Pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community statistics3, a multiannual Community statistical programme should be established.

In accordance with that Regulation, the Community should have timely access to statistical information comparable among the Member States and their territorial units, in the light of the constitutional provisions of the Member States, which is up to date, reliable, relevant and produced as efficiently as possible for the formulation, application, monitoring and assessment of its policies.

In order to ensure the consistency and comparability of statistical information in the Community, there is a need to establish a five-year Community statistical programme which identifies the approaches, the main fields and the objectives of the actions envisaged in respect of the policy priorities.

The specific method of drawing up Community statistics requires particularly close cooperation within a developing Community statistical system via the Statistical Programme Committee, established by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom4, as regards the adaptation of the system, notably through the introduction of legal instruments necessary to establish the relevant Community statistics. Account should be taken of the burden on respondents, be they businesses, central, regional or local government units, households or individuals.

The production of Community statistics within the legislative framework of the five-year programme is achieved through the close, coordinated and coherent cooperation between Eurostat and the national authorities. For that purpose, Eurostat should ensure the coordination, in various forms, of the national authorities in a network representing the European Statistical System (ESS) to assure the timely provision of statistics of a standard allowing the necessary comparability among Member States, in support of European Union policy needs.

In the production and dissemination of Community statistics under this Decision, the national and Community statistical authorities should respect the principles set out in the European Statistics Code of Practice, which was attached to the Recommendation of the Commission of 25 May 2005 on the independence, integrity and accountability of the national and Community statistical authorities. In this process, efforts should be made to promote convergence of the statistical information gathered and the possibility of scientific treatment thereof.

In the light of the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on reduction of the response burden, simplification and priority-setting in the field of Community statistics, the preparation of the annual statistical work programmes of the Commission should take account of the need for ongoing review of statistical priorities, including the simplification of processes and the reduction of requirements of declining importance, with a view to making the best use of available resources.

In order to increase the coherence and effectiveness in Community measures for cities and enable reliable comparisons to be made, it is necessary, for Community statistical purposes, to define more accurately what is meant by ‘urban area’ and ‘agglomeration’.

Since the objective of this Decision, namely the establishment of the Community Statistical Programme 2008 to 2012, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Decision does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

This Decision establishes a financial envelope for the entire duration of the programme which is to be the prime reference for the budgetary authority, within the meaning of point 37 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound financial management5, in the framework of the annual budgetary procedure.

In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 322/97, the guidelines for establishing that programme have been submitted to the Statistical Programme Committee, the European Advisory Committee on Statistical Information in the Economic and Social Spheres established by Council Decision 91/116/EEC6 and the Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payment Statistics established by Council Decision 2006/856/EC7,