Enhancing the cooperation with data holders in official statistics: the case of Spain

Abstract

The concept of cooperation is related to coordination in Regulation 223/2009 and in the Code of Practice of European Statistics. Cooperation is understood as horizontal tool between national statistical authorities and other public entities or between statistical authorities and the scientific community, or even among statistical authorities of different Countries (International cooperation). However, the European Statistical System (ESS) Quality Declaration adopted in 2016 introduce a new meaning stating that “We consistently strive to minimise the burden on our respondents, cultivate good cooperation with data providers and cooperate closely with stakeholder groups including the scientific communities”. The first question that comes to mind is if the ESS is moving from the “traditional” meaning of cooperation among public data providers (the owners of the administrative data) to an enlarged cooperation with the private sector. In particular, focusing in a very hot issue like Big Data, we analyse in this article some issues such as how this cooperation could be, if there is a need for legal support for cooperation with data holders or, if so, which type of legal acts could be more useful.