1. Recent years have seen significant changes in the political makeup of the ECE region. On the one hand, the former Eastern bloc has experienced disintegration (for example in the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia) and, on the other, the Western countries have been brought closer together through integration (for example in the European Union and in North America, through NAFTA).
2. Whilst no-one can speculate as to the end result of these processes it is likely that in the future further integration will take place, counter-balanced by some kind of disintegration caused by the increased importance of regions, be they at sub-national or trans-border level. These processes are effectively two sides of the same coin and the repercussions of both, involving as they do changes in established systems, could be considered to be symmetrical as far as statistical services are concerned.
3. This paper is divided into three parts: the first assesses the impact of integration and disintegration on statistical measurement, the second outlines attempts to describe with statistics the effect of the integration process from experience within the European Union. The final part suggests some lessons to be learnt.
4. The impact of integration is two-fold. On one hand there are new data needs and higher requirements for quality and comparability. On the other, concepts used for statistical measurement of activities of businesses have to be reassessed. But prior to analysing these two types of effects, it is useful to outline the recent trends in integration processes.
5. 1985 saw the publication for the "White Paper on the European Single Market". It is an important date in European history because it made the European construction much stronger and wider. The idea was to create an economic, monetary and political Union. Since then, European integration has been considerably consolidated and one can affirm that the economic Union is now in effect, while monetary union is in preparation. The steps have been:
6. The "Large Market" decided upon in 1985 in the Single European Act came into force on 1 January 1993. This brought into being the Common Market intended right from the original Treaty of Rome and covering the twelve members of the EC, creating "an area without internal frontiers where the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured". One tangible consequence was that customs formalities between the member states were abolished.
7. The Re-unification of Germany occurred in October 1990 barely a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. This resulted in integrating very quickly an Eastern bloc country into an economically advanced country.
8. The Treaty on European Union, the so-called "Maastricht Treaty", came into effect on 1 November 1993. It outlined a process of closer integration of the member states of the EU in the years to the end of the decade, particularly in the fields of economic and social policy. An important target is the establishment of a common currency.
9. The Enlargement of the European Union to include Austria, Finland and Sweden occurred on 1 January 1995.
10. Tighter European integration has been accompanied by looser cooperation agreements with neighbouring countries or groups of countries:
11. The European Economic Area, consisting of the (then) twelve members of the European Community and Austria, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden came into effect on 1 January 1994. Three of these countries subsequently joined the EU. Liechtenstein is due to join the EEA in May 1995.
12. A further integration process is currently under way concerning the European Union and six eastern and central European countries: Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Rumania. The European Council, meeting in Essen in December 1994, confirmed the proposed accession to the EU of the associated partner countries from Eastern and Central Europe, if they so desire, as soon as each country is able to assume the obligations of membership by satisfying certain economic and political conditions. A "structured relationship" has been established between these countries and the EU institutions in order that the countries can play a positive role in discussions on matters of common interest. At the same time the Council also stated the intention that the next phase of enlargement of the Union would involve Cyprus and Malta.
13. In addition there have been co-operation agreements with the EU's neighbours in the Mediterranean countries and the ACP countries, a group of 44 developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
14. The example of the European Union has also shown the way to other groups of countries. For instance, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed by the United States of America, Canada and Mexico in December 1992 with a view to establishing a trading bloc in these countries of a similar size to the European Economic Area. Future expansion, perhaps in the Caribbean region, is possible.
15. At the same time other initiatives are taking place on trans- frontier and supra-national regions within the ECE region and beyond (eg in the Black Sea region).
16. Globalisation is an economic process resulting from the opening of national economies to foreign goods, services and capital. The deregulation that has occurred world-wide during the past decade has considerably speeded up this phenomenon that began after the Second World War. Today, globalisation involves financial markets, certain product markets and major multinational firms.
17. During the 1980s, firms increased considerably their strategy of penetration of foreign markets through the establishment of trading affiliates and also of productive affiliates. Multinationals are more and more using global strategies to locate their sourcing, production and distribution functions, and also their R&D functions.
