EUROSTAT Executive: Montenegrin census preparations in line with European standards

“I wish to congratulate Montenegrin Government and MONTSTAT for the very well prepared census,” Director at EUROSTAT Pieter Everaers said after his meeting with Finance Minister Milorad Katnic just a day before the start of Montenegrin 2011 census. He underlined that, as a candidate country, it is important that Montenegro follows EU standards and international recommendations on census. He noted that in the past few years MONTSTAT has received significant assistance and developed substantial capacity and is now able to apply high quality statistical measures in the census.

Addressing a press conference following their meeting, Mr Everaers and Mr Katnic said that all the preparations for the census that takes place from April 1-15 are done in accordance with the EU recommendations and European practice.

Minister Katnic stated that the preparations included the best practices and highest EU and international standards. He announced that Montenegro is well prepared to undertake the census, and that MONTSTAT is a very able body, well equipped technically and otherwise to collect useful statistical data.

Mr Everaers remarked that census is “one of the main pillars of a national statistical system and the results are essential for decision-making processes on both the national and local levels,” underlining that it is “a starting point for the demographic and social data collection in a country.” He underlined that a reliable census is also important for international organisations such as the World Bank and the IMF who largely base their policies on various statistical indicators that can only be determined through a census. He also underlined that “the main structure of EU governance is based on statistics,” and that, as an “EU aspirant, Montenegro must have high quality reliable statistics.”

He welcomed the Government’s decision to ask EUROSTAT to monitor the preparations of census and perform control of the results. He stated that this monitoring will result in a report on the census and that, based on the information gathered thus far, the EUROSTAT expects the census to be good and in accordance with international standards. He also underlined that “the law on census guarantees the confidentiality of data.”

He noted that regardless of the fact that “the results will be used in decision-making by politicians,” the census is essentially “a technical, statistical exercise, and the participation should not be politicised.” In this respect he reflected on the much debated issue regarding the census questions on ethnicity, religion and language, which he put in the group of “non-core” questions for which the “non-declared” answer should also be deemed satisfactory. Mr Everaers however underlined that other, “core” questions should be answered by all to ensure the highest quality of collected data.

At the end of the press conference Minister Katnic thanked EUROSTAT for their assistance, recommendations and support, expressing confidence that the census will result in reliable and useful data.