Editorial: Data, models and land planning - Europe's data-led policy

摘要

Since its creation, European leaders clearly understood the need to have overall data sets that could feed policy development, evaluation and monitoring. This could not be done by simply collecting information from the countries' national surveying institutes (as the methodologies used tended to be different); therefore there was a need to create a European umbrella organisation that could feed European policy with data. In this context Eurostat first appeared in 1953, as the 'Statistics Division for the Coal and Steel Community', and in 1959 became known as the 'Statistical Office of the European Communities' (Eurostat). This first phase (1951-1988) was particularly important for the creation and maintenance of the European Union (EU) as we see it today. The collection of information (in many cases only at country level and according to different sectors), allowed initial policies to be drafted.