The European Parliament yesterday approved a non-legislative opinion on a communication issued by the Commission last year aimed at setting out a strategy that would give the European Union a quality management framework for statistics related to enhanced economic policy coordination.

The opinion was drafted by Labour MEP Edward Scicluna, a member of the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee.

The report’s main policy recommendations focused on improving the quality of European statistics by ensuring the independence of statistical agencies and the quality of upstream data collected especially from government sources. The report also looked at establishing stronger internal and external audits and a greater commitment by governments with respect to the accuracy of public finance data.

In a statement following the EP’s plenary approval, Prof. Scicluna said that with the EU’s new economic governance framework high quality statistics are especially important.

“The ‘six pack’ legislation together with the macro-economic scoreboards being set up for Eurozone member states requires accurate and reliable statistics for their effective implementation,” he said.

The Council had already expressed a positive view of the Commission’s communication.