FENStatS Newsletter - Q3/2026
edited by Jaione Etxeberria
Dear FENStatS members,
I am honoured to become the new President of our Federation, with a team consisting of Michel Vaillant as Secretary General and Corrado Crocetta as Treasurer, in addition to Maria Dolores (Lola) Ugarte, who will serve as Vice-President, and Martin Boďa as Webmaster.
This term builds on the work of my predecessors, in particular Lola Ugarte, to whom I pay a heartfelt tribute, which I intend to consolidate, develop and deepen. Without going into the details of specific actions to be taken, a few points that will help shape our future strategy are as follows: securing the joint meeting with the NSS; promoting the FENStatS book series through the joint meetings; continuing to organise ERC seminars to increase the number of grantees in statistics, organising joint events with international entities; strengthening relations between FENStatS and the Young Statisticians Sections; further developing the accreditation system; reinforcing training activities through deeper connections with ECAS; strengthening FENStatS's financial resources; and amplifying the voice of the Policy and Awareness-Raising Committee (PARC) aiming to monitor threats to statistical independence, respond to consultations, and raise the visibility of statisticians in policy debates.
In light of this, I am thrilled to mark the long-awaited and definitive exoneration of Andreas Georgiou, the former president of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT). FENStatS honours his immense personal sacrifice and unwavering integrity and celebrates his victory, which is a victory for ethical statistics.
Last but not least, I am delighted to confirm that, after the success of our conference in Rome this June, we started the organisation of the second European FENStatS meeting together with the German statistical societies meeting called the Statistical Week 2027. This joint conference will be held at the Technical University of Dresden from 14 to 17 September 2027. We would be very pleased if you considered your participation to make this conference a great success! More information will be added in the next issues of our newsletter.
With warm regards to all members of our societies,
Jean-Michel Poggi
FENStatS President
Unanimous support
for FENStatS’ new Executive Board
led by Jean-Michel Poggi
FENStatS is thrilled to announce that 21 national statistical societies have voted to unanimously endorse the brand-new Executive Board, headed by
Jean-Michel Poggi.
In accordance with the FENStatS statutes, former President Lola Ugarte and Webmaster Martin Boďa will continue their dedicated services to FENStatS as Vice-President and Webmaster, respectively.
The newly elected leadership team officially stepped into their roles on 20 September 2026, bringing a fresh momentum and vision to our community.
We look forward to an exciting chapter ahead for European statistics!
Defending truth and professional independence:
the complete legal vindication of Andreas Georgiou
FENStatS celebrates the definitive and long-awaited full vindication of Andreas Georgiou, former President of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) following the Hellenic Supreme Court’s landmark ruling (Decision 922/2026). This monumental closure corrects a 15-year miscarriage of justice, building directly upon the foundational 2023 European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgment—which exposed critical fair-trial deficiencies in its earlier proceedings—and the substantive findings of the Supreme Court Prosecutor's formal legal assessment.
By formally acknowledging that previous courts erroneously interpreted and applied the law
regarding compliance with the European Statistics Code of Practice,
this decision robustly protects the professional autonomy of official statisticians.
FENStatS honours Georgiou's immense personal sacrifice and unwavering integrity, viewing this outcome as an essential victory for ethical statistics, institutional trust, and democratic transparency across Europe.
🔗 More information here. 🔗
ASA invites national societies to become
a joint statistical meetings (JSM) partner
By a contractual agreement approved 15 May 2013 and updated 23 December 2025, five societies (ASA, ENAR, IMS, SSC, WNAR) are the founding (the official) partners of the Joint Statistical Meeting. The JSM Agreement "Policy regarding JSM Special Partners" allows addition of non-official partners, which have come to be known as "special partners."
The purpose envisioned for the addition of special partners is to increase the diversity of participation in the JSM, especially to add to the scientific content of the meetings or to increase attendance from groups that might not otherwise attend.
The founding partners have concluded there is substantial value in the participation of other statistical societies in the JSM as special partners, even though there is often overlap among memberships. The value of the "joint" aspect of the JSM is enhanced by the commitment of other societies to be partners in the JSM.
Next scientific FENStatS meeting will be a joint event
with the Statistical Week 2027 in Dresden
After the success of our conference in Rome this June, we started the organizing of the second European FENStatS meeting together within the German statistical societies meeting called the
Statistical Week 2027.
This joint conference will be held at the Technical University of Dresden from 14 to 17 September 2027.
FENStatS will organise 11 sessions, and the topics as well as the speakers will be determined in the next few months.
We would be very pleased if you considered your participation to make this conference a great success!
More information will be circulated soon.
News from national statistical societies
Statistical Society of Slovenia
The Statistical Society of Slovenia is pleased to report on its recent and upcoming activities.
From 22 to 25 June 2026, the SIS–FenStatS conference was held at Sapienza University of Rome. Members of the Statistical Society of Slovenia contributed to the conference with both oral and poster presentations. The President of the Society also attended the FenStatS General Assembly, where the candidates for the new President and members of the Executive Committee were presented.
The Statistical Society of Slovenia is preparing the Applied Statistics 2026 conference, which will take place in Koper from 21 to 23 September 2026.
In 2026, the Statistical Society of Slovenia has successfully amended the Society’s statutes regarding the election procedure and remote voting, making it possible for members to cast their votes remotely.
In the school year 2026/27, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia will celebrate an important milestone by organising the 10th national edition of the European Statistics Competition (ESC). Upper secondary school pupils will once again be encouraged to participate in the competition, which promotes statistical literacy and storytelling with data. Preparations for this year’s national stage have already started and experts from the Statistical Society of Slovenia will again contribute to its implementation. This year’s edition is expected to be as successful as the last one, when more than 1,600 pupils from Slovenia registered for the ESC and the Slovenian team achieved a place among the top five teams in the European stage.
Finally, Andrej Srakar, a committee member of the Young Statisticians Europe initiative, participated between 24 and 28 August 2026 at the European Meeting of Statisticians (EMS) in Lugano, Switzerland. At the meeting he discussed a possible future extension of the YoungStatS project on topics of mathematics and artificial intelligence, as well as future activities and collaborations of the YSE initiative.
🔗 More information is available here. 🔗
Conferences / workshops
22nd Applied Statistics Conference, Koper (Slovenia), September 21–23, 2026
Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS 2026), Freiburg (Germany), September 27 - October 1, 2026
Future SIS Summer School: Data-driven and Statistical Approaches, Genoa (Italy), October 14–16, 2026
Bayesian Biostatistics Meeting 2026, Leiden (the Netherlands), October 21-23, 2026
Workshop on Statistics and Applications 2026 (WSA 2026), Lisboa (Portugal), December 4-5, 2026
41st International Workshop on Statistical Modelling (IWSM 2027), Bilbao (Spain), July 18-23, 2027
Popdays 2027 (16th edition), Trento (Italy), June 9–11, 2027
The Federation of European National Statistical Societies
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info@fenstats.eu