Labour Party MEP Edward Scicluna has been appointed the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Robust Quality Management of European Statistics.

The report by Prof Scicluna, who is vice-chairman of the Parliament’s Economic Committee, will include the Parliament’s recommendations regarding seeking agreement on a quality management framework for EU statistics related to the economic governance package.

Prof Scicluna said: “The crisis in Greece and elsewhere in the eurozone was partly caused by poor quality – and in some cases fraudulent – economic statistics. Now that we have agreed to have a greater EU-level oversight and surveillance of fiscal policy, it is important to work out how this will operate in practice.

“Although we have spent the last year working on economic governance, the truth is that without reliable statistical data, the ‘six pack’ will not work. This goes for the entire field of European economic policy.”

Prof Scicluna has also started work as the Socialist and Democrat Group spokesman on legislation on the European system of Accounts (ESA). This regulation, which will apply to all EU countries, will be negotiated by MEPs and government ministers between now and early 2012.