communities situated in Luxembourg. Its task is to provide the
European Union with statistics at European level that enable comparisons
between countries and regions.
Eurostat was established in 1953 to meet the
requirements of the Coal and Steel Community. Over the years its
task has broadened and when the European Community was founded
in 1958 it became a Directorate-General (DG) of the European Commission.
Eurostat's key role is to supply statistics to other DGs and supply
the Commission and other European Institutions with data so they
can define, implement and analyse Community policies. In consequence
Eurostat offers a whole range of important and interesting data
that governments, businesses, the education sector, journalists
and the public can use for their work and daily life.
Eurostat's main role is to process and publish
comparable statistical information at European level. It tries
to arrive at a common statistical "language" that embraces
concepts, methods, structures and technical standards.
Eurostat does not collect data. This is done
in Member States by their statistical authorities. They verify
and analyse national data and send them to Eurostat. Eurostat's
role is to consolidate the data and ensure they are comparable,
using harmonized methodology. Eurostat is actually the only general
provider of statistics at European level and the data issued are
harmonized as far as possible.
2. AMSTERDAM
TREATY AND
THE STATISTICAL
LAW
In 1997 three major documents were adopted giving
Community statistics a solid legal basis.
These Acts ensure a durable basis for new statistical
challenges to come with European integration. And they safeguard
the autonomy of Eurostat, enshrining at a constitutional level
the principles of impartiality, scientific independence and statistical
confidentiality that are the foundation of statistics in a democratic
society.
They emphasise the separation between policy
and administration on one hand and Community statistics on the
other. Finally, they highlight reliability, objectivity, cost-effectiveness
and subsidiarity, which strengthen the partnership between Eurostat
and the statistical authorities of Member States.
Treaty of Amsterdam
In June 1997 Article 285 was inserted by the
Amsterdam Treaty, providing Community statistics with a constitutional
basis for the first time.
1. The Council, acting by a qualified majority,
shall adopt measures for the production of statistics where necessary
for the performance of the activities of the Community.
2. The production of Community Statistics
shall conform to impartiality, reliability, objectivity, scientific
independence, cost-effectiveness and statistical confidentiality;
it shall not entail excessive burdens on economic operators.
Statistical Law
The Council of the European Union adopted what
is known as the Statistical Law in February 1997. This Regulation
defines the division of responsibility between national and Community
statistical authorities. It also defines the basic conditions,
procedures and general provisions governing official statistics
at EU level.
The Community Statistical Authority
A Commission Decision later in 1997 clarified
the role of the Community Statistical Authority—Eurostat—defined
in the Council Regulation. Secondly, it reaffirmed the need for
those involved in Community statistics to follow fundamental principles
in ensuring that statistics are scientifically independent, transparent,
impartial, reliable, pertinent and cost-effective.
3. THE EUROPEAN
STATISTICAL SYSTEM
Eurostat does not work alone. The European Statistical
System (ESS) comprises of Eurostat and the statistical offices,
ministries, agencies and central banks that collect official statistics
in EU Member States, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. Member
States collect data and compile statistics for national and EU
purposes. The ESS functions as a network in which Eurostat's role
is to lead the way in the harmonization of statistics in close
cooperation with the national statistical authorities. ESS work
concentrates mainly on EU policy areas—but, with the extension
of EU policies, harmonization has been extended to nearly all
statistical fields.
The ESS also coordinates its work with international
organisations such as OECD, the UN, the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank.
The main aims of the European Statistical System
are given in the Statistical Programme every five years.
The current (1998-2002) Programme follows the
requirements of major Community policies.
4. ORGANISATION
OF EUROSTAT
Organisation
As one of the Directorates-General of the European
Commission, Eurostat is headed by a Director-General. Under him
are six Directors and a Chief Adviser responsible for different
sectors of Eurostat activities:
A. Statistical information, research, and
data analysis, technical cooperation with Phare and Tacis countries.
B. Economic statistics, economic and monetary
convergence.
C. Information and dissemination, transport,
technical cooperation with non-member countries (except Phare
and Tacis countries), external and intra-Community trade statistics.
E. Social and regional statistics and geographical
information systems.
F. Agricultural, environmental and energy
statistics.
Staff and budget
Currently around 700 people work in Eurostat.
Of these, 600 are officials, 60 are experts sent from Member States
and another 40 have other types of contract.
