Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council concerning the implementation of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) N° 58/97
Date: 2007-09-04
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU statistics, branch of activity, business policy, company structure, competitiveness, economic statistics, statistical method

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 4.9.2007 
COM(2007) 494 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL 

concerning the implementation of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) N° 58/97 

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL 

concerning the implementation of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) N° 58/97 

(Text with EEA relevance) 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

1. 

2. 

3. 

3.1. 

3.2. 

3.3. 

3.4. 

3.5. 

4. 

5. 

5.1. 

5.2. 

5.3. 

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 3 

Regulatory developments............................................................................................. 3 

Availability of SBS to users......................................................................................... 4 

Main data sets............................................................................................................... 4 

Timeliness, punctuality and completeness of data sets available to users ................... 5 

Confidentiality rules and implementation.................................................................... 7 

Accuracy ...................................................................................................................... 8 

Comparability and coherence....................................................................................... 8 

Compliance with the SBS Regulation.......................................................................... 9 

The burden on businesses and action to reduce it ...................................................... 12 

Introduction ................................................................................................................ 12 

Burden measurement.................................................................................................. 12 

Actions taken by Member States to reduce burden.................................................... 13 

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1. 

INTRODUCTION 

The  objective  of  Council  Regulation  No  58/97  (hereafter  referred  to  as  “the  SBS 
Regulation”), as set out in its Article 1, is to establish a common framework for the collection, 
compilation,  transmission  and  evaluation  of  Community  statistics  on  the  structure,  activity, 
competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community. The SBS Regulation lays 
down  the  norms,  standards  and  definitions  necessary  for  producing  comparable  Community 
statistics. 

This  report  covers  the  implementation  of  Council  Regulation  No  58/97  as  amended  by 
Council Regulation No 410/98 and Regulation 2056/2002 of the European Parliament and of 
the  Council.  This  report  has  been  prepared  under  the  provisions  of  Article  14  (1)  of  the 
Regulation: “The Commission shall, within three years of the date of entry into force of this 
Regulation  and  again  every  three  years  thereafter,  submit  a  report  to  the  European 
Parliament  and  the  Council  on  the  statistics  compiled  pursuant  to  this  Regulation  and  in 
particular on their quality and the burden on business.” 

More  generally,  the  report  aims  to  provide  information  on  the  actions  undertaken  by  the 
Commission  to  ensure  that  high  quality  European  structural  business  statistics  are  made 
available to users, and also on the manner and extent to which each of the Member States has 
implemented  the  SBS  Regulation.  It  provides  information  on  the  burden  on  business  and 
actions taken to reduce that burden. 

2. 

REGULATORY DEVELOPMENTS 

There  have  been  four  major  regulatory  developments  since  the  adoption  of  Regulation  No 
58/97 and its implementing provisions.  

1) A first amendment, adopted by the Council, was published on 21 February 1998. It added a 
fifth  annex  concerning  a  framework  for  structural  business  statistics  for  life  and  non-life 
insurance activities, starting with the 1996 reference period. 

2) An adaptation process was implemented in 2001 using the comitology procedure. Its aim 
was to reduce the statistical burden by removing the less useful parts of the requirements, to 
make  room  for  new  developments  of  the  SBS  Regulation  in  the  future;  the  relevant 
amendment was adopted on 6 September 2002. 

3)  A  second  amendment  was  adopted  by  the  Council  and  the  European  Parliament  and 
published  on  21  November  2002.  This  amendment  essentially  added  two  new  annexes 
concerning credit institutions and pension funds, and two variables related to expenditure on 
environmental protection.  

4) A Commission proposal for a recast of the SBS regulation is now in co-decision procedure 
(COM (2006) 66 final). The recast proposed by the Commission simplifies the requirements 
by deleting the less important characteristics.  

Its aim is to ensure coverage of fast-growing economic sectors - mainly in services - that have 
not previously been included in statistical monitoring.  

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It  also  provides  information  on  the  dynamic  business  services  sector,  and  on  business 
demography. It streamlines and codifies a set of existing legal instruments and would repeal 
the previous legal act.  

