Press release No. 514 of 16 December 2020
WIESBADEN – During the High-level meeting on ESS communication and cooperation in times of crisis on 26 November 2020, the Directors-General of the National Statistical Institutes and the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) agreed on a coordinated response to future crises affecting the European Statistical System (ESS), which was adopted as the “Wiesbaden Memorandum”. The virtual meeting was hosted by the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) as Presidency of the Council of the EU in the field of statistics.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the ESS has maintained statistical production almost completely. New and innovative statistics have been developed to meet the most important user needs during the pandemic. The crisis has also shown that a coordinated approach of all actors within the ESS allows to act even more efficiently and agilely in future crises. Building on both the experiences and conclusions of the National Statistical Institutes and Eurostat, a coordinated response to future crises was developed for the ESS, summarised in the Wiesbaden Memorandum. It provides a coordinated approach to challenges that might arise during a crisis in terms of statistical production, coordination within the ESS as well as internal and external communication.
Future crises will not fail to happen and may affect core quality criteria of official statistics such as relevance, accuracy and reliability, timeliness and punctuality, coherence and comparability, and as accessibility and clarity. The Wiesbaden Memorandum will facilitate addressing future crises jointly to ensure the production and communication of high-quality information in a coherent statistical system – even in times of crisis.
The German EU Council Presidency in the field of statistics aims to ensure that the ESS will continue to be able to act quickly in crisis situations. For this purpose, all actors must have a clear picture of the responsibilities and actions. Agreement on the Wiesbaden Memorandum was a priority of the programme of the German EU Council Presidency in the field of statistics which has now been fulfilled.
To learn more about the coordinated crisis response, read the summary of the Wiesbaden Memorandum.
