Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a common framework for business registers for statistical purposes and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 2186/93
Date: 2005-04-05
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU statistics, company structure, information system, statistical method, type of business

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 5.4.2005 
COM(2005) 112 final 

2005/0032 (COD) 

Proposal for a 

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 

establishing a common framework for business registers for statistical purposes and 
repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 2186/93 

(presented by the Commission) 

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EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM 

1. 

BACKGROUND  

The existing  Business Registers Regulation (BR) (2186/93), which  harmonised  the  business 
registers used  by  the  Member  States  for statistical  purposes, dates back to  1993 and is now 
partly  outdated.  In  recent  years,  the  situation  has  changed  significantly  and  statistical 
requirements have evolved.  

Three kinds of additional requirements have progressively emerged: 

–  globalisation  of  the  economy  has  created  the  need  to  collect  information  on  enterprise 

groups; 

–  the  integration  of  activities  of  the  different  sectors  has  called  for  a  full  coverage  of  the 

whole economy; 

–  the  Single  Market  requires  improved  statistical  comparability,  which  notably  depends  on 
the availability of harmonised sources for the population of businesses operating in the EU. 

The  objective  of  the  proposal  is  to  update  the  existing  BR  Regulation  to  take  these  new 
requirements into account.  

To  achieve  that  aim,  several  modifications  to  the  current  BR  Regulation  are  proposed  and 
summarised in the paragraphs below. 

2. 

CONTENTS OF THE REGULATION 

Given the new data requirements  presented above,  two  major  changes  are  introduced  in  the 
proposed draft Regulation. 

–  All the enterprises carrying out economic activities contributing to gross domestic product, 
their  local  units  and  the  corresponding  legal  units  should  be  registered  on  a  mandatory 
basis (some sectors of activity are optional in the current version of the Regulation). 

–  Financial  links  and  enterprise  groups  will  have  to  be  covered  and  data  on  multinational 
groups  and  their  constituent  units  will  have  to  be  exchanged  between  countries  and 
Eurostat. 

2.1. 

Full coverage of the economy 

The  existence  of  Community  statistical  legislation  covering  the  whole  economy,  and  the 
increasing use of business registers for national accounts purposes, make it essential for the 
business  registers  to  cover  the  whole  economy.  The  additional  sectors  to  be  covered  on  a 
mandatory basis are “public administration” and “agriculture and fishing”.  

Inclusion of Public Administration 

The role of the public sector is changing. Certain activities previously managed by the public 
sector  can  now  be  managed  by  public  or  private  enterprises.  To  get  a  clear  picture  of  the 

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situation, more comparable sources on those activities are needed. This can only be achieved 
by  the  compulsory  coverage  of  the  public  sector  in  the  national  business  registers  used  for 
statistical purposes, according to agreed standards.  

Inclusion of Agriculture and Fishing 

The strong policy interest in rural development requires information not only on agriculture 
but  also  on  its  increasing  combination  with  other  activities  which  are  not  covered  by  the 
largely product-based agricultural statistics. A harmonised treatment of agriculture in business 
registers will give the basic information needed for rural policy. 

2.2. 

Data on enterprise groups 

There  is  a  growing  demand  for  enterprise  group  information,  at  the  national  level  for  the 
purpose of assessing the concentration of the economy, and at the international level for the 
production  of  statistics  related  to  globalisation.  To  meet  that  demand,  many  statistics  are 
already  produced,  some  of  them  under  Community  statistical  law  (statistics  on  foreign 
affiliates,  balance  of  payments,  and  external  trade),  but  more  are  needed.  The  current 
situation, where only the truncated parts of the enterprise groups in the national territory are 
registered, is not sufficient and the data on the multinational groups must be consolidated at 
the European level. 

The  draft  regulation  requires  the  National  business  registers  to  record  the  financial  links 
between legal units and to transmit information on cross-national linkages to the Commission 
(Eurostat).  

This should result in  

–  harmonised  sampling  frames  for  the  existing  surveys  which  use  the  concept  of  financial 

links; 

–  better comparability of many current statistics, where financial links between enterprises in 

different countries play an important role, e.g. productivity data; 

–  additional information on the population of enterprise groups as the registers could also be 
used as direct sources of statistics on globalisation. This would be invaluable for different 
Community competition and research policies and for trade negotiations.  

