Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2005)375 - Community statistics on migration and international protection - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2005)375 - Community statistics on migration and international protection. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2005)375  |
| date | 14-09-2005 |
The development of Community policies and legislation on migration and asylum has highlighted the need for comprehensive and comparable European statistics on a range of migration-related issues. The further development, implementation and monitoring of common immigration and asylum systems implies a need for much better statistical information than is currently available. The Thessaloniki European Council of 20 June 2003 concluded that more effective mechanisms were needed for the collection and analysis of information on migration and asylum in the European Union.
The European Parliament in its resolution of 6 November 2003 noted that legislation was required to ensure the production of comprehensive statistics necessary for the development of fair and effective Community policies on migration.
Major efforts have been made since the Treaty of Amsterdam came into force to develop common systems for asylum and immigration in the European Union. This has formed an important part of an ambitious work programme for the establishment of an area of freedom, security and justice that was set as a priority for the European Union at the Tampere European Council in 1999. In April 2003, the Commission published an Action Plan (COM (2003) 179 final) i setting out its short-to medium-term aims for the development of its statistical activities on migration and asylum. The proposal here follows the Commission's intention stated in the Action Plan to introduce a legislative base for these statistics.
New community needs on statistics on migration and asylum render obsolete the provisions of Council Regulation (EEC) No 311/76 of 9 February 1976 on the compilation of statistics on foreign workers i, which should therefore be repealed.
Contents
- LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE PROPOSAL
- BUDGET IMPLICATIONS
- - Grounds for and objectives of the proposal
- - General context
- - Existing provisions in the area of the proposal / Repeal of existing legislation
- - Summary of the proposed action
- - Legal basis: Article 285 EC Treaty
- - Subsidiarity principle
- - Proportionality principle
The objective of this Regulation shall be to establish a common framework for the collection and compilation of Community statistics on international migration and asylum. It is recognised that Member States differ greatly in terms of how statistics on migration are produced, and indeed, in terms of which persons are defined as migrants in the statistics. The situation with regard to the needs for different types of migration statistics and the availability of different data sources is not static. This Regulation attempts to reconcile the great differences that exist across Europe in terms of administrative systems and data sources, with the increasing need for comparable migration statistics for the European Union and its Member States. Although the aim of the legislation is to reduce the impact of these definitional and data source differences on the comparability of the statistics, it is understood that progress towards harmonisation must be gradual. The proposed legislation obliges Member States to make the best use of available data to produce statistics that meet as closely as possible harmonised definitions. It is not proposed, however, to place a duty on the Member States to introduce completely new data sources or to compel changes to the administrative systems for immigration or asylum. Member States will, though, have to explain the choice of data source and explain the anticipated effects of the data source on the degree of compliance with the harmonised definitions. This information will be used as a guide to the interpretation of the statistics.
Article 285 provides the legal basis for Community statistics. The Council, acting in accordance with the codecision procedure, shall adopt measures for the production of statistics where necessary for the performance of the activities of the Community. This Article sets out requirements relating to the production of Community statistics and requires conformity to standards of impartiality, reliability, objectivity, scientific independence, cost-effectiveness and statistical confidentiality.
The current situation involves many different statistical definitions and concepts of migration. This prevents the production of comparable migration statistics. Attempts have been made for a number of years to collect data based on harmonised definitions using a series of gentlemen's agreements but Member States have failed to apply these definitions. In accordance with the principles of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the EC Treaty, the objective of the proposed action, namely the systematic production of harmonised Community statistics on international migration and asylum, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States acting individually and can therefore be better achieved by the Community. The European Parliament in its resolution of 6 November 2003 concluded that further progress towards improving migration statistics would require legislation. In addition to improving counts of the numbers of migrants, there is an increasing need for better demographic and socio-economic information about migrants. For example, in the case of statistics on enforcement measures against illegal migration, it is important to develop the data collections so that they yield information on the age and sex of the persons concerned. These details, which are not currently available, are required to evaluate policies against human trafficking. Similarly, better socio-economic information is needed to research issues such as the integration of migrants and their participation in labour markets.
Action by the Member States alone will be insufficient to ensure the availability of comparable statistics required for the development and monitoring of fair and effective Community policies on immigration and asylum. The increasing importance of migration as a factor in many public policy areas means that reliable and comparable statistics are needed by the Member States. For example, good information on migration is needed when forecasting future developments in the labour market. Action by the Member States alone, without coordination and harmonisation at Union level, will be an inefficient and ineffective approach to meeting this need.
The introduction of harmonised Community statistics on migration and asylum will be a complex procedure that must take into account the policy needs for statistics, international practices and recommendations, and the practicalities of applying the definitions in each of the Member States. This requires consultation, coordination and planning at European Union level that the Commission is best able to undertake. It is essential that EU-wide information is available for the purposes of monitoring the development and implementation of Community legislation and policy. In the main, current practice does not sufficiently ensure uniformly regular, timely and rapid delivery and dissemination of data, or public availability. The statistics to be collected under the proposed legislation will, as far as is possible, be in accordance with the United Nations Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration. The statistics covered are broadly based on Eurostat's existing annual migration data collection, and the monthly data collections on asylum and enforcement measures against illegal migration. An additional migration-related topic to be covered is the legal immigration of non-EU citizens. This is the subject of a number of Commission legislative and policy developments.
Acting individually, and despite extensive non-legislative attempts by the Commission to improve coordination in this domain, Member States have been unable to supply to the Commission the harmonised data necessary for comparable Community statistics on migration and asylum. Although there have been developments and improvements in the past few years, it is clear that the available European statistics on migration and asylum are not adequate for the preparation and monitoring of legislation and policy. There are particular concerns about the large amounts of data that are missing from the data collections. There are also serious problems relating to a lack of harmonisation-both in terms of the data sources used and the definitions applied to the statistics.
Although the Commission is best able to organise the collection of Community statistics, the Member States are competent in the organisation and operation of the national statistical systems. The proposal only relates to international migration and asylum statistics that are to be supplied to the Commission for the production of Community statistics. There is no direct impact on the production of statistics for national purposes or on other types of population statistics such as internal migration within the Member State territory. Appropriate rules are laid down in Council Regulation (EC) 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community statistics i.
This legislation is seen as an essential action to improve the availability of harmonised community statistics on a topic that has been acknowledged as being a very high priority at both European and Member State level. The failure to introduce the Regulation and subsequent implementing measures will have a serious negative impact on policy development and monitoring.
In accordance with the principle of proportionality this Regulation confines itself to the minimum required to achieve this objective and does not go beyond what is necessary for that purpose. Given the variation across the EU with regard to the data sources used to produce migration statistics, it is not feasible to legislate for a specific data source to be used in every Member State. Instead, the aim is to allow some degree of flexibility under the legislation for national administrations to use the best available data sources to supply statistics based on harmonised definitions. An important aspect will be the supply of detailed metadata to explain the data sources used and to allow an assessment of the probable effects of these data sources on the degree to which the statistics comply with the harmonised definitions.
The proposed Regulation only applies harmonised statistical definitions for migration and asylum. Member States remain free to compile these statistics using any appropriate national data sources, taking into account national statistical systems and practices. There is no obligation to make changes to administrative systems related to migration and asylum. At national level, responsibility for migration and asylum statistics rests with a wide variety of different agencies. It is appreciated that the legislation may, for some Member States, imply some developments to their existing migration statistics activities-for example, collecting additional variables or reducing the time delay in the availability of data. Eurostat will continue to work closely with the responsible national authorities and will seek to minimise any potential difficulties caused by the framework regulation and later Commission implementing measures.
The proposal has no implication for the Community budget.