Statistical Office Receives a Donation of 18 Vehicles

“Statistics are valuable because they are accurate, relevant and up-to-date, and can be used to support an evidence-based decision-making process,” said Martin Klauke, Head of Operations Sector II at the European Union Delegation to Serbia.

Today, Klauke handed over the keys to 18 vehicles to the director of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, Miladin Kovačević, a donation financed mainly by the European Union. These are “Skoda” cars, with a total value of 180,000 euros, which is part of broader cooperation between the EU and the Republic Statistical Office of Serbia, worth nearly 30 million euros, to which the EU has contributed 20 million euros.

“On behalf of the EU Delegation and my behalf, I am happy to be part of the hand-off ceremony, knowing that this donation will facilitate next year’s population census. Some 20,000 people will be conducting the census, and coordinating them will be challenging. Still, your Office has extensive experience in implementing such activities,” said Martin Klauke during the ceremony held in front of the Statistical Office building in Belgrade.

It is essential to know that population and agriculture censuses are the most extensive actions supported by the EU within the national programme, to which the EU contributes 20 million euros.

“I would like to thank the EU Delegation to Serbia, especially Mr Martin Klauke, who visited us to hand over these 18 vehicles. We already use vehicles donated by the EU, that is, the European Agency for Reconstruction,” said the director of the Statistical Office. He reminded that the development of statistics in Serbia is a significant project, implemented with EU support.

“The programme is worth 29,750,000 euros, 20 million of which has been donated by the EU. I must stress that the EU has been supporting us continuously. We could not imagine the development of an information system without the help of the EU. I hope that we will continue this rather fruitful cooperation,” Miladin Kovacevic concluded.

As part of cooperation in statistics with candidate countries, Eurostat collects data from several statistical regions twice a year, which is then published in the European Commission’s statistical annexe, the Annual Enlargement Package.

The Office is obliged to submit data to Eurostat via the EDAMIS application regularly. The data transmission control is ensured thanks to contact points within statistical departments.