Eurostat has a total budget of around 160 million.
Nearly 100 million are spent on implementation of the Statistical
Programme, 50 million on staff costs, six million on rent and
around 10 million on administration, translation, missions, etc.
5. ENVIRONMENT
STATISTICS
Work on Environment Statistics is first of all
found in the unit, "Environment Statistics". This activity
became formalised in a separate unit in October 1988. The unit
now has 18 in-house staff and a budget directly for statistical
work of two million. Work on environmental statistics is also
found in other units, notably on environmental accounts (in a
unit on methodology of national accounts) and on the environmental
dimension of energy, transport and agricultural statistics. Altogether
some four further staff and a budget for statistical work of 1.2
million are involved in these environmental statistics outside
the environmental unit. Information on the nature of Eurostat's
work on environmental statistics is given in the next section.
6. PRODUCTS AND
DATABASES
The statistical data Eurostat collect are disseminated
as publications and electronic products and available on CD-ROM,
diskettes or databases. They cover a wide range of topics and
are divided into nine themes:
1. General statistics, including regional
statistics.
3. Population and social conditions.
5. Agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
7. Distributive trade, services and transport.
9. Research and development.
Data cover EU Member States and their regions
and often Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Japan, USA, Canada and
other trade partners.
TOPIC 2: DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONSIBILITY AND
EXPERTISE BETWEEN EUROSTAT AND THE EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
1. COUNCIL
REGULATION
The ground rules for the distribution of responsibilities
and expertise between Eurostat and the EEA are set out in the
regulation establishing the EEA: Council Regulation (EEC) No 1210
of 7 May 1990 as amended by Council Regulation No 933/1999 of
29 April 1999.
Annex B is headed, "Cooperation with Eurostat"
and reads:
1. The Agency will use, as far as possible,
information collected via the official Community statistical services.
These result from the work of Eurostat and the national statistical
services in collecting, validating and disseminating social and
economic statistics, including national accounts and related information.
In particular, the Agency will make use of work done by Eurostat
and the national statistics offices under Decision 94/808/EEC[2],
covering statistics on (a) human activities resulting in pressure
on the environment and (b) societal and economic responses to
such pressures.
2. The statistical programme in the field
of the environment will be agreed between the Executive Director
of the Agency and the Director-General of Eurostat and will be
submitted for approval to the management board of the Agency and
the Statistical Programme Committee.
3. The statistical programme shall be conceived
and implemented within the framework established by the international
statistical bodies, such as the UN Statistical Commission, the
Conference of European Statisticians and the OECD.
2. MEMORANDUM
OF UNDERSTANDING
These principles have been given more detailed
expression in a Memorandum of Understanding between the EEA and
Eurostat (attached).
Some features are:
— each organisation works where it
is most efficient;
— a lot of attention to coordination
and to collaborative work;
— Eurostat capitalises on its network
of National Statistical Services which furnish mainly socio-economic
data. So, in terms of the PSE model (Pressure State Response)
Eurostat works mainly on Pressures (and also on Response);
— Eurostat is much more a data provider
than analyst;
— Eurostat's work on environment data
is embedded in well developed structures of statistical activity,
resource allocation and coordination covering many topics some
close but also some distant from environmental issues.
TOPIC 3: COMMENTS ON PROGRESS TOWARDS BETTER
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY INTEGRATION AND EUROSTAT'S CONTRIBUTION IN
THIS AREA
1. BACKGROUND
The environmental dimension of sectoral policy work
has had an impact on Eurostat principally in three areas: energy,
transport and agriculture. First efforts to develop appropriate
statistics had begun well before the Cardiff Summit but were given
a significant boost by the higher political profile.
.2. ENERGY
On energy, Eurostat with funding from DG Energy
and Transport, had already started developing harmonised statistics
on Renewable Energy and on Combined Heat and Power. Furthermore,
Eurostat and DG Energy and Transport have financed direct surveys
on energy consumption in households and the tertiary sector improving
the quality of statistics and leading to energy efficiency indicators
and associated CO2 emissions (Eurostat's well established and
harmonised energy statistics have been used for a number of years
to estimate CO2 emissions on a harmonised EU-wide basis.) A first
set of indicators which can be calculated from Eurostat's regular
statistics was attached to the Energy Council's report to the
Helsinki Summit. A "zero-version" giving actual results
in the form of graphs has been published as a pocket book. This
is to be developed using collective expertise (international organisations,
Member States and DG Energy and Transport's study and analysis
programme).
