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 Eurostat agreed on a coordinated response to future crises affecting the ESS, which was adopted as the “Wiesbaden Memorandum”. The virtual meeting was hosted by 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.
Video on the Wiesbaden Memorandum: