COMMISSION OF THE E UROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 23.4.2009 
SEC(2009) 527 final  
Commission staff working paper 
FINAL REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF 
THE EDICOM II PROGRAMME   
 
  
 
 
May 2008 
 
{COM(2009) 191 final} 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
     FINAL REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF 
THE EDICOM II PROGRAMME  
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
1. Executive summary.................................................................................................... 2 
2. General objectives of the EDICOM II programme .............................................. 10 
3. Implementation of the work programmes ............................................................. 11 4. Identification and ma nagement of risks................................................................. 12 
5. Main findings and achieved results at action level................................................ 14 
ANNEX 1: Objectives, expected resu lts and performance indicators............................... 27 
ANNEX 2: Use of EDICOM II financial resources (2001-2005)........................................ 40 ANNEX 3: Use of EDICOM II financial resources:  by countries .................................... 45 ANNEX 4: EDICOM II Programme expenditures Decentralised/Centralised projects, by 
year. .......................................................................................................................... . 46  
ANNEX 5: Share of expenditure by Edicom objective....................................................... 47 
ANNEX 6: Number of Decentralised/Centralis ed Edicom II projects, by objectives 
(2001-2005)................................................................................................................ 47 
ANNEX 7: Number of Decentr alised/Centralised Edicom II projects, by year............... 48 
ANNEX 8: Number of Decentralis ed/Centralised Edicom II projects, by action and year 
(2001-2005)................................................................................................................ 49 
ANNEX 9: Number of Edicom II projects , by objective and country (2001-2005) ......... 50 
ANNEX 10: Number of Edicom II project s, by action and country (2001-2005) ............ 51 
 
 
 2   1. EXECUTIVE  SUMMARY 
Background 
1 With the creation of the Single Market on 1 January 1993 and the removal of 
customs formalities between the EU Member States, a new system for collecting statistics on the trade in physical goods was implemented, Intrastat. 
The recording of trade with EU c ountries, which was beforehand based on 
customs declarations, was converted into  direct surveys in companies. The 
statistical system on the trade between Member States  of the European Union 
and the rest of the world, Extrastat, continued to be based on the information 
collected by the customs authorities, via the Single Administrative Document 
(SAD).  
2 The Edicom Decision No 507/2001/EC of 12 March 2001 adopted by the 
Council and the European Parliament
1 set the goal of encouraging a modern, 
rational and effective organisation of the transeuropean collection, treatment 
and distribution network for intra and extra-Community statistics, 
accompanied by the improvement and ha rmonisation of statistical methods. 
The aim was to produce information that is more reliable, less expensive for 
providers and administrations, and ava ilable more quickly as well as being 
able to satisfy user needs in a more relevant way. 
3 Edicom II was planned to be developed ove r a period of five years, starting in 
2001, and targeting six main operational objectives: 
– Objective 1: An information network of better quality, which is less 
costly and makes data available more quickly, in accordance with the requirements of Community policies; 
– Objective 2: A relevant informati on network adapted to the changing 
needs of users within the framewor k of Economic and Monetary Union 
and the international economic environment; 
– Objective 3: An information network which is better integrated into the 
general statistical environment and adapted to the development of the administrative environment; 
– Objective 4: A network improving the statistical services offered to 
administrations, users and providers of data; 
– Objective 5: A network based on tool s for the collection of information 
in the light of th e latest technological advan ces in order to improve the 
functions available to information providers; 
– Objective 6 (horizontal): An inte grated and interoperable network. 
                                                
 
1 OJ n° L 76 of 16.3.2001, p.1 
 3   4 The six main  operational objectives have been broken down into 13 actions, 
in accordance with the proposal include d in the ex-ante evaluation of the 
programme. (Annex 8) 
5 The management of the EDICOM II programme was assured by the 
European Commission, with the assist ance of the Intrastat and Extrastat 
Committees. Each year, the Commission  adopted a decision defining the 
annual work programme on which the Committees had to deliver their opinion. The approved annual work programmes were composed of centralised and decentralised projet s, which have been carried out 
respectively by private companies on behalf of Eurostat and by Member States. 
Objective and context of the evaluation  
6 The main purpose of the evaluation presente d in this report is to submit to the 
European Parliament and the Council a final report of activities financed 
under the EDICOM II programme, so as to enable an assessment of the 
achieved results. This report, which is  an update of the mid-term report 
presented in January 2004, was drawn up by Eurostat Unit G2: International 
Trade Statistics – Metho dology and Classifications. 
7 This evaluation is focused on the EDIC OM work programmes for the years 
2001 to 2005. All the actions carried out within these work programmes were 
completed by  the end of  2007.     
Main findings 
8 The EDICOM II programme might be retained as the programme that 
contributed most to the enhancement a nd development of the trans-European 
network for the collection, production and dissemination of statistics on the trading of goods. 
9 The overall objectives of the programme were clearly  defined and the design 
of the annual work programmes 2001-2005, which were stric tly in line with 
them, made it possible to achieve concrete  results in all the fields interested 
by the programme.  
10 The implementation of the work programme has been particularly efficient, 
thanks to efforts of Member States a nd Eurostat and to the assistance of 
specific Working Groups. Progress has been  achieved across a wide range of 
fields, from data collection to data validation and dissemination.  
11 The majority of the projects managed to achieve significant results and many 
applications have been developed a nd implemented. In few cases specific 
pilot studies did not pro duce better solutions compar ed to those already in 
place; however this result should be considered in any case as positive because knowledge was enlarged and sp read and inputs might be used for 
future developments. 
12 Difficulties have been encountered in establishing a common harmonised EU 
platform for the production of external trade statistics due to important 
 4   differences in the technological and ad ministrative environments in Member 
States. However Eurostat has devel oped, via the XT-NET project, an open 
and modular system, composed of an impor tant set of interoperable tools that 
might be used as a common platform for the European network of external trade statistics. 
13 More  specifically, the main achieve ments in accordance with the general 
objectives of the EDICOM II D ecision are the following:  
A. Objective 1: Measures relating to the implementation of a higher-quality 
information network, which is less costly and makes data available more quickly, 
in line with the requirements of Community policy 
14 The majority of Member States have developed, improved and implemented 
new methodologies for the calculation of  advanced estimators in order to 
cope with the essen tial need to shorten the time required to supply aggregated 
data to Eurostat. After the Enlargemen t of the European Union in 2004, also 
the new Member States have been concerned with the development of advanced estimators and two of them  have implemented studies in the 
framework of the work programmes 2004-2005. 
15 The exigency of disposing of quicker  macroeconomic information has been 
regulated at legislative level. The new Intrastat legislation and the amendment 
of the Extrastat legislation have fixed that the transmission of Member States’ aggregated data to Eurostat should be realised within 40 days after the reference period. At the end of the ED ICOM programme all Member States 
complied with these requirements. 
16 Improvements have also been achieved in the field of data processing and 
analysis. The checking and correction of  basic data are more automated and 
comparisons of Intrastat data with ot her sources are now more systematic. 
Moreover, many Member States have worked successfully for enhancing 
methods for the estimation of: the "non -response”, the trade below thresholds 
and the statistical value. These count ries took advantage of the EDICOM 
support and are now in the capacity to  respect new Intrastat legislation 
requirements for the provision of total trade figures.  
17 In parallel to the work of Member  States, Eurostat focuses on the 
development of harmonised methods in various fields such  as production of 
advanced estimators, updating methods , checking of basic and aggregated 
trade statistics and adjustment for trade below thresholds and late responses. Some research has been done in order to achieve reconcili ation for extra and 
intra trade. Most of th ese activities led to the identification of new 
methodologies and enabled the development of software for their implementation.   
18 A database dealing with quality indicator s at Member State level has been set 
up at the beginning of the Edicom pr ogramme, containing both quantitative 
and qualitative information obtained via a questionnaire addressed to each 
Member State. From this information Eurostat started to publish an annual  
 5   “Quality Report on International Trade Statistics”, which is now updated 
yearly using information from the quality database and from Comext2.  
B. Objective 2: Measures relating to the implementation of a network of information 
that is relevant and appropria te to users' changing need s, within the framework of 
Economic and Monetary Union and the international economic environment 
19 At centralised level, Eurostat ha s developed and implemented a new 
application “NICE” (Nouveaux Indices sur le Commerce Extérieur) for the 
calculation of indices of the unit va lue and volume of Member States’ 
external trade. Methodologies used by Member States, third countries and 
international organisations for the calcu lation of specific price indices (SPIs) 
and unit values indices (UVIs) have b een analysed and a detailed report has 
been drafted. 
20 Eight Member States have undertaken actions to develop or improve the 
production of external trade price indices at national level. Efforts have been 
focused especially on import price indice s of non-Eurozone area, in order to 
satisfy the needs of the European Central Bank and the consequent new 
requirements of the Short Terms Statistics (STS) Regulation 1158/2005. 
21 Centralised studies  have been carried out fo r defining new methods for 
producing seasonally adjusted data. Euro stat is now able to calculate and 
publish, in the “Euro-Indicators News Re lease”, monthly seasonally adjusted 
Member States and aggregated data (EU27 and EA15) within 48 days after 
the end of the reference period.  
22 Several Member States have carried out  pilot studies on CIF/FOB adjustment 
methodology in order to establish a FO B/FOB trade balance more coherent 
with figures in the Balance of Payments and National Accounts. 
23 Different studies have been carried out  on methodologies for the treatment of 
confidentiality adopted by Member Stat es and some of them have succeeded 
in reducing the level of confidentiality in their data. Similar results have been realised at central leve l by the introduction in Comext database of new 
statistics camouflage procedures. 
24 In 2002 Eurostat launched a pilot study to present Intra and Extra-EU trade 
flows by enterprise characteristics a nd enrich, in that way, also business 
statistics with trade variables. Collected  figures, as well as figures from the 
standardisation exercises carried out in the year 2005 and 2006, have been published showing external trade st atistics broken down by six main 
indicators, respectively for 9, 17 and 18 Member States. The standardisation 
exercise has been launched also in  2007, giving it a sort of permanent 
character.   
25 At the opposite, only few Member Stat es carried out projects on CIGET 
(Contribution of Inte rnational Groups to Extern al Trade) and Intra-firm 
statistics. After having worked mainly on methodology and informatics 
development, they have produced data  at commodity group level, obtaining 
                                                
