The 2004 agreement on cooperation in the area of statistics is the basis for data gathering ac-cording to the same criteria between Switzerland and the  European Union (EU). In a complex society, statistics have increasingly become an indispensable tool for making sound political and economic decisions.

The Agreement on cooperation in the field of statistics provides the basis for harmonising the compilation of data and making Switzerland's statistics comparable with those of its partners in the European Economic Area (the 27 EU member states together with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein). In practice this means that the compilation of data in Switzerland is brought into line with the European norms of Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU. As a result, Switzerland has access to a number of pan-European databases covering a wide range of areas such as the labour market, social security, transportation and the environment, which enable it to improve the quality and comparability of data needed in political and economic decision-making. At the same time, the recording of euro-compatible Swiss statistics in EU publications gives Switzerland additional international visibility which in turn has a positive influence on its potential as a business location.