Currently, the ECB’s Governing Council monitors twice a year the progress of the current pre-ins and the new Member States in their statistical preparations for EMU. Many countries have made very significant progress in a very short space of time, but full compliance with all legal requirements has not yet been reached.
Since the compilation of statistics is an activity that is typically characterised by significant economies of scale, the situation in the smallest Member States, particularly those with sizeable financial sectors, deserves specific attention. More generally, possibilities for economies of scale in the compilation of European statistics should be regularly re-assessed and exploited when appropriate.