BNS: Lithuania, other EU Member States to seek cut in administrative burden by one-fourth by 2012
Updated 2008-09-26
VILNIUS, Sept 25, BNS - Lithuania will join other European Union (EU) Member States in efforts to cut administrative burden by one-fourth by 2012.
"Administrative burden is closely related with statistics. A notion that statistics give rise to the burden and red tape is prevailing among population, private business, small and mid-scale companies. However, the evaluation of that burden has shown that this notion is way different from reality. Some EU Member States, which evaluate administrative burden, have made estimations showing that statistics only comprise 1-3 percent of the total burden," Walter Radermacher, Director-General of Eurostat, told the reporters after the conference organized by Eurostat and Lithuania's Department of Statistics in Vilnius on Thursday.
Discussions on the reduction of administrative burden were now held on the European level, said Joaquin Almunia, EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, who attended the opening of the conference.
Lithuania's Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas said at the news conference that the plan to cut the administrative burden by 25 percent by 2012 was "very ambitious". He assured, however, that Lithuania had joined this plan.
Lithuania's statistics system currently employed 563 staff and about 70 interviewers, said Algirdas Semeta, director of Lithuania's Department of Statistics.
