Commission Report 2002 (Slovakia)

• Progress since the last Regular Report
• Overall assessment
• Conclusion

Chapter 12: Statistics

Progress since the last Regular Report

Slovakia has continued to make steady progress over the past year.

In the field of statistical infrastructure, the new Statistical Law, which entered into force in January 2002, gives a suitable legal framework to the Statistical Office of Slovakia (SOSR). It takes into account the relevant EC requirements, including provisions regarding confidentiality, the SOSR's right of access to administrative data and the extension of the duration of the survey programme to three years. Under this law the SOSR president is appointed directly by the President of the Slovak Republic, thus increasing his independence. The Law has also established the Statistical Council as an independent advisory body. To ensure the implementation of the acquis, particular attention has been paid to strengthening administrative capacity.

As regards statistical classifications, the new Statistical Law regulates a nation-wide harmonised use of classifications, which is a crucial step towards an effective use of administrative data.

Concerning demographic and social statistics, the preliminary results of the first population and housing census carried out in the independent Slovak Republic were published in October 2001, reflecting no significant changes over the past decade. The Labour Force ad hoc module on length and patterns of working time has been carried out. The questionnaire for the 2002 Structure of earning survey has been prepared. The Labour Cost Survey is currently in line with the EC requirements. Preparation of the Time Use Survey is ongoing.

Concerning regional statistics, in February 2002, the Slovak Government agreed to maintain the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), which has been applied in Slovakia since 1997.

In the area of macro-economic statistics, the implementation of the European System of Accounts (ESA 95) in National Accounts has progressed, as has the harmonisation of quarterly and annual data. Reporting on debt and deficit statistics by the Ministry of Finance is currently achieved.

In the area of business statistics, a census of small and medium-sized enterprises was conducted in Slovakia between March and June 2002 with the objective of clearing the old Business Register and creating a register of Local Kind of Activity Units.

In transport statistics, Slovak legislation has become compliant with the EC rules including the weekly statistical survey on road freight.

Concerning external trade statistics, the SOSR has taken some steps to prepare the implementation of the INTRASTAT mechanism, which gathers statistical data on the internal trade in all commodities among Member States.

In agricultural statistics, an agriculture census covering all agriculture units, private farms and households was conducted from November to December 2001; the official results of the census, presented in September 2002, recorded over 71,000 farms in Slovakia.

Overall assessment

The newly established legal basis and the continuous commitment and high level of competence of the SOSR staff constitute a good basis for the implementation of the acquis.

Further progress is still required in some specific areas, including regional and external trade statistics. The quality of regional statistics has to be improved. In particular, efforts are needed to ensure further data resources for the regionalisation of gross fixed capital production for multi-regional units to improve data regionalisation for employment, employees and employee salaries according to the ESA 95 methodology, and to bring regional statistics up to the level required for programming, monitoring and evaluation. For external trade statistics, there is a lack of concordance as regards the use of supplementary measurement units, as the measurement units in the Customs table of the Slovak Republic and Common Customs Tariff of the EC differ under certain subheadings.

The SOSR has further strengthened its co-operation with various other producers of official statistics, e.g. ministries and the Central Bank. It has an extensive independence and autonomy in methodological matters, techniques and procedures for producing and disseminating data. The SOSR has made efforts to ensure that adequate IT, human and financial resources are allocated to further strengthen statistical capacities, including at regional level.

Conclusion

In its 1997 Opinion, the Commission concluded that, provided that continuous progress was made, Slovakia should be able to comply with EC requirements within the next few years.

Since then, Slovakia has made considerable progress in adopting the acquis in many areas, in particular with the entry into force of the new Statistical Law in 2002. Overall, Slovakia is well advanced both in terms of legislative alignment and in having appropriate administrative structures in place.

Negotiations on this chapter have been provisionally closed. Slovakia has not requested any transitional arrangements in this domain. It is generally meeting the commitments it made in the accession negotiations in this area.

In order to complete preparations for membership, Slovakia's efforts now need to focus on ensuring full application of the ESA 95 methodology, on strengthening -regional statistics and on making the INTRASTAT system operational by accession.

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