In accordance with provisions set out in Regulation No 1177/2003, the EU-SILC Regulation, the Commission is obliged to submit a report to the European Parliament and Council on work completed under the Regulation. In presenting this report the Commission is fulfilling this obligation.

SILC: a source of reference data for income and poverty analysis at an EU level: To recall, the EU-SILC was launched between 2003 and 2005 in all EU Member States; its purpose being to act as a data source for the analysis of income distribution and social inclusion at an EU level. Since its adoption in 2003, on the basis of a gentlemen’s agreement between six Member States namely Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg and Austria, significant progress has been achieved. Since then it is effective in all of the EU’s 25 Member States plus Norway, Iceland, Turkey and Switzerland. It is expected that the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Croatia will launch the EU-SILC in the course of 2008.

Legal framework: As well as the Regulation, five implementing Commission Regulations have been adopted on: Sampling and tracing rules; Definitions; List of primary (annual) target variables; Fieldwork and imputation procedures; and Quality reports. In addition, a Commission Regulation is published annually containing a list of secondary target variables, or modules, with the possibility of a topic being repeated every four years or at longer intervals. Topics include, for example, social participation; housing; and over-indebtedness and financial exclusion.

EU funding: Funding has been possible through grant agreements concluded with the NSI’s. In total, EU funding amounted to around EUR 6.5 million for the 2004 data collection and around EUR 11 million for the 2005-2007 data collections respectively.

Collection and dissemination of SILC data: The report finds that the collection of SILC data, overall, has been a success. Together with a network of the National Statistical Institutes (NSI’s) Eurostat has been able to collect, check and issue data within a reasonable period of time. There is, however, a significant gap of around two years between the reference year of the collected data and the latest available economic data.

Content of EU-SILC : The EU-SILC is a mutli-dimensional instrument focusing on income, but at the same time covering housing, labour, health, demography and education, thus making it possible to study the multidimensional approach of social exclusion. Primary target variables including household information or individual information. Secondary targets variables or modules are introduced annually. Thus in 2005, for example, the module chosen was on the “inter-generational transmission of poverty”; in 2006: Social participation; 2007: Housing conditions; 2008: Over-indebtedness/financial exclusion; and in 2009 it will be Material deprivation.

Collection unit: EU-SILC statistics cover people living in private households only. Persons living in collective households and institutions are excluded from the target population.

Reports and studies: In accordance with the Regulation, all of the 15 countries involved in launching SILC in 2004 submitted an intermediate and final quality report respectively. On that basis Eurostat produced a single EU quality report that combined intermodal and final national quality reports. The intermediate report includes sections on: sample design; sampling and non-sampling errors; method of data collection and interview duration. The final report included parts relating to: relevance, accuracy; sample design; sampling and non-sampling errors; method of data collection; imputation procedure; imputed rent; company cars; comparability such as definitions; income components; tracing rules; punctuality; accessibility and coherence.

Conclusion: The report concludes that since the adoption of the EU-SILC Regulation, SILC statistics have become the source of reference data for statistics on income distribution, poverty and social exclusion. A significant amount has been invested in the evaluation of SILC data quality in the form of quality reports and methodological studies. A methodological Task Force, as well as a SILC Conference held in Helsinki also studied a number of quality issues in depth. On a final point, even though several publications were produced, further work is to be done on the dissemination of the SILC information.

PURPOSE: to introduce a new module “material deprivations” to the list of variables under the EU-SILC Regulations.

PROPOSED ACT: Council Regulation.

CONTENT: to recall, the main aim of the EU-SILC Regulations are to establish a common framework for the systematic production of Community Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. The statistics encompass comparable and cross-sectional data on income and on the level and composition of poverty and social exclusion in Europe. The Regulations also allow for the targeting of secondary areas – modules – to be included in the system every year staring from 2005 to complement the target primary variables. The modules for 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 related respectively to: intergenerational transmission of poverty, to social participation, to housing conditions and to over-indebtedness and financial exclusion.