This  proposal  should  also  bring  the  scope  and  the  quality  of  multinational  enterprise  group 
data much closer to the USA level.  

3. 

IMPACT OF THE PROPOSAL 

Most Member States have already partly implemented the new requirements 

In almost all Member States, the three optional NACE sections are already at least partially 
covered and certain information on enterprise groups is available or under preparation. In the 
majority of cases a framework thus already exists and it is up to the Member States to take 
further  measures  to  improve  their  coverage  or  quality,  for  instance  by  possible  use  of 
additional sources. Starting from the different national situations, a harmonisation between all 

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Member  States  can  only  be  obtained  through  the  adoption  of  the  common  methodology,  as 
presented in the proposed Regulation.  

Recording of small entities is not required  

Because  international  interest  focuses  on  multinational  groups,  there  are  no  strict 
requirements on the coverage of all-resident groups. The coverage of the smallest enterprises 
without  employed  persons  is  also  left  to  subsidiarity,  because  this  depends  on  the 
administrative  sources  nationally  available.  Thus  the  national  situation  and  varying 
availability of sources have been taken into account where possible.  

Some variables are optional in order to keep implementation costs at a reasonable level 

The  recording  of  certain  variables  is  conditional  on  the  availability  of  the  information  from 
administrative sources in individual the Member States and certain enterprise group variables 
are  optional  until  the  transmission  of  the  data  to  Eurostat  -  consolidation  of  the  data  in 
Eurostat,  and  feedback  of  the  consistent  corrected  data  back  to  Member  States  -  has  been 
established.  An  important  example  of  this  is  the  definition  of  the  controlling  country  in 
Foreign Affiliates statistics, where the nationally available information may be inconsistent or 
missing and consistency can only be ensured at European level.  

Turnover is optional for agriculture, fishing and the public sector.  

4. 

CONSULTATION WITH THE MEMBER STATES 

The draft Regulation is the product of extensive consultations with the Member States and has 
been  discussed  at  length  by  the  various  interested  parties,  several  times  in  the  Business 
Registers–Statistical  Units  Working  Group  and  in  the  meetings  of  Directors  of  Business 
Statistics  and  of  the  Statistical  Programme  Committee.  The  views  of  major  users  in  the 
Member States, EFTA, Candidate Countries and in the Commission and of other stakeholders 
have been considered. The present proposal is a balanced position between the level of detail 
needed by the main users and the workload in the National Statistical Institutes.  

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 2005/0032 (COD)  

Proposal for a 

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 

establishing a common framework for business registers for statistical purposes and 
repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 2186/93 

(Text with EEA relevance) 

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, 

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 
285(1) thereof, 

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission1, 

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament2, 

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty3, 

Whereas: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 

Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  2186/93  of  22  July  19934  established  a  common 
framework  for  setting  up  statistical  business  registers  with  harmonised  definitions, 
characteristics, scope and updating procedures. In order to maintain the development 
of business registers in a harmonised framework, a new Regulation should be adopted. 

Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 of 15 March 1993 on the statistical units for the 
observation  and  analysis  of  the  production  system  in  the  Community5  contains  the 
definitions  of  the  statistical  unit  to  be  used.  The  Single  Market  requires  improved 
statistical  comparability  to  meet  Community  requirements.  In  order  to  achieve  that 
improvement, common definitions and descriptions have to be adopted for enterprises 
and other relevant statistical units to be covered. 

Council  Regulations  (EC,  Euratom)  No  58/97  of  20  December  1996  on  Structural 
Business Statistics6 and No 1165/98 of 19 May 1998 concerning short-terms statistics7 
have  established  a  common  framework  for  the  collection,  compilation,  transmission 
and evaluation of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and 

OJ C , , p. . 
OJ C , , p. . 
OJ C […], […], p.[…] 
OJ L 196, 5.8.1993, p.1 
OJ L 76, 30.3.1993, p. 1 
OJ L 14, 17.1.1997, p. 1 
OJ L 162, 5.6.1998, p. 1 

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performance  of  businesses  in  the  Community.  Business  registers  for  statistical 
purposes represent a basic element of such a common framework, making it possible 
to  organise  and  co-ordinate  statistical  surveys  by  providing  a  harmonised  sampling 
frame. 