3. TRANSPORT
On transport statistics, the transport and environment
reporting mechanism (TERM) (described in the comments on topic
4) is a well structured collaboration exercise, involving the
Transport DG, Environment DG, Eurostat and EEA.
4. AGRICULTURE
On agriculture, early attempts to obtain environmentally
relevant data from Member States had little success. More recently
the clear introduction of a range of environmental aspects into
the Common Agricultural Policy and preparation for the World Trade
Organisation millennium round have increased the pressure on statisticians
including work with OECD. (Cf report for the Helsinki Summit "Strategy
on environmental integration and sustainable development in the
Common Agricultural Policy" established by the Agricultural
Council.)
A recent Communication from the Commission to
the Council and the European Parliament (COM(2000) 20 final of
26.01.2000) entitled "Indicators for the Integration of Environmental
Concerns into the Common Agricultural Policy" mentions various
activities of Eurostat in its section 3.2.2. This includes use
of existing material (publication, "Agriculture, Environment,
Rural Development: Facts and Figures" compiled by Eurostat
in collaboration with DGs Agriculture and Environment), work on
nutrient balances and pesticide use, some of the work on pressure
indices, a recent seminar in Copenhagen, seat of the EEA, in cooperation
with Statistics Denmark and preparation of a publication (currently
being finalised) on land cover (jointly with the Commission's
Joint Research Centre, DGs Agriculture and Environment and the
EEA). Some description of the latter work and its content was
given in the memorandum submitted to the Committee by English
Nature (p6 of the minutes of evidence to the report of 25 November
1999).
Section 4.2. of the Communication entitled "a
long-term strategy on data information needs" proposes a
Communication to the Council "Information needs for sustainable
agricultural and rural development: Statistical needs for sustainable
agricultural development" to be ready by the end of this
year. The organisational arrangements for preparing this are being
finalised and under the coordination of Eurostat will involve
all Commission services interested and the EEA.
5. INDUSTRY AND
OTHER AREAS
Although there is much to be done, the work
on indicators and data for them is now progressing for the three
areas: transport, energy and agriculture. For industry, DG Enterprise
has started the work to monitor progress in relation to the integration
of environment and sustainable development in industrial policies,
thus addressing environment, economic and social concerns. This
work is aiming at identifying micro indicators (enterprise level),
sectoral indicators and macro indicators (aggregates for branches
and the industry as a whole). Eurostat is working together with
the Enterprise DG to develop the sectoral and macro indicators,
ie eco-efficiency indicators. Some questions on environmental
protection expenditure have now been included in the series of
basic European Community surveys on the structure of enterprises.
For tourism and for the other policy areas, now included in the
Cardiff/Vienna/Helsinki process, the official statistical services
have contributed little at the European level. A review paper
on environment statistics and its future is being prepared for
discussion at the meeting of Directors General of National Statistical
Institutes in the Statistical Programme Committee (which steers
Community statistics) at the end of May 2000.
TOPIC 4: EUROSTAT'S INDICATOR WORK INCLUDING
TERM
1. SCOPE
Eurostat has been developing and producing environmental
indicators in cooperation with other Commission Services, and
other international organisations, such as OECD and the UN Commission
for Sustainable Development, as well as the EEA. The main projects
are:
— Environmental pressure indicators.
— Sustainable development indicators.
— Sectoral integration indicators.
2. BACKGROUND
At the time that the environment statistics
unit was being set up at Eurostat in 1987, work on developing
environmental indicators was just beginning. Both the US EPA and
Statistics Canada were launching initial studies. The Canadian
work was taken up by OECD, and led to the Pressure-State-Response
framework. At an early stage Eurostat adopted the PSR model and
developed close cooperation with OECD, through the joint Eurostat-OECD
questionnaires on the state of the environment (which still form
the basis for the majority of environment statistics) and also
through joint work on OECD's indicator initiatives.