 
2 COMEXT is Eurostat’s database containing all available information on trade statistics 
 6   encouraging results that should be taken as the basis for further developments 
of EU statistics. 
C. Objective 3: Measures relating to th e implementation of an information network 
better integrated into the general statisti cal system and adapted to developments in 
the administrative environment 
26 The objective of implementing an informa tion network better integrated into 
the general statisti cal system have been achieve d from one side through the 
adaptation and revision of the legisl ative framework and from the other 
through projects aimed at improving the quality and interoperability of 
registers. 
27 Studies on the simplification of the In trastat system have been made by 
Eurostat and by some Member States pa rticularly on the adoption of a Single 
Flow system, on simplification threshol d and lower degree of product detail, 
without the conclusion that substan tial modifications were needed.   
28 A new Basic Intrastat legi slation has been prepared and adopted by the 
European Parliament and Counc il (Regulation (EC) N° 638/2004), 
supplemented by a Commission Regulati on (Regulation (EC) N° 1982/2004) 
with implementing provisions. In the new legislation qua lity requirements 
have been upgraded and the production of a yearly Quality Report has been 
included. The constitution and maintena nce of an Intrastat register of 
operators has been made mandatory as well.    
29 Within the current legislative framewor k, measures of simp lification adopted 
by Member States continued to be mainly based on th e application of 
different thresholds. The simplificati on on the recording of the quantity in 
Intrastat has been introduced by Co mmission Regulation (EC) N° 1915/2005.  
30 Even if the reform of the Customs Code did not take place during the 
EDICOM II programme, the ad aptation of the current statistical system to 
future changes has been ta ken into account in the Extrastat legislation under 
preparation, to enter into  force in 2009. To achieve this result, Eurostat has 
launched projects analysing the needs for tariff statistics and the extent to 
which Customs declarations could be used for statistical purposes. 
31 Regarding data collection, the legal deadline for the transmission of Member 
States’ Intrastat aggregated data to Eurostat has been reduced significantly, 
passing from 56 to 40 days. This limit has also been fixed for the transmission of Extrastat aggregated data, which was not regulated before.  
32 Concrete improvements have also been achieved in the transmission of 
detailed data to Eurostat. In 2005, th e provision of detailed monthly data, 
compared to the legal deadline, has been realised by Member States, on average, 8 days in advance for Intrastat and 2,6 days for Extrastat.  
33 Eurostat and Member States have de veloped projects aimed at improving the 
quality and interoperability of register s. Links between the Intrastat Register 
and the General Business Register have  been implemented in Member States 
and the collection of the traders’ iden tification number would be mandatory 
in the new Extrastat legislation.  
 7   34 A methodological framework for the co llection and joint presentation of 
External Trade and Structural Business Statistics data has been created and 
results of a pilot study, coordinated by Eurostat, presenting external trade by 
enterprise characteristics, ha ve been published in 2002, 2005 and 2007. 
35 The collection of CIGET (Contribution of  International Groups to External 
Trade) and Intra-Firm trade data has b een the object of pilot studies carried 
out by some Member States, realised under the guidelines of the Task Force Trade Register and Globalisation. The ro le of foreign-controlled affiliates 
enterprises in delivering/buying goods a nd services to/from international 
markets and the share of trade between affiliates and their parent enterprises 
was an interesting sector to study for economic analysis and information was needed for the purpose of a new Regulat ion on activities of foreign affiliated 
enterprises. 
D. Objective 4: Measures relating to the implementation of a network improving the 
statistical service provided to administr ations and users and providers of data 
36 The identification of user needs and satisfaction in terms of availability of 
statistics and functioning of the inform ation network has been carried out via 
Internet surveys, providing informati on for the further development of the 
network.  
37 Projects undertaken by Eurostat and by some Member States have permitted 
the development of more modern a nd flexible dissemination database 
systems. The Comext database system of Eurostat has been improved with 
advanced functionalities and a new we b based versions (Comext Web) has 
been added to the original dial-up version. In addition a new free web 
dissemination system, Easy Comext, has been created in 2004 and made 
available to the public. At the end of the EDICOM programme the number of 
users of Comext and Easy Comext reached respectively 950 and 7000. Help-
desks have been guaranteed all over the years and monthly training, in 
English and French languages, have been delivered to Comext users in 
Luxembourg, Brussels, Frankfurt and Dublin. 
38 The Eurostat publication system has b een improved for taking into account 
the impact of the EU Enlargement and the exigency to reduce the time to 
publish data. Automatic procedures have  been set up for the production of the 
monthly bulletin and the statistica l yearbook. Delays for disseminating 
macroeconomic and seasonally adjusted da ta in press releases have decreased 
from 53 days to 48 days, thus satisfy ing the expectations  of the ECB and 
other users. 
39 Specific tools to allow rapid and us er-friendly access to classifications, 
information, metadata and related produc ts have been developed and included 
in the classification web server Ramon of Eurostat. In addition a stand-alone 
classification tool has been develope d by Eurostat and made available to 
Member States.  An ambitious project, aiming at developing common software for automatic classificati on of goods according to all linguistic 
versions of the Combined Nomenclature, has been abandoned when a feasibility study highlighted technical  difficulties and quite substantial 
maintenance costs. 
 8   E. Objective 5: Measures relating to the implementation of a network based on tools 
for the collection of information in the light  of the latest technological advances in 
order to improve functions available to information providers 
40 Concerning data collecti on tools, Eurostat has ensured the centralised 
maintenance and distribution of the upda ted version of IDEP/CN8 (Intrastat 
electronic form) up to the 2004 version.  According to the strategy of 
decentralisation agreed by the Intras tat Committee, starting from 2004, 
Member States were responsible for the maintenance and upgrade of their 
collection tools.  
41 Applications used by Member Stat es for the transmission and data 
dissemination (CBS-IRIS, IDEP/CN8) we re maintained and upgraded with 
new functionalities and different tools ha ve been created to reduce the general 
administrative burden. 
42 Eurostat and Member States launched ne w projects to develop and implement 
web-based data collection systems. Additional documentation was produced; 
helpdesk services and training have been  provided to users, for a better use of 
IDEP/CN8, supported by updated and rewr itten guides. Different linguistic 
versions from the original languages of  the application have been developed.  
43 Efforts have been made by Eurostat in maintaining and further developing the 
standardised messages (Edifact, XML) ; new message documentation guides 
have also been created while old ones have been updated.  
44 The improvement, promotion, distribut ion, dissemination and support of all 
modern collection tools have been ensured during the Edicom programme. 
45 As results, a reduction of charge and cost for companies and a reduction of 
the costs of maintenance for the statis tical administrations have been noted, 
together with an improvement of data quality and timeliness. At the end of 
the programme 100 000 providers of st atistical information were using 
Intrastat web forms and the use of paper decreased by about 30% over the period of the Edicom II programme.  
F. Objective 6 (horizontal): Measures relating  to the implementation of an integrated 
and interoperable network 
46 Services to users were improved by the drafting of user guides, the 
improvement of the COMEXT system’s functionalities, the development of a 
Web version of Comext, th e organisation of courses and the development of a 
stand-alone version of COMEXT for browsing data in DVD or CD-ROM and 
other distribution media. 
47 In addition, a new specific database sy stem, named Easy XT/NET, has been 
developed and made accessible to exte rnal users allowing disseminating 
detailed Member States data to the general public free of charge.. 
48 A project was launched to improve the existing methodological reference 
material by developing an in formation system on methodology 
(METODOLOGICA) and other tools givi ng easy access to the information. 
 9   49 Measures have been launched to modernise the various elements of the trans-
European network within the Comm ission and Member States (XT/NET 
project). Tools and methods have been developed in the following domains:  
data processing and validation; communication between national 
administrations and Eurostat; improveme nts in software for disseminating 
external trade statistics on  the trading of goods; user access to statistical data 
and metadata. 
50 The interoperability of the network was realised by the development of 
interconnected tool working in various areas of the statis tical production: 
XT/NET validation, Data Loading Interface, NPS (Nomenclature Production System), XT/NET edit, XT/NET assist and XT/NET publish. 
Identification and management of risks 
51 The following main risks were identif ied and taken into account during the 
management of the programme: 
– capacity to manage the programme; 
– risks of the means to be implem ented for meeting the programme’s 
objectives; 
– sustainability of the pr ogramme with regard to the availability of 
budgetary resources; 
– maintenance and coherence of computer tools; 
– extension of the programme following the EU Enlargement.  
General guidelines adopted for th e management of the programme. 
52 Action has continued to be taken to en sure that the new Financial Regulation 
was strictly applied. The Commi ssion has provided appropriate 
recommendations to the Member States. 
53 Methods and tools, which have been developed during the programme have 
been made available to all the Member  States and valorised through seminars, 
workshops or guidelines in order to identify and promote best practices.  
54 Eurostat has guaranteed the co-ordin ation and monitoring of the various 
actions. However, Member States have pl ayed an important role through their 
participation in specific “Working Groups”.  
55 The consequences of the EU Enlargemen t have been taken into account in 
centralised actions. New Member States have benefited of the Edicom grants from the 2004 work programme onwards.  
56 The decentralised actions carried out by Member States, have focused on: 
– the implementation of the new Intrastat Quality requirements 
(coverage, timeliness, confidentiality, reporting); 
 10   – the introduction of the new common methods and tools, which have 
been developed as part of the programme. 
57 Reflections have started at the end of the EDICOM programme on whether to 
continue actions for the enhancement of external trade statistics under a 
dedicated or a wider programme. The objective should be to ensure the stability of the system and the durabil ity of the tools, which have been 
developed under EDICOM as well as their improvements.  A Commission 
proposal has been already drafte d for a programme targeting the 
Modernisation of European Enterpri se and Trade Statistics (MEETS). 
2. GENERAL OBJECTIVES OF THE EDICOM  II PROGRAMME  
58 With the creation of the Single Market on 1 January 1993 and the removal of 
customs formalities between the EU Member States, a new system for collecting statistics on the physical trade in goods was implemented, Intrastat. 
The recording of trade with EU countrie s was converted into direct surveys in 
companies. The statistical system on th e trade between Member States of the 
European Union and the rest of the worl d, Extrastat, continues to be based on 
the information available in the S AD (Single Administrative Document), 
which is collected by the customs authorities. Following the implementation of Intrastat there was a decline in data quality. In order to restructure the new 
statistical system, a support progra mme, Edicom I (Electronic Data 
Interchange on Commerce) was implemen ted in the framework of Council 
Decision No 96/715/EC of 9 December 1996. 
59 The Edicom I programme produced satisfactory results. The acceptance of 
the Intrastat system by data providers was increased, resulting in a fall in the non-response rate, and the time needed to supply the data  was reduced. In 
addition, standardisation and developmen t of tools facilita ted the electronic 
information transmission. 
60 At the same time, the external trade stat istics system entered into a new phase 
of development characterised by incr easing user needs at Community and 
national levels. Moreover , the action plan on EMU
3 statistical requirements 
identified external trade statistics as one of the domains in which the needs of 
users were less satisfied. The action plan  made clear that, in certain Member 
States, the time needed to supply these statistics was too long.  
61 To cope with this challenge, Eurostat suggested several stra tegic orientations 
aiming at improving the accuracy and relevance of the results, speeding up data availability, redirecting statistical offer, and preparing deeper adaptations 
of the system for the medium and l ong term. Hence, with the adoption of 
Decision No 507/2001/EC of the European  Parliament and of the Council a 
new programme (Edicom II) was approved for the period 2001 to 2005. 
62 The general objectives of the ne w programme, were the following: 
                                                