18. Regions of economic integration like the EU and the NAFTA have been conceived as ideal territories for firms to locate their activities in an efficient and competitive way. In that sense, the development of the EU has been a success. Firms prepared the Internal Market before its full implementation: between 1988 and 1992, European industry experienced dramatic restructuring while foreign direct investments were very buoyant inside the EU. The result was an increase in national industry specialisation and in firm concentration. This restructuring has been made mostly through mergers and acquisitions rather than by green-field investment. Similar trends have occurred in the NAFTA zone.
19. At the same time, companies have accelerated their strategy of localisation in low labour cost countries and of penetration of new markets through commercial presence. These developments were permitted by deregulation of markets and by technological progress in telecommunications, transport and treatment of information.
20. On the whole, the globalisation of economy has considerably increased since the mid 1980s and now encompasses wide regions of the world except Central Africa and Asia. The EU appears as a very integrated economic zone where multinationals are operating inside without frontiers and have established very close links with neighbouring countries.
21. A major effect of integration on statistical measurement is the questioning of data collected up to now. The quality and relevance of data elaborated need to be reassessed as well as concepts and collection systems used.
22. The root of these problems comes from the considerable increase and transformation of the international activities of businesses. For them, national boundaries are no longer constraining factors. This is not the case of national statistical systems which are still limited by the concept of economic territory and which mostly measure the activity of resident agents. When firms have productive locations in several countries, using the statistical unit "enterprise" at national level leads to a truncation of business.
23. This phenomenon has several consequences. First, the quality of information gathered from businesses decreases. Second, statistics on international transactions have become harder to collect and to interpret. Third, new information is necessary in order to have a better understanding of economic developments.
24. The statistical unit "enterprise" does not ensure coherence of measurement when there are numerous multinational businesses active on a defined territory: the "ideal" unit is split in several parts which would only be considered as local units if they were located in the same country. This affects the activity classification of the unit, but it also affects figures on production and external trade which are inflated.
25. Furthermore, businesses sometimes have difficulties in splitting their accounting figures in order to attach particular results to specific location, and to define prices of intermediate goods that are to be incorporated in the final good somewhere else. Therefore the data collected may not be very reliable and double counting might be frequent.
26. Sometimes statistics inside integrated areas are more difficult to collect and to justify. In view of deregulation statistical collection is often questioned, new data requirements are very difficult to promote and to fund. Furthermore, some statistics are seen less useful by the reporting units who are less willing to co-operate and sometimes commit their representatives to fight against these statistics.
27. Aggregating country figures on business activities becomes less reliable when economic integration increases. Value added is commonly thought as a way of avoiding double-counting. However, it appears that very often companies are locating high value added- activities in countries where taxes are low, this often being only the reflect of accounting practices. (For example, in Ireland, in some industries, value-added per employee is significantly higher than in the other European countries).
28. During the last 20 years, international transactions have experienced a sharp increase. Part is due to the development of multinational production activities. Intermediate products are circulating intensively between the different locations of multinational companies, or between the partners in joint- production agreements or other agreements like international subcontracting.
29. External trade figures are blurred by these transactions. Furthermore, most of them are valued with "transfer prices" that might be relatively far removed from actual market prices. In that context, trade figures must be interpreted cautiously when trying to evaluate export performance, import penetration and competitiveness.
30. For invisible transactions and capital transactions, the situation is even more difficult. The volume of transactions has increased very rapidly, while the transaction themselves have become more and more complex. At the same time, due to deregulation and new financial techniques, the main sources of information (banking figures) are less reliable and complete. As a result, the world discrepancy in Balance of Payments has considerably increased during the last decade.
31. To summarise the two above parts, it could be said that national data has become more difficult to interpret due to economic integration. The figures recorded do not corresponding exactly to the original concepts one was looking to measure. This has to be taken into account in economic modelling and forecasting. The importance of multinational companies has to be assessed in order to evaluate the part of the economy that is less influenced by national conditions and policies. To assess trade and competitiveness policy, it is also necessary to know the weight of intra-firm trade in order to determine what part of trade is not responding to "pure commercial conditions".
32. Integration processes have generated new data needs in the EU. The European treaties specify the need to report on the achievement of the goals defined (see Part II). In that respect, the success of the Internal Market programme needs to be assessed and the effects of integration themselves need to be measured.
