BY ELIF KARACA
Frequent changes of the president of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) and other management positions significantly undermine the institution’s credibility, said the European Statistical Office (Eurostat) officials citing the European Commission’s 2021 Turkey report.
Officials said Turkey was the first candidate that passed the ‘peer review’ assessment in 2015. “Other candidates and potential candidates were reviewed in 2016-2018. Their peer review is planned to start in 2023 and continue for around two years following evaluations regarding the EU members,” Eurostat officials added. Peer review tours of the EU members have a similar period.
Eurostat also annually monitors whether its recommendations are implemented. The Annual Turkey report includes a chapter in which the Commission gives information about the country’s progress in this field. Developments in the statistical area, which form the backbone of good policymaking, and economic criteria are reported in other chapters. “The legal basis of Eurostat isn’t binding for Turkey as the country isn’t an EU member,” the officials noted. The annual Turkey report guides and recommends priority actions to be taken by Turkey as a candidate state which is expected to gradually comply with the EU acquis. “In general terms, there is a traditionally good collaboration with TurkStat,” the officials added.
Turkey is moderately prepared in the area of statistics, according to the report. However, the country made some progress in further aligning with the EU acquis and in improving the compliance level of annual national accounts with the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP). “Frequent changes of the president of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) and other management positions significantly undermine the institution’s credibility,” the report read.