 
3 Action Plan on EMU Statistical requirements – European Commission (Eurostat in close collaboration with the 
European Central Bank – 25 September 2000) 
 11   • To encourage a modern, rational and effective organisation of the trans-
European collection, treatment and distribution network for intra and 
extra-Community statistics, accompanied by the improvement and harmonisation of statistical methods , in order to produce information 
which is: 
– More reliable, less expensive for pr oviders of statistical information 
and administrations and available more quickly; 
– Able to satisfy new users needs in a more relevant way. 
• To develop and promote existing tools for collection, treatment, 
transmission and distribution of sta tistical data, taki ng into account the 
latest technological deve lopments and seeking the best cost-effectiveness 
ratio. The explosion in the exchange of  electronic data is indeed setting 
relations between those involved in the economic world, and national and 
Community statistical administrations, which will have to adapt to this 
new technological environment. 
63 These two fundamental principles have been split in six operational 
objectives and 13 actions. Main findings and achieved results at action level 
are described in chapter 5 and summarized in Annex 1. 
3. IMPLEMENTATION OF TH E WORK PROGRAMMES  
64 In line with the Edicom Decision, the Commission was in charge of the 
management of the programme.  
65 In order to draft the annual work programmes, to be submitted to the Intrastat 
and Extrastat Committees for opinion, Euro stat collected from Member States 
proposals for decentralised projects wh ile identifying at the same time the 
contents for the centralised projects. An Edicom monitoring committee within Eurostat involving  different directorates  approved the projects. 
66 Where necessary, proposals for centralis ed and decentralised projects were 
discussed by thematic Working Groups (Quality, Methods, Trade 
Registers/Globalisation, IT and In formation Communication Technology). 
67 In the framework of the Edicom II pr ogramme, 393 projects were financed 
and finalised, representing an annual average of 78 c ontracts/grants per year 
(Annexes 6 to 10). Taking into considera tion the overall number of projects, 
it might be stated that the Edicom II focused on two main objectives: the 
improvement of quality and the creation of a ne twork based on tools for 
gathering information using latest t echnological development. An important 
number of projects have b een also allocated to the development of statistical 
products, which respond better to user needs. 
68 There was a substantial equilibrium be tween centralised and decentralised 
budget expenditure. Projects carried out by Member States accounted 
approximately for the 48,1% of the Edicom budget expenditure (excluding supporting measures), while the re maining 51.9% of the Edicom budget 
 12   expenditure was awarded to private fi rms in accordance with the call for 
tender procedure4 (Annexes 3 and 4). 
69 Private firms and Member States have submitted final reports to Eurostat 
concerning the actions carried out unde r the Edicom programme on the basis 
of recommendations provided by Eurostat  on how to present a complete final 
report in order to allow the work car ried out to be properly evaluated. 
70 The Working Groups on Quality, Met hods, Trade Registers/Globalisation, 
and ICT have assisted Eurostat in m onitoring and evaluating actions 1 to 8, 
12 and 13 of the Edicom II programme. Eu rostat has itself monitored actions 
9, 10 and 11, since these were not coordinated by a working party. 
In order to spread the knowledge  among Commission and national 
administrations, the results of all actions were made available in the Eurostat 
documentary database CIRCA.   
71 As regards monitoring, some indicator s have been defined to assess the 
implementation of the programme. These indicators include the time needed 
to supply advanced estimators; the bias of initial estimates with respect to 
final results; number of Member States  that have developed, implemented 
and promoted Intrastat web forms, etc.  
4. IDENTIFICATION AND MA NAGEMENT OF RISKS  
72 The following main risks were identified. 
 Capacity of managing the programme  
73 In order to guarantee the smooth running of the programme, the necessary 
financial and human resources had to be available, each year, to finance and 
monitor its implementation. The rules of  the new Financial Regulation were 
applied since 2003 to both centralised a nd decentralised actions. It can be 
stated that, the new budgeta ry rules were stricter than before, especially in 
case of sub-contracting of grants, for which th ere was already a tight 
framework. 
74 Eurostat faced difficulties in finding on the market a wide offer of technical 
expertise required to carry out some centralised actions, due to the specificity 
of the work. The limited number of en terprises replying to public tenders 
bears witness to this. 
75 In some cases Member States faced also difficulties in 
implementing/managing actions they ha ve launched due to the lack of 
competent internal resources, as staff usually worked on Edicom projects in addition to their normal activities.  As a consequence twenty proposed 
projects were cancelled or abandoned. 
                                                
 
4 The share of budget expenditure has been calculated on the basis of the information provided by Eurostat 
without taking into account 474 500 Euro and 367 581 Euro of provisionally unpaid invoices in 2004 
and 2005 which have been suspended after Eurostat’s ex post controls (situation on 15th March 2008).  
 13    Risks of the means to be implemented for meeting the programme’s 
objectives  
76 The Edicom programme was launched on the basis of an ex-ante evaluation 
identifying the actions to be taken and assessing the necessary means for 
implementing them.   
77 The management of the programme was strictly in line with the ex-ante 
evaluation. However, in some cases th e means and procedures needed for 
achieving the programme’s objectives have  been re-examined in view of the 
preliminary results of some projects and on the basis of the changing of 
conditions incurred between the drafting of  the programme and its realisation. 
This occurred for example when studies  carried out centrally and in the 
Member States did not demonstrate the n eed for a drastic simplification of the 
Intrastat collection system. Thus, the si mplification objective, which had been 
included by the Commission in the ex-ante evaluation, was therefore tempered in practice.  
78 In other cases, the cost/benefit analysis of certain actions and surveys carried 
out on Providers of Statistical Inform ation and on user needs provided inputs 
for better targeting the programme by partially re-e valuating the content of 
some operational objectives. 
79 The need of consistency between the ti ming of realisation of various actions 
has been also taken into considerati on. For example, a number of tools were 
developed during the first years of th e programme and were then applied 
either centrally or in the Member States consequently. 
 
