91999E2232

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2232/99

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(1 December 1999)

Subject: Publication of the econometric model

Is the Commission willing to make available to interested researchers its econometric model of the EU and the eurozone, stripped, where necessary, of all assumptions?

Joint answer to Written Questions E-2232/99 and E-2243/99 by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(20 December 1999)

Models in the public sector of Member States are not always developed by ministries of finance or central banks (e.g. in Belgium and the Netherlands, they are developed by their planning bureau). The existence of such models varies through time, is of course not under the control of the Commission and is not always publicised. Information about their availability should thus be requested from the Member States authorities.

As far as the Commission is concerned, it has been a constant policy to transfer its multinational macro model QUEST to all universities and public sector research units that request it. The transfer is made under the following conditions. The user cannot modify the structure and equations of the model in any way and simulations made with the model should always state that they only represent the views of the authors and in no way those of the Commission. The model has been developed in a specific software package that is not the property of the Commission. The user must thus provide the same software, acquired under his own responsibility. The Commission cannot provide any technical help to the user. It is the responsibility of the latter to entrust the model to a fully qualified econometric team having a proven experience of running macro-economic models.

The model covers all Member States and a description of it could be found on the Internet at the address; http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg02/document/ecopap/ecp/123en.htm.