The SBS Regulation now has seven annexes 

Annex I 

Common module 

Annex II 

Industry 

Annex III 

Distributive trades 

Annex IV 

Construction 

Annex V 

Insurance 

Annex VI 

Credit institutions 

Annex VII 

Pension funds 

The SBS Regulation confers implementing powers on the Commission. In all, 12 Commission 
Regulations1 are in force relating to definitions, data series to be transmitted, technical format, 
derogations to be granted, adaptation to technical and economic development and criteria for 
quality  evaluation.  These  measures  are  necessary  in  order  to  ensure  the  harmonised 
implementation of the SBS Regulation in the Member States. Under the provisions of the SBS 
Regulation the Member States are free to choose the sources used for compiling the statistics; 
it  is  therefore  important  that  the  statistical  authorities  respect  the  definitions  laid  down  in 
Commission  regulations  and  inform  the  Commission  about  the  quality  of  the  data.  Other 
Commission regulations cover the breakdowns that need to be provided for all SBS variables 
and their technical format, and ensure that all countries transmit data in a harmonised format 
so as to avoid errors in data transmission.  

Derogations are granted to countries so as to give them the time to put in place the necessary 
data collection systems or adapt existing ones so that, by the end of the transitional period, the 
provisions  of  the  SBS  Regulation  will  be  met.  For  Annexes  1,  3,  4  and  5  the  transitional 
period  has  ended.  For  Annexes  2,  6  and  7  derogations  have  been  granted  in  a  Commission 
Regulation. For the environmental variables of Annex 2 and Annex 7 a Regulation extending 
the transitional period is in the process of being adopted. 

3. 

AVAILABILITY OF SBS TO USERS 

3.1.  Main data sets 

SBS  gives  a  comprehensive  picture  of  the  structure,  development  and  characteristics  of 
European business and its various activities. Broadly speaking, it covers all market activities 
except the agriculture sector. 

The main characteristics (variables) of the SBS data cover  

1 

Commission  Regulations  No.  2700/98,  2701/98,  2702/98,  1225/99,  1227/99,  1228/99,  1618/99, 
1614/2002, 1667/2003, 1668/2003, 1669/2003, 1670/2003,  

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•  Business Demographic variables (e.g. number of enterprises) 

•  “Output related” variables (e.g. turnover, value added) 

•  “Input  related”  variables;  labour  input  (e.g.  employment,  hours  worked);  goods 
and  services  input  (e.g.  total  of  purchases);  capital  input  (e.g.  investments  in 
tangible goods) 

The  Regulation  stipulates  the  transmission  deadlines  which,  in  summary,  are  18  months  for 
final data for Annexes I – IV, 10 months for preliminary data and 10 – 18 months for Annexes 
V – VII. 

In  the  series  on  annual  enterprise  statistics,  characteristics  are  published  by  country  and 
detailed at NACE REV 1.1 class level (normally 4 digits).  

The annual enterprise statistics are broken down by size class. Characteristics are published 
by country and detailed down to NACE REV 1.1 group level (3 digits) and employment size 
class. For distributive trades an additional supplementary breakdown by turnover size class is 
available. 

In  the  annual  regional  statistics,  four  characteristics  are  published  by  NUTS-2  region2  and 
detailed at NACE REV 1.1 division level (2-digits). For the distributive trades section, data 
are at the 3-digit level.  

Most  of  the  SBS  data  are  collected  by  the  National  Statistical  Institutes  (NSIs),  through 
statistical  surveys,  the  business  register  or  administrative  sources.  The  NSIs  can  use  one  or 
more of these sources, according to the survey strategy they have adopted, taking into account 
the  costs,  the  quality  and  the  response  burden  on  enterprises.  At  Eurostat  level,  data  are 
validated before being published. A number of logical checks between different variables are 
performed and the consistency of the data over time is also checked. 

3.2. 

Timeliness, punctuality and completeness of data sets available to users 

Release of SBS data 

All data are available free of charge on the Eurostat website under the theme "Industry, trade 
and services". A timetable for release, known as the Release Calendar, is drawn up annually. 
As for the most recently released data, for most countries the definitive 2004 data for Annexes 
1 to 4 were released in NewCronos in November 2006.  

