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Public commitment with respect to the ESCB’s statistical function The ESCB’s statistical function is based on a legal mandate to collect all necessary and relevant data in order to produce and disseminate impartial, reliable, appropriate, timely, consistent and accessible statistics in the areas under the ESCB’s responsibility. Where appropriate, these statistics will comply with European and internationally agreed standards, guidelines and good practices. The independence granted to the ESCB in Article 108 of the Treaty establishing the European Community entails, among other things, that there is no political interference in the compilation and dissemination of statistical information. The ESCB attaches great importance to the quality of its statistics. In doing so, it takes into consideration internationally agreed quality standards, such as those formulated in the IMF’s Special Data Dissemination Standard and Data Quality Assessment Framework, which are in turn rooted in the UN’s Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics. Without prejudice to the Protocol on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank, it collaborates with the Commission (Eurostat) and national statistical institutes and takes account of the principles laid down in the European Statistics Code of Practice for the National and Community Statistical Authorities. The ESCB aims to perform its statistical function effectively and to use resources efficiently when collecting, compiling and disseminating statistics. In accordance with primary and secondary Community law[1], the aim is to collect the necessary statistical information of an appropriate quality while keeping the reporting burden on respondents to a minimum, guaranteeing their privacy and protecting the confidentiality of the non-public information they provide. The possible reuse, for administrative purposes, of confidential statistical information supplied by individual reporters to the ESCB is limited to information on businesses that would otherwise have to submit the same information to the ESCB twice (e.g. for minimum reserves purposes) and must be provided by law. In addition, the ESCB guarantees that confidential statistical information provided by the Commission (Eurostat) or national statistical institutes is used only for statistical purposes. In the performance of its statistical function the ESCB is committed to good governance and the highest ethical standards and to executing its tasks in a spirit of cooperation and teamwork. In short, and in line with the Eurosystem Mission Statement, ESCB statistics are governed by the principles of impartiality, scientific independence, cost-effectiveness, statistical confidentiality, non-excessive burden on respondents and high output quality.
[1] Article 108 of the Treaty, Article 5 of the Statute, and Council Regulation 2533/98, respectively ........................................................................................................... Announcement Change in the definition of “resident of Cyprus” for statistical purposes as from 1 July 2008 With Cyprus’s accession into the euroarea on the 1st January 2008, the Central Bank of Cyprus has become an integral part of the Eurosystem and acts on the basis of the legal framework governing the operations of the European Central Bank aiming at fulfilling the tasks of the Eurosystem. In the context of the above obligations, it was deemed necessary by the Central Bank of Cyprus to harmonise the definition of the “resident of Cyprus” for statistical purposes with the acquis communautaire and, as a result, the “Definition of the Term “resident of Cyprus” for Statistical Purposes Directive of 2008”, has been issued by publishing it in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cyprus. The above Directive shall enter into force on 1 July 2008. The change in the definition of “resident of Cyprus” affects, mainly, the criterion for legal persons. In particular, every organisation or enterprise of any legal form which has been incorporated or registered in Cyprus, irrespective of whether or not it maintains a physical presence in Cyprus, shall be considered as “resident of Cyprus” for statistical purposes, whereas under the regime prevailing prior to the above change, only organisations or enterprises with a physical presence in Cyprus were considered as “residents of Cyprus”. As a result of the above change, the statistical data to be produced and published by the Central Bank of Cyprus, as from the reference month of July 2008, will be affected due to the partial reclassification of organisations or enterprises from the “non-resident” sector to the “resident” sector. ........................................................................................................... Statistics provided by the Central Bank of Cyprus.
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