Bulletin of Public Information

Peer reviews in the European Statistical System

Peer reviews of the European Statistical System (ESS) are part of the ESS strategy to ensure the application of the European Statistical Code of Practice (ES CoP) principles. The ES CoP is the basis of the common ESS quality framework. The ESS statistical authorities (Eurostat, EU and EFTA National Statistical Institutes - NSIs and other producers of European statistics - Other National Authorities - ONAs) have committed themselves to comply with it. This commitment was additionally reinforced by the adoption of the "Quality Declaration" by the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC) in September 2016. In 2017, the Committee adopted the revised ES CoP (which included the above mentioned Declaration). This was also the reason for initiating work on the preparation of the next round of peer reviews.

Peer reviews assess the degree of compliance of the ESS countries with ES CoP principles when producing, developing and disseminating European statistics. These mechanisms strengthen the integrity, professional independence and credibility of Eurostat, the NSIs and ONAs.

The third round of ESS peer reviews started in the first quarter 2021 and will run until mid-2023 in all EU and EFTA Member States. It aims to improve the quality and confidence in European statistics by assessing the compliance of the ESS with the ES CoP principles. Following the third round of peer reviews, an annual monitoring of the implementation of the improvement actions is foreseen. The improvement actions will be developed in response to the recommendations included in the peer review reports prepared by independent peer review expert team.

Reports from peer reviews of the ESS countries and the improvement actions established by them will be publicly available on the websites of the respective NSIs and Eurostat.

Purpose of the peer review

The third round of peer reviews has the following two objectives:

• to review the compliance and alignment of the ESS with the ES CoP, in order to demonstrate (i.a. to external stakeholders) that the ESS is a system based on the ES CoP principles;
• to help NSIs, ONAs and Eurostat to further improve and develop them by indicating future-oriented recommendations.

Scope of the peer review has been extended, compared to the previous round, by:

• additional issues introduced to the ES CoP (including principle 1bis);
• questions related to the challenges currently faced by producers of European statistics and introduced innovations, forced among others by the situation in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic;
• analysis of actions taken since the previous peer review, including possible problems with the implementation of improvement actions then agreed.

Organization of the peer review in Poland

Statistics Poland as the coordinator of the National Statistical System is responsible for the organization and efficient conduct of the entire peer review process in Poland.

In line with the peer review methodology adopted in 2020, Statistics Poland established:

• the national coordinator for peer review, Ms Monika Bieniek - deputy director of the Programming and Coordination of Statistical Surveys Department;
• Deputy National Coordinator, Mr. Mateusz Kaleta - head of section in the International Relations and Statistical Cooperation Department;
• the officer of communication and promoting the peer review in Poland, Karolina Banaszek - deputy director of the Education and Communication Department, the Spokesperson for the President of Statistics Poland.

In order to support all activities of the national coordinator, a team for coordinating the work and conducting a peer review in the Polish statistical system has been established. President of the Statistics Poland, Mr. Dominik Rozkrut holds the position of the chairman of the team.

Visit of the peer review expert team in Poland

As part of the third round of the peer review, on 30 May – 3 June 2022, thematic meetings with independent experts - peer review expert team took place. The expert team was composed of:

• Mr. Jean-Michel Durr - chairman;
• Ms Paloma Seoane Spiegelberg;
• Mr. Remi Prual;
• Mr. Nikolaos Roubanis.

Peer review participants in Poland

Representatives of authorities and stakeholders participating in the peer review exercise are as follows:

• Statistics Poland and statistical offices experts;
• selected other producers of European statistics (ONAs);
• opinion-making and advisory bodies, in the case of Poland, the Statistical Council, the Methodological Commission and the Scientific Statistical Council;
• data providers;
• trade unions;
• academia, media and other users;
• government representatives.

Peer review in Poland

The Peer Review Report on Compliance with the European Statistics Code Of Practice and Further Improvement and Development of the National Statistical System - Poland  is the outcome of the peer review in Poland. The report has been prepared in accordance with the adopted by the European Syntactical System standard structure. It includes, for example, the following information: description of the national statistical system, progress made since the second peer review round, assessment of the compliance with the European Statistics Code of Practice, strengths of the national statistical institute and ONAs and recommendations in the areas requiring improvement actions. Poland (Statistics Poland and ONAs) received 15 recommendations, and submitted the so-called ‘diverging views’ to two of them. The report has also been published on the Eurostat website: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/quality/peer-reviews/current-round#countryreports.

The next step of the third round of peer review is formulating by Statistics Poland, in cooperation with ONAs participating in the peer review, improvement actions in response to the recommendations included in the report. The list of improvement actions will also be published on the websites of Eurostat and Statistics Poland.
 

Information on the other producers of European statistics (ONAs) could be found here.

 

• I round of Peer review
• II round of Peer review