The European Commission presented a proposal to improve the independence and reliability of EU statistics. The proposal particularly focuses on the independence of National Statistical Institutes and in particular the heads of these authorities; and that Member States will be required to sign "Commitments of Confidence".

The proposal strengthening the measures to ensure the quality and credibility of EU statistics, in order to have high-quality, reliable statistics are fundamental for evidence-based decision making, have been set out by the European Commission. In particular, it proposes a revision of the EU Regulation on Statistics to further strengthen in law the independence, reliability and quality management of statistics coming from Member States and compiled at EU level. In December 2011, the Commission also presented its proposal for the next European Statistical Programme 2013-17.

The Commission is focusing with this proposal on the independence of National Statistical Institutes (NSIs), and in particular the heads of these authorities. In this context, the independence of Eurostat, as the central coordinator and monitor of the entire European Statistical System, is also reiterated within the proposed revised legal framework. The accountability of the heads of NSIs is also underlined, and an annual report on the statistical activities and financial situation of the institute must be presented to the relevant national authority.

In addition, Member States will be required to sign "Commitments of Confidence". In doing so, they will pledge at the highest political level to fully respect the European Statistics Code of Practice, to safeguard the independence of NSIs and to establish national quality assurance frameworks for statistics. Finally, the proposal sets out a series of provisions extending and securing access to administrative data for the production of European statistics.