Analytics, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Statistics

The Peer Review, which was based on the European Statistics Code of Practice, was carried out this spring. In the autumn, the report of the results was published and Statistics Estonia prepared a plan of Improvement Actions aimed at eliminating the shortcomings referred to in the report. Both the report and the Improvement Actions document can be accessed on the website of Eurostat.

The Peer Reviewers differentiated between three types of shortcomings in the Estonian Statistical System:

1.      Lack of resources (not all the studies that are mandatory for Estonia under EU regulations are included in the Estonian Statistical Programme due to lack of finances);

2.      Necessity to further develop the services needed by users and respondents;

3.      Strengthening the institutional environment (defining statistical confidentiality more precisely in the Official Statistics Act)

The Director General of Eurostat, Walter Radermacher, who visited Estonia in August, noted with appreciation that the Estonian statistical system is at a comparable level with the best statistical offices of the European Union. “At the same time, the Peer Review carried out in the spring identified as the main shortcoming the fact that, at the current level of funding, Estonia has not been able to fulfil all of its obligations to the European Union,” Radermacher emphasised as the main concern.

When discussing the plan of Improvement Actions, Andres Oopkaup, the Director General of Statistics Estonia, agreed that, even though the Member States have revised the statistical programme of the European Union systematically and endeavoured to find statistical activities which could be excluded, the consumers have decisively rejected most of the reduction proposals and so the volume of the statistical programme has increased instead. “Statistics has become very knowledge-intensive and increasingly dependent on IT, therefore the qualifications of statisticians are becoming more and more important,” stated Oopkaup. “In Estonia as well, it is necessary to turn the decision-makers’ attention to the value of national statistics and the fact that producing high-quality information does not come cheap,” he added.

The Peer Review of Statistics Estonia was based on the European Code of Practice and was conducted on 13 to 17 April 2015. The Peer Review involved interviews with the employees of Statistics Estonia, its partners and the users of statistics.

As a result of the previous Peer Review, conducted in 2006, among other things, the Official Statistics Act was substantially revised and the Statistical Council was created.