The successful alignment of the national statistical domain to the European Union acquis and the implementation of the European Statistics Code of Practice are extremely important actions to be carried out by the Republic of Moldova for the successful continuation of the accession negotiations to the European Community.

In this context, on 20-21 February 2024, our country is hosting the High-Level International Workshop on "Modern Official Statistics in the European Union accession context ". The workshop is organized by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of the Republic of Moldova in cooperation with the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat).

The event brings together more than 70 participants, such as high-level representatives of the Government of the Republic of Moldova and Eurostat, representatives of central public authorities and other institutions in our country, as well as senior managers from National Statistical Offices from 14 countries, including: Albania, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine.

In the opening speech of the event, Cristina Gherasimov, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, underlined: "Beyond the need to adapt national statistics to EU standards, the more and better data we have, the more transparent the negotiation process will be in relation to society and we will be able to monitor and evaluate progress internally and, if necessary, make general adjustments and optimizations, including in the allocation of resources".

Oleg Cara, Director General of the NBS, noted that "Statistics is one of the pillars of good governance. It is the task of statistics to support the sustainable development of the country by measuring demographic, economic and social phenomena and processes, and environmental protection, and providing relevant and reliable information in useful terms. Representing a 'public good' in contemporary society, official statistical information is intended to serve the whole of society in conditions of maximum transparency, impartiality and equality for all target knowledge groups. At the same time, official statistics must adapt to the changes taking place in modern society and comply with its increased demands for quality information according to the high-quality standards applied internationally, in particular EU standards."

At the opening of the event, representatives of the Government of the Republic of Moldova and the European Union underlined the role of official statistics in society and the need to modernize the national statistical system through a joint effort in order to bring statistics in line with EU quality requirements.

During the workshop representatives of National Statistical Offices exchange experience and best practices on the production of official statistics for the European Statistical System. Representatives of the national statistical system institutions also receive support to improve their capacities to meet the needs of the Republic of Moldova in the process of integration into the European Community, in particular for a cost-effective optimization of official statistics by using administrative and private data sources, adapting methods of statistics production and strengthening partnerships in the field of statistics.

We inform that the workshop is one of the actions foreseen in the National Action Plan for Moldova's EU accession for 2024-2027. The event was financed through the TAIEX programme, the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance and with the support of the EU Delegation to Moldova.