Legal, Political and Methodological Issues in Confidentiality in the European Statistical System

摘要

The paper discusses the challenges linked to the need of the research community to have access to microdata files for scientific purposes. These needs have to be adequately balanced with the legal requirement of preserving the confidentiality of respondents. The paper presents the policies and instruments available at the European Union to progress in the supply of data to the research community, while respecting the legal requirements. More specifically, the paper explains the current process dealing with research projects and the work of the European Statistical System Network (ESSnet) project for statistical disclosure control. Finally the paper describes future trends that are currently investigated in the European Union, and more specifically the development of remote access facilities, the enhancement of disclosure control tools and the convergence towards common policies in Member States.