EU  aggregates  have  been  calculated  on  the  basis  of  the  available  data,  and  in  the  case  of 
missing  data  on  the  basis  of  estimates.  Initial  aggregates  were  released  in  December  2006. 
Preliminary  data  for  Annexes  1  to  4  for  2005  were  available  for  most  countries  in  January 
2007.  

Publications programme 2006  

In addition to being disseminated on Eurostat's Website, the results are presented in a number 
of publications. As part of the 2006 SBS publications programme, one Panorama publication, 

2 

Common classification of territorial units for statistics (Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003) 

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one pocketbook, 18 Statistics in Focus and a new version of the “European business dedicated 
website”  were  released.  The  2006  edition  of  the  panorama  publication  European  business  - 
Facts  and  figures  was  released  in  February  2007.  This  publication  gives  a  comprehensive 
picture of the structure, development and characteristics of European business and its different 
activities.  

At the same time, a new restructured section dedicated to European business was released on 
the Eurostat website. This portal now includes a presentation of structural business statistics 
by  topic  (including  special  topic,  such  as  globalisation,  SMEs,  regional  business,  foreign 
controlled enterprises etc.), with specific links to publications, data and methodology. 

A  pocketbook  was  published  in  October  2006,  which  summarises  simply  and  concisely  the 
main  features  of  European  business  and  its  different  activities.  The  publication  is  also 
intended to serve as a showcase for and an introduction to the data available in this field. 

The publications programme also included a total of seven in-depth studies of specific sectors 
in the Statistics in Focus (SIF) collection, three SIFs on a horizontal (cross-sectoral) topic, and 
eight SIFs focussing on the presentation of results from SBS development projects (in several 
cases in combination with relevant data from the regular data series). SBS data are also used 
in many other publications. In 2006, some important contributions were made, in particular to 
the Eurostat yearbook, the Eurostat pocketbook, the Regional yearbook, the Transport review 
("panorama") and new publications on culture statistics. 

Completeness of data sets available to users 

In very broad terms, it can be concluded from table 1 that data sets delivered to Eurostat are 
reasonably complete from most Member States There are gaps for some countries, however, 
which affect the availability of data to users. These gaps will be commented on under 4. 

The  table  also  shows  that  the  availability  of  data  to  users  is  considerably  reduced  by  the 
existence of confidential data. Many data are confidential, especially in the smaller countries 
No detailed analysis has yet been made for Annexes 5 to 7. However, data availability seems 
to be relatively good for those countries that do not have derogations, and for the most part 
the data are non-confidential.  

Table 1: Total transmitted cells and publishable cells after checking for confidentiality 
treatment. Annexes 1 to 4, 2003 data in % of data required by the SBS Regulation 

Country 

Large countries 

Medium-sized countries 

Small countries 

ALL 

total transmitted cells 
in % of required by 
SBS Regulation 

non-confidential cells in 
% of required by SBS 
Regulation 

Confidential  cells  in  % 
of transmitted cells 

91 

78 

81 

81 

80 

61 

61 

64 

12 

23 

24 

21 

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3.3. 

Confidentiality rules and implementation 

The  national  statistical  authorities  and  the  Community  authority  are  required  to  apply  the 
principle  of  protecting  the  data  of  individual  respondents,  as  set  out  in  Article  13(1)  of 
Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  322/97  of  17  February  1997  on  Community  Statistics3.  As 
structural business statistics are broken down into a relatively detailed level of activities, and 
as  a  combined  breakdown  by  activity  and  size  class  is  required,  many  data  at  country  level 
have  to  be  protected  in  order  not  to  disclose  any  confidential  information.  The  table  in 
paragraph  3.2  above  illustrates  the  extent  to  which  confidentiality  reduces  data  availability. 
The confidentiality rules at national level are not yet fully harmonised. In all countries, data 
relating to one or a small number of enterprises are protected. In several Member States this is 
supplemented by a "dominance rule" under which data are not disseminated if one respondent 
dominates  the  figures  by  more  than  a  certain  fixed  percentage.  This  percentage  can  differ 
considerably from country to country.  

In  addition  to  confidential  data  at  country  level,  data  at  Community  level  also  have  to  be 
suppressed in order not to disclose any of the confidential national data. Rules for determining 
the  EU  aggregates  that  need  to  be  suppressed  have  been  laid  down  in  a  Confidentiality 
Charter  agreed  with  the  Member  States.  In  application  of  the  rules  of  the  Confidentiality 
Charter, a considerable number of Community aggregates are suppressed. Table 2 shows that, 
of all EU aggregates for which data were available for the reference year 2004 in the annual 
enterprise statistics, 32% could not be published for reasons of confidentiality. 

