The presentation will give details on prerequisites establishing the European Statistical Governance Advisory Board (ESGAB); its targets and work will be discussed.

ESGAB was established by the European Parliament and the Council to provide an independent overview of the European Statistical System with particular reference to implementation of the European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP). ESGABs main duty includes preparing an annual report to the European Parliament and the Council. In this regard the Annual report to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of the European Statistics Code of Practice by Eurostat and the European Statistical System as a whole has been delivered twice for the years 2009 and 2010.

For the current report ESGAB carried out two surveys. One questionnaire was addressed to national statistical institutes, the other to a limited number of stakeholders. The questions focused on three principles of the CoP identified most important:

• Professional independence,

• Adequacy of resources and

• Quality commitment.

These principles were selected because of the increasing pressure in these areas and their direct impact on data quality and the trustworthiness of the European Statistical System. In addition, the monitoring of compliance with the CoP carried out by Eurostat gave an indication on trends over time, based on the number of improvements pending.

The sometimes surprising opinions, notions and results of these enquiries will be presented, also.

ESGAB is made up of seven members, with Eurostat participating as an observer.

Keywords: Official statistics infrastructure, risks, economic crisis

Biography: Member of the European Statistical Governance Advisory Board (ESGAB).

Born 1950 in Germany.

Masters degree in statistics at the faculty of economic and social research, University of Vienna.

Since 1979 employed at the Federal Chamber of Labour of Austria, department of economic research and statistics. Chief statistician.

1994 - 2008 Austrian delegate to the European Advisory Committee on Statistical Information in the Economic and Social Spheres (CEIES), 2001 - 2005 Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Social Statistics at the. 2005 - 2008 Vice-president of CEIES. Organizer and promoter of many CEIES seminars in the statistical field.

2000 - 2009 member of the Governmental Commission Statistical Council at Statistics Austria.

Member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI).

Member of the board of the Austrian Statistical Society (OeSG) since 1997, Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Social Statistics (OeSG) until 2008, President of the Austrian Statistical Society since October 2010.