Director General Urmet Lee: European experts will objectively review our work
At the beginning of September, foreign experts will visit Statistics Estonia to evaluate compliance with the quality requirements of the European Union statistical office Eurostat and the European Statistics Code of Practice.
Statistics Estonia and other European Union statistical authorities, forming the European Statistical System partnership, are responsible for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics. In order to have common principles for work, the European Statistics Code of Practice was developed, and the expert peer reviewers will be checking compliance with it.
Director General of Statistics Estonia, Urmet Lee, why are peer reviews necessary for statistical offices?
The purpose of peer reviews of is to maintain and increase reliability, independence and comparability in the European Statistical System. Peer reviews give a thorough overview of how well we meet the quality criteria of Eurostat and follow the European Statistics Code of Practice. The evaluations will also provide feedback on how successful we have been so far in making improvements and developments in producing statistics.
What exactly will the experts evaluate?
Preparations for the peer review started at Statistics Estonia about nine months ago. We have filled in a detailed self-assessment questionnaire to evaluate compliance with the Code of Practice. At the beginning of September, a team of experts assigned by Eurostat will visit Statistics Estonia and interview our staff as well.
This round of peer reviews is primarily focused on new data sources, on the use of administrative and big data and on applying quality requirements set for these. The classic approach to producing statistics is largely based on surveys, which is a slow process and puts a big burden on data providers. The current trend in statistics is to adopt new data sources, which would make it possible to produce statistics quicker and decrease this burden.
The peer reviewers will mainly check how many new data sources have been adopted, how it has been done and determine whether changes should be made in methodology.
Of course, the peer review will touch upon each of the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice (16 in total). The most important ones include the independence of statistical authorities and cooperation with different stakeholders, for example, with academia.
How do the peer review results affect the future work of Statistics Estonia?
After the peer reviews, reports are prepared for each country and these will be available on Eurostat website.
It will definitely have an impact on preparing our next development plan and strategy. The report will present necessary improvement activities for harmonising the statistical system, and progress will be continually monitored. It will have a very direct impact.
Estonia is a unique case in Europe, as according to law, official statistics are produced here by two institutions – Statistics Estonia and the Bank of Estonia. The Bank of Estonia is under the European Central Bank banking supervision. In the European system, there is a principle of no duplication in reviewing, so the Bank of Estonia will not participate as a producer of statistics in this audit. For example, in Italy, there are 17 institutions responsible for the production of official statistics. Last time, the peer reviewers suggested to involve the National Institute for Health Development and the Estonian Agricultural Registers and Information Board in the production of official statistics in Estonia, but it is not up to us to initiate such changes.
Estonia is the second country to be peer-reviewed this time: the current methodology has been used so far to evaluate the French statistical institute.
Who evaluate the work of statistical offices?
For the peer reviews, teams of four to five experts are formed. The selected team members have deep knowledge of producing statistics.
The team of experts conducting the peer review of Statistics Estonia include Jørgen Elmeskov, Director-General of Statistics Denmark; Hana Slegrova, educator and long-term department head at the Czech Statistical Office; Daniela Stefanescu, Director of European Affairs and International Cooperation of the Romanian national statistical institute; and František Bernadič, director of Macroeconomic statistics at Eurostat.
In prior years, experts chosen from Estonia to evaluate other countries include, for example, Priit Potisepp, who was Director General of Statistics Estonia in 2004–2012. During this round of peer reviews, Remi Prual, a former Head of the General Department at Statistics Estonia, serves as an expert from Estonia. The format where colleagues evaluate each other’s activities is almost the only method for external audits of independent institutions such as Statistics Estonia.
Eurostat is organising such peer reviews for the third time. How has Estonia performed in the previous peer reviews?
We already have feedback from the reviewers that our Official Statistics Act is outstanding. Many countries lack a detailed law that regulates important statistical activities and quality issues. In the Estonian statistics act, the independence of statistical production is very clearly stated – it is extremely important for the European system that we are not biased and do not depend on the political situation and the government.
In the last peer review report of 2015, we were praised for quality. We were rated among the top European statistical offices. There were a few suggestions for improvement, and most of these we adopted as soon as the following year after the peer review. In 2019, the Official Statistics Act was amended according to the suggestions of the quality report.
The peer review results also provide a good opportunity to initiate and strengthen cooperation with the statistical authorities of other countries. The reports for all countries are public and include examples of the best practices of different statistical offices.
Facts about peer reviews of statistical offices
|