WRITTEN QUESTION E-1881/03 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. Intra-EU foreign direct investment.
Date: 2003-06-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU statistics, capital movement, direct investment, financial statistics, foreign investment, intra-EU trade, non-participating country (euro area)

13.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 65 E/101

(cid:1) For the Netherlands the Dutch central bank publishes data on regional components of direct
investment flows. As regards direct investment the inflows from euro area economies have been
higher in each of the first euro area years than in any other year before 1999. In terms of four-year
averages inflows have increased from EUR 5,2 billion (1995-1998) to EUR 19,3 billion (1999-2003).
In the same period the average share of foreign direct investment from euro area economies in total
inflows has increased from 39 % to 43 %. A similar increase is registered in terms of Dutch foreign
direct investment in other euro area economies. The levels of outflows recorded in all euro area years
have never been seen before. The annual average outflow increased from EUR 8 billion (1995-1998)
to EUR 24 billion (1999-2002), while the share of direct investment outflows to euro area economies
in total Dutch outflows increased from 35 % (1995-98) to 44 % (1999-2002).

(2004/C 65 E/113)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1881/03

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(6 June 2003)

Subject: Intra-EU foreign direct investment

Will the Commission update the figures given in answer to E-0033/02 (1) to include the latest available
year? It should provide figures on a comparable basis to those given for the European Union for intra-EU
foreign direct investment (in graph 12) of the report from the Commission ‘Economic reform: report on
the functioning of Community product and capital market’ (2). Is the Commission also able to provide a
series including reinvested earnings? Will the Commission also give the figures for each individual EU
Member State that is not yet in the euro?

(1) OJ C 160 E, 4.7.2002, p. 171.
(2) COM(2001) 736 final.

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(17 July 2003)

Tables 1 and 2 present data on the value in current prices of foreign direct investment (FDI) from different
sources to various targets between 1996 and 2001. These are sent direct to the Honourable Member and
to Parliament’s Secretariat. In particular, figures are provided for each Member State that is not yet part of
the euro area. As in the previous year, the eurozone and the non-eurozone Member States are identified in
order to arrive at statistics that are comparable to those presented in graph 12 of the report from the
Commission ‘Economic reform: Report on the functioning of Community product and capital markets’.

Table 1 presents data on the value in current prices of foreign direct investment flows excluding reinvested
earnings (the standard approach Eurostat uses in its annual reports and in the Cardiff Report).

Table 2 presents data on the value in current prices of foreign direct investment flows including reinvested
earnings. Figures are missing for some individual countries over several years; this is due to the fact that
confidenciality, methodological and timeliness issues prevent some individual Member States from
providing detailed information, particularly concerning reinvested earnings. The future approval of a
Regulation concerning the balance of payments provision of information from Member States should
improve the availability of FDI data, as this Regulation will replace the present ‘gentlement agreement’
between the Member States and the Commission.

Among the investor sources listed in both tables, ‘Extra EU 15’ means the world beyond the 15 Member
States.

In both tables, for consistency, almost all figures shown are outflows recorded from the source investor.
The only exception is FDI flows from the rest of the world, where inflows are used as recorded by the
target.