Eurostat is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in Luxembourg. Its main responsibilities are to provide statistical information to the institutions of the European Union (EU) and to promote the harmonisation of statistical methods across its member states and candidates for accession as well as EFTA countries. The organisations in the different countries which actively cooperate with Eurostat are summarised under the concept of the European Statistical System.

As a Directorate-General of the Commission, Eurostat is allocated to the portfolio of the European Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Union, Audit and Anti-Fraud, Algirdas Šemeta .

The current Director-General of Eurostat is Walter Radermacher (de) since 2008, former President of the Federal Statistical Office of Germany. Current Deputy Director-General is Marie Bohatá (cs) since 2004, former President of the Czech Statistical Office.

1953 The Statistics Division for the European Coal and Steel Community established.

Louis Brennan CB (28 January 1852 – 17 January 1932) was an Irish-Australian mechanical engineer and inventor.

Brennan was born in Castlebar, Ireland, and moved to Melbourne, Australia in 1861 with parents. He started his career as a watchmaker and a few years later was articled to Alexander Kennedy Smith, a renowned civil and mechanical engineer of the period.

Brennan invented the idea of a steerable torpedo in 1874, from observing that if a thread is pulled on a reel at an angle with suitable leverage, the reel will move away from the thread side. Brennan spent some years working out his invention, and received a grant of £700 from the Victorian government towards his expenses. He patented the Brennan Torpedo in 1877. The idea was trialled at Camden Fort near Crosshaven, Cork, Ireland.

Brennan went to England in 1880 and brought his invention before the War Office. Sir Andrew Clarke alerted the authorities to the possibilities of the torpedo if used in the defence of harbours and channels, and the patent was eventually bought for a sum believed to be more than £100,000. In 1887 Brennan was appointed superintendent of the Brennan torpedo factory, and was consulting engineer 1896–1907.