1 July 2022

One of the priorities of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the field of statistics is the usage of new technologies and advanced methods in data processing. The Czech Statistical Office has also pledged in its programme that it will keep strengthening European statistics and the European Statistical System so that they respond adequately to the needs of users.   

On this day, the Czech Statistical Office, within the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, officially takes the lead of the Council Working Party on Statistics and thus it will, for the next half-year, co-ordinate meetings for the preparation of European legislation on statistics.

The symbolic handover of the presidency from France has already taken place on 17 June in Paris, where the symbolic baton was passed to the President of the Czech Statistical Office Marek Rojíček by Jean-Luc Tavernier, the Director General of the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). “The goal of each presiding country is to efficiently moderate the debate in the process of negotiations on European legislation. We want to leave a professional impression and to find a kind of compromise by which no member state or affected institution is, figuratively speaking, steamrollered by the others,” the President of the CZSO says.  

Priorities of the Czech Presidency are determined by an eighteen-month programme, which was prepared together by countries of the so-called presidency trio, i.e. France, the Czech Republic, and Sweden. The Czech Presidency will continue in strengthening European statistics and the European Statistical System so that they adequately respond to the needs of users and to challenges resulting from the recent European and worldwide development.

The Czech Presidency will also contribute to the discussion on the future of statistics and on opportunities offered by new technologies and new methods of data processing. It will also be a topic of the so-called high-level meeting of Directors General of European national statistical institutes (NSIs), which is usually organised by a presiding country and that will take place on 26 and 27 September in Prague. “In front of us, there is a debate on the future of official statistics in the context of a new paradigm of work with data sources. To put it concretely, we will focus on the way to support work with huge volumes of data, on change of qualification of statisticians towards data scientists, and on usage of new technologies and advanced methods while processing data, such as, for example, machine learning. Support of cooperation of statisticians with the academic and private sectors is also important to us,” Marek Rojíček, the President of the CZSO, specifies.

The Czech Presidency will follow the advance made by previous presiding countries with the aim to finalise draft regulations in the field of statistics that are already in an advanced phase of the legislative process. However, it also wants to take new draft legal acts adopted during the Czech presidency by the European Commission.    

For further information, including infographics and a knowledge quiz, see the following website: https://eu2022.czso.cz

Contact:
Jan Cieslar
Spokesman of the CZSO
T (+420) 274 052 017 | M (+420) 604 149 190
E jan.cieslar@czso.cz   | Twitter @statistickyurad