Commission Regulation (EC) No 364/2008 of 23 April 2008 implementing Regulation (EC) No 716/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council, as regards the technical format for the transmission of foreign affiliates statistics and the derogations to be granted to Member States
Date: 2008-04-23
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU statistics, branch of activity, data transmission, foreign enterprise, subsidiary, technical specification

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Official Journal of the European Union

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COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 364/2008

of 23 April 2008

implementing Regulation (EC) No 716/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council, as
statistics and the
the transmission of
regards
derogations to be granted to Member States

foreign affiliates

the technical

format

for

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Having regard to the Treaty
Community,

establishing the European

Article 1

Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 716/2007 of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2007 on Community
statistics on the structure and activity of foreign affiliates (1), and
in particular Article 9(1)(a) and (b) thereof,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Regulation (EC) No 716/2007 established a common
framework
of
Community statistics on the structure and activity of
foreign affiliates.

production

systematic

the

for

It is necessary to specify the technical format and the
procedure for
foreign affiliates
the transmission of
statistics listed in Annexes I,
II and III to Regulation
(EC) No 716/2007 in order to produce data comparable
and harmonised between Member States, to reduce the
risk of errors in the transmission of data and to increase
the speed with which the data collected can be processed
and made available to users. Implementing tools should
therefore be laid down, supplemented by the instructions
contained in the Eurostat Recommendations Manual on
the Production of Foreign Affiliates Statistics, as revised
regularly.

is also necessary to grant derogations

It
from the
provisions of Regulation (EC) No 716/2007 to allow
Member States to make the necessary adaptations to
their national statistical systems. This relates in particular
in the development of new statistical registers and the
methods of data collection. The particular problem for
outward FATS is that the statistical unit of analysis differs
in the
from the reporting unit and is not
Member States.

resident

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in
accordance with
Statistical
the
Programme Committee,

opinion

the

of

(1) OJ L 171, 29.6.2007, p. 17.

The technical format referred to in Article 9(1)(a) of Regulation
(EC) No 716/2007 for the common module for inward statistics
on foreign affiliates shall be as set out in Annex I to this
Regulation.

Article 2

Member States shall apply the format referred to in Article 1 for
the data concerning the first reference year referred to in
Section 4, paragraph 1, of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No
716/2007, and subsequent years.

Article 3

The technical format referred to in Article 9(1)(a) of Regulation
(EC) No 716/2007 for
the common module for outward
statistics on foreign affiliates shall be as set out in Annex II
to this Regulation.

Article 4

Member States shall apply the format referred to in Article 3 for
the data concerning the first reference year referred to in
Section 4, paragraph 1, of Annex II to Regulation (EC) No
716/2007, and subsequent years.

Article 5

transmitted in electronic

to Regulation (EC) No
The data to be submitted pursuant
716/2007 shall be
form from
competent national authorities to the Commission (Eurostat).
The transmission format shall be in conformity with the inter-
change standards specified by the Commission (Eurostat). Data
shall be transmitted or uploaded by electronic means to the
single entry point
for data, maintained by the Commission
(Eurostat).

Member States shall implement the interchange standards and
guidelines supplied by the Commission (Eurostat) according to
the requirements of this Regulation.

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Member States shall, for each data delivery, provide the necessary metadata information to the Commission
(Eurostat)
in electronic form and in the structure defined in the most recent version of the Eurostat
Recommendations Manual on the Production of Foreign Affiliates Statistics.

Article 6

Article 7

The derogations referred to in Article 9(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 716/2007 shall be as specified in
Annex III to this Regulation.

This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following that of its publication in the Official Journal
of the European Union.

Article 8

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

Done at Brussels, 23 April 2008.

For the Commission

Joaquín ALMUNIA
Member of the Commission

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ANNEX I

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE TRANSMISSION OF INWARD STATISTICS ON FOREIGN
AFFILIATES

1. Introduction

Standardisation of data record structures is fundamental for efficient data processing. It is a necessary stage for
providing data conforming to the interchange standards specified by the Commission (Eurostat).

