On 10 February, at the 51^st meeting held in Luxembourg, the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC) endorsed the candidacy of the Director General of the State Data Agency Dr. Jūratė Petrauskienė for the European Statistical Advisory Committee (hereinafter – the “Committee”). This recognises the Director General’s expertise in responding promptly to user needs for quick solutions (especially in times of pandemics and other crises) by using data from various sources as well as the analytical potential of employees. In the Committee, Dr. Jūratė Petrauskienė replaced the Head of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office whose term of office had expired.

The Committee was established in March 2008 by decision of the European Parliament and the Council. The Committee comprises 24 members, 2 of them are appointed by the ESSC. The main tasks of the Committee are to ensure that the needs of users are met, and that the costs allocated by statistics providers and producers are oriented towards the strategic and priority policy of the European Union for the production and dissemination of statistical information. The Committee also provides an opinion on the implementation of the European Commission’s annual statistics programme and the balancing of resources between the different areas of the multiannual statistical programme.