Statistical parainformation platform – foundation of information transparency in heterogeneous international environment (with special reference to the Eastern Partnership initiative)

1. Transparency and coherence of social and economic information between countries is the prerequisite and of international cooperation and strengthening relations based on partnership and mutual trust. The closer are institutionalized and informal relations between countries, their governments, NGO’s, businesses and citizens, the stronger is the need for transparency in all spheres of social and economic information. 2. The mission of official statistics in globalized, more open economy is to (a) providing methods and tools of quality control of public information, (b) producing information relevant to the needs of all users and (c) widening and facilitating the accessibility and international interchange of information. 3. In modern ICT environment the international parainformation platform embedded in official statistical systems of cooperating countries is the optimal, efficient, easy to implement and relatively cheap instrument to provide information transparency in international, heterogeneous environment. 4. General conceptual foundations and function of the platform are presented. It is stressed that the participation in information interchange via the platform does not need to introduce any changes in existing information systems of cooperating countries. The value added of the platform for all stakeholders would be the homogeneous retrieving of data from accessible systems and data bases both statistical and administrative systems via the platform. Important value added would be the integration of statistical parainformation resources of countries in one database, i.e. the base storing verified and updated information on accessible systems, information resources and the institutions managing those systems and resources of all cooperating countries and organizations. 5. The role and contribution of the statistical parainformation platform in strengthening the integrity of statistical information systems and relevant administrative and scientific information systems on international scale, with special reference to the needs of the Eastern Partnership, are discussed.