Sustainability of the programme with  regard to the availability of 
budgetary resources 
80 The financial envelope of the Edicom  programme was correctly dimensioned 
for covering all the activities for ecasted during the Edicom decision.  
81 The main objectives of the ex-ante eval uation have been achieved due to the 
regular availability of budgetary res ources. There has been one exception 
linked to the late adoption of the Commission financing decision in 2003 and 
the postponement of certain  actions of the 2003 Edicom programme in order 
to comply with the instructions of th e Commission to reduce the office's work 
programme. These have shown how dependent the programme was on external events or decisions. 
 Maintenance and coherence of computer tools 
82 The Edicom programme had a strong IT profile. Several tools have been 
developed and updated. Some tools have a generic utility (they can for example be used in other areas of statistics or other environments) while others were specific to statistic s relating to the trading of goods. 
83 Since the Edicom programme had a limited duration, it was important to 
assess the necessary evolutionary mainte nance costs of these tools and ensure 
that the necessary resources could be av ailable at the end of the programme – 
 14   at Community level for centralised tools and in the Member States for tools 
developed for national purposes. 
5. Extension of the programme following Enlargement 
84 The Edicom II programme initially was limited to EU-15 Member States, 
which were the only ones who could benefit from grants. Following the Enlargement of the European Union, from work programme 2004 onward, new Member States were also benefici aries of the EDICOM  II grants.    
5. MAIN FINDINGS AND ACHIEVED RE SULTS AT ACTION LEVEL  
85 The measures or activities undertak en in the 2001-2005 programmes have 
been classified according to the six main objectives.   
Objective 1 : An information network of bette r quality, less costly and making 
data available more quickly, in accord ance with the requirements of the 
Community policies.  
Action 1: Development of advanced estimators 
86 Fourteen Member States (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, 
Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherla nds, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, 
Sweden and United Kingdom) carried out  studies in the fi eld of advanced 
estimators, in order to set up met hodologies, find and test alternative 
methods, implement or enhance the produc tion of advanced estimators. Eight 
Member States (Austria, Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Slovakia, Unite d Kingdom) concentrated their effort in the 
framework of a single work programme , while six Member States (Denmark, 
Finland, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Sweden) carried out multi-annual activities. Results are varying from methodological reports, positive 
assessment of current methods, development and implementation of new systems. In few cases, however, exp ected results were not completely 
achieved due to inconsistency of the findings or missing complementary information for the study. 
87 Concerning Eurostat centralised acti ons, a comparison between several now-
casting methods has been successfully made. An application, named EMDSAS, incorporating the various met hods has been developed, tested and 
implemented. It enables the production of short-term statistics for Member States who are late in transmitting their results. The development is also useful for the new Member States in order to comply with Intrastat deadlines for the transmission of results.  
88 On the other hand, Eurostat has co mpared the methodologies used by 
Member States for advanced estimation and a harmonised methodology has been proposed combining an ARIMA mode l and a growth rate factor model. 
Based on these results, an app lication has been developed.  
89 Finally, Eurostat has carried out an anal ysis of the updating processes used by 
Member States. The time series have been analysed and models for the update patterns have been proposed and tested. An IT application has been 
 15   developed enabling the automatic crea tion of forecasting models and the 
consequent correction for the biases of the updates. 
Action 2: Quality 
90 Fourteen Member States (Czech republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, 
Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom) managed to  improve their quality controls and 
correction systems by developing and implementing more automated processes for checking basic data and output statistics. The comparison of 
Intrastat data with other sources has been also used by Member States to 
enhance data quality. 
91 Eight Member States (Belgium, De nmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, 
Portugal, Spain and United Kingdom) unde rtook mirror statistic s analysis in 
order to find reasons and highlight the im pact of discrepancies at bilateral or 
at EU total trade level.  
92 Furthermore, twelve Member States  (Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, 
Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Po rtugal, Spain, Sweden and United 
Kingdom) have carried out studies and in most of the cases improved their 
current system of imputation for non-decl ared trade (trade below thresholds 
or non-response) and/or for the estim ation of the statistical value.  
93 Four Member States (Denmark, Italy, L uxembourg, Finland) have worked on 
outlier detection, using software developed by Eurostat with some 
modifications to take into account th eir national systems specificities and 
different levels of aggregation. 
94 Other different projects have b een carried out by Member States. 
Luxembourg focused on minimizing the potential loss of data following the EU Enlargement, Finland studied the structure of its trade with Russia, 
Denmark put in place a Quality Survei llance System to monitor and publish 
information regarding the developmen t of quality indicators of national 
figures. 
95 Eurostat improved its outlier detecti on system and undertook projects to 
collect and analyse the methods used  by Member States to check the 
individual data/records pr ovided by companies and methods check data at a 
more aggregated level of product and geographical classifications. The aims 
were to have a thorough evaluation of the current methods in use in view of 
the feasibility of a common EU platfo rm. These projects led to a global 
proposition for quality controls of input  and output trade statistics, which 
have been included into the XTN ET validation system developed under 
Edicom action 12. 
96 In the field of quality reporting, various activities have been undertaken 
aimed at enhancing quality measurement, control and assurance. Proposals made on data quality have finally been  integrated into the new Intrastat 
Regulations; mirror leaflets have been released and a database has been created to collect Member States’ quantitative and qualitative information on quality indicators. This database, named Quality Information for External 
Trade (QUIET), was updated annually vi a a questionnaire sent to Member 
 16   States and become, together with in formation extracted directly from 
Comext, one of the main sources of information for the Eurostat Quality 
Report on External Trade Statistics. 
97 Regarding the treatment of asymmetr ies, the aim was to compare and 
implement specific models to reconcile the divergent data on the basis of several methods. Eurostat succeeded in identifying models of reconciliation for Intra and Extra EU trade and MI RSTAT and RECONSAS software have 
been developed. Eurostat has carried out  a feasibility study for developing a 
world trade matrix in order to satisfy existing and future data needs and studies on the stability of data series and on CIF/FOB methodologies. 
98 Finally, Eurostat has completed a pr oject aimed at investigating the 
adjustment methods used by Member States  in the field of non-declared trade 
(trade below thresholds and non-responses ). For this purpose,  a questionnaire 
was sent to the Member States. The re sponses made it possible to describe 
and compare methods used by the Member States. Simulations have been carried out and finally the different methods for adjustment have been 
implemented in an application (ADJSAS), which can be used to estimate non-declared trade at individual or gl obal level. New Member States and 
Acceding countries could use results of th is analysis to select their methods 
among those already implemented with success in other MS.   
Objective 2
: A relevant information network adapted to the changing needs of 
the users within the framework of Economic and Monetary Union and the international economic environment 
Action 3: New short term indicators  
99 In order to supply decision-makers at Community level with a set of 
indicators for interpreting the development of external trade and its 
interaction with the EU internal activities, the efforts undertaken in the 
framework of the EDICOM II programme have focused on the measurement of export and import prices, on seas onal adjustments, on calculation of 
historical time series an d CIF/FOB adjustments. 
100 The application NICE for the calculati on of indices of the unit value and 
volume of Member States' external trade has been developed and implemented into Eurostat's production environment enabling unit value indices for all combination of variables “reporter/partner/flow/product” to be 
calculated every month. The maintenance of the system and the improvement of the procedures have been guaranteed  for the duration of the EDICOM II 
project.  
101 Eurostat has also analysed import and export price indices methodologies 
adopted by different Member States , third countries and international 
organisations and prepared a refe rence methodology for countries, which 
were not calculating them yet.  
102 A comparative analysis of import Specific Price Indices (SPIs) and 
corresponding Unit Value Indices (UVIs) ha s been made by Eurostat for four 
Member States (DE, FI, NL and SE) on the basis of the Intra and Extra-EU 
imports, with reference period 1995, di saggregated according to CPA 1996 
 17   up to 4 digit numerical codes when av ailable. If from one side UVIs are 
relatively simple and inexpensive to cal culate, from the other they are based 
on average prices, which do not take  into account the changes in the 
composition of flows. SPIs may provide  much better indicators of price 
change for heterogeneous commodities; however some Member States consider that cost and complexity for their calculation outweigh the usefulness of the quality improvement. 
103 Eight Member States (Austria, Germa ny, Finland, France, Italy, Netherlands, 
Poland and Slovakia) have undertaken  works to improve their national 
measure of external trade price indi ces (development of new methodology, 
pilot surveys, calculation/comparison of  unit price and unit value indices). 
Results of some studies on price indi ces and unit value indices in foreign 
trade highlights that differe nces are due to mode of calculation, time of price 
registration and basket of goods. However both indices do not vary 
fundamentally.  
104 In order to comply with the amended Short Term Statistics Regulation, which 
added variable 340 “Import prices” to the list of variable included in Council 
Regulation 1165/98, Italy carried out a p ilot study, while Austria, Belgium, 
Finland and France drafted a methodology for the collection of import prices 
for CPA classes of Eurozone and/or non-Eurozone and transmitted gathered data to Eurostat.   
105 Centralised studies have been carried  out by Eurostat for defining new 
methodologies and assess quality indicat ors concerning seasonally adjusted 
data. In the field of adjustments of  short time series, X-12 ARIMA and 
TRAMO-SEATS methods have  been tested. Studies on seasonal variations’ 
corrections have been carried out and quality indicators for the corrected 
series have been evaluated. 
106 Denmark and Finland have completed the restoration of their external trade 
historical time series, respectivel y for the period 1966-1979 and 1984-1994.  
107 Nine Member States (Austria, Denm ark, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, 
Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden) have unde rtaken projects in the fields of 
CIF/FOB adjustments. These projects were mainly targeted to the improvement of the methodology and the development of new software. Internationally used methods and data  sources have been analysed and 
surveys have been carried out for th e better calculation of transport and 
insurance costs.  
108 Latvia has created, after analysis and definition of a new methodology, a 
computer programme for transforming i nvoice values into st atistical values 
for each combination of CN2/partner country. 
Action 4: Confidentiality  
109 The diagnostic study undertaken by Euro stat has increased the understanding 
of the processes used by Member Stat es in dealing with confidentiality. 
Member States apply the principle of passive confidentiality, under which 
declarants may request that their data remain confidential if private information can be disclosed from their publication. There are great 
 18   disparities in the share of confidential data between Member States and a lack 
of coherence at EU level.  
110 Six Member States (Denmark, Finla nd, France, Italy, Portugal and United 
Kingdom) have conducted studies in the framework of the treatment of the 
confidential information in order to improve the management of confidentiality and maximize the publishable information. From the 
examination of the practical process of confidentialisation at national level appears that periodic reminders sent to  enterprises allow suppressions to be 
reviewed and in some cases removed, so that data previously confidential can 
be released into the public domain.  The development of automatic procedures for the treatment of conf identiality has been  also studied by 
Denmark and Portugal. 
111 A set of recommendations on the manage ment of confidentiality has been 
drafted after a study on practices of c onfidentiality used by Member States. 
Eurostat has drafted guidelines on c onfidential data to Member States. If 
applied, these measures would improve th e quality of data at national level 
and the coherence of statistics at EU level.  
Action 5: New statistical products  
112 Germany, Greece, Finland and Italy ca rried out studies related to the 
Contribution of International Groups to  External Trade (CIGET statistics) 
or/and Intra-Firm trade (in most of cas es at aggregated level of the NACE 
classification). Concrete results have been obtained by merging information 
of three registers: the Business Register, the Re gister of Foreign Trade 
operators and the Foreign Affiliate Trade Statistics (FATS) register. In this manner, some steps towards a full collection system of intra-firm statistics in EU have been made; however more work  should be dedicated to this subject 
in order to obtain harmonised  and exhaustive EU figures.  
113 Ten Member States (Austria, Belgiu m, Cyprus, Germany, Denmark, Finland, 
Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and Sweden ) have focused their efforts in 
preparing or adapting their systems fo r publishing external trade data broken 
down by enterprise charac teristics. This has b een achieved by linking 
different sources of available informa tion at national level (General Business 
Register, Intrastat Register, VAT regist er, Trader’s Register, etc.).  These 
preparatory works have allowed publis hing, in 2007, the re sults of a pilot 
study presenting “External Trade by En terprise Characteristics” in 18 
Member States and in two EFTA Countries (Norway and Island) on the basis of six indicators (concentration of tr ade, trade by activity sector, by size-
class, by partner countries, by number of partner countries, by products). 
Similar pilot studies have been laun ched in the year 2002 and 2005 with a 
lesser degree of detail. 
114 Belgium made a publication presenting an analysis of national exports for the 
period 1995-2000, broken down by region, size class and activity sector of 
exporting enterprises. 
115 Austria and Netherlands carried out  studies for comparing/combining 
transport data captured in foreign trade st atistics with transport statistics data, 
 19   in order to improve the overall data quality in external trade or in both 
statistics. The result of the Austrian study showed that there were very close 
correlations between transport and tr ade statistics data. The Netherlands 
succeeded to produce a transport-trade integrated database showing trade 
flows to/from the country, broken-down by continent of origin/destination, 
loading/unloading and mode of transport.  
Objective 3 : A network of information which is better integrated into the 
general statistical system and adapted to the developments of the administrative 
environment 
Action 6: Registers 
116 Eurostat realised studies for cr eating two different methodological 
frameworks: one for the collection of CIGET and Intra-firm data; the other 
for the collection and joint presentation of external trade and business statistics.  
117 Twelve Member States (Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, 
Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Port ugal, Slovakia, Sweden and United 
Kingdom) have carried out analyses of the current registers and some 
undertook work to create/improve the qua lity of Intrastat and Extrastat 
registers. The inter-operability of trad e registers with othe r national registers 
(for instance the VAT register and th e General Business Register) was also a 
main subject of study. In some countries the work carried out allowed to improve the completeness of the availabl e information, the creation of stable 
links between registers and the basis for the production of external trade 
statistics by activity sector planned under Edicom action 5. 
Action 7: Adapting and modernising Extrastat  
118 At centralised level , an inventory has been made  on unused but statistically 
relevant Customs data available at nati onal level. The repor t showed that only 
few interesting variables were available in enough Member States so as to be considered relevant. Nevertheless, it wa s considered that their statistical use 
could significantly enhance both tariff and mirror statistics. 
119 Another study highlighted the need to improve and complete the quality of 
existing tariff statistics a nd tariff measures information. Additional sources of 
information of potential use for negot iations have been analysed and 
assessed. 
120 The first steps of the modular Taristat  project aiming to combine trade and 
tariff data proved to be extremely complex due to the fact that the EU’s customs tariff database (Taric) provide s tariff measures on a daily basis while 
the Comext database contains mont hly trade data. The achieved results 
consisted in an application that pr imarily crosses basic monthly tariff 
information with monthly external trade data. The results were made available in two new Comext datasets.  
121 In the framework of statistics on th e trading of goods with non-Member 
States, a study investigating the need s and the quality of transport data 
provided by Member States has been launched under Work Programme 2003.  
 20   122 A number of preliminary studies were  launched for th e revision of the 
Extrastat legislation that have resulte d in the elaboration of a draft new 
European Parliament and Council Regulation and a new Commission 
Regulation that are due to being implemented in 2009. 
123 At decentralised level,  seven Member States (G ermany, Denmark, Finland, 
Italy, Netherlands, Greece and Fran ce) launched actions aimed at 
strengthening the collaboration between  authorities in charge of data 
collection and publication for improving the quality of basic information 
and/or speed up the availability of Extrastat statistics. Results have been reached by extending data entry cont rols for electronic declarations; by 
updating Extrastat registers, by deve loping programs for the electronic 
transfer of statistical er ror enquiries and for the interactive correction of 
invalid/incomplete data; by updating th e transmission system used for the 
exchange of data betwee n national administrations. 
124 Denmark, Greece and Italy carried out studies  on potential use of variables of 
the Single Administrative Document, which are not yet collected or fully exploited for statistical pur poses. Some variables if collected at statistical 
level might be used for enhancin g the methodology in  relation to UN 
recommendations, for improving data ad justments and the economic analysis 
of trade flows. Netherlands carried out  a study on invoicing currency used in 
Extrastat in order to provide informati on to the European Central Bank, while 
Slovenia adapted and modern ised the programs for data  processing following 
the full adoption of the Acquis Communautaire . 
Action 8: Preparing the adaptation of  Intrastat in the long term  
125 At centralised level  an opinion poll was launched  in six Member States 
(Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Swed en, United Kingdom) to reassess the 
burden on providers of statistical info rmation. The survey results did not 
indicate any serious need for substantia l changes on the Intrastat system as its 
burden was judged by operators to be reasonable and acceptable. Over 70% 
of the traders needed in fact less than 4 hours a month to complete the Intrastat declaration. The commodity code was considered as the information most difficult to determine. In order to simplify and reduce the administrative burden on enterprises, tools allowing filling in declarations automatically have been developed in the fr amework of the Edicom action 12. 
126 Also the assessment of user needs confir med that no substantial change in the 
existing system was expected. In particul ar, the need for detailed information 
on commodities was highlighted (fro m the survey, nine out of ten 
respondents used the Combined Nome nclature (CN), 71% use CN codes 
usually or systematically and one responde nt in three uses all chapters of the 
CN). Other interesting findings were identified and taken into account, in 
particular the progress to be made on timeliness and reliability of data. 
127 Summary studies have been  carried out on methodologi cal aspects linked to 
alternative data collecti on systems, coverage and statistical evaluation of 
trade, new statistical products, links between registers and other statistics 
(balance of payments, national accounts etc.).  
 21   128 On the basis of the studies mentioned a bove, Eurostat, with the assistance of 
the Working Group Methods, has drafted a new Basic Intrastat legislative act 
having in mind that the legislation ha d to be more understandable and 
transparent; while taking at the same time fully into account the requirements 
of users and the reinforcem ent of quality aspects.  
129 The new Intrastat Basic Regulation has been adopted by the European 
Parliament and Council in 2004, and was supplemented by a Commission Regulation with the implementing provi sions and recommendations for the 
application at national level. (Regul ation (EC) No 638/2004 of the European 
Parliament and of the Council a nd Commission Regul ation (EC) No 
1982/2004). 
130 At decentralised level , Sweden, in the context of the 2002 Work Programme, 
analysed the possible impact of the adoption of the Harmonised System 
nomenclature. Providers on statistical  information were in favour of a 
simplification of the product nomenclat ure, which would also cause an 
important reduction of the workload in Statistics Sweden, while users’ opinion was different.  
131 Germany, France, Sweden and United Kingdom, due to confidentiality 
reasons, had to participate more actively in the Eurostat survey on the Burden of Intrastat launched in 2001, as written i nquiries had to be sent and collected 
by the national competent administration. Results have been then transmitted to Eurostat for processing. Surveys with similar purpose have been 
conducted, under the Work Programme 2005 by Latvia, in parallel to a user 
satisfaction survey, and by Italy. 
132 Also at decentralised leve l, in the context of th e 2004 Work Programme, Italy 
has launched a study in order to analyse the impact of the EU Enlargement on 
the national Intrastat figures. 
133 An international seminar on “Intrastat si mplification”  has been organised and 
held in the United Kingdom: the raisi ng of thresholds and the Single Flow 
System were retained as the most prom ising options. Still in the framework of 
simplification measures, sampling methods  to reduce the number of Intrastat 
PSIs have been explored by UK: the st ratification by trade value method was 
the most accurate. 
134 Germany and Sweden carried out studies on the effects of the possible 
introduction of the simplification threshol d foreseen in article 10 (4)(c) of the 
Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 of the Europ ean Parliament and of the Council. 
135 Germany, Italy and Sweden carried out  studies on the pos sible adoption of 
the Single Flow System, which might have some negative effects on data 
availability (due to non-  homogeneous collection of “non mandatory” data in 
MS and missing informati on for other st atistics).  
136 In order to improve the quality of da ta provided by PSIs, Intrastat seminars 
have been organised in Slovakia and an e-learning application on Intrastat 
content was developed in Denmar k and made available on the web. 
 22   Objective 4 : A network improving the stat istical service offered to 
administrations, users and data providers 
Action 9: Coordination of dissemination  
137 The identification of user needs and sa tisfaction in terms of statistics and 
system has been monitored via Internet surveys, with the purpose to provide 
orientations for the further developmen t of the Comext system. Users had a 
very positive perception of the quality  of Comext data. A large number of 
respondents have expressed a very pos itive opinion on the evolution of 
Comext interface and content. 
138 The projects undertaken by Eurostat have  permitted the development of more 
modern and flexible di ssemination systems, based on the use on new 
technologies and on-line disseminati on. The Czech Republic, Denmark and 
France have operated changes in their national dissemination systems in order 
to better adapt to new technologies a nd users demand, while Belgium realised 
a feasibility study.   
139 Spain carried out an information campai gn in order to provide notice to PSIs 
about the elimination of IDEP/CN8 and the availability of a new tool for 
submitting Intrastat declarations. The transition has been made successfully, without registering any increas e in the “non-response” rate.  
140 Due to technical improvements and to the application of new statistical 
methods (i.e. advanced estimators), delays for dissemination of macroeconomic data in press releases ha ve decreased from 53 days in 2002 to 
48 days in 2006. Eurostat thus met the e xpectations of users, such as the 
ECB, by making available raw data and seasonally adjusted data rapidly. This 
improvement has been achieved also th anks to new regulations fixing the 
legal transmission deadline for Intrastat and Extrastat aggregated data to 40 
days and thanks to the reduction of th e time necessary for the compilation of 
the press release, which passe d from 3.5 days to 1.5 days. 
141 Dissemination of detailed monthly data ha s also been improved thanks to the 
reduction in delays of data transmission. 
142 In parallel, actions have been launched to adapt Eurostat databases and 
publications to integrate the effects of the EU Enlargement. For this purpose the reconstitution of historical seri es since 1989 has been obtained by 
retropolation and the software for the production of regular publications, such 
as the “Monthly Bulletin” and the “Tra de Statistical Yearbook”, have been 
modified. 
143 The analysis of the external trade of  the EU and Euro-zone carried out by 
Eurostat has led to the production of se veral short publicatio ns (Statistics in 
Focus); and longer annual publications (i.e. Panorama) on the evolution of 
trade. 
144 Similarly, the dissemination of detailed da ta has also been sped up thanks to 
the reduction of delays in data transm ission to Eurostat, to the improvement 
of the Comext On-line and to the creation of Easy-Comext interactive database, which is accessible, in free dissemination, via the web.  
 23   145 Users help-desk services have been permanently guaranteed. In addition 
support to users has been provided vi a specific Comext training courses 
delivered in Brussels, Luxembourg, Madrid  and Frankfurt, for which specific 
Comext documentation and training manuals have been prepared.  
Action 10: Automatic classification system  
146 Eurostat has launched projects for ensu ring the evolutionary maintenance of 
products related to the CN and designi ng an automatic classification system. 
147 The evolutionary maintenance of pr oducts related to the CN has been 
developed with satisfactory results. Du ring the first part of the programme, 
actions have been concentrated on making available and disseminating in 
time products in the 11 official langua ges of the European Union. After the 
EU Enlargement of 2004 efforts have been focus in adapting programs and 
databases for taking into accounts the sp ecifications of the 9 new Community 
languages. The evolutionary maintenan ce has been realised also by the 
adoption of most updated version of software and databases. 
148 In view to modernise the CN a study on the purpose (tariff or statistics) and 
on the relevance (national or Community) of sub-headings of CN have been 
made. In addition the identification of the “low trade sub-headings” has been 
carried out by identifying those products  for which the total trade of one year 
did not surpass 20 Mio Euro in 2004 (EU-15) or 30 Mio Euro in 2005 (EU-25).  
149 The results of the feasibility study for an  automatic classification system have 
highlighted the complexity of integrating such a tool in the existing system as 
well as high development and maintenan ce costs. The project was not carried 
further. In alternative a project has been  launched to develop a specific tool in 
Eurostat’s classification web server “RAMON”, allowing to browse the 
Combined Nomenclature, display CN offi cial texts, notes and hierarchies, 
search by CN codes, keywords and full-text and export CN elements. 
150 In addition a new stand-alone combined classification search tool has been 
developed and made available to Member  States in two different packages: 
one addressed to the Competent National Administration, the other to Declarant Parties. The new tool, wh ich works under the Windows operating 
system, allows to browse the CN, di splay CN official texts, notes and 
hierarchy, search by CN codes, keywor ds, full-text and finally export CN 
elements. 
151 At decentralised level, France has launched a study on the implementation of 
a keywords index and a new search e ngine for the nomenclatures used in 
national applications (D EB on the web, “Cherche-m ots”, IDEP/CN8, RITA), 
following the decision of Eurostat to stop the provision of  the annual file 
“keywords on the CN” contained in the CD-Rom Intrastat.  
Action 11: Dissemination of metadata  
152 At centralised level, efforts have been made for enhancing the dissemination 
of metadata. There were no projects la unched by Member States under this 
action. 
 24   153 Three projects covered the need to re-write, implement and maintain 
computer tools that ensured the coherent  and user-friendly availability of the 
annual Intrastat version of the Combined Nomenclature and its related 
products in all official languages. The in creased level of linguistic variety due 
to the Enlargement has been managed with satisfactory results. 
154 The fourth centralised proj ects dealt with the invent ory and analysis of the 
ways to implement the most advan ced technologies to speed up the 
distribution of metadata and facilitat e their accessibility to the public. 
Following surveys on users’ needs, studi es on comparable solutions adopted 
at international level and the developm ent of an alternative prototype, the 
Eurostat’s classifications web server RAMON has been finally chosen as the 
most appropriate base for the on-line  dissemination of nomenclatures and 
their related products.  
Objective 5 : A network based on informatio n-gathering tools taking into 
account the latest technological developm ents in order to improve the function 
offered to data providers 
Action 12: Collection Tools  
155 At a centralised level, information-gathering tools have been maintained or 
developed in order to improve functions  offered to data providers (offline 
tools, online tools, web forms and CN  Search tools) and work has been 
carried out on standardis ation messages for electronic data collection and 
production controls. 
156 The development of online tools repres ented a constant activity during the 
EDICOM Programme. The most important result was the creation of Intrastat 
Web Form systems, which allow data gathering via the Internet and the 
electronic administration of the co llected statistical information. 
157 A stand-alone classification search a pplication called “CN Search tool” was 
developed at centralised level in order to allow Declarant Parties to download 
product nomenclatures via a web interf ace. A number of developments 
concerning web forms, off line tools and integrated tools have been carried 
out. 
158 Among offline tools, it is important to highlight the production of annual 
updates of the IDEP/CN8 software a nd the distribution of CD-ROMs to 
Member States. As the 2004 version of th e software was the last developed at 
central level, decentralised project s were launched on the ‘IDEP/CN8 
Maintenance and Support’ to ensure the continuity of the service provided by 
Eurostat. 
159 So, at decentralised level, most Member States have based theirs actions on 
the development and the maintenance of IDEP/CN8 systems, allowing a better autonomy and flexibility of the t ools, as well as a better harmonisation 
of the communication between enterpri ses and data collection centres.  
 
