Archive:EuroGroups register

This Statistics Explained article is outdated and has been archived - for updated information please see the dynamic version of the European Business Statistics Manual at: European Business Statistics Manual A static full version of the European Business Statistics Manual was published in February 2021: European Business Statistics Manual — 2021 edition

The EuroGroups register is the statistical business register of multinational enterprise (MNE) groups operating within the European Union (EU) Member States and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries; it is managed and compiled by Eurostat.

For the establishment of the EuroGroups register, Eurostat created a network of business registers used for statistical purposes in the EU Member States and EFTA countries, focused on multinational enterprise groups.

A multinational enterprise group is defined as an enterprise group comprising at least 2 enterprises or legal units located in different countries.

To compile the EuroGroups register, Eurostat collects input information on multinational enterprise groups and their structures - including details about their enterprises - from national statistical business registers of EU Member States and EFTA countries and from commercial source.

After consolidation and validation, the EuroGroups register contains data on the global structure of multinational enterprise groups. National statistical compilers working on business registers across the EU Member States and EFTA countries are given access to data/variables covering all of the units for a particular multinational enterprise group, if at least one of the group’s units is within their national territory. These populations can be used for national survey frames, quality checks and the production of official (European) statistics.

The secure exchange of statistical confidential data between national business registers and Eurostat is defined in Article 10 of the European Business Statistics (EBS) Regulation (EU) No 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 and implemented through Annex IX of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020.

To make it easier to identify the relevant statistical entities (in other words, the enterprises) of large and complex multinational enterprise groups, a standardised methodology for ‘profiling’ was developed.

This article is part of the online European business statistics manual, a comprehensive guide to methodologies and how European business statistics are produced within the European statistical system (ESS) .

Full article

EuroGroups register production cycles

The EuroGroups register (EGR) produces annual data. Its frames for reference year T are available to users 15 months after the end of the reference year, in March T+2. The EuroGroups register’s first reference year was 2008, since then a frame has been produced for all reference years.

For 2008, the EGR system compiled data on 6 350 multinational enterprise groups. For reference year 2009, the second EGR cycle compiled data on over 8 000 multinational enterprise groups. The 2010 and 2011 EGR cycles produced data on over 10 000 multinational enterprise groups. These four EGR cycles were implemented using version 1.0 of the EGR system. EGR 1.0 was based on commercial data, which were validated through comparisons with national data.

Work towards developing EGR 2.0 started in 2012, and the new process was fully launched in 2015. The switch to EGR 2.0 improved both the EGR process and its related IT system. EGR 2.0 collects data from NSIs and complements these with commercial data. As a result of the changeover from EGR 1.0 to EGR 2.0, data from NSIs have become the principal source of information for the EGR.

For 2013, the system compiled data on 47 000 multinational enterprise groups. The EGR now covers all significant multinational enterprise groups active in ESS countries and is widely used for many purposes related to the production of the official statistics. In 2018 - the latest reference year available - the EGR 2.0 system compiled data on over 200 000 multinational enterprise groups that comprised more than 770 000 enterprises.

Data

The EGR registers the following types of units of a multinational enterprise group and their detailed topics:

legal units - identification, demographic events, stratification parameters, links with enterprises, with enterprise groups, with other registers, as well as control and ownership;
enterprises - identification and demographic events, links to other units, stratification parameters and economic variables;
enterprise groups: identification, demographic events, group structure, the residence country code of ultimate controlling institutional unit, the group head, the global decision centre, stratification parameters and economic variables.

The EGR is the platform that supports the production of micro-based statistics on globalisation in Europe. EGR micro-data help national statistical institutes and national central banks compile statistics and are not disseminated by Eurostat to the public.

With the EBS Regulation, the EGR has become an authoritative source within the ESS. It provides a register for a subpopulation of business enterprises, based on a coordinated approach that compiles cross-border information on multinational enterprise groups. EGR data help NSIs and NCBs compile statistics (for example on foreign affiliates statistics (FATS) or on foreign direct investment (FDI)) and thereby serve as a basic tool for improving these statistics, while also reducing the reporting burden.

The EGR is the source of the related Statistics Explained article Structure of multinational enterprise groups in the EU, presenting the population of active multinational groups in the EU.

