WRITTEN QUESTION E-2712/00 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. Companies in the EU.
Date: 2000-09-01
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Member State, bankruptcy, business start-up, economic statistics

C 103 E/214

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

3.4.2001

(2001/C 103 E/249)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2711/00

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

Subject: Employment in the business, public and other sectors

(1 September 2000)

What are the employment figures in each quarter for the last ten years for each Member State in

(cid:129) the business sector (private business and publicly-owned enterprises producing marketed goods and

services);

(cid:129) the public sector;

(cid:129) others (voluntary, etc)?

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(27 October 2000)

Community statistics on employment are not broken down into the sectors referred to by the Honourable
Member. They only cover paid employment (and therefore not the voluntary sector) and they are
categorised according to NACE Rev. 1, which does not make a distinction between business and non-
business activities.

Data that do distinguish between (cid:145)business services(cid:146),
(cid:145)non-business services(cid:146) and (cid:145)the public sector(cid:146) are
available in the national accounts for the period from 1987 to 1997. These are sent directly to the
Honourable Member as well as to the Parliament(cid:146)s Secretariat. Currently, these data are available on an
annual basis only.

(2001/C 103 E/250)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2712/00

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(1 September 2000)

Subject: Companies in the EU

Will the Commission provide estimates of the number of new companies, failed companies and net new
companies in each Member State for each of the last five years?

Will it also provide the figures for the annual stock of companies and describe the main features of each
national definition if there is no common standard for the EU?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(6 October 2000)

Statistics of the number of new enterprises, failed enterprises and net new enterprises are not available at
the European level.

However, certain unharmonised data of a provisional nature are available and sent direct
to the
Honourable Member and to Parliament(cid:146)s Secretariat. There are important differences in some cases,
between definitions and means of collection.

3.4.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 103 E/215

Some limited data on the annual stocks of enterprises is available for the years 1995-1998, for most
sectors of the market economy and is sent direct
to the Honourable Member and to Parliament(cid:146)s
Secretariat. This is derived from the structural business statistics harmonised data collection, based on
Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business
statistics (1) that will be fully implemented by the end of 2001.

A development project
harmonised data by 2002.

for statistics on business demography is underway.

It

is hoped to develop

(1) OJ L 14, 17.1.1997.

(2001/C 103 E/251)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2713/00

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(1 September 2000)

Subject: Venture capital

Will the Commission please estimate the amount of capital supplied to start-up and early-stage growth
companies (i.e. venture capital) in each Member State for each of the last five years?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(12 October 2000)

The Commission does not have comprehensive figures on venture capital supplied to start-up and early
stage growth companies in each Member State for the last five years.

The venture capital market in Europe has continuously expanded in recent years. Venture capital funds are
one of the main sources for supplying capital to new and growing companies but informal investors
(business angels) also contribute significantly to the venture capital market(cid:146)s total volume. In addition,
venture capital is increasingly provided through corporate venturing (funds closely linked to big compa-
nies). It is estimated that venture capital investments made by informal investors at least match those made
by venture capital funds.

The table attached showing venture capital investments made in the Member States for the past five years
is based on statistics of the European Venture Capital Association (EVCA) which produces an annual
yearbook on private equity in Europe. Figures published by EVCA are based on a survey in 17 European
countries.

All figures are taken from the EVCA yearbooks 1996-2000 and refer to the investments made by Member
State in the respective years. All figures refer to either early stage investments (seed and start-up phase) or
expansion and development investments. They do not include replacement investments or management
buy in or management buy out (MBI/MBO) investments which, by definition, are not part of (cid:145)venture
capital(cid:146)
investors and
through corporate venturing.

investments. EVCA statistics also do not include investments made by informal

On the Community level, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF) are
significant providers of risk capital finance. The EIB commenced risk capital operations in 1997 under the
Amsterdam special action programme (ASAP). It has been authorised by its governors to earmark € 2 000
million of its surplus to support so-called risk-sharing operations. To date, signatures under risk capital
operations already exceed € 1 000 million. The EIF acts as the venture capital arm of the EIB. In addition
it manages the above risk capital
to own resources equity investments (approximately € 90 million),