Labour MEP Edward Scicluna was yesterday nominated by acclamation by the European Parliament’s Economic Committee (ECON) to represent the Parliament on the European Statistical Advisory Committee (ESAC).

ESAC is the governing body responsible for coordinating the production and maintaining the quality of statistics in the EU.

Prof. Scicluna will be the European Parliament’s only representative on this expert committee and his candidature will now be endorsed by the European Commission and the Council of Ministers.

Once adopted, he will remain on ESAC until the end of his mandate as an MEP.

Prof. Scicluna said the sovereign debt crisis in Greece has shown that the accuracy and reliability of government statistics cannot be taken for granted.

“Key to this is maintaining a strong governance framework bringing together the national statistical bodies, the respective governments, Eurostat and the EU institutions,” he said.