opinion parliamentary committee, 31 May 2023
On the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistics on population and housing, amending Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and repealing Regulations (EC) No 763/2008 and No 1260/2013
Document REGI-AD-746870 · (COM(2023)0031 – C90010/2023 – 2023/0008(COD))
Committee on Regional Development · Rapporteur: Younous Omarjee
AI:In short
The Committee on Regional Development's opinion supports the Commission's proposal for a regulation on population and housing statistics, with amendments to improve data on hard-to-reach groups, informal housing, and regional detail. It calls for mandatory collection of housing affordability data, revised definitions, longer deadlines for data transmission, and use of unique identifiers for administrative data sharing.
Position. The Committee on Regional Development proposes amendments to the Commission's proposal, supporting its ambition but seeking to improve data on hard-to-reach groups, informal housing, and regional detail.
Key points
- Supports the proposal's aim for coherent statistics, stressing the need for up-to-date, reliable data for cohesion policy and to address disparities.
- Calls for statistics to cover vulnerable populations, marginalised communities, informal housing, and territorial types like regions with industrial transition or natural handicaps.
- Highlights the need for uniform European statistics to reflect post-COVID, war in Ukraine, energy costs, and Green Deal requirements.
- Adds a definition of 'hard-to-reach population groups' to clarify groups needing attention under Article 12(2).
- Revises the definition of 'conventional dwellings' to include separate and independent premises, excluding collective households.
- Deletes 'other specific resources' from the definition of 'household' to avoid broad interpretation.
- Extends deadlines for transmitting statistics to the Commission: seven working days for quarterly/six-monthly, fourteen for annual, twenty-one for multi-annual/decennial.
- Allows Member States to develop innovative sources and methods if they meet quality requirements.
- Requires national authorities to provide administrative data to statistical offices using a unique statistical identifier or PIN where applicable.
- Aligns the definition of 'citizenship' with the proposed regulation COM(2023)31.
Who is affected
- Member States' statistical authorities: must meet new deadlines and use unique identifiers for data sharing.
- National authorities holding administrative data: must provide data to statistical offices with identifiers.
- Hard-to-reach population groups: to be explicitly included in data collection.
Figures and deadlines
Written by AI from the full text · every figure comes from the text · ¶ opens the paragraph · 4 Sept 2026 · Report a problem
Full text
Jump to an amendment (14)
Short justification 71 paragraphs
The Committee on Regional Development (hereinafter the REGI committee) decided to draft an opinion on the proposal for a Regulation on European statistics on population and housing, amending Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and repealing Regulations (EC) No 763/2008 and (EU) No 1260/2013. On the basis of Article 338 in its opinion, the REGI committee supports the ambition of the Commission’s proposal for the coherence of national statistics on population and housing. Statistics are a key tool for the construction of the Union’s public policies and in particular for the Structural Funds. In order to strengthen its economic, social and territorial cohesion, the Union must have up-to-date, reliable and harmonised statistics.
The report focuses on hard-to-reach populations and takes better account of geographical realities that have an impact on the construction of cohesion policy. The REGI committee gives great importance to the collection of statistical data on vulnerable populations and marginalised communities as well as on informal housing within the Union. In accordance with Article 175 and on the basis of Articles 174 and 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the European Commission is to submit to the European Parliament a detailed report on regional and local data taking into account the different territorial types such as regions with an industrial transition and regions with severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps such as the northernmost regions with very low population density, islands, cross-border, mountainous and outermost regions. Co-legislators must have a relevant level of statistical detail in order to meet the objectives of cohesion policy to reduce disparities. Furthermore, in the context of the post-COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and rising energy costs for households, as well as the new requirements of the European Green Deal, statistics need to find a uniform framework at European level to clearly reflect these new changes in populations and housing. In addition, there is a need for up-to-date and harmonised data on housing in order to best assess the energy capacity and various costs that may affect the population.
Finally, the European Parliament intends to work closely with the European Commission, Eurostat, the Member States and the national statistics institutions to include new provisions on statistics with a view to legislating on the future of cohesion policy.
