European Statistical System Committee (ESSC)

The European Statistical System Committee (ESSC) is the core of the European Statistical System (ESS). The ESSC was established by Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and the Council of 11 March on European statistics (pdf - 88 kB). According to Article 7 of this Regulation, the role of ESSC is to provide professional guidance on the development, production and dissemination on the European statistics and to participate in the process of preparing and adopting legislation in this field.

The European Statistical System Committee is chaired by the Commission (Eurostat). It consists of the chairmen or Directors General of the National Statistical Institutes. Meetings which are held three times a year are attended by the representatives of the National Statistical Institutes of the EEA and the EFTA countries participate as observers. Observers from the European Central Bank (ECB), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), can also participate in the meetings of the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC).

Partnership Group (PG)

The Partnership Group (PG) is an advisory body of the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC). It consists of a group of Directors General of the National Statistical Institutes of the European Statistical System (ESS). Its mission is to further develop the ESS at the highest level, in particular by ensuring the effective functioning of the European Statistical System Committee. The Partnership Group usually meets three times a year between ESSC meetings.

The main tasks of the Partnership Group are definign and submitting strategic issues for ESSC, coordinating the cooperation between the National Statistical Institutions and Eurostat on these issues, negotiating contentious issues and bringing the ESSC members closer to the form of cooperation and the ways of its improvement.to achieve consensus and channel ides from ESSC members on the state of cooperation and how it could be improved.

European Statistical Governance Advisory Board (ESGAB)

The role of the European Statistical Governance Advisory Board (ESGAB) is to provide an independent overview of the European Statistical System, in particular in the context of the implementation of the the European Statistics Code of Practice.

ESGAB provides advice to Eurostat:

• appropriate measures to facilitate the implementation of the Code of Practice
• how to communicate the Code of Practice to users and data providers
• the updating the Code of Practice
• issues related to user confidence in European statistics.

In addition , the ESGAB compiles the annual report on the implementation of the Code of Practice by the Commission. This report includes an assessment of the implementation of the Code of Practice in the European Statistical System as a whole. The ESGAB consists of seven independent high-qualified members in the field of statistics.

European Statistical Advisory Committee (ESAC)

By the Decision No 234/2008/ EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2008 (pdf - 46 kB) the European Statistical Advisory Committee was established.

The European Statistical Advisory Committee (ESAC)has 24 members representing both the users and respondents, as well as the other stakeholders of European statistics (including the scientific l community, social partners and civil society) as well as ithe nstitutional users (such as the Council and the European Parliament).

The Committee ensures that user requirements as well as th reduction of the burden on information providers and producers of statistics are taken into account in the production of the statisticalprogrammes. It provides an opinion on the Multiannual Statistical Programme, and focuses on its relevance to the requirements of the European integration. It also assesses the balance of the priorities and resources balance between different areas of the Multiannual Statistical Programme as well as the annual statistical work programme of the Commission.It assesses the balance of priorities and resources between the different areas of the multiannual statistical program and the Commission's annual statistical work program.

European Statistical Forum (ESF) was established in 2013 as an administrative body in the relationship between the European Statistical System (ESS) and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). The Forum was established by the Memorandum of Understanding for the cooperation between members of the ESS and ESCB, which was signed on 24 April 2013.

In November 2016, a Memorandum of Understanding on the provision and quality assurance of statistics underlying the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP) was signed between Eurostat and the ECB-DG Statistics. It represents a milestone in the cooperation between the two systems and provides a practical arrangement for cooperation in the fields of balance of payments and financial accounts statistics.

The Forum meets once per year, in Luxembourg and in Frankfurt alternatively.

The ESF is composed of one representative from each Member State, the European Statistics Committee (ESSC) as well as the Statistics Committee of the European System of Central Banks (STC). The Forum meets once a year, alternately in Luxembourg and Frankfurt.