(AGENPARL) – lun 28 novembre 2022 MEDIA ADVISORY
On Tuesday 29 November 2022, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) – the EU budget’s watchdog – will publish a special report on whether the European Commission had taken steps to ensure a high level of quality of official European statistics.
ABOUT THE TOPIC
Official statistics are indispensable for evidence-based decision-making by politicians and business leaders, as well as for the work of researchers, journalists and the public. In the EU, they are used for collecting and allocating funds, as well as for designing and assessing policies in all areas, including employment, environment and the economy. Between 2013 and 2020, almost half a billion euros of taxpayers’ money was spent from EU coffers on the production of European statistics, and even more spending is planned for the years between 2021 and 2027.
ABOUT THE AUDIT
The auditors examined whether the Commission has a full-fledged strategy and effective funding programmes for the production of statistics. They also assessed whether Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office directly connected to the Commission, provides proper support to EU and EFTA countries, robustly assesses the quality of the data they submit to it, and ensures that all users have transparent and equal access. The auditors assessed the areas of labour, businesses and health in depth, with a particular focus on the sampled countries Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania and Finland.
FOR THE PRESS
The report and press release will be published on the ECA website [eca.europa.eu](https://www.eca.europa.eu/en/Pages/ecadefault.aspx) at 5.00 p.m. CET on 29 November 2022.
The ECA member responsible for this report is Ildikó Gáll-Pelcz.
The ECA’s special reports set out the results of its audits of EU policies and programmes or management topics related to specific budgetary areas. The ECA selects and designs these audit tasks to be of maximum impact by considering the risks to performance or compliance, the level of income or spending involved, forthcoming developments and political and public interest.
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ECA Press
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