AMENDMENTS
The Committee on Regional Development calls on the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, as the committee responsible, to take the following into account:
Amendment 1
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 7
| Text proposed by the Commission | Amendment |
|---|---|
| (7) To achieve the targets of the European Green Deal, the development and evaluation of effective policies require enhanced statistics relating to the energy use and efficiency of housing, detailed geographical data on the distribution of the population as well as deeper studies of the relationship between population and housing. With the COVID-19 pandemic the need for reliable, high frequency and timely statistics on deaths in the Union was manifested. While data needs were met with a voluntary data collection from Member States to the Commission (Eurostat), the Union needs an adequate mechanism for mandatory collection of such data within the European Statistical System (ESS) with the necessary frequency, timeliness and detail. | (7) To achieve the targets of the European Green Deal, the development and evaluation of effective policies require enhanced statistics relating to the energy use and efficiency of housing, detailed geographical data on the distribution of the population (including people in informal housing) as well as deeper studies of the relationship between population and housing. With the COVID-19 pandemic the need for reliable, high frequency and timely statistics on deaths in the Union was manifested. The spiralling cost of living brought by high inflation and energy prices has reaffirmed the need for accurate and comparable data on housing affordability in order to monitor the situation and adequately inform policy makers. While data needs were met with a voluntary data collection from Member States to the Commission (Eurostat), the Union needs an adequate mechanism for mandatory collection of such data within the European Statistical System (ESS) with the necessary frequency, timeliness and detail. |
Amendment 2
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 10
Read the rest (59 paragraphs)
| Text proposed by the Commission | Amendment |
|---|---|
| (10) The evaluation of existing statistics25 on the population and housing censuses in the Union, statistics on international migration flows, migrant stocks and acquisitions of citizenship and demography statistics has shown that the current legal framework comprising Regulations (EC) No 862/200726 , (EC) No 763/200827 and (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council has led to significant overall improvements of statistics compared to the 2005 situation without the current legal framework in force. That framework, however, has potential for a lack of coherence and comparability, which should be addressed. | (10) The evaluation of existing statistics25 on the population and housing censuses in the Union, statistics on international migration flows, migrant stocks and acquisitions of citizenship and demography statistics has shown that the current legal framework comprising Regulations (EC) No 862/200726 , (EC) No 763/200827 and (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council has led to significant overall improvements of statistics compared to the 2005 situation without the current legal framework in force. That framework, however, does not capture adequately the scale of informal housing and has potential for a lack of coherence and comparability, which should be addressed. |
| 25 SWD(2023)13. | 25 SWD(2023)13. |
| 26 Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 311/76 on the compilation of statistics on foreign workers (OJ L 199, 31.7.2007, p. 23). | 26 Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 311/76 on the compilation of statistics on foreign workers (OJ L 199, 31.7.2007, p. 23). |
| 27 Regulation (EC) No 763/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 on population and housing censuses (OJ L 218, 13.8.2008, p. 14). | 27 Regulation (EC) No 763/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 on population and housing censuses (OJ L 218, 13.8.2008, p. 14). |
Amendment 3
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 30
| Text proposed by the Commission | Amendment |
|---|---|
| (30) When data sharing entails processing of personal data according to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council37 or Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, the principles of purpose limitation, data minimisation, storage limitation and integrity and confidentiality should be fully applied. In particular, data sharing mechanisms based on privacy enhancing technologies that are specifically designed to implement these principles should be preferred over direct data transmission. | (30) When data sharing entails processing of personal data according to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council37 or Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, the principles of purpose limitation, data minimisation, storage limitation and integrity, confidentiality and impartiality should be fully applied. In particular, data sharing mechanisms based on privacy enhancing technologies that are specifically designed to implement these principles should be preferred over direct data transmission. |
| 37 Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1). | 37 Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1). |
Amendment 4
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 34
| Text proposed by the Commission | Amendment |
|---|---|
| (34) European statistics on population and housing should evolve to take into account emerging data needs stemming from changing policy priorities, as well as changes in the demographic, migratory, social or economic situation in the Union. The Commission (Eurostat) should undertake pilot studies assessing the feasibility of the adaptations concerned as appropriate and should take into account aspects such as costs and administrative burdens on Member States and the availability of appropriate data sources. | (34) European statistics on population and housing should evolve to take into account emerging data needs stemming from changing policy priorities, as well as changes in the demographic, migratory, social or economic situation in the Union. The Commission (Eurostat) should undertake pilot studies assessing the feasibility of the adaptations concerned as appropriate and should take into account aspects such as costs and administrative burdens on Member States and the availability of appropriate data sources. When preparing these studies, the Commission should ensure the representativeness of the studies at Union level, in particular with regard to regional differences. |
Amendment 5
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 8 a (new)
| Text proposed by the Commission | Amendment |
|---|---|
| (8a) ‘hard-to-reach population groups’ means groups of individuals for whom a real or perceived barrier exists for full and representative inclusion in the collection of statistical data; |
Justification
A definition for hard-to-reach groups is necessary to clarify the groups that Member States have to pay attention to under Art. 12(2).
