Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto, in a written answer on 15 July 2026, acknowledged that the European Commission sees room to improve the availability and granularity of statistical data on EU islands, pledging action under the upcoming EU strategy for islands to promote more detailed and island-specific data collection. The answer, responding to a question from Greek MEP Elena Kountoura (The Left), signals a policy intention to address long-standing complaints that the current NUTS classification masks island realities by lumping them into predominantly mainland regions, thereby underestimating their needs for connectivity, energy, water, and services.
Fitto's response, however, stops short of concrete commitments: he does not promise a new EU framework for data comparability, nor a dedicated 'island dashboard' with indicators on connectivity costs, energy dependence, or seasonality – as Kountoura had proposed. Instead, he notes that the strategy, adopted on 10 June 2026 (COM(2026) 520 final), will 'promote the use of existing data' and 'the production of more granular data', but calls it 'premature' to decide how results will be presented or whether broader changes to the statistical framework are needed.
The answer is a declarative commitment without numerical targets, deadlines, or structural proposals. It leaves open whether the Commission will eventually revise NUTS boundaries, create a functional typology for islands, or invest in new data infrastructure. Institutional follow-up is expected as the strategy is implemented, with possible legislative or statistical proposals in the coming years. The main stakeholders affected are island communities and regional authorities, who may gain better evidence for EU funding claims, and Eurostat, which would face pressure to disaggregate data at sub-regional levels.