 25   160 Actions with all Member States have led to the improvement of the existing 
current collection tools (Deb on the Web, ROS, Intr@web, CBS-IRIS, ELIS, 
IDAIS, WG3Stat), or/and the development and implementation of the Intrastat Web forms as data collection tools. 
161 Another project successfully  dealt with the EDIFACT messages maintenance, 
the production of Message Implementati on Guidelines and the support to 
competent national administrations (C NAs) and providers of statistical 
information (PSIs). 
162 Great importance was also given to m odernising and standardising messages 
with the use of new technology and techni cal features in th e existing process, 
like transmission format standardisati on (Message INSTAT/XML or Gesmes 
format) for Intrastat data collection. 
163 All these projects were sustained by a lot of promotional campaigns inviting 
PSI’s to use web, online and offline tools rather than paper for data transmission. These campaigns were car ried out by means of brochures, CD-
Rom/floppy disk, calls, technical assistan ce and interactive training courses in 
different languages, informa tion meetings and seminars. 
164 The quality of created tools and promotional campaigns at centralised and 
decentralised level have increased the number of PSI’s making Intrastat 
declaration via Web (approximately 100 000 users), a fac ility of data 
acquisition, a considerable reduction of the amount of lines sent on paper or 
floppy disk (decrease of paper about 30%),  and as aimed, a real improvement 
of data transmission quality/consiste ncy and consequently a reduction of 
burden, cost for data provider s and collecting authorities. 
Objective 6 (horizontal
): Integrated and interoperable network 
Action 13: Integrated system-Inter operability-Network implementation 
165 Services to users were improved by the drafting of user guides, improvements 
of the COMEXT system’s functionalitie s, organisation of training courses 
and development of the COMEXT sta nd-alone version for browsing data on 
CD-ROM and other distribution media (COMEXT DVD-Rom, distributed to 
500 users per month).  
166 A project was launched to improve the existing methodological reference 
material by creating the new inform ation database (METODOLOGICA) and 
developing tools giving easy access to the information. A specific web system dissemination database on Exte rnal trade (Easy COMEXT) has been 
developed and made accessible in free diss emination to external users, from 
October 2004, allowing disseminating more  detailed Member States data to 
the public then before. (70 000 extractions per month in 2006). 
167 Measures have been launched to modernise the various elements of the trans-
European network within the Commissi on and Member States, including the 
new Member States (XTNET project).  
168 A lot of tools and methods have been  developed and updated in different 
domains like processing and validati on of data; communication between 
 26   national administrations and Eurostat; user access to statistical data and 
metadata, and data dissemination (C omext server, Easy Comext Client, 
Analytical Comext client, NPS, XTNET-edit, XTNET-assist, XTNET-
publish, Comext-OLE). 
169 The enhancing of the analytical interf ace allowed Member States to improve 
the deadlines for the transmission of data to Eurostat, consequently also the dissemination at centralis ed level was sped up.  
170 At decentralised level, Greece has initi ated actions on the implementation of 
XT-NET, in order to evolve to a more homogeneous system of data collection 
at European level, and Germany, with the development of the new programs 
especially focused on correction of in consistencies found in reporting of 
product and partner country confidentia lity, nationality of the means of 
transport and conversions of products, is  now able to produce external trade 
data that can be directly loaded by  Eurostat into Comext without going 
through a time-consuming correction process. 
 27   ANNEX 1: 
Objectives, expected results, performance indicators and actual results of the Edicom II 
programme (2001-2005). 
 Objective 1
: An information network of better quality, less costly and available more 
quickly, in accordance with the requi rements of the Community policies. 
 Expected results Performance indicators Actual results 
The time needed to supply data 
at aggregated level; According to the new Intrastat 
and amended Extrastat 
legislations, Member States 
should provide Eurostat with 
Intra and Extra-EU aggregated 
statistics  within 40 days after 
the end of the reference month Action 1 : To speed 
up the availability 
of the statistics at 
aggregated level by 
improving statistical 
estimation 
techniques Member States aggregated 
figures for the intra and extra 
euro area trade have been made 
available around 40 days after 
the end of the reference month. 
Number of Member States 
complying with the deadline for 
the transmission of data to 
Eurostat. All Member States are in line 
with the deadline for the 
transmission of data to 
Eurostat. 
 Euro-zone and EU aggregated 
figures are published around 46 
days after the end of the 
reference period. The average timeliness for 
Eurostat to publish press 
releases. Delays for the dissemination of 
EU and Eurozone aggregated 
figures in press releases have 
decreased from 53 days in 2002 
to 48 days in 2006, better 
satisfying ECB requests and 
other user needs. 
 New methods or tools enabling 
Member States and/or Eurostat 
to decrease the revision bias 
have been developed. The bias of initial estimates 
with respect to final results at 
aggregated level; The average extent of the 
revisions of monthly detailed 
data has been reduced 
significantly fo r some Member 
States.  
  Availability and 
implementation of tools 
developed. At centralised level an 
application (EMDSAS) for 
estimating missing data has 
been developed, and improved 
by clarifying the process and by 
simplifying its use, together 
with a program for adjusting 
data revision (UPDATSAS). 
 28    
 Expected results Performance indicators Actual results 
A list of controls recommended 
by Eurostat has been released; Different recommendations 
have been listed by Member 
States to allow the detection 
and the resolution of 
asymmetries. A common platform at EU 
level to control basic statistics 
has been developed. 
Number of Member States in 
agreement with the common 
platform. In the framework of action 12, 
the XTNET validation project, 
has provided a common 
platform for the validation of basic data. Few Member States 
have already started to put in 
place this system. Full results 
would be seen within few 
years.   
A common framework for 
quality assurance has been 
developed, covering: 
The regular reporting on quality 
from Member States and 
Eurostat including assessment 
of users satisfaction and ad-hoc 
methods to control output data; Number of Member States 
regularly sending a quality 
report to EUROSTAT 
according to a common layout; 
EUROSTAT regularly releases 
a synthesis quality report; 
 Eurostat and most of Member 
States have produced Quality 
Reports (QR) in order to 
analyse data quality and to 
improve international trade 
statistics, these QR have been 
produced in accordance with 
the official definition of quality 
in the European Statistics 
System. 
A quality database. A qua lity database has been 
developed and updated. A quality database “QUIET” 
has been developed at 
centralised level. However for 
the production of the latest 
Eurostat quality reports the 
information has been taken 
directly from the questionnaires 
fulfilled by Member States. Action 2 : To 
provide high-quality 
trade statistics 
quickly and 
punctually, by 
controlling the 
quality of basic 
statistics, enhancing 
quality 
measurement and 
assurance, tackling 
asymmetries, 
developing 
imputing and 
harmonising 
statistical methods. 
Relevant tools that enable 
Eurostat and Member States to 
cope with asymmetries have 
been developed.  Level of asymmetries; 
 Over the period of the 
programme, asymmetries on 
aggregate level have decreased 
in spite of EU enlargement with 
10 new Member States.  
Important asymmetries remain 
on detailed level.  
Different Members States have 
done studies in order to reduce 
asymmetries. Eurostat and 
Denmark have developed an 
application  in order to study the asymmetries and for 
reconciliation of external trade 
data.  
Different recommendations 
have been listed by Member 
States to allow the detection 
and the resolution of 
asymmetries. 
 
