1.The Community statistical authority, as designated by the Commission to develop, produce and disseminate European statistics, shall be referred to as ‘the Commission (Eurostat)’ in this Regulation.
2.At Union level, the Commission (Eurostat) shall act independently in ensuring the production of European statistics according to established rules and statistical principles.
3.Without prejudice to Article 5 of the Protocol No 4 on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank, the Commission (Eurostat) shall coordinate the statistical activities of the institutions and bodies of the Union, in particular with a view to ensuring consistency and quality of the data and minimising reporting burden. To that end, the Commission (Eurostat) may invite any institution or body of the Union to consult or cooperate with it for the purpose of developing methods and systems for statistical purposes in their respective field of competence. Any of those institutions or bodies which propose to produce statistics shall consult the Commission (Eurostat) and take into account any recommendation that it may make to this effect.