Table 2. Main variables of annual enterprise statistics for which EU aggregates for 2004 
are published, all activity levels 

Total number of cells 

Number  of 
cells 

confidential 

Number confidential cells 
in % of total number 

Annex 1 

Annex 2 

Annex 3 

Annex 4 

Annexes 1-4 

492 

4956 

1116 

300 

6864 

106 

1578 

387 

110 

2181 

22% 

32% 

35% 

37% 

32% 

The Commission is currently investigating ways of making more EU aggregates available in 
order  to  satisfy  the  users'  need  for  information.  Ways  of  calculating  estimates  for  the 
confidential  EU  aggregates  that  afford  sufficient  protection  to  the  data  of  individual 
respondents, while at the same time guaranteeing a certain level of accuracy of the aggregates, 
will  be  explored.  For  the  time  being,  estimates  for  the  EU  are  made  on  the  basis  of  non-
confidential  national  data  in  order  to  fill  the  gaps  in  the  EU  aggregates  for  which  the  real 
value  could  not  be  disclosed.  The  recast  of  the  SBS  Regulation  contains  a  possibility  for 
Member States to flag data as "contribution to European totals only", which is also expected 
to increase the number of available European aggregates. 

3 

Official Journal L 052 , 22/02/1997 pp.1-7 

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3.4. 

Accuracy 

The SBS Regulation stipulates that Member States shall deliver a quality report annually to 
Eurostat. The reports contain information on coefficients of variation and non-response rates.  

Member  States  submit  data  on  coefficients  of  variation  (expressed  as  a  percentage).  On  the 
basis of Member States' contributions, Eurostat calculates the coefficients of variation for the 
EU  aggregates.  The  table  below  shows  that  the  aggregate  EU  coefficients  of  variation  for 
most  NACE  groups  are  below  1.5  %.  In  general,  coefficients  of  variation  are  lower  for  the 
NACE  groups  in  industry.  For  construction,  trade  and  especially  services,  coefficients  of 
variation are higher. This means that in general the data presented for the industrial activities 
are more precise. 

Table  3.  Distribution  of  aggregate  EU  coefficients  of  variation  (CV),  in  %  ,  NACE 
aggregated at 3-digit  

CV EU range 

Number of NACE groups 

0.0 – 0,5 

0,6 – 1,5 

1.6 – 2.5 

Above 2.5  

95 

51 

21 

2 

The  non-response  rates  vary  between  Member  States;  in  a  few  cases  they  are  above  20 
percent. 

3.5. 

Comparability and coherence 

Compliance  with  the  Commission  Regulations  on  definitions  is  the  basic  tool  for  ensuring 
comparable data across countries. The choice of methodology for the compilation of structural 
business  statistics  is  left  to  the  statistical  authorities.  Member  States  submit  information  on 
their  national  methodologies  and  this  information  is  published  by  Eurostat,  to  help  users  to 
understand the methods of data collection. 

Coherence refers to the extent to which the statistics will allow the combined use of data from 
different  sources.  Structural  business  statistics  could  be  linked  with  several  other  statistical 
data sets such as national accounts, labour data and short term statistics, but in order for users 
to make a combined use of them, their coherence must be ensured.  

The coherence between structural business statistics and short-term statistics has been tested 
in  the  past,  revealing  certain  differences  in  methodology.  Further  investigation  is  therefore 
needed.  A  similar  comparison  has  been  made  between  SBS  data  on  employment  and  other 
sources  of  labour  data.  Again,  differences  in  methodology  and  also  in  definitions  were 
observed. Further harmonisation work needs to be undertaken. As the business register serves 
as  the  framework  for  compiling  SBS,  this  ought  to  ensure  a  coherent  approach.  However, 
studies  have  shown  that  there  are  significant  differences  between  these  two  sources;  this 
aspect requires further analysis. 

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4. 

