The objectives of this new Regulation are:
• strengthening the role of national statistical institutes (NSIs) in the coordination of statistical activities of the national authorities under the exclusive responsibility of the European Statistical System and taking into account the independence of the European System of Central Banks;
• strengthening the professional independence of the heads of the NSIs and the Director-General of Eurostat;
• strengthening the implementation of the European Statistics Code of Practice by awarding to the Member States the obligation to take concrete measures based on the ‘Commitments on Confidence in Statistics’, developments on which shall be regularly monitored by the Commission;
• extending the scope of access to administrative records and their use by the NSIs.
Working Group 12 ‘Statistics’ at the Council for European Affairs took active participation in the whole process of drafting the Regulation which began in June 2012.