Business  registers  are  one  element  in  reconciling  the  conflicting  requirements  for 
increased  information  on  enterprises  and  lightening  their  administrative  burden,  in 
particular  by  using  existing  information  in  administrative  and  legal  registers, 
especially  in  the  case  of  micro,  small  and  medium-sized  enterprises,  as  defined  in 
Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC8. 

Business  registers  for  statistical  purposes  are  also  the  main  source  for  business 
demography,  as  they  keep  track  of  business  creations  and  closures  as  well  as  the 
structural changes in the economy by concentration or de-concentration, brought about 
by  such  operations  as  mergers,  take-overs,  break-ups,  split-offs  and  restructuring  of 
the business population. 

The  important  role  played  by  public  enterprises  in  the  national  economies  of  the 
Member  States  has  been  acknowledged.  Commission  Directive  80/723/EEC  of  25 
June  1980  on  the  transparency  of  financial  relations  between  Member  States  and 
public  undertakings9  covers  certain  kinds  of  public  undertakings.  Public  enterprises 
and public corporations should therefore be identified in business registers and this can 
be done by the institutional sector classification. 

Links  of  control  between  legal  units  are  needed  in  defining  enterprise  groups,  in 
delineating  the  enterprises  correctly,  in  profiling  large  and  complex  units  and  in 
studying the concentration of the economy. Enterprise group information improves the 
quality  of  the  business  registers  and  can  be  used  to  reduce  the  risk  of  disclosure  of 
confidential  data.  Certain  financial  data  are  often  more  meaningful  at  the  enterprise 
group or subgroup level than at the enterprise level and they may be available only at 
the group or subgroup level. Recording of enterprise groups enables, when necessary, 
surveys directly of the group, instead of their constituent units, and this can reduce the 
response burden significantly. In order to register enterprise groups, business registers 
have to be further harmonised. 

The  increasing  globalisation  of  the  economy  challenges  the  current  production  of 
several statistics. By recording multinational enterprise groups, business registers form 
a  basic  tool  for  the  improvement  of  many  statistics  related  to  globalisation: 
international  trade  in  goods  and  services,  balance  of  payments,  foreign  direct 
investment,  foreign  affiliates,  research,  development  and  innovation,  and  labour 
market.  The  majority  of  these  statistics  cover  the  whole  economy  and  demand  the 
coverage of all sectors of the economy by the business registers. 

According  to  Article  3(2)  of  Council  Regulation  (Euratom,  EEC)  No  1588/90  of  11 
June  1990  on  the  transmission  of  data  subject  to  statistical  confidentiality  to  the 
Statistical  Office  of  the  European  Communities10,  national  rules  on  statistical 
confidentiality  may  not  be  invoked  to  prevent  the  transmission  of  confidential 

(4) 

(5) 

(6) 

(7) 

(8) 

(9) 

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10 

OJ L 124, 20.5.2003, p. 36 
OJ L 195, 29.7.1980, p. 35 
OJ L 151, 15.6.1990, p. 1 

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statistical data to the Community authority (Eurostat) where an act of Community law 
provides for the transmission of such data. 

(10) 

In order to guarantee the fulfilment of the obligations laid down in this Regulation, the 
national institutions responsible for the collection of the data within the Member States 
may  need  access  to  administrative  data  sources  such  as  registers  held  by  Tax  and 
Social  Security  Authorities,  Central  Banks,  other  public  institutions  and  other  data 
bases  containing  information  on  cross-border  transactions  and  positions,  wherever 
such data are necessary for the production of Community statistics. 

(11)  The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted 
in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the 
procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission11. 

(12)  Regulation (EEC) 2186/93 should therefore be repealed. 

(13)  The Statistical Programme Committee has been consulted. 

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: 

Article 1 

Purpose 

This  Regulation  establishes  a  common  framework  for  statistical  business  registers  in  the 
Community.  

Member States shall set up one or more harmonised registers for statistical purposes, as a tool 
for  the  preparation  and  co-ordination  of  surveys,  as  a  source  of  information  for  statistical 
analysis of the business population and its demography, for the mobilisation of administrative 
data and for the detection and construction of statistical units. 

Article 2 

Definitions 

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply: 

(a) 

(b) 

(c) 

'Legal unit' shall mean a legal unit as defined in Section II.A.3 of the Annex to 
Regulation (EEC) No 696/9312. 

'Enterprise' shall mean an enterprise as defined in Section III.A of the Annex to 
that Regulation.  