Sustainable development was introduced as an
explicit objective of the European Community in the Single European
Act, and this has been strengthened in subsequent treaties (Maastricht,
Amsterdam). The Commission published several important policy
documents addressing sustainability and integration both general
and related to transport during the early 1990s, including:
— White Paper on the Future development
of the Common Transport Policy (1992);
— Green Paper on the Impact of transport
on the environment (1992);
— Fifth Environmental Action Programme
(1993-2000): "Towards Sustainability" (1993);
— White Paper on growth, competitiveness,
and employment (1993);
— Commission communication on Economic
growth and the environment: Some implications for economic policy
making (1994);
— Commission communication on Directions
for the EU on environmental indicators and green national accounting—The
Integration of environmental and economic information systems
(1994);
— Green Paper: Towards fair and efficient
pricing in transport—policy options for internalising the
external costs of transport in the European Union (1995);
— Green Paper: The citizen's network—Fulfilling
the potential of public passenger transport in Europe (1995).
3. ENVIRONMENTAL
PRESSURE INDICATORS
The first Dutch National Environmental Policy
Plan in 1989 led to the landmark publication of Dr Adriaanse on
environmental policy performance indicators. The Netherlands were
also responsible for the so-called NAMEA (National Accounting
Matrix including Environmental Accounts). This work was considered
by the Commission's Forward Studies Unit, resulting in the aforementioned
1994 Communication on environmental indicators and green national
accounting. The Communication reflected the Commission's wish
to accelerate work which would capture the relationship between
the environment and the economy at a time of pressure for the
calculation of a single figure, a "Green GDP", which
would measure economic growth corrected for environmental losses.
Eurostat was given the task of developing a European system of
integrated economic and environmental indices, comprising a system
of environmental pressure indices and EU-wide NAMEAs. It was considered
that developing a "green" GDP was unrealistic in the
foreseeable future. Another task, that of research on physical
and monetary valuation methods, has been the responsibility of
DG RTD (formerly DGXII).
Following the 1994 Communication, a project
was launched co-ordinated by Eurostat to develop Environmental
Pressure Indicators. The purpose of this exercise was to identify
and produce indicators for the most important pressures on the
environment resulting from human activity. A large number of environmental
specialists were consulted in the process of identifying the pressures.
The resulting publication "Towards environmental pressure
indicators for the EU"—appeared in 1999[3].
Some description of this work was given in the Memorandum submitted
to the Committee by English Nature (p5 of the minutes of evidence
to the report of 29/11/1999). This first report presents 60 environmental
pressure indicators in ten key areas. A second edition—currently
under production—will give, where feasible a breakdown of
the contribution of the different policy areas—for example:
transport, energy, agriculture, industry—to the main environmental
pressures.
In this first publication, recourse was had
to many different data sources in an effort to find some basis
for an indicator. The project has highlighted the lack of appropriate
data for some of the most important environmental policy fields
covered by the Fifth Environmental Action Programme, such as Loss
of Biodiversity, Dispersion of Toxics, and the Marine Environment.
This results in the use of "proxy" data providing part
but not all of the picture for a particular area.
It should be noted that the project now refers
to environmental pressure indicators rather than "indices".
The original aim had been to aggregate the indicators for each
policy field into an index. It was anticipated that this would
not be easy, and weighting coefficients have proved to be extremely
controversial. Until there is a widely accepted scientific solution,
Eurostat's work will be confined to indicators.
Since Eurostat began this project, effort has
been applied to data collection and to the sectoral breakdown.
A limiting factor in indicator development is the availability
of suitable data, and the gap between users needs and data availability
is particularly large for environment statistics. Many of the
indicators therefore remain at a preliminary stage of development.
Sectoral work has concentrated on three sectors: agriculture,
energy, and transport.
For the indicators relating to the sectors,
the strategy has been to:
— exploit existing data as far as possible
(from Eurostat, other international organisations, and other sources);
— work through the appropriate statistical
committees to collect new data;
— use and adapt existing methodologies,
and develop new ones, to estimate data which are unobtainable
through other means.
For the transport/environment indicators, it
has proved possible to supplement the regular supply of data to
Eurostat with data from other sources (ECMT, UNECE, Eurocontrol,
national publications, etc.). Collection of new data through the
European Statistical System, although slower, is also beginning
to produce results. Nethertheless, given that national statistical
offices are operating under ever-tightening budgetary restraint,
further progress will be difficult. As far as estimating unobtainable
data is concerned, DG TREN (energy and transport) have cofinanced
a joint project, TRENDS (Transport and Environment Database system),
which is aimed at producing appropriate indicators of emissions,
noise and waste from transport.
4. SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS
Eurostat works closely with UN CSD, providing
support in the form of organising meetings and workshops, and
has contributed methodology sheets. It also works with Member
States involved in the testing of indicators. Some Member States,
including the UK, are of the opinion that the CSD list is more
appropriate for developing countries. On the other hand, many
developing countries are of the opinion that the CSD list is more
appropriate for developed countries. In the methodology sheets
prepared by Eurostat, an effort has been made to ensure relevance
to developed and developing countries. Eurostat is of the opinion
that a core set of indicators is needed for the purposes of international
comparison.
An initial publication was produced in 1997,
containing indicators from the CSD list which could be easily
compiled from Eurostat databases. An up-dated and extended version
is planned to be published in spring 2001.
5. HEADLINE INDICATORS
The Global Assessment of the 5th environmental
action programme (COM(1999) 543 final) defines integration indicators
as "indicators, both in the form of environmental pressures
and in the form of integration indicators for individual sectors
(which) help policy-makers by providing factual information that
show trends over time". Following similar initiatives in
the Member States, a small set of Environmental Headline Indicators
has been developed on an EU level by an Expert Group organised
by the Environment DG. A list of 11 major environmental issues
has been agreed, which in the long term should each be represented
by one (in most cases) indicator. DG ENV, Eurostat and the EEA
are working jointly to compile these indicators. Eurostat has
agreed to take the lead to develop the indicators relating to
water quantity, waste, land-use, urban issues, chemical and resource
use.
6. SECTORAL INTEGRATION
INDICATORS
Work on sectoral integration indicators was
begun within the pressure indicators project, where relevant in
cooperation with the appropriate sectoral DG. Following an increasing
interest from policy departments, Eurostat has been working on
indicator sets for agriculture, energy and transport in particular.
Work on tourism and industry has been more slow.
Transport
The transport and environment reporting mechanism
(TERM) has been developed jointly by the Commission Directorates-General
for Environment (DG ENV) and Transport (DG TREN), Eurostat (DG
ESTAT) and the European Environment Agency. The involvement and
support of the UK Council Presidency during the first half of
1998 was critical to its success. With a view to separating the
task of policy development and implementation (carried out by
the Commission) from that of assessment, EEA has been given the
responsibility of preparing the TERM reports. Eurostat has the
task of compiling the indicators and other relevant statistics,
and publishing them in the form of a data book. As in other indicator
projects, EEA provides some of these datasets. This separation
of policy from reporting has become known as "the TERM model".
The first Eurostat TERM data book is currently
in translation and will shortly be published. Work has already
begun on an improved second edition.
The coordination and development of TERM is
managed by a Steering Group, comprising representatives of DG
TREN, DG ENV, Eurostat and EEA. This group plans the major milestones,
and is undertaking an ongoing review of the TERM indicator framework.
Development will be needed over several years, and is particularly
important in some areas, such as access. Whilst recognising that
TERM goes further than other transport-and-environment indicators
systems (eg US EPA and OECD), the group also acknowledge that
it falls short of a complete indicator system of the sustainability
of transport. It has not yet been decided whether it should be.
Much of Eurostat's TERM work involves a continuation
of work already began in the context of other indicator projects,
and particularly the pressure indicators. In particular TRENDS
(the Transport and Environment Database System) will supply intensive
indicators of emissions and waste. As with other environmental
indicator projects, the major shortcoming in TERM is the lack
of consistent, complete and reliable datasets, suitable for indicator
compilation. Eurostat has identified three key areas of transport
statistics which need to be developed and improved in the Member
States:
— improvement of passenger-km and tonne-km
data across all modes of transport: these statistics are used
for several of the TERM indicators;
— improvement of passenger mobility
data, particularly in the areas of short-distance mobility and
purpose of travel;
— improvement of vehicle fleet data,
especially for road vehicles.
However, funding in the form of grants to countries
has not yet been agreed within the Commission.
Agriculture
In the area of Agriculture and Environment,
Eurostat has closely followed and actively participated in the
OECD work on agri-environmental indicators since early 1990s and
has led the work on Landscape indicators. A first attempt by DG
VI/XI/Eurostat to bring together existing data on Agriculture
and Environment with a view to developing indicators has as mentioned
resulted in the report "Agriculture, Environment, Rural Development:
Facts and figure—A challenge for Agriculture". Although
itself not an indicator report, this publication clearly identifies
the areas where indicators are needed. It can be consulted on
screen at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg06/envir/report/en/index.htm.