Information system

EGR 2.0 offers online applications to users with remote access. With these applications, users can identify legal units, browse, and provide inputs for the compilation of EGR data. Users and producers alike benefit from the following EGR applications:

EuroGroups register identification service (EGR IS) - an application supporting the EGR compilers in identifying legal units;
EuroGroups register CORE application - the heart of the EGR 2.0 system, it stores, transforms and consolidates input data received from different sources and generates the EGR frames.
EuroGroups register interactive module (EGR IS) - an interactive web interface for browsing, validating or repairing data in the consolidation area of the EGR.
EuroGroups register FATS online interface - a web-based interface that focuses on providing users with information pertaining to FATS, it can be used to browse and download EGR data.

Eurostat has set up a wiki platform with extensive information on various topics covered by the EGR project. Access is restricted to EGR data compilers and users working within national statistical authorities. The EGR wiki provides:

full, detailed EGR process documentation;
a calendar of EGR activities;
methodological and metadata files;
quality indicators;
a forum for discussing and sharing experiences among platform members.

Context

The fragmented picture that EU Member States and EFTA countries had of multinational enterprise groups operating within their domestic market caused growing problems of harmonisation for several types of statistics affected by globalisation (for example foreign affiliates statistics, foreign direct investment and international trade statistics).

EGR 2.0 was developed as part of the European system of interoperable business registers (ESBRs) project, which was undertaken by Eurostat and the EU Member States to develop national statistical business registers and the EGR.

The ESS.VIP.BUS.ESBRs project on the European system of interoperable statistical business registers started in January 2013 on the basis of the ESSC’s approval of the ESBRs ex-ante evaluation report (November 2012). It was successfully closed in June 2020 with the unanimous approval of the ESBRs project end-report (registered access) by the Business Statistics Directors’ Group. The project aimed to move on from disconnected, stand-alone national registers to an efficient European system of interoperable statistical business registers, including an improved EGR.

The project was based on the inputs of the MEETS programme (2009-2013) and in particular the work of ESSnet on concepts and methods with respect to shortcomings and inconsistencies in EBS. The project was based on the inputs of the modernisation of European enterprise and trade statistics (MEETS) programme (2009-2013) and in particular the work of ESSnet on concepts and methods with respect to shortcomings and inconsistencies in EBS.

It successfully covered the 14 distinct success criteria outlined in the business case, including methodological developments (see for example the ESBRs business architecture, the ESBRs interoperability framework, integration between the EGR and profiling), technical and IT developments (see for example EGR developments, or interactive profiling tool (IPT) developments), quality (see for example the data quality programme for national registers and the EGR), operations (see for example collaborative profiling of multinational enterprise groups by EU Member States, ESBR interoperability pilots carried out by EU Member States) and design (see for example the ESBRs statistical services). Following guidance from governance bodies during the course of the project, additional distinct deliverables were also developed in the area of governance (see for example the ESBRs interoperability framework implementation plan and the ESBRs organisational model). The deliverables for the project are accessible on the ESBRs wiki (registered access).

The ESBRs project addressed the objectives of the business case (and beyond), as it developed globalised approaches, common for all EU Member States such as the ESBRs business architecture, the ESBRs interoperability framework, European profiling methodology and the data quality programme. It also developed common tools and remote access facilities to avoid the duplication of work, such as the four EGR applications and the IPT. Finally, the project tested these ideas in practice during the interoperability pilots and most importantly during five successful annual production cycles for the EGR and four successful annual cycles for the IPT.

Business implementation activities have been planned for the EU Member States and Eurostat during the period 2020-2025 in order to make good use of the project’s outputs. In terms of follow-up activities, the testing of the ESBRs organisational model, the implementation of the European profiling programme and the implementation of several of the (more than 50) follow-up recommendations and small projects are the basis for actions in the coming years.

In 2016, Eurostat and the EU Member States launched a data quality programme (DQP) for statistical business registers designed to continuously improve the quality of national statistical business registers and the EGR. The programme’s components were gradually implemented with a first full DQP cycle being carried out in 2017, which was further fine-tuned for subsequent cycles. The programme monitors existing data quality of registers (‘as is’ state) and defines quality criteria (‘to be’ state). The DQP currently monitors eight compliance and five extended quality targets that drive constant improvements in statistical business registers. Additional recommendations that complement the European statistical business registers manual are regularly drawn up with a view to improve constantly the quality of statistical business registers and in particular to increase harmonisation, comparability and the promotion of best practices. Eurostat also regularly conducts user surveys for statistical business registers which are analysed in order to address user needs and to improve quality.