Amendment 6
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 10
| Text proposed by the Commission | Amendment |
|---|---|
| (10) ‘conventional dwelling’ means a premise at a fixed location that is designed for permanent human habitation but that is not intended for institutional or collective housing; | (10) ‘conventional dwellings’ are structurally separate and independent premises in fixed locations that are designed for permanent human habitation and which at the reference date are (a) being used as a residence or (b) unoccupied or (c) used as a secondary or seasonal dwelling. ‘separate’ means surrounded by walls and covered by a roof or ceiling in such a way that one or more persons can reside there independent of others. ‘independent’ means with direct access from a street or stairway, passage, corridor or land. |
Justification
We suggest that the definition which has to date been used in censuses be retained, as it is clearer. Besides this, the definition proposed would exclude collective households living in conventional dwellings from numbering among such conventional dwellings.
Amendment 7
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 12
| Text proposed by the Commission | Amendment |
|---|---|
| (12) ‘household’ means a group of two or more persons who share living quarters or other specific resources; or an individual person who does not form part of any other household; | (12) ‘household’ means a group of two or more persons who share living quarters or an individual person who does not form part of any other household; |
Justification
We suggest that the words ‘other specific resources’ be deleted from the definition. This concept is far too broad and could be interpreted in a variety of ways.
Amendment 8
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point a
| Text proposed by the Commission | Amendment |
|---|---|
| (a) statistics of quarterly and six-monthly periodicity at the latest by up to one working day after the national publication; | (a) statistics of quarterly and six-monthly periodicity at the latest by up to seven working days after the national publication; |
Amendment 9
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point b
| Text proposed by the Commission | Amendment |
|---|---|
| (b) statistics of annual periodicity at the latest by up to three working days after the national publication; | (b) statistics of annual periodicity at the latest by up to fourteen working days after the national publication; |
Amendment 10
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point c
| Text proposed by the Commission | Amendment |
|---|---|
| (c) statistics of multi-annual and decennial periodicity at latest by up to seven working days after the national publication. | (c) statistics of multi-annual and decennial periodicity at latest by up to twenty-one working days after the national publication. |
Amendment 11
Proposal for a regulation
Article 9 – paragraph 3
| Text proposed by the Commission | Amendment |
|---|---|
| 3. Member States shall continuously develop innovative sources and methods and use them to improve statistics compiled under this Regulation provided that they allow for producing statistics that meet the quality requirements laid down in Article 12. | 3. If need be, Member States shall continuously develop innovative sources and methods and use them to improve statistics compiled under this Regulation provided that they allow for producing statistics that meet the quality requirements laid down in Article 12. |
Amendment 12
Proposal for a regulation
Article 10 – paragraph 1
| Text proposed by the Commission | Amendment |
|---|---|
| 1. National authorities in charge of administrative data sources relevant for the purposes of this Regulation shall allow reuse of these data in time and frequency sufficient to produce and submit statistics within the deadlines and compliant with the specific quality requirements according to this Regulation. The timely access to administrative records, as well as its operational modalities, shall be included in cooperation agreements to be established between those national authorities and the national statistical authorities. | 1. National authorities in charge of administrative data sources relevant for the purposes of this Regulation shall allow reuse of these data in time and frequency sufficient to produce and submit statistics within the deadlines and compliant with the specific quality requirements according to this Regulation. The timely access to administrative records, as well as its operational modalities, shall be included in cooperation agreements to be established between those national authorities and the national statistical authorities. National authorities holding administrative data sources shall provide the data to the national statistical offices on the basis of a unique statistical identifier or a personal identification number (PIN), where applicable; |
Amendment 13
Proposal for a regulation
Article 20 – paragraph 1 – point 3 a (new)
| Text proposed by the Commission | Amendment |
|---|---|
| (3a) in Article 2(1), point (d) is replaced by the following: | |
| ‘citizenship’ means citizenship as defined in Article 2(1) of Regulation EU No XXXX/2023 [insert reference to COM (2023)31/ 2023/0008 (COD)] |
Justification
This amendment will ensure legal consistency.
