Rules on the National Statistical Council Activity
Chapter I
General Provisions
Art. 1 (1) The National Statistical Council (NSC) (hereinafter referred to as the Council), is established in accordance with Art.14 of Law on Statistics, as a consultative body, attached to the President of the National Statistical Institute (NSI).
(2) The Rules on activities shall regulate the functions, tasks, composition and activity of the Council.
Chapter II
Functions and Tasks
Art. 2 The Council functions and tasks shall be to:
1. give an opinion and recommendations on the Strategy for Development of the National Statistical System for each 5-year period;
2. discuss the proposals of the Bodies of Statistics and give recommendations for including in the draft version of the National Statistical Programme particular statistical surveys specified in kind, coverage and acting persons;
3. support the National Statistical System activities on implementation of the National Statistical Programme;
4. create, in case of need, constant or temporary working groups to deal with particular statistical issues in compliance with its competencies;
5. cooperate with the European Statistical Advisory Committee (ESAC) (according to the Art. 3, Para 4 from Decision No 234/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council);
6. adopt the rules on its activities;
7. elect a chairperson among its members for a term of five years .
Chapter ˛˛˛
Composition
Art. 3 The Council shall comprise a chairperson and members.
Art. 4. (1) The Chairperson of the Council shall:
1. manage and represent the Council;
2. convene and chair the meetings;
3. propose a meeting agenda to be approved by the Council members;
4. report the council activities to the President of NSI.
(2) In case of absence of the Chairperson, the council meeting shall be managed by a council member who is assigned by the Chairperson as a deputy.
Art. 5 (1) The Council shall comprise the members, as follows:
1. Intrastat Directorate, National Revenue Agency – Ministry of Finance;
2. Customs Statistics and Analyses Department in Customs Statistics and Automation Directorate of National Customs Agency - Ministry of Finance;
3. Agrarian Statistics Department in Directorate General “Agriculture, Forestry and Land Relations” – Ministry of Agriculture and Food;
4. National Center of Health Informatics – Ministry of Health;
5. Department "Ports" in Inspection Activities Directorate of Executive Agency "Maritime administration" - Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications;
6. Registers and Statistics Department in Administrative Directorate of Directorate General "Civil Aviation Administration" - Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications;
7. Directorate General "Analyses, Planning and Prognoses" – National Social Security Institute;
8. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Directorate of Executive Environment Agency - Ministry of Environment and Water;
9. one member representing the Bulgarian National Bank;
10. three members representing the academic society;
11. members representing different groups of the respondents and users.
(2) The list of the Council members shall be published on the NSI web site.
Art. 6 The members of the Council shall be appointed by the President of NSI for a term of five years. The mandate of the Council shall start from the date of first meeting. If a member resigns before the expire of his or her term of office, he or she shall be replaced by a new member, appointed by the President of NSI. The members of the Council shall be dismissed by the President of NSI.
Art. 7 The members of the Council shall:
1. attend the meetings and participate in decision-making of the Council;
2. submit proposals regarding actual issues on development and coordination of the National Statistical System;
3. inform the Council about the implementation of activity performed by them or by represented structural units concerning National Statistical System;
4. respond for implementation of the Council decisions concerning their fields of work.
Art. 8 (1) Any technical and coordination work related to the Council activity shall be implemented by technical Secretary.
(2) Technical Secretary shall be approved by the Council, by proposal of the President of NSI.
Art. 9 The Secretary shall:
1. organize the preparation and convening of the meetings;
2. ensure the timely distribution of the agenda and all documents, necessary to conduct the meetings;
3. draw up the meeting minutes;
4. prepare a report on the adopted decisions;
5. coordinate the necessary exchange of information between stakeholders.
Chapter ˛V
Meetings and Decision-making
Art. 10 (1) Council shall hold the meetings at least three times per year, as the meetings shall be convened by the Chairperson of the Council.
(2) In exceptional cases, the Council members may authorize other representative from the relevant institution, who shall act in place on the Council meeting. The authorization shall be done expressly and separately concerning each particular meeting.
(3) Meetings shall be regular, if more than a half of the members of the Council /or their deputy officials having the right to vote/ attend the meeting. If 30 minutes after the time fixed for the beginning of the meeting, the required quorum shall not be established, the meeting shall begin the work with the members of the Council which attend at the meeting.
(4) Meetings shall be lead according to provisional agenda. The provisional agenda and all documents, that have to be discussed, shall be sent to all member of the Council at least five working days before the date of the meeting.
(5) The Chairperson may convene the meeting more than three times per year, in case of necessity to discuss urgent questions. In such occasion, the Chairperson shall inform the members of the Council on agenda of the meeting in written form at least two days in advance.
(6) Representatives of interested institutions or partners, which are not included in the composition of the Council, shall attend the meeting when the Council discuss certain issues, related to the competencies of other institutions or to other partners, invited by the Chairperson.
(7) Officials of NSI may participate on the meetings upon invitation of the Chairperson of the Council.
Art. 11 The decisions shall be taken with open voting and simple majority of all Council members.
Art. 12 (1) The minutes shall be kept for each meeting and all present Council members shall sign the minutes “in favour” or “note of dissent”.
(2) The minutes shall mandatory include:
1. date, place and agenda of the meeting;
2. names of present Council members or the names of their deputy officials;
3. names of other present non-members;
4. items discussed;
5. decisions adopted, deadlines and responsible persons for their implementation.
(3) In cases of “note of dissent” the relevant Council member shall justify it in a written form and shall submit it not later than three days after the date of the meeting. The justification shall be inseparably linked with the minutes.
(4) The Chairperson and Secretary of the Council shall sign adopted decisions and minutes and shall submit them to Council members within five working days after the meeting.
(5) The correspondence related to the work of the Council shall be addressed to the Secretary.
(6) The originals of minutes, as well as a complete set of documentation and correspondence of the Council shall be kept by the Secretary.
(7) The meeting shall be convened in the Office-building of NSI.
Chapter V
Amendments to Rules on activities
Art. 13. Rules on activities shall be amended by the Council according to the proposal made by a Council member. The amendments shall be reflected in the Rules on activities due discussion.
Transitional and Concluding Provisions
§1. The Rules on activities shall be elaborated according to the Art.14, Para 4, point 6 of the Law on Statistics.
§2. The Rules on activities shall enter into force on the day of their adoption at a Council meeting.
§3. The implementation of these Rules on activities shall be assigned to the Chairperson of the Council.
Adopted at the meeting of the National Statistical Council of 20 January 2009