 29    Expected results Performance indicators Actual results 
(Continued) (Continued) Availability of reconciliation 
tools. The Reconsas tool for solving 
aggregate level asymmetries 
based on time series has been 
developed and tested.   The 
political decision to use it in 
publications has not been taken 
yet. 
 Methods/tools enabling 
Member States to estimate or 
impute the non-declared trade 
have been developed and implemented. Number of Member States 
using adjustment methods for 
non-response and trade below 
the assimilation threshold. Only four countries: GR, ES, 
FR (for the years 2002-2005) 
and MT did not apply any 
adjustments 
 The Member States 
transmission process of 
monthly data revisions has been 
improved. A set of Eurostat 
recommendations has been 
released; Number of Member 
States in agreement with 
Eurostat recommendations. The average extent of the 
revisions of aggregated data 
supplied by MS to Eurostat has 
been reduced, especially in 
Intrastat. However some 
Member States have still room 
for improvement. 
 
 30   Objective 2 : A relevant information network adap ted to the changing needs of the 
users within the framework of Economic and Monetary Union and the international 
economic environment 
 Expected results Performance indicators Actual results 
Action 3 : To 
provide new short-
term indicators 
adapted to the needs 
of economic 
analysis at EU and 
EMU level A new application for the 
calculation of unit value indices 
has been developed. Availability of a new 
application for the calculation 
of unit value indices. Different software for the 
calculation of external trade 
indices and the realisation of 
new statistical products have 
been developed and 
implemented both at Eurostat 
and at Member States level. 
(Action 5) 
 A system for the production of 
import/export price statistics of 
the euro zone has been 
developed. Number of Member States 
producing import and export 
price specific indices not based 
on unit values but on real price 
information. Gradually ever more Member 
States switched to providing 
export/import prices specific 
indices. Currently 26 Member 
States provide export data and  
the Euro Area Member States 
(have to) provide import 
figures. 
 Seasonal adjustment methods 
used by Eurostat have been 
improved. Availability of quality 
indicators on seasonally 
adjusted data. Different methodologies have 
been defined and tested to 
assess the stability of the 
parameters for seasonal 
adjustments and to adjust short-
time series. 
 A  method at the Community 
and euro zone levels to obtain 
FOB/FOB trade balance has 
been developed. Availability of CIF/FOB 
adjustments (Number of 
Member States making these 
adjustments). Austria, Denmark, Finland, 
France, Greece, Netherlands, 
Slovakia and Sweden have 
studied/proposed new 
methodologies to calculate 
CIF/FOB adjustments, while 
Italy developed a pilot survey. 
 31    
 Expected results Performance indicators Actual results 
A methodology making it 
possible to publish real value of 
trade statistics (at a level of 
aggregation to be determined 
with Member States) has been 
developed. Percentage of confidential data 
in external trade (in quantity 
and value). According to figures published 
in the 2007 Quality Report, the 
impact of confidentiality on 
total EU figures of the year 
2005 attained 1% of arrivals, 
3.5% of dispatches, 3.7% of 
imports and 3.5%.of exports.  Action 4 : To 
manage and 
improve the 
processing of 
confidentiality of 
statistics in an 
integrated approach 
at national and 
European level. 
 Users of COMEXT have more 
information on the impact of 
confidential data in trade 
statistics. Availability of a 
recommendation guide and its 
implementation by Member 
States. Eurostat produced two guide-
books. The first targeted to  
improve the quality of 
aggregates in Comext and the 
second providing useful 
information to Member States 
on the management rules for 
confidentialising data. 
Action 5 : To 
increase user 
satisfaction by 
providing a more 
complete range of 
statistics Statistics on the proportion of 
the EU’s international 
transactions carried out by 
related firms belonging to the 
same enterprise group have 
been made available. Intra-firm statistics available at 
EU level. Only few Member States 
carried out Edicom projects on 
CIGET and Intra-fi rm statistics. 
After having worked mainly on 
methodology and on IT 
developments, CIGET and 
Intra-firm statistics have been 
calculated on the basis of 
commodity groups. These 
encouraging results should be 
taken as the basis for the further 
development of EU statistics. 
 External trade statistics and 
structural business statistics 
have been made more 
comparable. Trade data by activity sectors 
are available. From the other side, results of 
the EU standardisation exercise 
on “External Trade by 
Enterprise Characteristics” 
carried out in 2002, 2005 and 
2006, have been published 
presenting external trade 
statistics broken down by six 
main indicators respectively for 9, 17 and 18 Member States. 
The exercise has been 
continued also in 2007 and 
results are not far from being 
published. 
 32   Objective 3 : A network of information which is better integrated into the general 
statistical system and adapted to the develo pments of the administrative environment 
 Expected results Performance indicators Actual results 
Action 6 : To 
improve the 
interoperability of 
registers Registers of extra-Community 
traders have been developed. Number of Member States 
producing a register for the 
extra-Community trade. The available registers have 
been studied by Member States  
order to describe the current 
situation and to verify the 
possiblity to use the 
information for the 
improvement or the creation of 
registers or for the development 
of new statistical figures. Czech 
republic developed an Intrastat 
Register, Greece an Extra-trade 
Register, Finland a register for 
Intrastat and Extrastat operators 
and Portugal a register on 
international trade operators. 
 The quality of registers has 
been improved. Quality indicators of trade 
registers and their links 
(register coverage, proportion 
of the trade declarants 
identified in the General 
Register, etc.).  18 Member States now link 
trade and business registers.  
Coverage rates have increased 
to well over 90%.  
 The interoperability of registers 
has been improved. Existence of links between 
intra- and extra- trade registers 
and the General Business 
Register. At this stage, 16 Member States 
are able to link Business 
Register with Trade Register 
(Intra and Extra); while only 2 
Member States are not able to 
link Intrastat and Business 
Register. 12 Member States do 
not have a register for Extrastat 
operators, as Extrastat registers 
are not required by Extrastat Regulation. 
Action 7 : To adapt 
the Extrastat system 
to new information 
needs and customs 
developments A new Extrastat legislation has 
been adopted which has the 
main following characteristics: 
 the legislation is easier to 
understand and more 
transparent; 
 it takes into account the 
requirements of users 
(aggregates, Tariff data,…); 
 it takes into account the 
recommendations at 
international level and 
developments in customs rules. Availability of the new 
legislation. A new Extrastat legislative 
framework is still under 
preparation and should enter in 
force in 2009.  
 