'Local unit' shall mean a local unit as defined in Section III.F of the Annex to 
that Regulation.  

11 
12 

OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23 
OJ L 76, 30.3.1993, p. 1 

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(d) 

(e) 

(f) 

'Enterprise group’ shall mean an enterprise group as defined in Section III.C of 
the Annex to Regulation (EEC) No 696/93. 

'Multinational  enterprise  group'  shall  mean  an  enterprise  group  which  has  at 
least two enterprises or legal units located in different countries. 

'Truncated enterprise group' shall mean the enterprises and the legal units of an 
enterprise group, which are resident in the same country. It may comprise only 
one unit, if the other units are non-resident. An enterprise may be the truncated 
enterprise group or part thereof. 

Article 3 

Scope 

1. 

In  accordance  with  the  definitions  given  in  Article  2  and  subject  to  the  limitations 
specified in this Article, registers shall be compiled of 

(a) 

all  enterprises  carrying  on  economic  activities  contributing  to  the  gross 
domestic product (GDP), and their local units,  

(b) 

the legal units of which those enterprises consist, 

(c) 

truncated enterprise groups and the information on the multinational enterprise 
groups defined in the Annex, 

(d) 

all-resident enterprise groups.  

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

This requirement shall not, however, apply to households in so far as the goods and 
services they produce are for their own consumption, or involve the letting of own 
property. 

Local units without separate legal entity (branches), which are dependent on foreign 
enterprises  and  classified  as  quasi-corporations  according  to  ESA95  and  SNA93 
principles, shall be treated as enterprises in the business registers. 

The  enterprise  group  can  be  observed  through  the  links  of  control  between  legal 
units. The definition of control, as given in the European System of Accounts ESA95 
(Regulation (EC) No 2223/96), paragraph 2.26, shall  be used for the delineation of 
enterprise groups.  

This  Regulation  shall  apply  only  to  units  which  exercise  wholly  or  partially  an 
economic activity. Any activity consisting in offering goods and services on a given 
market  is  an  economic  activity.  Non-market  services  contributing  to  the  gross 
domestic  product,  as  well  as  direct  and  indirect  holding  of  active  legal  units  are 
regarded as economic activity for business registers purposes. Economically inactive 
legal  units  are  part  of  an  enterprise  only  in  combination  with  economically  active 
legal units. 

6. 

The  extent  to  which  enterprises  with  less  than  half  a  person  employed,  and  all-
resident enterprise groups of no statistical importance to the Member States are to be 

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included  in  the  registers  shall  be  decided  under  the  procedure  laid  down  in  Article 
14. 

Article 4 

Data sources 

1. 

2. 

Member  States  may,  whilst  complying  with  conditions  as  to  quality  referred  to  in 
Article  6,  collect  the  information  required  under  this  Regulation  using  any  sources 
they consider relevant. National authorities shall be authorised, within their sphere of 
competence, to collect for statistical purposes information covered by this Regulation 
contained in administrative and legal files. 

Where  the  required  data  cannot  be  collected  at  a  reasonable  cost,  statistical 
estimation  procedures  may  be  used,  while  respecting  the  level  of  accuracy  and 
quality. 

Article 5 

Registers characteristics 

The  units  listed  in  the  registers  shall  be  characterised  by  an  identity  number  and  the 
descriptive details specified in the Annex.  

The list of characteristics shall be updated and the characteristics and continuity rules defined 
in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 14. 

Article 6 

Quality standards and reports 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

Member States shall take all measures necessary to ensure the quality of the business 
registers. 

Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat), at its request with a report 
on the quality of the business registers (hereinafter referred to as “quality reports”). 

The common quality standards, as well as the content and periodicity of the quality 
reports,  shall  be  specified  by  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  in  accordance  with  the 
procedure  referred  to  in  Article  14  and  taking  into  account  the  implications  as 
regards the cost of compiling the data. 

Member States shall inform the Commission (Eurostat) of major methodological or 
other  changes  that  would  influence  the  quality  of  the  business  registers  as  soon  as 
they become known and not later than six months after any such change enters into 
force. 

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Article 7 

Recommendations manual 

The Commission shall publish a business registers recommendations manual. The manual will 
be updated in close co-operation with the Member States. 

Article 8 

Time reference and periodicity 

Entries to and removals from the registers shall be updated at least once a year. 

