The European Statistical System (ESS) is a partnership between:

• •  Statistical Institute of the European Union - Eurostat,
• •  National Statistical Institutes
• •  Other national producers of official statistics

The system of official statistics in RS consists of:

• •  The Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (SORS),
• •  Other responsible producers of official statistics (RPOS). 

In accordance with the Law on Official Statistics, SORS is the main producer and disseminator of data, responsible professional holder, organizer and coordinator of the official statistics system and presents the official statistics of the Republic of Serbia in the international statistical system.

Responsible producers of official statistics are institutions that are nationally responsible for the development, production and dissemination of European and/ or national official statistics or for the processing and dissemination of data collected from relevant sources with a clear link to European or national methodologies. The responsible producers of official statistics must perform their official statistical activity in accordance with national needs, in accordance with the competent legislation, the five-year program of official statistics and the annual plan of statistical activities. 

Producers of statistics, categorized as "responsible producers of official statistics" can only be the institutions that:

• •  produce and distribute official statistical data, in the area of ​​its legally defined competence, with the development of an accompanying methodology;
• •  separate their official statistical activity from other activities of the organization and ensure the professional independence of these activities and the engaged staff;
• •  perform official statistical activity in a legally regulated and transparent manner;
• •  respect the principles of the European and the Code of Practice of Official Statistics of the Republic of Serbia;
• •  make the result of their statistical activity publicly available.

The program of official statistics in the period from 2021 to 2025, in accordance with the Law, lists as other responsible producers of official statistics the next institutions:

1)   Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

2)   National Bank of Serbia

3)   City administration of Belgrade, for the territory of the City of Belgrade

4)   Ministry of finance of the Republic of Serbia

5)   Ministry of interior of the Republic of Serbia

6)   Ministry of justice of the Republic of Serbia

7)   Republic Public Prosecutor

8)   Ministry of Health of the Republic of Serbia

9)   Institute of Public Health

10) Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management

11) Ministry of Environmental Protection of the Republic of Serbia

12) Environmental Protection Agency

13) Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia

14) Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs

15) Republic Institute for Social Protection

16) National Employment Service

17) Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development

18) Institute for the Study of Cultural Development

19) National Library of Serbia

20) Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Serbia

21) Ministry of Mining and Energy of the Republic of Serbia

22) Ministry of youth and sports of the Republic of Serbia

23) Serbian Institute of Sport and Sports Medicine

24) Republic Geodetic Authority

25) Pension and Disability Insurance Fund of the Republic of Serbia

26) National Health Insurance Fund of the Republic of Serbia

Coordination of the system of official statistics in RS

The Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia is the main producer of official statistics and coordinator of the official statistics system in RS, responsible for the preparation of the five-year statistical program and annual plans in the official statistics system in RS, as well as for reporting on their implementation. SORS is obliged to set standards for the production of statistics for all authorized producers of official statistics and to organize and coordinate the production of official statistics in all competent state institutions.

Coordination activities are based on cooperation and common operational objectives and principles, in order to identify official statistical data, their collection, processing, analysis and finally the dissemination of official statistics. The Office has the right and responsibility to influence other producers of official statistics in order to harmonize their methodologies with the principles of European statistics. 

The coordination role of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia includes the following activities, most of which are in the development phase:

• •  Establishing a list of responsible producers of official statistics;
• •  Creating the legal framework of the Coordination Board;
• •  Holding workshops to acquaint the RPOS with the Code of Practice of Official Statistics of the Republic of Serbia and the activities of the Coordination Board;
• •  Introduction of the accreditation process of responsible producers of official statistics;
• •  Introduction of the quality management process into the statistical production process;
• •  Defining and centralized use of common statistical terminology, standard metadata, classifications, data exchange formats and other standards;
• •  Development of statistical methodologies and encouragement of innovations in the field of statistical methods;
• •  Standardization of IT methods, tools and services;
• •  Establishing standards on the quality of the statistical data.

Coordination Board

The strategy of establishing coordination in the system of official statistics implies, first of all, the formation of a final Coordination Board within which performed are the tasks whose nature requires the participation of several institutions, and which relate to the development, production and dissemination of national statistics.

Based on the five-year program of official statistics, the plan is to establish a Coordination Board of Official Statistics, which includes representatives of all responsible producers of official statistics in the Republic of Serbia. The Coordination Board will base its work on the basis of the Multilateral Agreement on Cooperation, the Rules of Procedure of the Coordination Board and the strategy for the development of official statistics in the Republic of Serbia in the period from 2021 to 2025. In accordance with the recommendations received from the Peer Review team, the persons representing the institutions producing official statistics within the Coordination Board are the heads of the organizational units in which the statistical activities are performed. The function of the President of the Coordination Board is performed by the Director of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia.

The activities of the Coordination Board are aimed at adequate inter-institutional cooperation and exchange of knowledge in order to establish the standardization of the official statistical data and raise their quality. 

Code of Practice of Official Statistics of the Republic of Serbia

The European Statistics Code of Practice is the basis for establishing a single quality framework for the European Statistical System. Statistical authorities, which include Eurostat, national statistical institutions and other national authorities responsible for the development, production and dissemination of European Statistics, accept the obligation to comply with the Code of Practice. 

Given that the European Statistics Code of Practice provides only a general insight into the principles of statistical production, it is necessary that the principles are adjusted to national criteria and needs, which causes the need to create a Code of Practice for Official Statistics of the Republic of Serbia. 

The Code of Practice of Official Statistics of the Republic of Serbia is a technical and regulatory instrument that aims to provide a framework for establishing a single system of national statistics and encourage the standardization of its production.