Aiming to establish a common framework for the systematic production of Community statistics on public health and health and safety at work, the Official Journal of the European Union, OJEO, has published on December 31st, 2008, Regulation (EC) Nº1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics on public health and health and safety at work.

This Regulation on public health statistics establishes a common framework for the systematic production of Community statistics on public health and health and safety at work. The statistics will be produced in compliance with standards on impartiality, reliability, objectivity, cost-effectiveness and statistical confidentiality.

The statistics will include, in the form of a harmonised and common data set, information required for Community action in the field of public health, for supporting national strategies for the development of high-quality, universally accessible and sustainable health care as well as for Community action in the field of health and safety at work.

Member States will specifically supply data to the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) on the following concerned domains:

• Health status and health determinants
• Health care
• Causes of death
• Accidents at work
• Occupational diseases and other work-related health problems and illnesses

These statistics will provide data for structural indicators, sustainable development indicators and European Community Health Indicators (ECHI), as well as for the other sets of indicators which it is necessary to develop for the purpose of monitoring Community actions in the fields of public health and health and safety at work.

Member States wil transmit the data and metadata required by this Regulation in electronic form, in accordance with an interchange standard agreed between Eurostat and the Member States.

The statistical methodologies and data collections to be developed for the compilation of statistics on public health and health and safety at work at Community level shall take into consideration the need for coordination, whenever relevant, with the ctivities of international organisations in the field, with a view to ensuring international comparability of statistics and consistency of data collections as well as avoiding duplication of effort and of deliveries of data by Member States.

This Regulation will enter into force on January, 20th, 2009.