The frequency of updating shall depend on the kind of unit, the variable considered, 
the size of the unit and the source generally used for the update.  

The rules for updating shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down 
in article 14. 

Member  States  shall  make  annually  a  copy  that  reflects  the  state  of  the  registers  at 
the end of the year and keep that copy 30 years for the purpose of analysis. 

Article 9 

Transmission of data 

Member  States  shall  carry  out  statistical  analyses  of  the  registers  and  transmit  the 
information  to  the  Commission  (Eurostat),  following  a  format  and  a  procedure 
defined  by  the  Commission  in  accordance  with  the  procedure  laid  down  in  Article 
14.  

Member  States  shall  transmit  to  the  Commission  (Eurostat),  at  its  request,  any 
relevant  information  with  regard  to  the  implementation  of  this  Regulation  in  the 
Member States. 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

1. 

2. 

Article 10 

Exchange of confidential data between Member States 

The exchange of confidential data, as defined  by  Article  13  of  Regulation  (EC) No  322/97, 
shall  be  allowed  between  Member  States  where  the  exchange  is  necessary  to  ensure  the 
quality  of  the  multinational  enterprise  group  information  in  the  European  Union.  Member 
States  receiving  confidential  data  from  other  Member  States  shall  treat  that  information 
confidentially. 

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Article 11 

Transmission of multinational enterprise group data 

1. 

2. 

3. 

Member States shall transmit individual data on multinational enterprise groups and 
their  constituent  units,  as  defined  in  the  Annex,  to  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  to 
provide  for  the  statistical  information  on  multinational  groups  in  the  European 
Union. 

In  order  to  ensure  a  consistent  record  of  data,  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  shall 
transmit to each Member State data on a multinational enterprise group, including its 
constituent units, when at least one legal unit of this group is located in the territory 
of that Member State. 

The  scope,  format  and  procedure  for  the  transmission  of  the  individual  data  to  the 
Commission  (Eurostat)  and  for  the  transmission  of  data  on  the  multinational 
enterprise  groups  to  the  Member  States  shall  be  adopted  in  accordance  with  the 
procedure laid down in Article 14. 

Article 12 

Transition period and derogations 

When the business registers require a major adaptation, the Commission may grant derogation 
at the request of a Member State for a transitional period that shall not exceed two years from 
the date this Regulation shall apply.  

For  agriculture,  forestry  and  fishing,  public  administration  and  defence,  and  compulsory 
social security, the transitional period shall not exceed three years.  

Article 13 

Implementing measures 

The  measures  for  implementing  this  Regulation  shall  be  laid  down  in  accordance  with  the 
procedure specified in Article 14. Such measures concern: 

(a) 

(b) 

the  coverage  of  smallest  enterprises  and  all-resident  enterprise  groups,  as 
provided for in Article 3; 

the transmission of registers information and quality reports, as provided for in 
Articles 6 and 9; 

(c) 

the rules for updating registers, as provided for in Article 8; 

(d) 

the  transmission  of  individual  data  for  multinational  enterprise  groups  to  the 
Commission (Eurostat) and the transmission of multinational enterprise group 
data to the Member States, as provided for in Article 11; 

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(e) 

the  updating  of  the  list  of  registers  characteristics  in  the  Annex,  their 
definitions and their continuity rules, as provided for in Article 5, in so far as 
such updating, after a quantitative assessment, does not imply a burden on the 
units  or  on  the  Member  States,  which  is  disproportionate  to  the  anticipated 
results. 

Article 14 

Committee 

1. 

2. 

The Commission shall be assisted by the Statistical Programme Committee set up by 
Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom13. 

Where  reference  is  made  to  this  paragraph,  Articles  5  and  7  of  Decision 
1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof. 

The  period  referred  to  in  Article  5(6)  of  Decision  1999/468/EC  shall  be  three 
months. 

Article 15 

Repeal 

Council Regulation (EEC) No 2186/93 is repealed.  

References to the repealed regulation shall be construed as being made to this Regulation. 

Article 16 

Entry into force 

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in 
the Official Journal of the European Union.  

It shall apply from 1 January 2007. 

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. 

Done at Brussels,  

For the European Parliament 
The President 

For the Council 
The President 

13 

OJ L 181, 28.6.1989, p. 47. 