   
 33    Expected results Performance indicators Actual results 
2. Metadata on Tariff measures 
have been made accessible to 
users of community statistics. Availability of metadata on 
Tariff measures. External trade statistics by 
mode of transport have been 
made available in Comext and 
New Cronos. Short Term 
Statistics (SIF) publications 
have been produced. External 
trade statistics by tariff 
measures have been made 
available to Comext selected 
users. (Continued) 
3. Co-operation between the 
customs administrations and 
the authorities responsible for 
statistics has been improved Improvement of the quality and 
timeliness of Extrastat 
statistics. The transmission of detailed 
Member States external trade 
data to Eurostat has been 
reduced during the EDICOM II 
programme by 5 days. On 
average, data are now available 
within 40 days after the end of 
the reference month, or 2 days 
in advance compared to the 
legal requirement. 
Action 8 : To adapt 
the Intrastat system 
to the development 
of its environment A new Intrastat legislation has 
been adopted which has the 
main following characteristics: 
 the legislation is more 
understandable and more 
transparent; 
 it takes into account the 
requirements of users; 
 quality aspects have been 
reinforced; 
 possibilities for further 
simplification of the system 
have been examined. Availability of the new 
legislation. In order to continue to 
harmonise the level and quality 
of Intrastat information and to 
adapt the system to the 
changing environment, 
Eurostat, with the assistance of 
the Working Group “Methods” 
and the Committee on Intrastat 
statistics, has succeeded to draft 
a new basic and implementing 
Intrastat legislations, which 
were adopted respectively by 
the European Council and 
Parliament and by the European 
Commission. The new legislations entered into force 
in January 2004. 
 
 34   Objective 4 : A network improving the statistical s ervice offered to administrations, 
users and data providers  
 Expected results Performance indicators Actual results 
Periodical studies of the 
information needs to improve 
dissemination have been 
undertaken. Satisfaction of users. The identification of user needs 
and satisfaction in terms of 
statistics and system has been 
monitored via internet surveys, 
with the purpose to provide 
orientations for the further 
development of the Comext 
system. 85% of users are 
satisfied overall with the trade 
statistics they use. A large 
number of respondents have 
expressed a very positive 
opinion on the evolution of 
Comext interface and content. 
Dissemination of macro-economic statistics has been 
improved in particular, through 
a macro-economic database. 
Selected data have been made 
available on the www. Delay in disseminating macro-
economic data.  Due to technical improvements 
and to the application of new 
statistics methods (i.e. 
advanced estimators), delays 
for dissemination of 
macroeconomic data in press 
releases (like the external trade 
balance: intra and extra MU 
and intra and extra EU) have 
decreased from 53 days in 2002 
to 48 days in 2006.   Eurostat 
thus meets the expectations of 
some users, such as the ECB, 
by making available raw data 
as well as seasonally adjusted 
data rapidly. This improvement 
has been achieved thanks to the 
new regulations fixing the legal 
transmission deadline for all 
aggregated data to 40 days and thanks to the reduction to time 
for the compilation of the press 
release, which is passed from 
3.5 days to 1.5 days. Action 9 : To 
disseminate relevant 
statistics as quickly 
as possible to all 
users. 
Access to detailed statistics has 
been improved. Delay in disseminating detailed 
data. Dissemination of detailed 
monthly data has also been 
improved thanks to the 
reduction of delays in data 
transmission to Eurostat. 
 
    
 35    Expected results Performance indicators Actual results 
Availability of the tools. This action has been mainly 
targeted to maintain, develop 
and integrate the softwares and 
systems used by Eurostat for 
updating the Intrastat version of 
the Combined Nomenclature. 
Regarding the informatics 
aspects there has been the 
creation of all the products 
linked with the Combined 
Nomenclature like: explanatory 
notes, alphabetic indices, 
keywords, correlation tables 
between nomenclatures and 
also the publication, in different 
file formats and official 
languages, of the yearly version 
of the CN nomenclature. Action 10 : To 
provide external 
trade operators with 
methods/tools for 
classifying goods in 
the Combined 
Nomenclature.  Tools, which facilitate the 
classification of goods in the 
Combined nomenclature, have 
been made available. 
The Combined nomenclature 
has been modernised. 
Availability of a revised 
version of the Combined 
nomenclature. In order to modernise the CN in 
the future, in  the framework of 
the WP 2004 and 2005 the 
analysis of the reasons and  
usefulness  of the CN-8 
subheadings of the 
nomenclature has been carried 
out.  
Action  11 : To 
provide users with 
tools necessary for 
the integration and 
dissemination of 
nomenclatures, 
classifications and 
other related 
products. Nomenclatures and metadata 
on nomenclatures are easily 
managed and accessible by all 
users. Satisfaction of users. This action has been carried out 
at centralised level only. 
Eurostat concentrated the 
efforts on the improvement of 
the system in use for the 
production of the CN 
nomenclature, achieving the 
concrete result that the 2002 
and 2003 annual versions of the CN were produced in 11 
languages in an efficient way 
and diffused in time to Member 
States for dissemination at 
national level. 
 
 36    
Objective 5 : A network based on information-gathe ring tools taking into account the 
latest technological developments in order to improve the function offered to data providers 
 Expected results Performance indicators Actual results 
Action 12: To 
develop and 
implement 
appropriate electronic 
data collection tools 
in the Member States  On-line and off-line data collection systems have been 
made available to PSIs in the 
Member States. Share of electronic 
declarations in the different 
Member States expressed in 
number of PSIs declarations 
and trade value. Many Members States have 
worked on the development of 
Intrastat Web Forms (IWF), 
IWF online tools and offline 
tools (to replace IDEP/CN8 
after decentralisation in 2004). 
Even if they used or have 
implemented IDEP/CN8, some 
Member States have chosen to 
replace it slowly/definitively 
by new system allowing VAT 
payers to submit data through 
Web applications: Deb on the 
Web, ROS, Intr@web, CBS-
IRIS, ELIS, IDAIS, WG3Stat. 
In 2005, there were 
approximately 80 000 
companies using the software 
IDEP/CN8. 
 PSIs have better and enhanced access to collection tools and 
other related information. Availability of collection tools. A web-base tool enables the 
easy browsing, searching and 
retrial of CN codes has been 
implemented. The system 
allows the download of 
product nomenclatures, via a 
Web interface, in a more 
simply, user-friendly and 
intuitive way. During the 
“Data Production” workshop 
organised by Eurostat in 
December 2005 in 
Luxembourg, the CN-Search 
Tool and tailor made database 
with the Combined 
Nomenclature and other 
available information in the 20 
official languages of the EU 
has been distributed.  
 37    
 Expected results Performance indicators Actual results 
(Continued)  Standardised Messages have 
been improved and adapted 
and implemented by the 
Member States.  Number of Member States who adapted the standardised 
messages. Several researches have been 
launched, at Eurostat and 
Member States level, in order 
to solve specific problems of 
message standardisation 
(GESMES / XML), data 
collection monitoring 
(STADIUM) and inventory 
(EDIFLOW), and improve the 
transmission modules hiding 
the telecommunication layer 
(IDEP/IRIS).  For Member 
States, this action consisted in 
the creation and promotion of 
electronic tools and on 
development of systems to 
receive data in XML format 
from the PSIs, and make 
available all-online and off-
line electronic Intrastat 
declaration. INSTAT/XML 
message has been implemented in the IDEP/CN8 package in 
parallel with the corresponding 
EDIFACT format 
CUSDEC/INSTAT. This 
package has been distributed to 
the traders by the national 
administrations of twelve 
Member States.  
 
 38   Objective 6 (horizontal) : Integrated and interoperable network 
 Expected results Performance indicators Actual results 
Enhanced controls and 
appropriate tools have been 
developed and implemented in 
the Member States. Number of Member States 
having implemented common 
validation procedures. Validation work started only in 
the last year of the Edicom 
programme. Only GR and DE 
really worked on the 
implementation of XTNET 
validation rules. 
Data access and transmission 
of data between Member States 
and Eurostat have been improved. Timeliness of detailed data 
availability. Tools and methods have been 
developed in the following 
domains: data processing and validation; communication 
between national 
administrations and Eurostat; 
users access to statistical data 
and metadata. Action 13: To 
modernise and 
improve the trans-
European network for 
the collection, 
production and 
dissemination of trade 
statistics  
Electronic dissemination tools 
have been developed and 
implemented in Eurostat. Users satisfaction; Volume of 
data accessed; Number of users 
accessing online information; 
Availability of appropriate 
metadata; Number of courses 
and participants for the use of 
data access systems. A specific web system 
dissemination database on 
External trade (Easy 
COMEXT) has been 
developed and made accessible 
to external users allowing 
disseminating more detailed 
Members States data to the 
public then before. 
Users internet support and 
monthly training, in English 
and French languages, have 
been delivered to Comext users 
in Luxembourg, Bruxels, 
Frankfurt and Dublin. Services 
to users were improved by the 
drafting of user guides, 
improvements of COMEXT 
system’s functionalities, the organisation of training 
courses and the development 
of the COMEXT stand-alone 
version for browsing data in 
CD-ROM and other 
distribution media. Tools and 
methods have been developed 
in the following domains: 
processing and validating data; 
communication between 
national administrations and 
Eurostat; user access to 
statistical data and metadata, 
including greater use of the 
Internet and improvements to 
the software for disseminating 
statistics on the trading of 
goods. 
 
   
 39    Expected results Performance indicators Actual results 
(Continued) An information system on 
methodology 
(METODOLOGICA) has been 
developed.  Availability of a database on methodology. A project was launched to improve the existing 
methodological reference 
material (information system 
on methodology 
“METODOLOGICA” and 
develop tools giving easy 
access to the information). 
 