COMPLIANCE WITH THE SBS REGULATION  

Compliance  with  the  SBS  Regulation  is  evaluated  on  the  basis  of  the  timeliness  of 
transmission of the data by the Member States, as well as of the completeness of the datasets 
sent. Overall, the compliance level has risen when compared to the evaluation made for the 
previous report. Other compliance issues, such as the quality of the data transmitted, cannot 
yet be fully evaluated. 

The  timeliness  of  the  data  transmission  has  generally  improved  over  the  years.  However, 
some  countries  still  send  the  data  with  significant  delays,  which  influences  the  timely 
dissemination  of  EU  aggregates.  National  action  plans  have  been  drafted  by  the  Member 
States concerned in order to ensure that the Regulation deadlines are respected in future. 

For the trade sector, for instance, the EU aggregates could not be released together with those 
of  other  sectors,  as  German  data  were  sent  with  a  considerable  delay.  Compared  to  the 
previous  report  that  covered  the  timeliness  of  the  data  for  the  reference  year  2000  for  the 
countries  then  subject  to  the  SBS  Regulation,  the  most  notable  improvements  in  timeliness 
were in the case of France and Ireland. Ireland, however, is still sending the data with a delay. 
Spain considerably improved the timeliness of construction data (Annex 4) as did Norway in 
the case of trade data (Annex 3). Belgium and Luxembourg both sent the 2004 data later than 
the 2000 data. 

As far as the completeness of the datasets transmitted by the countries is concerned, when all 
datasets  for  the  definitive  series  of  Annexes  1  to  4  provided  by  the  EU27  countries  and 
Norway are taken together, this represents 85% of the required data overall. This is a marked 
improvement on the situation described in the previous report to the European Parliament and 
the  Council,  but  it  is  still  insufficient.  Several  countries  are  taking  action  to  improve  data 
availability. 

Table 4 presents an overall evaluation of compliance for all countries that are subject to the 
SBS  Regulation  in  2007  (EU27,  Iceland,  Liechtenstein  and  Norway).  The  evaluation  was 
based on the timeliness of the transmission of final 2004 data for Annexes 1 to 4, 2005 data 
for Annexes 5 to 7 and preliminary 2005 data for Annexes 1 to 4. The completeness of the 
data  of  the  definitive  series  for  Annexes  1  to  4  for  2003  was  also  taken  into  account.  The 
completeness of the financial annexes (5 to 7) has not yet been assessed in detail, but it has 
been  taken  into  account  as  far  as  possible.  The  countries  have  been  divided  into  four 
categories of compliance: 

VG  Very good compliance, all required data (with minor exceptions) are delivered on time 

Good  compliance,  a  few  elements  are  missing  or  there  are  small  delays  in  data 

G 
delivery (data are sent less than 2 months after the deadline) 

Data  are  partly  available  but  major  elements  of  compliance  are  missing  or  deadlines 

P 
are not met (data are sent more than 2 months after the deadline) 

N 
A large proportion of the data is missing, or there are major delays in deliveries (>6 
months after the deadline), or an approved version of the data has not yet been received, or a 
new version of sufficient quality is still awaited (or has been received only after a very long 
delay). 

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Table 4. Overall assessment of compliance 

COUNTRY 

SBS 

Overall 
evaluation 

BE 

BG 

CZ 

DK 

DE 

EE 

EL 

ES 

FR 

IE 

IT 

CY 

LV 

LT 

LU 

•  Definitive  2002  data  for  annexes  1  to  4  have  not  yet  been  sent  to  Eurostat.  Data  for 

reference years 2003 and 2004 were sent with a considerable delay.  

•  Data availability is satisfactory. 
•  Data for Annex 5 have not been provided for the reference years 2002 to 2005.  

•  Annex 1 to 4 data were sent two months before the deadline. Other data were also sent 

before the deadline 

•  Data  availability  could  still  improve  as  data  for  the  most  detailed  level  have  not  been 

provided yet. Actions to overcome this are being undertaken 

•  Data were sent on time. 
•  For  the  annexes  on  industry  and  construction  data  for  the  KAU  series  are  missing;  for 
industry  data  on  environmental  protection  expenditure  have  been  transmitted  for 
reference year 2004 with a considerable delay; for credit institutions no regional data have 
been provided. 