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ANNEX  

The business registers shall contain the following information by unit. The information 
does  not  have  to  be  separately  stored  for  each  unit,  if  it  can  be  derived  from  other 
unit(s). 

1. LEGAL UNIT 

IDENTIFICATION 
CHARACTERISTICS

1.1 

Identity number 

1.2a 

Name 

1.2b 

Address (including postcode) at the most detailed level 

1.2c 

1.3 

Optional: Telephone and fax numbers, electronic mail 
address, and information to permit electronic collection of 
data 

Value  Added  Tax  (VAT)  registration  number  or,  failing 
that, other administrative identity number 

DEMOGRAPHIC 
CHARACTERISTICS

1.4 

Date of incorporation for legal persons or date of official 
recognition as an economic operator for natural persons 

1.5 

Date on which the legal unit ceased to be part of an 
enterprise (as defined in 3.3) 

ECONOMIC/  
STRATIFICATION 
CHARACTERISTICS

LINKS WITH 
OTHER REGISTERS

1.6 

Legal form 

Reference to associated registers, in which the legal unit is 
recorded and which contain information that can be used 
for statistical purposes  

Reference to the register of intra-Community operators set 
up in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 638/200414, and 
Reference to customs files or to the register of extra-
Community operators  

Optional: Reference to balance sheet data (for units 
required to publish accounts), and  
Reference to the balance of payments register or foreign 
direct investment register, and  
Reference to the farm register  

1.7a 

1.7b 

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OJ L 102, 7.4.2004, p. 1 

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Additional  characteristics  for legal  units  which  are  part  of  enterprises  belonging  to  an 
enterprise group: 

LINK WITH 
ENTERPRISE 
GROUP 

1.8 

Identity number of the resident/truncated enterprise group (4.1), to 
which the unit belongs  

1.9 

Date of association to the resident/truncated group 

1.10 

Date of separation from the resident/truncated group 

CONTROL OF 
UNITS 

The resident control links can be recorded either top-down (1.11a) 
or bottom-up (1.11b). Only the first level of control, direct or 
indirect, is recorded for each unit (the whole chain of control can 
be obtained by combining these). 

1.11a 

Identity number(s) of resident legal unit(s), which are controlled 
by the legal unit 

1.11b 

Identity number of the resident legal unit, which controls the legal 
unit 

OWNERSHIP 
OF UNITS 

1.12 

1.13 

1.14a 

1.14b 

1.15 

(a) Country(ies) of registration, and  
(b) identity number(s) or, name(s), address(es) and VAT 
number(s),  
of non-resident legal unit(s), which are controlled by the legal unit 

(a) Country of registration, and  
(b) identity number or, name, address and VAT number,  
of the non-resident legal unit, which controls the legal unit 

The resident ownership can be recorded either top-down (1.14a) or 
bottom-up (1.14b).  
The recording of the information and the threshold used for the 
shareholding are subject to the availability of this information in 
the administrative sources. The recommended threshold is 10 % or 
more of direct ownership. 

(a) Identity number(s), and  
(b) shares (%)  
of resident legal unit(s) owned by the legal unit 

(a) Identity number(s), and  
(b) shares (%)  
of resident legal unit(s), which own(s) the legal unit 

(a) Country(ies) of registration, and  
(b) identity number(s) or, name(s), address(es) and VAT 
number(s), and  
(c) shares (%)  

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of non-resident legal unit(s) owned by the legal unit 

1.16 

(a) Country(ies) of registration, and  
(b) identity number(s) or, name(s), address(es), and VAT 
number(s), and  
(c) shares (%)  
of non-resident legal unit(s), which own(s) the legal unit 

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2. LOCAL UNIT 

IDENTIFICATION 
CHARACTERISTICS

2.1 

Identity number 

2.2a 

Name 

2.2b 

Address (including postcode) at the most detailed level 

2.2c 

2.3 

Optional:  Telephone  and  fax  numbers,  electronic  mail 
address, and information to permit electronic collection of 
data 

Identity number of the enterprise (3.1), to which the local 
unit belongs 

DEMOGRAPHIC 
CHARACTERISTICS

2.4 

Date of commencement of activities 

2.5 

2.6 

Date of final cessation of activities 

Principal activity code at NACE 4-digit level 

ECONOMIC/  
STRATIFICATION 
CHARACTERISTICS 2.7 

Secondary  activities,  if  any,  at  NACE  4-digit  level;  this 
point  concerns  only  local  units  which  are  the  subject  of 
surveys 