33. There are often major gaps. For example data on cross-border links are very scarce. It would be very useful to evaluate the importance of production done within international cooperation agreements or the weight of foreign-owned companies but there is a severe lack of information because the internal market programme was mostly aiming at increasing those links so that European firms could gain the critical size.
34. There is an increased need for information including statistics for adequate decisions in situations of greater complexity and interdependence.
35. There is a need for comparability of statistics. Since the impetus for the integration process is political it is essential to have comparable statistics in order to make the decision-making process meaningful. Decision makers will always want to compare countries with one another. This has a direct effect on harmonisation. One cannot have fully comparable statistics without harmonised concepts and definitions.
36. Statistics should also be quickly available and, if possible, synchronised. This is also a necessity of comparability. Statistics are less useful if they are not rapidly available and data for different countries should be available at the same time. Additionally decision makers have greater need and higher expectations in this respect in a changing environment. Transition countries have reported on the requirements of the decision makers to be able to demonstrate quickly improvements that are due to the new economic system. In the EU the need for comparable and timely information is vital not only for policy makers but also for business managers.
37. Dissemination is another important aspect. The democratic process relies heavily on information being disseminated efficiently. The data which are derived and brought together for policy purposes must also be made available to the public. Eurostat has to disseminate efficiently its information to all kinds of users ranging from the Commission, the European Parliament, the national governments, the professional associations and the European citizens, and each time in several language versions.
38. In some cases the integration process causes deregulation which results in a loss of data. For example the introduction of the Single Market in the European Community resulted in the abolition of customs formalities. Consequently a completely new method of collection of statistics on the trade of goods between Member States had to be developed. Previously these had been collected in the traditional way of using customs returns. They are now collected from enterprises directly (the Intrastat system).
39. There is also a considerable resource aspect. On the one hand more attention is paid to statistical information by the decision makers because of growing uncertainties in a changing environment (as mentioned previously the catalysts for integration occur rapidly, often with little warning). On the other hand more work needs to be done with the same resource constraints. It is important for statisticians to obtain the resources needed to meet the extra demand resulting from the new attention paid by the decision makers.
40. New technology also has an effect. Networking and increased use of electronic and computer facilities are given an increased role as the integration process gives rise to infrastructure improvements that are financed by the decision makers. Statisticians can often take advantage of these. In the European Union there are a number of statistical projects which go hand in hand with political developments, for example the Trans European Networks project is closely linked with the EDICOM project which is used to transmit data electronically in the context of the Intrastat system.
41. Clearly there is a need to measure the effects statistically but the requirement not to increase unduly the response burden on the data providers is even more pressing than usual since one of the main attractions of the integration process is a reduction in the bureaucratic burden. Consequently as much use as possible must be made of existing sources.
42. Longitudinal analyses, preferably starting before the integration process begins, analysing the behaviour of enterprises and individuals, are also a useful tool.
43. Often these are not sufficient so special studies need to be set up.
44. Where there are substantial changes in structure, as in the countries in transition to a market economy, register-based sampling may be difficult. Area-frame sampling can be a useful alternative (possibly linked to Remote Sensing) for agriculture land-use statistics.
45. The most notable examples of disintegration processes have come in the eastern part of the ECE region with the break-up of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.
46. The European Union is putting increased importance on sub- national or cross-border regions and so there is a need for data on local areas which may not previously have been available.
47. In many ways the effects of disintegration are very similar to those of integration. New data needs are occurring at lower levels than before. In particular area transactions are needed. On the practical side collection problems are similar as new systems have to be defined as well as problems linked to the collection of information on businesses.
48. Whilst, when measuring the effects of integration, regional comparisons are important to discover how the individual regions are affected by the process, here, the regions assume more significant entities in their own right.
49. Similarly the changes in regulations must also be monitored. A possible increase in regulation caused by the disintegration must be monitored.
