Eurostat works in cooperation with Members States and EFTA countries to provide comparable statistics at EU level. Together they form the European Statistical System (ESS), which is responsible for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics.
Data and metadata are collected according to rules laid down in general as well as domain specific European regulations and / or agreements defined by the corresponding stakeholders and approved by the competent authorities. National authories and Eurostat work together to ensure that these rules are respected thourought the data and metadata life cycle.
Validation is an important process in producing high quality data and metadata outputs. The ESS has developed standardized validation processes which effectively and efficiently verify data and metadata and communicate their outcome to all interested stakeholders.
Further information on the ESS composition and its governance bodies can be found on this dedicated section.