(see also topic three, point four)
Energy
As already mentioned, Eurostat has published
a "zero-version" of integration indicators for energy.
For energy, the data situation is reasonable good. In the 1970s
and early 1980s, the era of oil crises, energy statistics focused
on monitoring energy supply, energy savings, fuel switching, energy
prices, etc. Therefore the major components of energy-environment
indicators are already in place. The Energy DG has also instigated
a study by a consortium of energy experts on indicators of energy
efficiency. Eurostat has recently been given the task of following
up this work and aims to initiate the collection in Member States
of the solid data needed to compile a subset of these indicators.
Industry
As mentioned, DG Enterprise has started to work
on identifying main indicators for describing the integration
of environment into industry policies. At Eurostat, in co-operation
with Member States, relevant work is NAMEA (national accounts
matrices on emissions), use of industry statistics to describe
eco-efficiency, use of industrial production data to describe
use of chemicals, collection of statistics on environmental expenditure
in industry and improvement of the statistics on generation of
waste in industry. In 2000, Eurostat will put together a source-book
on industry and environment, using available information (as already
done for agriculture, energy and transport).
TOPIC 5: REACTION TO COMMITTEE REPORTS REMARKS
ABOUT A NEW ROLE FOR EUROSTAT AND THE EEA FOR COLLECTING AND ANALYSING
THE DATA ASSOCIATED WITH INDICATORS
1. As will be seen from our comments on earlier
topics Eurostat and the EEA are already involved in substantial
complementary and collaborative work relating to indicators.
2. Since European Union legislation is a
powerful influence on national environmental performance, as is
also international comparisons, this work on data and indicators
by specialist European Union bodies is an efficient complement
to national and infra-national work. Eurostat's aim, given its
role as part of official statistics, is to supply to all concerned,
so to EEA, to policy makers, national and Community, as well as
to the public, objective, well founded data which can be integrated
with other non-environmental statistics and can be used to illuminate
the environmental consequences of policy alternatives and of decisions
taken. Eurostat will take care to be at arms-length from policy
in accordance with the principles laid down in the different 1997
documents governing Community statistics (see note 2 to Topic
1).
3. Data analysis takes place at several
levels:
— Analysing the solidity of the data,
the consistency of methods used and definitions applied over time,
the scope of the coverage etc to ensure that any conclusions which
might be drawn from such data are in fact well-founded. This is
standard Eurostat work. However, while this is normally straightforward
for conventional statistics, eg industrial production, number
of road vehicles, etc it is much less so for environment statistics.
Environment statistics are often "soft" statistics,
based on assumptions and models rather than straightforward "bean-counting".
These assumptions and models improve as the knowledge of environmental
problems and their causes increases, and this will directly affect
the estimates produced. The result is that latest estimates will
be better than earlier ones, but that any conclusions concerning
trends should be treated with care.
— Analysis of the data to draw out
trends, setting in context, etc. It is essential that this type
of data analysis should be carried out as closely to the source
of the data as possible, to that the solidity of the data itself
can be taken into account in the analysis. Eurostat sees this
type of analysis as part of its natural work. Helping users to
understand the data, in order to interpret it correctly, is a
key function of a statistical service.
— A third level of data analysis would
be interpretation of the data and drawing policy conclusions,
ie policy analysis and assessment. However, this is outside mandate
of Eurostat, where manifested objectivity is a prime consideration.
4. The main impediment to progress on indicators,
at least seen by the environmental statisticians in Eurostat,
is insufficiencies in the underlying data from which the indicators
are calculated. Partly this reflects difficulties in the subject
matter and the fact that we should have started earlier. However,
it results in part also from measures of economy in public administration
which in conjunction with the heavy stress put on aims of reducing
burdens on respondents and of respecting personal or commercial
privacy have led to inadequate resources being made available
at all levels. Effective use of modern technology can and does
help. But the increased supply of data necessary if the sets of
indicators which are sought are to be calculated soon, requires
increased resources both nationally and internationally.
2 This was a four year development programme relating
to the environmental component of Community statistics Back
3
OPOCE 1999 Towards Environmental Pressure Indicators for EU;ISBN
92-828-4978-3. Back
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