The fifth meeting of the Group “Sponsorship on Communication” was held on 12 May 2011 at Arena di Serdica Residence Hotel in Sofia.

The meeting was opened by Mr. Jaume Garcia Villar, Chair of the Sponsorship Group on Communication and President of the National Statistics Institute of Spain.

The meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Pieter Everaers, Eurostat Director of Directorate D “External cooperation, communication and key indicators”. The Group was established by a mandate of the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC) in 2010. Participant countries in this group are Spain, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Sweden, Romania, France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, as well as Eurostat.

Participants from Bulgaria were Mrs. Mariana Kotzeva, President of the National Statistical Institute, Mrs. Eleonora Avramova, Director of European, International Cooperation and Coordination Directorate and Mrs. Sonya Zlatanova, expert in E-services Department.

In the beginning of the meeting, a review of the general progress of the work of the Sponsorship Group on Communication was made and the minutes of the last meeting held in Wiesbaden, March 2011, were approved.

The discussions were focused on:
• satisfying users’ needs and increasing the confidence in statistical surveys
• developing common Press Network of EU Member States
• developing European Statistical System (ESS) logo
• reviewing projects related to better acquainting users with the results of the work of the Sponsorship group on measuring progress, improving quality in the field of dissemination and relations with users
• developing ESS website
• discussing the final stage of a project on social media for dissemination of statistical information
• developing common set of tables for dissemination of statistical information

Main topic of the discussions was activating the dialogue with users of statistical information and acquainting them with the products and services provided by the European statistics.

The next meeting of the Sponsorship Group on Communication will be held in the autumn of 2011.

On 13 May 2011, Mr. John Allen, Eurostat representative in the Sponsorship Group on Communication and head of Unit D4 “Dissemination”, visited the NSI Dissemination Directorate. Mr. Allen met with experts from the three departments to the Dissemination Directorate - “User Services”, “E-services” and “Press-center and Publications”, who presented their work. The library experts presented the NSI Digital Library and means of access to the full text of the statistical publications in Internet.

Mr. John Allen, who was for the first time in Bulgaria, expressed his satisfaction with the organisation of the work in the NSI Dissemination Directorate. He also expressed his confidence that Bulgaria will continue actively to contribute to the future common activities and projects related to development of statistical information within the framework of the European Statistical System.