Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, follows the progress of candidate and potential candidate countries in complying with the acquis communautaire (the body of EU law) in the field of statistics as well as collects data from these countries. Eurostat provides technical assistance and support to the national statistical institutes of candidate and potential candidate countries, to enable them to produce and disseminate harmonised and good quality data according to European and international statistical standards.
The main objectives for aligning candidate and potential candidate countries with the acquis in statistics are presented in the "Strategy for Statistical Cooperation with candidate and potential candidate countries 2010 -2013".
The strategy established the following objectives:
- reaching and maintaining compliance with the acquis in statistics,
- integrating the national statistical institutes (NSIs) into the European Statistical System,
- strengthening the role of official statistics,
- strengthening the management capacity of the NSIs,
- strengthening the role of NSIs as coordinators of the national statistical systems,
- supporting the adoption of a quality framework,
- making statistics a better tool for policy makers.
The Policy Group for statistical cooperation (PGSC) and the Management Group for statistical cooperation (MGSC) deal with the planning, monitoring and evaluation of cooperation programmes in statistics.
