Dr Jūratė Petrauskienė, Director General of the State data Agency, participated in the high-level seminar of the Directors-General "Integration and Interoperability Strategies for Modernizing Official Statistics" organized by the Spain Presidency of the Council of the European Union in Seville (Spain), on 27 and 28 November 2023.

Heads of the EU’s National Statistics Institutes, the Director General of Eurostat, heads of Eurostat directorates and experts, guest speakers participated in the seminar.

The high-level seminar of the Directors-General revolved around the future of statistical institutions and the statistical system, innovative activities, new roles to be assumed in a datafied society. In particular, one of the main questions is how we can better use new types of data and tools to modernize statistical production.

The event was opened by E. Manzanera, Head of the Spanish National Institute of Statistics, and M. Kotzeva, Director General of Eurostat. They emphasized the relevance of the topic of this seminar, because the Data Governance Act is establishing a governance framework for the European Data Spaces, which are to be implemented in strategic economic sectors and domains of public interest. Also, currently, the Working Group of the EU Council is considering amendments to Regulation 223/2009. The aim is to seize the opportunities provided by the digital transformation in terms of new data sources, technologies and mechanisms that make up the new data ecosystems to meet the increasing demand for timelier, more granular and more responsive European statistics. At the same time, the revised Regulation should enable new roles and tasks for the statistical offices to optimize use of data in the new data ecosystems and the public sector to foster evidence-based decision making.

The following three key subjects were discussed during the workshop sessions: experiences in data infrastructure integration; enhancing data interoperability; integration and interoperability strategy to modernize official statistics.

The representative of the Joint Research Center of the European Commission, who read the keynote speech of the seminar (on the topic "Putting data together: Data spaces enabling data integration and interoperability"), elaborated on the key role of data spaces for data integration and different aspects of interoperability to maximise the use of data for decision making.

In the first session, Dr Jūratė Petrauskienė, Director General of the State data Agency, and Dr T. Thomas, Director General of Statistics Austria, presented the experience and vision of their institutions.

Dr Jūratė Petrauskienė and Dr T. Thomas, exchanged experiences and best practices on successful data integration at a strategic level: increasing access to administrative and privately held data and how to link them to existing data.

The aim of the session was to exchange experiences and best practices among the ESS members on data integration at a strategic level. Issues related to data holders, confidentiality and secure measures were also discussed.

In the second session, the keynote speech was delivered by F. Lima, President of Statistics Portugal. The aim of the session was to present current best practices in Member States, collect additional examples, and discuss about different interoperable strategies used, as well as potential relations with other interoperable norms and standards.

In the third session, the report was read by D. Rozkrut, President of Statistics Poland. In this session, the discussion on elements of a data integration and interoperability strategy that could lead to a common strategy in the ESS to modernize and face a new era of official statistics took place.

The next high-level seminar-conference of the Directors-General will be held in Bruges (Belgium), on 2 and 3 May 2024. The aim of the seminar is the development of statistical literacy and communication strategies. Experts in education, communication and dissemination, representatives of the academic community are also invited to participate in it.