The legal basis of European statistical governance

Article 338 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union establishes the rules for the production of European statistics.

The revised Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of 11 March 2009 (consolidated version 2015) of the European Parliament and of the Council establishes the legal framework for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics, in accordance with the principles set out in Article 338 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and specified in the European Statistics Code of Practice.

Article 4 of this Regulation states that the European Statistical System (ESS) is the partnership between the Commission (Eurostat), and the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) and other national authorities responsible in each Member State for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics.

Article 7 of the same Regulation establishes the European Statistical System Committee (ESS Committee). The ESS Committee is chaired by the European Commission (Eurostat) and composed of the representatives of the National Statistical Institutes of the European Union Member States.

Regulation No 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. It supplements the legal framework for the development, production and dissemination of European Statistics, in accordance with the principles set out in Article 338 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

The purpose of the European Statistics Code of Practice is to ensure that the statistics produced within the framework of the European Statistical System comply with the 16 principles that cover the institutional environment, statistical processes and statistical outputs.

Decision No 234/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2008 establishes the European Statistical Advisory Committee.

Decision No 235/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2008 establishes the European Statistical Governance Advisory Board.

Commission Decision No 2012/504/EU of 17 September 2012 defines the role of Eurostat as regards the production of Community statistics.