The Commission, in a Decision published in the Official Journal of the European Union in July 21st, established the bodies that for their special nature have the right to access certain confidential data for scientific purposes

Commission Regulation (EC) Nº 831/2002 implementing Council Regulation (EC) Nº 322/97 on Community Statistics, concerning access to confidential data for scientific purposes establishes, for the purpose of enabling statistical conclusions to be drawn for scientific purposes, the conditions under which access to confidential data transmitted to the Community authority may be granted and the rules of cooperation between the Community and national authorities in order to facilitate such access.

In Decision 2004/452/EC, Commission laid down a list of bodies whose researchers may access confidential data for scientific purposes. In this list, where some National Banks, Investigation Institutes, Universities and other investigation bodies are included; the French Directorate for Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Direction de la Recherche, des Études, de l’Évaluation et des Statistiques — DREES), has also been included and therefore the list has been amended.