•  The data provided for the activities at class level are still of insufficient quality, which 

results in a low data availability for the users. 

•  Data were in general sent on time, some series were provided with a short delay. 
•  No data were provided for annex 5 for 2004 and 2005 and for Annex 7 for 2005. 
•  Data availability is satisfactory. 
•  Remaining problems are transmission delays for trade. Most Annex 1 data were sent on 

time for reference year 2004; Section H was sent with a considerable delay however. The 
Annex 2 data exclude the data for section E which were sent with a significant delay. 

•  Data sent on time 
•  Data complete. 
•  Starting from a very unsatisfactory situation, an improvement in the provision of data has 
been  noted  since  2005.  Data  on  Section  K  were  provided  for  the  first  time  in  February 
2007. 

•  A cut-off threshold existed in industry: no data on enterprises with less than 10 persons 

employed were provided, but efforts to estimate the missing part have been made. 

•  Some series are missing for annexes 5 and 6. 
•  Data sent on time. 
•  Few data missing: good data availability. 
•  All  data  sent  on  time  except  for  annex  5,  for  which  no  data  were provided  for  reference

years 2004-2005. 
•  Good data availability. 
•  Considerable delays in the provision of data for annexes 1 and 3 for the 2004 reference 

year (temporary problems due to major IT project). 
•  Data availability has improved over the last three years. 
•  Construction data on enterprise > 20 persons employed only. 
•  Full derogation for Annex 7, but will continue sending available data. CSO would like to 
set up a survey for Annex 7, but this is proving very difficult. Data for Annex 5 missing 
for reference years 2002 to 2005 and for Annex 6 for reference year 2005. 

•  Main series were sent on time, data on environmental protection expenditure sent with a 

significant delay. 

•  Data availability is in general satisfactory, but there are still some data missing. 
•  Data sent on time. 
•  Some data missing: data on NACE division 70 not provided and data of Annex 5 

incomplete. 

•  Data were sent on time, with very few exceptions. 
•  Data availability is very good. 
•  For  data  for  reference  year  2003  several  versions  were  needed  before  data  could  be 

published; 2004 data quality has improved.  

•  Data sent on time. 
•  Data availability is very good. 
• 

Still  significant  delays  for  sending  the  2004  data,  but  data  include  the  secondary 
confidentiality pattern. 

P 

G 

P 

G 

G 

VG 

P 

VG 

VG 

G 

VG 

VG 

VG 

VG 

G 

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• 

Progress in data availability (employment size class data for all annexes and KAU 
statistics for Annex 2 have been provided for 2003); information on local units (regional 
series) and some special series of Annex 2 are still needed. 

•  Data sent on time. 
•  Very few data missing. 
•  No data were received for 2003 and 2004. 

•  Very  slight  delays  in  data  transmission  except  for  series  on  environmental  protection 

expenditure, for which the delay is a bit longer. 

•  Data availability is satisfactory. 
•  Data sent on time except for Annex 5 for reference year 2005. There was a temporary 

problem in the timeliness of the data transmission for the 2002 data, as Statistics Austria 
changed the survey strategy for Annexes 1 to 4 for that year. 

VG 

N 

G 

VG 

•  Very good data availability. 
• 
•  Limited  sector-specific  detailed  data  (variables  from  the  sectoral  modules  that  do  not 

Improvement in timeliness of data transmission. 

P 

belong to annex 1) is available. 

•  Data sent on time. 
•  Very few data missing. 
•  Data sent on time 
•  Good data availability 
•  Data sent on time. 
•  Availability of data could still be improved. 
•  Data sent on time for Annexes 1 to 6 for reference year 2005; delays for annex 7 until 

reference year 2005, for which the data were sent on time. 

•  Data sent on time. 
•  Very good data availability. 
•  For  2003  several  versions  needed  to  be  processed  before  data  could  be  published;  for 

reference year 2004 the quality of the first datasets sent has improved. 

•  Data sent on time. 
•  Good data availability. 
•  For reference year 2003 there have been problems with the quality of the data, but this 

was solved in early 2007. The quality of the 2004 data is better.  

•  Data sent on time except for Annex 5. 
•  Very good data availability: all series complete. 
•  Data for Annexes 1 to 4 have never been provided 
•  Data for Annexes 5 to 7 for reference year 2005 have not been provided yet 
•  No data have ever been provided 

•  Data sent on time. 
•  Good data availability. 