50. The old Eastern regimes relied heavily on state controls which generated over a period of time their own information system. With the abolition of these controls the information sources dried up. Some register information is still available and this is used to a wide extent, but in the main new sources are needed. Thus the Eastern countries of the region have experienced a similar loss of data though deregulation, with its consequent loss of data, as their counterparts in the West. For example, when the Former Soviet Union split up there was a new need to measure the trade in goods and services between the new republics. As customs barriers cannot be set up overnight a new system had to be devised to do this. The result of this was a system very similar to the Intrastat system by which the information is collected directly from enterprises.
51. Furthermore there is a requirement to keep the response burden to a minimum. In the same way as for the western countries where additional red-tape has to be avoided, there is here an additional factor that newly formed enterprises often have neither the resources, nor even the expertise to provide statistical information. Consequently inquiries should be introduced on a gradual basis.
52. Globalisation is also increased in the sense that the break- up of a nation turns national companies into multi-nationals. In addition existing multi-nationals from outside will be quick to fill any gaps that are perceived to be in the market.
53. Different from integration however is the general need after disintegration to create or at least reinforce substantial new statistical and peri-statistical infrastructures for these newly independent structures which do not inherit the original central structure. (This was also true in one of the examples of integration, Germany, where a federal structure was introduced into the former GDR).
54. The Treaty on European Union implicitly says that economic and monetary convergence has to be measured using reliable and comparable statistics.
55. The implementation of a programme of harmonisation of the CPI would have been impossible without the reference to a CPI on a comparable basis in the protocol on the convergence criteria (Article 1). On that basis Eurostat has started an extensive project which will be implemented by all the Member States by 1996.
56. Another example in the convergence criteria is the reference in the Treaty to excessive deficit procedures. Both the Treaty and the secondary legislation make explicit reference to the ESA (European System of Accounts). Countries that have not fully implemented ESA are now obliged to do so and national statistical offices have accepted the principle that the revised ESA (ESA 95) will become obligatory, because the reference to ESA is more and more frequently given in political documents.
57. Balance of payments is a third example of a set of statistics that should become more harmonised not only because of the IMF 5th Manual, but because for the management of the monetary policy of the Union the Commission and the European Monetary Institute need more comparable information.
58. A fourth example comes from the role given to the Commission in the negotiation of GATT for the Community. This has made it possible to accelerate the programme on a harmonised system of trade on services which will be proposed to the national statistical offices in the coming months.
59. "Green accounts" are also an example of statistical support to a major European policy, in this case the commitment to sustainable development enshrined in Article 2 of the Union Treaty itself.
60. Social policies in the context of the European Union are mostly subject to the 'subsidiarity' principle and, consequently, up to now have not been of great importance at the Union level. It might be argued that social policies will not get more integrated in the foreseeable future. However, for certain specific issues the Union has taken specific initiatives (e.g. the different observatories) and could thus be said to have a surveillance role vis-a-vis the Member States.
61. In this context, social statistics become important because surveillance implies a good general overview on the different social systems, how they are monitored and what the consequences of them are.
62. There is also a spill-over effect from other policy issues of more relevance to the Union into the area of social statistics. That is to say that monetary, competition and agricultural policies, for example, as well as labour market issues have an effect on the living standards and conditions of a population.
63. Thus it could be said that the needs and interests in comparing statistical information on social policies should be increasing from the Member States' side and it surely should be at the European Union level. The widespread use of gentlemen's agreements to produce statistics in the area of social statistics (for instance on the work on statistics on social protection and Family Budget surveys) indicates that the Member States to a large degree acknowledge the importance of being able to compare statistical information on social issues.
64. Following this, the focus of Eurostat should be to set up a framework of social statistics which responds to the needs at the Union level as well as takes care of what the Member States would see as appropriate items to treat.
65. The ideal would be to have fully harmonised surveys. This would be best secured by a top-down approach where only the actual implementation of the survey is left to the Member States and where in general all phases are closely surveyed and controlled from Eurostat (for example the European Communities Household Panel). This approach demands more resources in form of man-power at Eurostat level and in form of financing at the national level.
66. The other approach is to have a step-wise integration and harmonisation of already existing national surveys as in the case of the Family Budget surveys and, to a certain extent, the Labour Force surveys. This is more a bottom-up approach. In order for this approach to be successful it is important to have close collaboration between the Member States and Eurostat.
