About DGINS
DGINS stands for “Directeurs-généraux des Intstituts Nationaux de la Statistique”. The first DGINS meeting was held in 1953, and in those times it acted as the predecessor of the present Statistical Programme Committee (SPC). Originally the Directors-General met twice a year. In 1989, at the 72nd DGINS meeting, it was decided to create the Statistical Programme Committee (SPC).
The DGINS Conferences nevertheless continued to be organised but with a slightly different focus. Nowadays the DGINS Conference is held once a year in one of the Member States with the aim of discussing topics related to the statistical programme in an informal way. The head of the host country's national statistical institute acts as chairperson.
The host country draws up the programme together with Eurostat. The DGINS meetings are, in fact, informal, high-level conferences which provide an opportunity to discuss current strategic issues in statistics.
A new mandate for the DGINS Conference was adopted by the SPC at its meeting on 22-23 November 2000, indicating the present objectives, tasks and functions of the Conference. According to this document, the specific objectives of the DGINS Conference are defined as:
- Organisation and management of statistical work within the ESS,
- Identifying and discussing future needs for statistics in a strategic context,
- Pursuit of existing priority needs that are not being met, and
- Presentation of the statistical system of the host country.
This year’s DGINS Conference entitled ‘The ESS response to globalisation – are we doing enough?’ will be held in Budapest, Hungary, from 20 to 21 September 2007.
The last DGINS Conferences covered the following topics:
| Year | Location | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Vienna | Statistical business registers: problems and opportunities |
| 1997 | Helsinki | Information society and statistics |
| 1998 | Stockholm | Quality work and quality assurance within statistics |
| 1999 | The Hague | Statistics, a challenge for the future |
| 2000 | Porto | Information and knowledge – The role of statistics |
| 2001 | Madrid | Strategic planning in the context of enlargement |
| 2002 | Palermo | The future of the European Statistical System |
| 2003 | Athens | Social Statistics in the enlarged EU |
| 2004 | Paris | Short term indicators: priority assessment, quality, revisions and timeliness |
| 2005 | Copenhagen | The Challenge of communicating statistics |
| 2006 | Cracow | Making the system work |
| 2007 | Budapest | The ESS response to globalisation – are we doing enough? |