New MEDSTAT website

MEDSTAT II, the EU-funded regional Euro-Mediterranean Statistical Co-operation programme, has just announced that its new dedicated website is now online at http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/medstat
 
The site provides information in English, French and German on MEDSTAT II, its background, organisational structure and partners, as well as on the programme’s activities, events and publications and, of course, statistical data relevant to MEDSTAT’s priority areas.
 
The website has been set up in response to the programme’s objective of broadening the dissemination of Mediterranean statistical data and encouraging its use by a growing number of actors.  The programme also seeks to ensure the reliability and coherence of Mediterranean data in nine specific sectors: Trade of goods and services, Transport, Migration, Tourism, Environment, National accounts, Social statistics, Energy and Agriculture.
 
Euro-Mediterranean statistical cooperation began in 1996 through the MEDSTAT regional programme. Ten years later, the three-year, €30 million MEDSTAT II programme was launched with ten partner countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey).
 
Dealing with statistics in the nine thematic sectors mentioned above and three horizontal sectors (Training, Information System and Dissemination), the programme’s main objective is to strengthen the capacity of the partner countries’ National Statistics Institutes and each country’s own National Statistical System in order to provide users with updated, timely, reliable and relevant high-quality statistical data necessary for political decision-making and to ensure good governance.
 
Statistical data of the Mediterranean partner countries regarding the priority sectors of the MEDSTAT II programme will be accessible online.