“EU-funded Statistics Project to support statistical capacity for a democratic society”

Thursday, 18 February 2010

An EU-funded Twinning Project officially launched at a press conference today, will provide assistance to the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine (SSCU) to harmonise the official statistics of Ukraine to the standards of the European Union. The partner for the project will be Statistics Denmark, the national statistics institute of Denmark. Reliable and timely statistics are of crucial importance for a democratic society. It is crucial for Government and policymakers to develop successful policies and for citizens to hold their government accountable. An EU-funded Twinning Project officially launched at a press conference today, will provide assistance to the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine (SSCU) to harmonise the official statistics of Ukraine to the standards of the European Union. The partner for the project will be Statistics Denmark, the national statistics institute of Denmark. The Twinning project will focus on SSCU’s compliance with the European Statistics Code of Practice which sets standards for an independent, reliable statistics production and dissemination of high quality. The cooperation will furthermore focus on strengthening the methods of compilation for macro economic and structural business indicators. During the project, which will last 6 months and ends in June 2010, SSCU will contribute to the implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, currently under negotiation. The mentioned Agreement set the following priorities in the area of statistics: introducing of the European Union statistical requirements, improving trade statistics, and monitoring the degree of approximation of the national statistics to the EU standards. At the opening press conference, the project leader from SSCU, Nataliya Vlasenko said, "The contribution of SSCU is important because quality statistics are important for the future of Ukraine and its relation to the European Union". Laura Garagnani, Head of the Operations Section of the EU Delegation to Ukraine said, "Statistics are necessary for economic and social planning. Accurate and reliable statistics are important, therefore, for every single Ukrainian citizen." Ambassador Borg-Hansen of Denmark added, "High quality statistics conforming to EU standards is a key requirement of the Association Agreement with the EU that is presently being negotiated. Ukraine already has a well developed statistical system and this project will help achieving full compliance". The first experts have already visited SSCU and more visits are planned.