The theme for the 2009 module is “material deprivation”. The list of variables to be included in this module has been developed by a Joint Eurostat/ISG Task Force. The ultimate objective of the module is to run methodological studies as from 2011/2012 on material deprivation in order to improve the deprivation component of the core (annual) SILC survey.

The list of target secondary variables, the variable codes and the definitions for the 2009 module on material deprivation, to be included in the cross-sectional component of the Community statistics on income and living conditions, are set out in Annex to the proposed Regulation. They include, inter alia , information on housing, the environment, financial stress and durables (mobile phones), basic needs, unmet needs such as leisure and social activities and children’s items.

ACT: Commission Regulation 315/2006/EC implementing Regulation 1177/2003/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning Community statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) as regards the list of target secondary variables relating to housing conditions.

CONTENT: This Regulation acts as an implementing act and complements Regulation 1177/2003, which establishes a common framework for the systematic production of Community statistics on income and living conditions, encompassing comparable and timely cross-sectional and longitudinal data on income and on the level and composition of poverty and social exclusion at national and European Union levels. This Regulation, in Annex, sets out the list of target secondary variables, the variable codes and the definitions for the 2007 module on housing conditions to be included in the cross-sectional component of Community statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC).

The Annex states that:

- the target variables relate to two types of units, namely household and the household respondent.

- the mode of collection will be based on personal interview with the household respondent or register.

- the reference period will be an ordinary winter/summer in the area where the dwelling is located covering the last two years in cases where the dwelling has changed and current for all other variables.

- the following terms are defined: shortage of space in dwelling, dwelling installations and facilities, accessibility to basic needs, overall satisfaction with dwelling and any changes to the dwelling for family, employment or financial reasons.

Finally, the Annex lists all areas of target variables in a 2007 “Housing Conditions Module”.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 15/03/2006.

ACT: Commission Regulation 13/2005/EC implementing Regulation 1177/2003/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning Community statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) as regards the list of target secondary variables relating to “social participation”.

CONTENT: This Regulation acts as an implementing act and complements Regulation 1177/2003/EC, which establishes a common framework for the systematic production of Community statistics on income and living conditions, encompassing comparable and timely cross-sectional and longitudinal data on income and on the level and composition of poverty and social exclusion at national and European Union levels. As such this Regulation, in Annex, establishes a list of target secondary variables, the variable codes and the definitions for the 2006 Module for “social participation” to be included in the cross-sectional component of Community statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC).

In summary, the Annex specifies that:

- information shall be provided for all current household members aged 16 and over.

- only personal interviews or information extracted from registers will be considered.

- the reference period will be the last 12 months for variables relating to participation in cultural events and participation in formal and informal activities.

- the following terms are defined: relatives, friends, spending time with friends and family, the frequency thereof, informal voluntary activities and participation in cultural events.

Finally, the Annex lists the areas of target variables.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 27 January 2005.

ACT: Commission Regulation 29/2004/EC implementing Regulation 1177/2003/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning Community statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) as regards the detailed content of intermediate and final quality reports.

CONTENT: This Regulation acts as an implementing act and complements Regulation 1177/2003/EC, which establishes a common framework for the systematic production of Community statistics on income and living conditions, encompassing comparable and timely cross-sectional and longitudinal data on income and on the level and composition of poverty and social exclusion at national and European Union levels. As such the Regulation in:

- Annex I: Sets the definitions to be applied to the intermediate and final quality reports of the Community statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC).

- Annex II: Stipulates the quality evaluation criteria and the detailed content of the intermediate quality report to be produced by Member States, relating to the common cross-sectional EU indicators based on the cross-sectional component of the EU-SILC.

- Annex III: Stipulates the quality evaluation criteria and the detailed content of the final quality report to be produced by Member States, relating to the EU-SILC cross-sectional and longitudinal components focussing on internal accuracy.

- Annex IV: Sets the content of the comparative intermediate and final quality reports to be produced by the Commission (Eurostat).

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 29 January 2004.