 40   ANNEX 2: Use of EDICOM II financial resources (2001-2005) 
Use of EDICOM II financial resources 2001 (Euro) 
Year 2001 Commitment Budget expenditure Budget expenditure/
Commitment
Objective 1 Total 2 824 594 2 624 540 92.92%
(actions 1+2) Centralised 1 117 400 1 051 490
Decentralised 1 707 194 1 573 050
Objective 2 Total 1 119 657 1 012 118 90.40%(action 3+4+5) Centralised 446 657 446 657
Decentralised 673 000 565 461
Objective 3 Total 836 535 817 320 97.70%(actions 6+7+8) Centralised 518 535 518 535
Decentralised 318 000 298 785
Objective 4 Total 1 199 139 1 020 222 85.08%(actions 9+10+11) Centralised 1 199 139 1 020 222
Decentralised 0 0
Objective 5 Total 1 849 750 1 758 639 95.07%(action 12) Centralisd 702 425 702 425
Decentralised 1 147 325 1 056 214
Objective 6 Total 944 122 929 982 98.50%(action 13) Centralised 944 122 929 982
Decentralised 0 0
Total 8 773 797 8 162 821 93.04%(objectives 1 to 6)
Centralised 4 928 278 4 669 311
57.20%
Decentralised 3 845 519 3 493 510
42.80%
Support measures Centralised 512 735 362 412 70.68%Total 9 286 532 8 525 233 91.80%
 
Source: Evaluators’ elaboration ba sed on data provided by Eurostat. 
 41   Use of EDICOM II financial resources 2002 (Euro) 
 
Yaer 2002 Commitment Budget expenditure Budget expenditure/
Commitment
Objective 1 Total 1 846 921 1 554 044 84.14%
(actions 1+2) Centralised 841 860 841 860
Decentralised 1 005 061 712 184
Objective 2 Total 1 176 006 848 247 72.13%(action 3+4+5) Centralised 475 150 307 780
Decentralised 700 856 540 467
Objective 3 Total 821 034 733 777 89.37%(actions 6+7+8) Centralised 444 035 444 035
Decentralised 376 999 289 742
Objective 4 Total 1 054 351 968 081 91.82%(actions 9+10+11) Centralised 835 245 770 034
Decentralised 219 106 198 047
Objective 5 Total 2 049 354 1 522 832 74.31%(action 12) Centralisd 614 295 606 295
Decentralised 1 435 059 916 537
Objective 6 Total 0 0(action 13) Centralised 0 0
Decentralised 0 0
Total 6 947 666 5 626 981 80.99%(objectives 1 to 6)
Centralised 3 210 585 2 970 004
52.78%
Decentralised 3 737 081 2 656 977
47.22%
Support measures Centralised 555 267 352 101 63.41%Total 7 502 933 5 979 082 79.69%
 
Source: Evaluators’ elaboration ba sed on data provided by Eurostat. 
 42   Use of EDICOM II financial resources 2003 (Euro) 
 
Year 2003 Commitment Budget expenditure Budget expenditure/
Commitment
Objective 1 Total 706 544 575 127 81.40%
(actions 1+2) Centralised 0 0
Decentralised 706 544 575 127
Objective 2 Total 946 132 832 358 87.97%(action 3+4+5) Centralised 111 674 111 674
Decentralised 834 458 720 684
Objective 3 Total 690 995 557 015 80.61%(actions 6+7+8) Centralised 0 0
Decentralised 690 995 557 015
Objective 4 Total 163 000 82 135 50.39%(actions 9+10+11) Centralised 0 0
Decentralised 163 000 82 135
Objective 5 Total 2 372 094 2 143 800 90.38%(action 12) Centralisd 320 640 320 640
Decentralised 2 051 454 1 823 160
Objective 6 Total 1 777 075 1 777 075 100.00%(action 13) Centralised 1 777 075 1 777 075
Decentralised 0 0
Total 6 655 840 5 967 510 89.66%(objectives 1 to 6)
Centralised 2 209 389 2 209 389
37.02%
Decentralised 4 446 451 3 758 121
62.98%
Support measures Centralised 392 000 143 409 36.58%Total 7 047 840 6 110 919 86.71%
 
Source: Evaluators’ elaboration ba sed on data provided by Eurostat. 
 
 43   Use of EDICOM II financial resources 2004 (Euro) 
 
Year 2004 Commitment Budget expenditure Budget expenditure/
Commitment
Objective 1 Total 1 385 035 888 344 64.14%
(actions 1+2) Centralised 318 655 318 655
Decentralised 1 066 380 569 689
Objective 2 Total 1 178 494 793 905 67.37%(action 3+4+5) Centralised 236 347 236 347
Decentralised 942 147 557 558
Objective 3 Total 226 061 130 080 57.54%(actions 6+7+8) Centralised 0 0
Decentralised 226 061 130 080
Objective 4 Total 382 402 372 218 97.34%(actions 9+10+11) Centralised 346 715 346 715
Decentralised 35 687 25 503
Objective 5 Total 1 585 758 1 157 317 72.98%(action 12) Centralisd 64 000 64 000
Decentralised 1 521 758 1 093 317
Objective 6 Total 863 000 850 804 98.59%(action 13) Centralised 822 500 822 500
Decentralised 40 500 28 304
Total 5 620 750 4 192 668 74.59%(objectives 1 to 6)
Centralised 1 788 217 1 788 217
42.65%
Decentralised 3 832 533 2 404 451
57.35%
Support measures Centralised 273 164 223 515 81.82%Total 5 893 914 4 416 183 74.93%
 
Source: Evaluators’ elaboration ba sed on data provided by Eurostat. 
 44   Use of EDICOM II financial resources 2005 (Euro) 
 
Year 2005 Commitment Budget expenditure Budget expenditure/
Commitment
Objective 1 Total 703 075 579 702 82.45%
(actions 1+2) Centralised 251 200 251 200
Decentralised 451 875 328 502
Objective 2 Total 747 650 615 036 82.26%(action 3+4+5) Centralised 461 251 461 251
Decentralised 286 399 153 785
Objective 3 Total 579 327 360 543 62.23%(actions 6+7+8) Centralised 0 0
Decentralised 579 327 360 543
Objective 4 Total 552 028 549 028 99.46%(actions 9+10+11) Centralised 552 028 549 028
Decentralised 0 0
Objective 5 Total 2 011 301 1 479 816 73.58%(action 12) Centralisd 1 099 872 801 344
Decentralised 911 429 678 472
Objective 6 Total 1 595 757 1 330 840 83.40%(action 13) Centralised 1 474 766 1 286 381
Decentralised 120 991 44 459
Total 6 189 138 4 914 965 79.41%(objectives 1 to 6)
Centralised 3 839 117 3 349 204
68.14%
Decentralised 2 350 021 1 565 761
31.86%
Support measures Centralised 562 693 462 255 82.15%Total 6 751 831 5 377 220 79.64%
 
Source: Evaluators’ elaboration ba sed on data provided by Eurostat. 
 45   ANNEX 3 
Use of EDICOM II financial resources, by countries (Euro). 
 
*The share of budget expenditure has been calculated on the ba sis of the information provided by Eurostat without taking 
into account 474 500 Euro and 367 581 Euro of provisionally unpaid invoices in 2004 and 2005 which have been suspended 
after Eurostat’s ex post controls (situation on 15th March 2008) 
 
       2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2001-2005
Belgium 150 000 0 323 163 390 397 380 000 1 243 560
Denmark 293 375 232 054 253 165 149 869 152 331 1 080 794Germany 297 718 167 000 313 380 96 338 0 874 436
Greece 385 361 0 213 785 188 946 79 212 867 304
Spain 362 000 231 099 176 003 0 0 769 102
France 103 000 122 963 223 703 132 865 0 582 531
Ireland 92 000 65 621 214 366 92 386 55 913 520 286Italy 210 643 497 359 756 381 273 656 197 636 1 935 675
Luxembourg 7 519 19 736 6 724 13 989 14 337 62 305
Netherlands 352 000 380 954 373 233 67 006 137 880 1 311 073
Austria 25 000 200 914 239 641 97 360 36 500 599 415
Portugal 393 000 237 380 208 374 69 963 0 908 717Finland 293 213 156 923 208 952 137 864 17 582 814 534
Sweden 283 500 250 906 212 421 183 981 157 793 1 088 601
United Kingdom 245 181 94 068 34 830 53 126 112 694 539 899Cyprus 8 484 8 928 17 412
Czech Republic 80 081 0 80 081
Estonia 59 532 0 59 532
Hungary 21 548 45 638 67 186
Latvia 9 366 10 673 20 039Lithuania 116 468 95 786 212 254
Malta 21 850 0 21 850
Poland 86 092 0 86 092Slovenia 30 342 0 30 342
Slovakia 22 942 62 858 85 800
Total MS 3 493 510 2 656 977 3 758 121 2 404 451 1 565 761 13 878 820
Eurostat 4 669 311 2 970 004 2 209 389 1 788 217 3 349 204 14 986 125
Supportin
g measures 362 412 352 101 143 409 223 515 462 255 1 543 692
Total* 8 525 233 5 979 082 6 110 919 4 416 183 5 377 220 30 408 637
 46   ANNEX 4 
 Edicom II Programme expenditures on Decentral ised/Centralised projects, by year (Mio 
Euro) 
 
     3.49
2.663.76
2.88
1.934.67
2.972.21
1.793.35
0123456789
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005Million Euro
Decentralised projects Centralised projects
 47   ANNEX 5 
Share of expenditure by Edicom II objective  
 
ANNEX 6 Number of Decentralised/Centralised Edic om II projects, by objective (2001-2005) 
4 799
61
4669 3325
11
1015
13
020406080100120140
Objective 1 Objective 2 Objective 3 Objective 4 Objective 5 Objective 6
Decentralised projects Centralised projectsSupportin g 
measures
5%
Objective 4
10%Objective 3
9%Objective 2
14%
Objective 5
25%Objective 6
16%Objective 1
21%
 48   ANNEX 7 
Number of Decentralised/Centralised  Edicom II projects, by year 
 
 
       59615964
443428
613
25
0102030405060708090100
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005Decentralised projects Centralised projects
 49   ANNEX 8 
Number of Decentralised/Centralised pr ojects, by action and year (2001-2005) 
 
 
 Actions 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Nr  Proj.
1 1 38543 33
2 26 16 9 28 12 91
3 593 1 04 31
4 22211 8
5 97 1 025 33
6 76221 18
7 22824 18
8 27038 20
9 6 1 1235 27
10 22032 9
11 22000 4
12 14 17 21 15 17 84
13 30347 17
TOT 93 89 65 77 69 393
of which:
Decentralised Projects 59 61 59 64 44 287
Centralised Projects 34 28 6 13 25 106Years
 50    
ANNEX 9 
Number of Edicom II projects, by  objective and country (2001-2005) 
 
 Countries Obj. 1 Obj.2 Obj.3 Obj.4 Obj.5 Obj.6 Total
AT 271040 14
BE 220140 9
CY 110000 2
CZ 101100 3
DE 1 3 46011 25
DK 1 6 55150 32
EE 000010 1
FI 885030 24
FR 242260 16
GR 242053 16
HU 200010 3
IE 000050 5
IT 687020 23
LV 011000 2
LT 100020 3
LU 4100 1 2 0 17
MT 100000 1
NL 334040 14
PL 220000 4
PT 621070 16
SK 122000 5
SI 101000 2
ES 700210 10
SE 1 1 55050 26
UK 723010 13
Tot. Dec. 99 61 46 7 69 4 286
Tot. Cen. 25 11 10 33 15 13 107
TOTAL 124 72 56 40 84 17 393Edicom Objectives
 51   ANNEX 10 
Number of Edicom II projects, by action and country (2001-2005) 
 
Countries 123456789 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3T o t a l
AT 203041000004 0 14
BE 111010001004 0 9
CY 010010000000 0 2
CZ 010001001000 0 3
DE 3 1 0 0042130001 1 25
DK 3 1 3 2122211005 0 32
EE 000000000001 0 1
FI 264132300003 0 24
FR 023100111106 0 16
GR 112021100005 3 16
HU 110000000001 0 3
IE 000000000005 0 5
IT 063141330002 0 23
LV 001000010000 0 2
LT 010000000002 0 3
LU 13001000000 1 2 0 17
MT 010000000000 0 1
NL 122012200004 0 14
PL 022000000000 0 4
PT 330111000007 0 16
SK 102001010000 0 5
SI 010000100000 0 2
ES 250000002001 0 10
SE 472031040005 0 26
UK 160111020001 0 13
Tot. Dec. 26 73 27 6 28 16 14 16 6 1 0 69 4 286
Tot. Cen. 7 18 4 2 5 2 4 4 21 8 4 15 13 107
TOTAL 33 91 31 8 33 18 18 20 27 9 4 84 17 393Edicom actions