VG 

VG 

G 

VG  

VG 

G 

VG 

N 

N 

VG 

HU 

MT 

NL 

AT 

PL 

PT 

RO 

SI 

SK 

FI 

SE 

UK 

IS 

LI 

NO 

Since the previous report, several countries have improved their overall compliance with the 
provisions of the SBS Regulation. The level of compliance for France, Ireland, Luxembourg, 
Finland, the United Kingdom and Norway improved between reference years 2001 and 2004. 
Compliance levels in most of the new Member States are "good" to "very good". 

Greece has made considerable efforts to catch up since 2005, when data for reference years 
1999 to 2002 were provided, but it will have to continue its work. Under the terms of Greece's 
action plan there should be full compliance for the data to be delivered for the reference year 
2006.  For  Belgium  a  revision  of  the  survey  strategy  created  serious  compliance  problems: 
definitive data for 2002 for Annexes  1 to 4 were not provided, and data for 2003 and  2004 
were sent with a considerable delay. Further efforts to improve the timeliness of the data are 
therefore needed. Germany has sent data on trade, hotels and restaurant and the energy sector 
on a more timely manner, but still needs to further shorten the delays. According to the action 

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plan which it presented to the Commission services, the German Statistical Office will send 
the 2005 data on time. Preliminary data for 2005 were transmitted on time. 

5. 

THE BURDEN ON BUSINESSES AND ACTION TO REDUCE IT 

5.1. 

Introduction 

The Commission Communication of March 2005 on "Better Regulation for Growth 
and Jobs" identified simplification as a priority action for the EU. In the Commission 
Communication on the reduction of the response burden, simplification and priority 
setting in the field of Community Statistics (COM (2006) 693 final) this commitment 
was directed more specifically at statistics. Actions taken and actions planned by the 
Commission are reported in the Communication.  

The  SBS  recast  (COM  (2006)  66  final)  aims  to  keep  the  burden  on  enterprises  as 
light  as  possible,  by  taking  away  a  number  of  mandatory  variables,  moving  other 
variables from annual to multi-annual collection, and deleting the optional variables. 
The  SBS  recast  is  an  example  of  the  kind  of  tool  which  could  be  used  to  achieve 
simplification: 

–  The  SBS  recast  introduces  the  possibility  for  countries  simply  to  contribute  to  the 
European totals without being forced to provide figures plus all the details. This is not a 
fully European approach, but it is a step in that direction and will substantially reduce the 
burden. 

–  Use  of  administrative  data  will  also  reduce  the  burden  on  businesses.  The  SBS  recast 
takes this up in new areas. Collection of data on business demography (a new area in the 
recast) will be purely register-based and will therefore put no burden at all on businesses. 

5.2. 

Burden measurement 

In order to receive accurate information on the burden on businesses resulting from Structural 
Business  Statistics,  Eurostat  has  collected  this  information  by  means  of  a  standardised 
questionnaire. One part of the questionnaire was for data on the actual burden, while a second 
part of the questionnaire concerned actions taken or planned in Member States to reduce the 
burden on businesses. 

Eurostat  has  received  answers  from  18  countries;  of  these,  15  contained  information  on  the 
burden on business for Annexes I – IV, and five for Annexes V – VII. In 14 cases, there was 
an  indication  of  the  potential  savings,  if  parts  of  the  SBS  Regulation  were  deleted.  The  15 
countries for which information is available are DK, EE, EL, ES, IT, LV, LT, LU, NL, AT, 
PO, SE, UK, BG and NO. The survey results cover Annexes 1 – 4 of the SBS Regulation. For 
Annexes V – VII very few countries responded. In most countries, information on Annexes V 
– VII is collected from administrative records. 

In most countries, SBS surveys are conducted via sampling surveys. In some Member States, 
small  enterprises  are  covered  by  use  of  administrative  data  only.  Thus,  only  a  very  small 
proportion of enterprises receive a questionnaire to fill in.  

On average it took the enterprises in the sample 110 minutes to complete the questionnaire - 
this corresponds to 6 minutes per enterprise as an average over all enterprises in the sector. 