2.8 

Optional: Activity carried out in the local unit constituting 
an  ancillary  activity  of  the  enterprise  to  which  it  belongs 
(Yes/No) 

2.9 

Number of persons employed 

2.10a 

Number of employees 

2.10b 

Optional: Number of employees in full-time equivalents 

2.11 

Geographical location code  

LINKS WITH 
OTHER REGISTERS 

2.12 

Reference  to  associated  registers,  in  which  the  local  unit 
appears and which contain information which can be used 
for statistical purposes (if such associated registers exist) 

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3. ENTERPRISE 

IDENTIFICATION 
CHARACTERISTICS

3.1 

Identity number 

3.2a 

Name 

3.2b 

Optional: Postal, electronic mail and web site addresses 

3.3 

Identity  number(s)  of  the  legal  unit(s)  of  which  the 
enterprise consist(s) 

DEMOGRAPHIC 
CHARACTERISTICS

3.4 

Date of commencement of activities 

3.5 

3.6 

Date of final cessation of activities 

Principal activity code at NACE 4-digit level 

ECONOMIC/  
STRATIFICATION 
CHARACTERISTICS 3.7 

Secondary  activities,  if  any,  at  NACE  4-digit  level;  this 
point  concerns  only  enterprises  which  are  the  subject  of 
surveys 

3.8 

Number of persons employed 

3.9a 

Number of employees 

3.9b 

Optional: Number of employees in full-time equivalents 

3.10 

3.11 

Turnover;  optional  for  agriculture,  fishing  and  public 
sector  

Institutional  sector  and  sub-sector  according  to  European 
System of Accounts  

Additional  characteristics 

for  enterprises  belonging 

to  an  enterprise  group: 

LINK WITH 
ENTERPRISE 
GROUP  

3.12 

Identity  number  of  the  resident/truncated  enterprise  group 
(4.1), to which the enterprise belongs 

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4. ENTERPRISE GROUP 

IDENTIFICATION 
CHARACTERISTICS 

4.1 

Identity number of the resident/truncated group 

4.2a 

Name of the resident/truncated group 

4.2b 

Optional: Postal, electronic mail and web site addresses 
of the resident/truncated head office 

Identity number of the resident/truncated group head 
(equals the identity number of the legal unit, which is the 
resident group head).  
If the controlling unit is a natural person, who is not an 
economic operator, recording is subject to the availability 
of this information in the administrative sources 

Type of enterprise group: 
1. all-resident group; 
2. domestically controlled truncated group; 
3. foreign controlled truncated group; 

Date  of  commencement  of 
enterprise group 

the 

resident/truncated 

Date  of  cessation  of  the  resident/truncated  enterprise 
group 

Principal  activity  code  of  the  resident/truncated  group  at 
NACE 2-digit level 

Optional:  Secondary  activities  of  the  resident/truncated 
group at NACE 2-digit level 

Number  of  persons  employed  in  the  resident/truncated 
group 

4.3 

4.4 

4.5 

4.6 

4.7 

4.8 

4.9 

4.10 

Optional: Consolidated turnover 

DEMOGRAPHIC 
CHARACTERISTICS 

ECONOMIC/ 
STRATIFICATION 
CHARACTERISTICS 

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Additional characteristics for multinational enterprise groups (types 2 and 3 in 4.4): 

The  recording  of  variables  4.11  and  4.12a  is  optional  until  transmission  of  information  on 
multinational groups, as stated in Article 11, has been established. 

IDENTIFICATION 
CHARACTERISTICS

4.11 

Identity number of the global group 

4.12a 

Name of the global group 

4.12b 

Optional:  Country  of  registration,  postal,  electronic  mail 
and web site addresses of the global head office 

4.13 

Identity number of the global group head, if the group 
head is resident (equals the identity number of the legal 
unit, which is the group head).  
If the global group head is non-resident, its country of 
registration, and  
optionally: its identity number or name and address.  

ECONOMIC/ 
STRATIFICATION 
CHARACTERISTICS 4.15 

4.14 

Optional: Number of persons employed globally 

Optional: Consolidated global turnover 

4.16 

Optional: Country of global decision-centre 

4.17 

Optional:  Countries  where  enterprises  or  local  units  are 
located 

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