67. Regarding the latter approach, it might be argued that in order to present data harmonised after the collection stage, it is important to clarify methodological differences of relevance to the results, often in the form of foot-notes to disseminated data. Thus, the quality of the data should be given importance - in accordance with the 'mission' of Eurostat1.
68. The effects of the integration process on social statistics could thus be summed up as aiming at establishing a clearly defined framework for social statistics responding to needs focusing on quality of data produced and disseminated.
69. The White paper outlining the European Social Policy and the earlier Green paper refer to the links between public health and social and environmental policy: the specific health problems and needs arising from increased mobility within the Union and migration to it is one particular area mentioned in this White Paper, amongst other topics such as the adverse effects of poverty, unemployment and social exclusion on health - the increasing pressures on health and social protection systems caused by demographic changes - the role of preventive and rehabilitative programmes in fostering social integration, which are topics of common interest to all Member States.
70. Free movement both of patients as well as of health services will lead to particular problems; an increasing demand for actual and comparable data on a number of health indicators will result from this. Basic statistics will be needed on four main categories: health determinants, health status, health services and health resources. Topics that will emerge are, for instance, equal access to and delivery of health services in the Member States. For a number of indicators (e.g. on health status and on some health determinants such as lifestyle), the data collection method is rather independent from the organisation structure of the health care in the Member States.
71. In contrast, for a quite substantial number of indicators, it will be difficult to introduce common methodologies for data collection since the methodology will exactly depend on the organisation of health care at national level. However, some Member States have already launched themselves specific projects in order to examine possibilities for conversion of statistical data, such as on health care facilities, at national level towards data that can be compared between Member States.
72. Environmental issues operate at various geographical levels. Many environmental problems span countries or continents. However the measures taken to tackle environmental issues are primarily at a country level. In principle, it is countries which sign (or don't sign) international conventions and which fulfil (or don't fulfil) the corresponding commitments. National policies are the main factors determining our collective response to environmental problems. There has to be an adequate linking of physical statistics monitoring the environmental problems (these could be independent of country composition) with data on business and leisure activities of humans causing environmental problems and perhaps reducing them. (These latter activities and their reflection in statistics are greatly affected by integration).
73. Environmental issues specifically linked to integration include:
i) a country's right to insist on a high environmental standard which could constitute a barrier to trade
ii) trans-frontier pollution
iii)the exportation or importation of pollution in the form of goods which, together with the previous point, constitute the so-called national "environmental footpoint"
iv) awareness of the serious environmental problems inherited from the transition economies
v) "artificial" effects e.g. apparent German CO2 reduction caused by the economic downturn in the new Bundesl„nder.
74. Before dealing with specific issues of integration however, environment statistics still have a long way to go in building up a body of solid internationally comparable data linking information on the state of the environment with data on pressures and human activity responses. The fact that environment statistics are almost everywhere having to be developed provides an opportunity. If all participate in this development, international comparability - and the possibility of following the consequences of integration and disintegration - can be built in from the outset.
75. In order to manage properly the Single Market the European Council called upon the European Commission to provide by 1996 a report evaluating the economic effects of the Market. The importance of statistics has been highlighted as creating the necessary transparency for the economic agents acting in the economic space, identifying new opportunities and reducing the uncertainty related to cross-border activities.
76. The following are some of the effects that the statistical report will investigate and proposals for statistical tools to be used to do so and to remedy any shortcomings in existing sources:
77. Business behaviour and strategy: The Single Market should have effects on internationalisation, capacity, location, product range and differentiation, company organisation and innovation. A special longitudinal study will be implemented. In the long term, the enterprise panel will be developed towards use for other needs and increased representativeness.
78. Demographic movements of businesses, concentration, scale effects and globalisation: In some, mainly manufacturing, sectors firms should take advantage of economies of scale - i.e. fewer plants throughout the EU each producing more output. Size class data could provide information on concentration and information will be obtained from the new regulation on business statistics. A pilot project is underway on demographic statistics. One could consider a pilot project on concentration connecting private data bases with the available structural data. Alternatively a pilot project could be developed on changes in production structure (organisation of production and localisation of employment) for the main groups of enterprises within certain sectors. A system of globalisation indicators might be developed.