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There is a difference in the burden depending on the size of the country, as can be seen from 
the table below: 

Table 5: Minutes spent per enterprise to report on Annexes I - IV 

Annexes I - IV 

Time  spent  by  the  enterprises  in  the 
sample (in minutes) 

Minutes spent on average for 
all enterprises in the sector 

large countries 

114 

medium countries  86 

small countries 

182 

average (EU) 

110 

5 

8 

41 

6 

The differences between groups of countries for "time spent by enterprises in the sample" are 
hard to explain. However, as regards the average for small countries for "minutes spent by all 
enterprises  in  the  sector",  the  reason  for  the  high  average  is  that  the  sampling  fractions  are 
bigger. As all countries have to report at the same level of detail, small countries have to set 
up a bigger sample to obtain results of acceptable accuracy.  

It  should  be  noted  that  the  EU  average  sampling  fraction  is  5.8  percent  for  the  countries 
participating in the survey. Only one country reported a census survey. 

Table 6: Sample size 

Annex I - IV 

Sample  size,  number
of enterprises 

Total 
of enterprises  

number

Sampling fraction % 

large countries 

438573 

medium countries  184845 

small countries 

33610 

average (EU) 

657028 

9084194 

2078198 

147665 

11310057 

4.8 

8.9 

22.8 

5.8 

From the number of hours spent on SBS, it is possible to make a very rough estimate of the 
cost to enterprises: If this average time spent is applied across the EU as a whole, the burden 
on the economy due to SBS Annexes I – IV would add up to about €75 million for the whole 
Community. 

Finally,  there  were  questions  about  the  burden  placed  on  enterprises  with  less  than  50 
employees. On average, enterprises with less than 50 employees account for 70% of the time 
spent by all enterprises. Although large enterprises are normally included in the surveys, small 
enterprises contribute quite considerably.  

5.3. 

Actions taken by Member States to reduce burden 

This  section  summarises  the  actions  taken  in  Member  States  in  recent  years  to  reduce  the 
burden on business.  

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Sample surveys are used frequently. In February 2007, 26 out of the 27 Member States were 
already using sample surveys instead of censuses. With an average sample size of 5% for big 
countries,  8%  for  medium-sized  countries  and  slightly  over  20%  for  small  countries,  this 
means  that  there  is  a  substantial  reduction  of  the  burden  on  business.  These  figures  also 
indicate that it is justified to reduce the burden on small countries more substantially, e.g. by 
differentiated  reporting  requirements,  as  planned  in  the  SBS  recast  using  the  "CETO" 
(contribution to European totals only) flags. 

In quite a number of cases, countries have already exempted very small businesses from their 
surveys.  In  order  to  provide  the  necessary  information,  these  gaps  are  filled  either  by  using 
estimates or by supplementing survey data with administrative data. With the better coverage 
of services within business statistics, this trend will continue. In most areas of services, small 
enterprises account for a larger share.  

In many Member States there is a strong and growing preference for using administrative data 
instead of surveys. However, there are obstacles to the increased use of administrative data. 
Administrative  data  normally  differ  from  statistical  data  in  terms  of  formats,  codes, 
transmission  protocols,  etc.,  so  making  these  data  usable  for  statistics  requires  investment. 
Political  support  is  needed  in  order  for  agreements  to  be  reached  between  the  NSIs  and  the 
relevant  governmental  organisations.  Changing  the  use  of  administrative  data  also  requires 
additional internal resources, as NSIs have to adjust their internal workings to make good use 
of this investment. 

Better sampling strategies can also help reduce the burden on business. Very often, Member 
States initially implemented simple sampling strategies; with more sophisticated methods the 
burden on business could be further reduced. However, once again, this requires investment 
from the NSIs. 

These are examples that can be observed in many Member States. Some countries have also 
started  to  explore  more  direct  ways  of  collecting  the  data,  e.g.  directly  from  company 
accounts. Ideally, statistics would be generated as a by-product of the regular accounting by 
enterprises,  data  would  be  processed  automatically,  common  identifiers  would  enable  the 
collected  information  to  be  used  in  the  most  efficient  way,  and  that  information  would 
automatically be further disseminated, e.g. to Eurostat, as soon as it had been processed.  

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