Background
EU and Israel Partnership
The European Union (EU) and Israel share a long common history, marked by growing interdependence and cooperation. Over five decades trade, cultural exchanges and political cooperation have cemented this partnership, which began with a Cooperation Agreement signed as far back as 1975. In 2000, the Cooperation Agreement was replaced by an Association Agreement.
In May 2004, the EU adapted a new framework for its relations with neighbouring countries, including Israel. In a communication entitled "Wider Europe - Neighbourhood: A New Framework for the Relations with our Eastern and Southern neighbours", the European Commission stated that "the objective of the so-called European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is to develop an area of prosperity and anchor a 'ring of friends' with whom the EU can enjoy close, peaceful and fruitful relations". The central element of the ENP is the bilateral ENP Action Plans, which are agreed on between the EU and each partner.
Among other aspects, the Israel Action Plan[1] specifically lists increased awareness of EU and international statistical methods in relevant statistical areas, in addition to the possibility of further harmonization with international standards and classifications. For further information on the EU/Israel Action Plan please consult: http://eeas.europa.eu/israel/index_en.htm
Twinning: Sharing Expertise and Information
Twinning is a European Union instrument for institutional cooperation between public administrations of EU Member States and similar institutions in partner countries. Twinning projects bring together public sector expertise from EU Member States and partner countries, with the aim of achieving concrete mandatory operational results through peer-to-peer activities. Thus Twinning is based on partnership and genuine cooperation between equal partners.
European Union Twinning Project on Statistics
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS) has partnered with Statistics Denmark to implement a 24-month Twinning project with the assistance of experts at Statistics Netherlands, the Central Statistical Office of Poland, and the Office of National Statistics in the UK. The overall objective of the Twinning Project is for the ICBS to align official Israeli statistics with standards, guidelines, and best practices from the European Union and from international organizations.
The objectives of the Twinning project are:
- The project purpose is to support the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS) in aligning official statistics with the EU and other international organizations standards, guidelines, and best practices.
- To support ICBS in setting up an organisational unit responsible for quality management as an overarching process toward the production of statistics in the National Statistics System (NSS), and capacity building of the staff;
- To support ICBS in improving its Micro data services to the research community;
- To support ICBS in establishing infrastructures suitable for the production of agricultural statistics;
- To support ICBS in developing a methodology based on an extensive use of geo-spatial tools in survey management.
Topics, expected results and activity reports
The Twinning project has four components. For each component, expected results have been specified and activities designed.
Component A - Quality management of official statisticsC
|  |  |
|---|
| Component B - Micro-data services to researchers | | |
|---|
| Component C - Infrastructures for agricultural statistics | | |
|---|
| Component D - Methodological and geo-spatial tools for improving the quality and the efficiency of field surveys | | |
|---|
