On 3 and 4 May, a seminar on “Statistics and evidence based decision making” was held in Brussels. A delegation of the Republic of Macedonia led by the Director of the State Statistical Office, Blagica Novkovska MSc., and the Deputy Minister for Environment and Physical Planning, Stevo Temelkovski MSc., attended the seminar.

The seminar was organised jointly by the Directorate General for Enlargement of the European Commission and Eurostat. Participation invitations were sent to high-level experts and representatives of the statistical offices and policy-making institutions of EU Member States and Candidate Countries, which are using statistics for their decision making, as well as to representatives of the European Commission, OECD and the Energy Community. The seminar focused on: informing partner countries about the current situation of the European statistical system and the alignment of the acquis on statistics; sharing experiences between countries in the implementation of EU requirements on statistics; stimulating partner countries to improve the quality and use of their statistics in key areas of the acquis; promoting better use of statistics in the decision making in the public administration reform process and promoting projects and future cooperation on statistics for policy making.

At the seminar, the Director of the State Statistical Office delivered a paper on inclusive development, poverty and social exclusion. The Deputy Minister also gave a presentation on green growth indicators.