79. Data on profit and loss accounts: The Internal Market should lead to an overall increase in the level of economic activity. Productivity and competitiveness of the EU economy should improve vis … vis its competitors. We have data on industry and construction industries but data for services needs to be more complete and harmonised. Full sectoral details will be required in order to contrast the varying sectoral effects. There are existing sources for statistics in some services sectors (e.g. insurance, audio-visual services, telecommunications). There will be a pilot data collection on some targeted sectors and variables in better known sectors (e.g. transport, banking, insurance).
80. Investment: The Single Market supply side stimulus should increase the rate of return on capital and therefore result in greater investment. Capital flows have now been liberalised. Increased mobility of capital should lead to more equal returns on capital between Member States.
81. Employment: The supply side stimulus should, in the longer term, result in more jobs. Is there any evidence of an impact on employment in the most affected sectors? Again, data sources for services are unsatisfactory, especially given high incidence of part-time employment in the service sector. Labour mobility will be assessed under the retroactive part of labour force survey and immigration project
82. Balance of Payments and Trade: There should be a relative increase in intra-EC trade. If the EU economy is more competitive an improved trade balance with the rest of the world should be evident. For industry the imminent availability of industrial production commodity figures which can be related to Intrastat provides significant information. As Intrastat is to be linked with the VAT system, pilot projects could be foreseen in those countries where business registers are based on VAT registration to combine activity based information with trade data. Furthermore, if firms are making use of the reduction in legislation - no frontier formalities etc. - trade data should show evidence of more raw materials and intermediate goods being purchased from other EU states. For services the balance of payments is the only source but it is highly aggregated and comparison is difficult. Balance of payments statistics are being reviewed within the context of the third phase of EMU. The increased freedom of establishment will lead to increased direct investment in foreign establishments and building of multinational companies capable of serving the Market as one market. Relatively aggregated data is available on yearly basis. Consideration should be given to develop a product approach in the international trade in services in parallel with Intrastat. There is a project on to investigate sub-contracting arrangements both inside and outside the EU.
83. Establishment trade: In some services (e.g. financial) the legislation has facilitated the establishment of branches in other Member States. No information is available at present but a pilot project is underway for hotels, freight transport by road and air transport. There will be an ad hoc data collection on some targeted sectors and variables in well known sectors (e.g. foreign owned subsidiaries of banks on domestic territory).
84. Price disparities: Heightened competition should lead to a reduction in price dispersion throughout the EU although, as in individual countries, disparities will never be completely eliminated. Price disparities are currently collected for final production (consumer goods and investments). CPIs are being harmonised in view of EMU. One could develop a pilot project to determine levels of prices for some selected goods or groups of intermediate goods (industry as well as services).
85. Research and development and Innovation: R&D investments should also be stimulated as firms develop new products and new technologies in response to the increased competition. There will be an attempt to sectorise patents data and R&D employment. Innovation should also be stimulated as firms develop new products and technologies in response to the increased competition. Regular surveys are planned. A pilot project underway contains some retrospective analyses which can be exploited. In the future it is hoped to establish and consolidate a European statistical system on innovation statistics.
86. Public procurement: Public procurement has been liberalised within the market. Public purchasing should be more directed to EU suppliers instead of national producers. A pilot is project underway and will be extended to cover more countries. Regular data collection on basis of gathered experience (e.g. possibly specific question on sales in the regulation and/or statistical system covering purchases of public administration and utilities) will be considered.
87. Transport and telecommunications: Functional transport statistics have been established for inland waterways, freight transport by road and rail transport. Eurostat will continue to collect existing statistics in air transport services. Pilot projects could be started in targeted areas (combined, passenger transport, cabotage). A project on telecommunications will develop collection of existing statistics, methodological work.
88. Regional statistics: Finally, what have been the regional consequences for employment of the restructuring of the EU economy? A pilot project is underway for industry and financial services, and within the existing project on Small and Medium size Enterprises. There are still some gaps in services.
89. Three key words should be kept in mind when looking for lessons to be learnt from recent experience in integration and disintegration processes for statistical offices. These are preparation, partnership and flexibility.