Amendment 14
Proposal for a regulation
Annex 1 – paragraph 1
| Text proposed by the Commission | ||||
| Domain | Topic | Detailed topic | Periodicity | Reference time (date or period) |
| Demography | Population stocks | The person's basic characteristics | 6M | 30.06.YY and 31.12.YY |
| A | 31.12.YY | |||
| MA | 31.12.YY | |||
| D | 31.12.YY | |||
| The person's socio-economic characteristics | A | 31.12.YY | ||
| MA | 31.12.YY | |||
| D | 31.12.YY | |||
| Fertility | Births | Q | Month | |
| A | Year | |||
| Legally induced abortions | A | Year | ||
| Mortality | Deaths | Q | Month, Week | |
| A | Year | |||
| Infant deaths | A | Year | ||
| Late foetal deaths | A | Year | ||
| Partnerships | Marriages and registered partnerships | A | Year | |
| Characteristics of persons entering a marriage or registered partnership | A | Year | ||
| Divorces and terminated registered partnerships | A | Year | ||
| Migration | Immigrants | Q | Month | |
| A | Year | |||
| Emigrants | A | Year | ||
| Internal migration | A | Year | ||
| Acquisition and loss of citizenship of EU MS and the Union | Persons who acquired citizenship | A | Year | |
| Persons who lost / gave up citizenship | A | Year | ||
| Housing | Living quarters | Living quarters characteristics | D | 31.12.YY |
| Conventional dwellings | Basic building characteristics | MA | 31.12.YY | |
| D | 31.12.YY | |||
| Energy related building characteristics | MA (A from 2031 onwards) | 31.12.YY | ||
| D | 31.12.YY | |||
| Occupied conventional dwellings | Characteristics of occupied conventional dwellings | D | 31.12.YY | |
| Usage of occupied conventional dwellings | D | 31.12.YY | ||
| Families and households | Families | Family characteristics | D | 31.12.YY |
| Households | Household characteristics | A | 31.12.YY | |
| MA | 31.12.YY | |||
| The person's household situation | A | 31.12.YY | ||
| D | 31.12.YY |
Amendment
| Domain | Topic | Detailed topic | Periodicity | Reference time (date or period) |
| Demography | Population stocks | The person's basic characteristics | 6M | 30.06.YY and 31.12.YY |
| A | 31.12.YY | |||
| MA | 31.12.YY | |||
| D | 31.12.YY | |||
| The person's socio-economic characteristics | A | 31.12.YY | ||
| MA | 31.12.YY | |||
| D | 31.12.YY | |||
| Fertility | Births | Q | Month | |
| A | Year | |||
| Legally induced abortions | A | Year | ||
| Mortality | Deaths | Q | Month, Week | |
| A | Year | |||
| Infant deaths | A | Year | ||
| Late foetal deaths | A | Year | ||
| Partnerships | Marriages and registered partnerships | A | Year | |
| Characteristics of persons entering a marriage or registered partnership | A | Year | ||
| Divorces and terminated registered partnerships | A | Year | ||
| Migration | Immigrants | Q | Month | |
| A | Year | |||
| Emigrants | A | Year | ||
| Internal migration | A | Year | ||
| Acquisition and loss of citizenship of EU MS and the Union | Persons who acquired citizenship | A | Year | |
| Persons who lost / gave up citizenship | A | Year | ||
| Housing | Living quarters | Living quarters characteristics | D | 31.12.YY |
| Conventional dwellings | Basic building characteristics | MA | 31.12.YY | |
| D | 31.12.YY | |||
| Energy related building characteristics | MA (A from 2031 onwards) | 31.12.YY | ||
| D | 31.12.YY | |||
| Affordability related building characteristics | MA | 31.12.YY | ||
| D | 31.12.YY | |||
| Occupied conventional dwellings | Characteristics of occupied conventional dwellings | D | 31.12.YY | |
| Usage of occupied conventional dwellings | D | 31.12.YY | ||
| Families and households | Families | Family characteristics | D | 31.12.YY |
| Households | Household characteristics | A | 31.12.YY | |
| MA | 31.12.YY | |||
| The person's household situation | A | 31.12.YY | ||
| D | 31.12.YY |
Procedure pages
How the committees handled the text, and how their members voted on it.
Procedure – committee asked for opinion 1 paragraph
| Title | Statistics on population and housing, amending Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and repealing Regulations (EC) No 763/2008 and (EU) No 1260/2013 |
| References | COM(2023)0031 – C9-0010/2023 – 2023/0008(COD) |
| Committee responsible Date announced in plenary | EMPL 26.1.2023 |
| Opinion by Date announced in plenary | REGI 26.1.2023 |
| Rapporteur for the opinion Date appointed | Younous Omarjee 27.2.2023 |
| Simplified procedure - date of decision | 29.3.2023 |
| Date adopted | 25.5.2023 |