Luule Sakkeus was elected the Chairman of the Statistical Council

Pursuant to the new Official Statistics Act (http://bit.ly/fEI56Z), the Government of the Republic established the Statistical Council on 13 January 2011, who shall advise the producers of official statistics – Statistics Estonia and the Bank of Estonia. The objective of the activities of the Statistical Council is, through advising and opinion giving, to contribute to achieving the aims of official statistics. The opening meeting was called by Mr Jürgen Ligi, the Minister of Finance.

The first meeting of the Statistical Council after the restoration of independence coincides with the celebration of the 90th anniversary of Statistics Estonia. On 1 March 1921 the State Central Bureau of Statistics was established, under which the advisory Statistical Council was operating and which ended its activity in 1940.

“I am glad to recognise that on the day preceding the 90th anniversary of Statistics Estonia the first meeting of the Statistical Council after the restoration of independence took place,” Ms Luule Sakkeus, the just-elected Chairman of the Statistical Council remarked.

The agenda of the first meeting included in addition to the election of the Chairman of the Statistical Council also the introduction of legal acts regulating the activities of the Council and principles of producing official statistics. The meetings of the Statistical Council will be held at least once during three months. The minutes of the meetings are public and available on the website of Statistics Estonia (http://www.stat.ee/statistikanoukogu-koosolekute-protokollid) (only in Estonian). The Statistical Council is composed of 13 members: representatives from Statistics Estonia, the Bank of Estonia and Data Protection Inspectorate, as well as ten members from among the representatives of users and respondents and from among experts. The term of powers of the Statistical Council's membership is four years.

More information about the Statistical Council and its membership is available (http://www.stat.ee/statistical-council).