90. The main lesson is that in adapting statistical systems you cannot start early enough.
91. Many of the triggers for integration happened very suddenly and there was little time for preparation (for example, the fall of the Berlin Wall would have been scarcely conceivable a year before it happened).
92. On the other hand the preparations for the 1995 enlargement of the European Union to include Austria, Finland and Sweden, started in the Eighties with the Luxembourg and Brussels-Oslo Processes on EC-EFTA co-operation that led to the European Economic Area. By the time that the new countries actually acceded most of the concepts and definitions had already been harmonised and comparable data was already being produced. The countries deposited their applications for membership between 1989 and 1992, relatively shortly before their actual accession. Indeed the referendums in Sweden and Norway (one successful, the other not) took place less than two months before the proposed accession date. Nevertheless, because of the work done in the late Eighties, the transition process was fairly smooth. It is for this reason that Eurostat is already actively engaged in the preparations for the next phases of enlargement, in particular with the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, Cyprus and Malta.
93. Where perhaps this has not been quite so successful is in Intrastat. It is acknowledged that this system did not work well when it was first introduced. Perhaps a pilot period of parallel running might have eliminated many of the teething problems.
94. An interesting development is the partnership between individual countries among themselves and with the international organisations.
95. Individual countries are at times uniquely placed to make specific contributions in the integration process for reasons of both history and geography.
96. For example in the transition countries those further down the road have been in a position to use the benefit of their experience in countries that are newer to the process. The first country to be affected by the transition process was the former East Germany. Experiences here have enabled quicker progress in the other countries of Eastern and Central European countries. In turn experiences here have assisted work in the Former Soviet Union.
97. Some countries in the West have also had "special relations" with counter-parts in the East. For example the Nordic countries have been active in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Germany has been of help, particularly in the field of training, because of the widespread use of German in the Former Soviet Union. Similarly Austria is also a bridge country to those in the Danube region.
98. In the European Economic Area partnership involves cooperation between Member States. In the eighteen countries there are some strong national statistical services and there are some weak ones. Even the weaker ones have subjects in which they have particular expertise. Similarly, even the stronger systems have areas of weakness. All co-operate together to eliminate the weaknesses and to build a coherent system of strengths. This is done by allowing individual member states to share their expertise. It involves a national statistical institute with competence in a particular domain playing a leading role in that field within Europe. This co-operation process also affects the links between Eurostat and the individual countries.
99. There is also partnership among the various international statistical institutes, tangible examples of which are the Integrated Presentation of the Statistical Work Programmes in the ECE region, produced by ECE, OECD and Eurostat, and the Steering Committee on Co-ordination of the Technical Assistance in Statistics to the Countries of the Former Soviet Union which consists of the international organisations active in that region.
100. Because developments are not entirely predictable, statistical systems must be adaptable. New standards and norms cannot be set up quickly so the basic building blocks, such as registers and classification systems must be robust enough to withstand these political changes.
101. It has been widely accepted for many years that official statistics are best obtained as by-products of administrative systems. Properly designed systems can cause good quality data to "drop out" of administrative systems at no cost to the general public and at a relatively low total cost. The political events of the 1990s must call for a re-assessment of this belief for, by their very nature, administrative systems are arbitrary and subject to change. Some remain in place for very many years: this is why customs documents were a reliable source of trade statistics until the Single Market was established. Likewise the introduction of Value Added Tax opened up possibilities of using the VAT system for a variety of statistics. But there is a clear danger in relying on these arbitrary systems. Statistics, by and large try to measure what is happening in the real world. Establishing the Single Market does not mean that there is no more trade between Italy and France, not that its measurement is no longer of interest. The creation of a single currency will not equalise prices throughout the EU, any more than prices are now uniform throughout any single country. So price relativities and price movements will still have to be measured.
102. What does this imply for the official statistician? The answer must surely be to keep attention focused on the real world and to collect at the point of activity. It also means that to assure sufficient flexibility, data must be available at the lowest level consistent with resources. Micro-data can always be aggregated; aggregate data cannot often be disaggregated.
_______________________________
1 Eurostat's mission is to provide the European Union with
a high quality statistical information service.