Last words about the EU Council Presidency
Last updated: 2023-07-06
Chairing the Council Working Party on Statistics these past six months have been insightful as it has given Statistics Sweden an opportunity to take part in the work that is taking place in the group and learn about the processes behind the scenes in the European Statistical System.
In practice, holding the Presidency these past six months have been something that was hard to prepare for and a memory that will surely last a lifetime.
Many hours were put into preparing for the meetings – both informal and formal, finding compromises, travelling to Brussels, and networking with the delegates to make the Swedish Presidency on Statistics a success. Thanks to all the contributions from the delegates and the intensive work that was put into ESOP - a very important and complex dossier, a compromise among the Member States was reached on 7 June 2023! The Council mandate on ESOP was endorsed by Coreper I on 21 June 2023.
The Swedish Presidency also built on the excellent work of the preceding French and Czech Presidencies and successfully completed the administrative work regarding the Proposal amending the ESA 2010 Regulation which was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 5 April 2023. As regards introducing new environmental economic accounts modules, the Swedish Presidency made several efforts contacting the rapporteur at the European Parliament to start interinstitutional negotiations. The European Parliament was not ready to initiate negotiations with the Council and will not adopt its mandate until October.
The Swedish Presidency also organized a High-Level meeting in close collaboration with Eurostat in Stockholm in April. The meeting focused on the pressing issue of how to ensure that the most important users are on board when changes are made to the statistics, largely due to the integration of new data sources – otherwise known as statistical leadership. The subject resulted in a lively debate and the participants discussed many ideas for next steps. Eurostat’s Director-General Mariana Kotzeva concluded the meeting, highlighting how NSIs can support each other to strengthen statistical leadership within the ESS.
An official handover of the Presidency took place on 15-16 June outside of Stockholm where the baton was passed on to the Spanish Presidency and the next Trio. With that, we wish Spain success in their upcoming task!