Data is sent as a set of records of which a large part describes the characteristics of the data (country, reference year,
economic activity, geographical breakdown, etc.). The data itself is a number which can be linked to flags and
information regarding for
explanatory footnotes used for adding explanations to data which give users additional
instance extreme year-to-year changes. One file shall be provided per series of data.

Confidential data have to be sent with the true value being recorded in the value field and a flag indicating the nature
of the confidential data being added to the record. Member States have to provide all levels of aggregation of the
breakdowns as defined in Regulation (EC) No 716/2007. In addition, data has to contain all secondary confidentiality
flags in accordance with the confidentiality rules existing at national level.

Member States have to provide complete sets for all series of data to be provided including records for all data
required by Regulation (EC) No 716/2007 which are not available, i.e. which are not collected in the Member State.
Data for activities/phenomena not existing in the Member State should be marked in the record as zero (code ‘0’ in the
value field). The code ‘0’ in the value field can also be used for activities that do exist but for which the data is small
and as a result of rounding equals zero. Monetary data has to be expressed in thousands of national currency units
(thousands of euros for the countries of the euro area). Countries acceding to the euro area shall report in euros
instead of national currency monetary data due in the year of their accession.

2. Dataset identifier

The following dataset identifier will be used for reporting statistics on inward foreign affiliates:

For series 1G: SBSFATS_1GA1_A.

For series 1G2: SBSFATS_1GB1_A

3. Data structure and definition of fields

This section gives an overview of the data structure, and defines the fields, codes and attributes to be used. The codes
to be used are to be found in the most recent version of the Eurostat Recommendations Manual on the Production of
Foreign Affiliates Statistics referred to in Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 716/2007. All fields should be sent, even if
they are empty. In order from left to right the fields are:

Field No

Field-id (name)

Type and size

Definition

1

Dataset-id

AN2…3

Alphanumeric code of the series as defined in Section 3 of Annex I
to Regulation (EC) No 716/2007, e.g. 1G for series 1G (geo-
graphical
activity
breakdown level 3), 1G2 for series 1G2 (geographical break-
down level 3 combined with Business Economy).

2-IN combined with

breakdown

level

2

3

4

Reference year

N4

Reference year in four characters, e.g. 2007.

Territorial unit

AN2

Corresponds to the code of the declaring country. The code to be
used is NUTS0.

Size class

N2

Code for the size class, e.g. 30 for total.

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Field No

Field-id (name)

Type and size

Definition

5

Economic activity

AN1…4

Alphanumeric or numeric codes for
the NACE headings and
standard aggregates according to the activity breakdown as
specified for activity breakdown level 3 in Annex III to Regulation
(EC) No 716/2007. An example for a standard activity code is BUS
for Business Economy. Non-standard aggregates should be indicated
in field 14.
Dots in the NACE codes should be suppressed, e.g. mining and
quarrying is coded as C, manufacture of
food products and
beverages is coded as 15, hotels as 551.

6

7

8

9

FATS identification

N2

30 for the country of Ultimate Controlling Institutional Unit.

Country of Ultimate
Controlling
Institutional Unit

AN2

Country code corresponding to the country where the Ultimate
Controlling Institutional Unit is resident. Codes as specified for
the geographical breakdown levels 2-IN and 3 in Regulation (EC)
No 716/2007.

Characteristics

AN4…5

Characteristics code as laid down in Section 2 of Annex I
Regulation (EC) No 716/2007.

to

Data value

AN1…12

Numeric value of the data (negative values are preceded by a minus
sign) expressed as a whole number without decimal places. An ‘na’
should be used if the data is not sent because it is not available.

10

Quality flag

AN…1

R: revised data, P: provisional data, W: low-quality data that is used
for calculating Community totals but cannot be disseminated at
national level, E: estimated value.
A description of the revision has to be provided at the same time.

11

Confidentiality flag

AN…1

A, B, C, D, F, H:
reason for that confidentiality:

indicates that the data is confidential and the

12

Dominance/share
largest unit

N…3

A: Too few enterprises
B: One enterprise dominates the data
C: Two enterprises dominate the data
D: Secondary confidential data in order to protect data flagged with

A, B, C, F or H

F: Data is confidential in application of the p%-rule
H: Data that is not published at national level as it is considered to
be sensitive information or to protect data that is not required by
Regulation (EC) No 716/2007 (manually confidential data).

A numeric value less
to 100 indicating the
than or equal
percentage dominance of one or two enterprises which dominate
the data and make it confidential. The value is rounded to the
nearest whole number: e.g. 90,3 becomes 90; 94,5 becomes 95.
This field is only used when the confidentiality flags B or C are
used in the previous field. Where F is used in the previous field, this
field should include the share of the largest enterprise.

13

Share of second
largest unit

N…3

A numeric value less than or equal to 100. This field shall be used
when in field 11 the confidentiality flag F is used; this field should
include the share of the second largest enterprise.

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Field No

Field-id (name)

Type and size

Definition

14

Aggregation of
NACE codes

AN…40

This field shall be used for non-standard aggregation of several
NACE codes.

15

Units of data values AN3…4

This field can be used for indicating if non-standard units have
been used:
The following codes should be used:
UNIT: units for non-monetary data
KEUR: thousands of EUR for monetary data for countries that are
members of the euro area
KNC: thousands of national currency units for countries that are
not members of the euro area.

16

Footnote

AN…250

Free note on the data that can be published as methodological
notes/additional
the
provided data.

understanding

explanations

better

for

NB: AN = alphanumeric (e.g. AN…8 – alphanumeric up to eight positions but field can be empty, AN1…8 – alphanumeric with at
least one position and up to eight positions, AN1 – alphanumeric one position, exact); N = numeric (e.g. N1 – numeric one position,
exact).

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ANNEX II

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE TRANSMISSION OF OUTWARD FOREIGN AFFILIATES STATISTICS

1. Introduction

Standardisation of data record structures is fundamental for efficient data processing. It is a necessary stage for
providing data conforming to the interchange standards specified by the Commission (Eurostat).

2. Dataset identifier

The following dataset identifier will be used for reporting statistics on outward foreign affiliates:

DSI+BOP_FATS_A

3. Data structure, code lists and attributes

This section gives an overview of the data structure, code lists and attributes to be used. The available values of the
attributes are to be found in the most recent versions of the Eurostat Recommendations Manual on the Production of
Foreign Affiliates Statistics referred to in Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 716/2007 and of the Eurostat Balance of
Payments Vademecum. All fields should be sent, even if they are empty.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

In order from left to right the fields are:

Field No

Field-id
(name)

Name of code list or concept

Frequency

CL_FREQ

Reference area or
reporter

CL_AREA_EE

Type and
size

AN1

AN2

Definition

The frequency of the series.

country

The
geographical/
or
political group of countries related
to
economic
measured
the
phenomenon.

Adjustment
indicator

CL_ADJUSTMENT

AN1

seasonal
Indicates
adjustment
day
adjustment has been applied or not.

whether
and/or working

a

Data type

CL_DATA_TYPE_FATS

AN1

Describes the data type.

FATS coded item

CL_FATS_ITEM

AN3…8

Coded item for FATS characteristics.

Currency
breakdown

CL_CURR_BRKDWN

AN1

breakdown
Currency
actions and positions.

for

trans-

Counterpart area

CL_AREA_EE

AN2

or

country

geographical/
The
economic
countries
of
within which the reference area or
reporter has its affiliate.

group

Denomination of
series

CL_SERIES_DENOM

AN1

Currency of denomination or special
drawing rights.

Resident economic
activity

CL_BOP_EC_ACTIV_R1

10

Non-resident
economic activity

CL_BOP_EC_ACTIV_R1

N4

N4

NACE codes and special
economic activity aggregates.

resident

NACE
resident
aggregates.

codes

and
economic

special non-
activity

11

Time period

TIME_PERIOD

AN4…35 Reference year.

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Field No

Field-id
(name)

Name of code list or concept

Type and
size

Definition

12

Time format code

TIME_FORMAT

AN3

13

Observation value

OBS_VALUE

AN…15

14

Observation status

CL_OBS_STATUS

Observation confi-
dentiality

CL_OBS_CONF

AN1

AN1

Describes a single time period or
time series.

Numeric value of data (negative
values are preceded by a minus
sign).

Information on quality of value or
an unusual or missing value.

about whether

Information
the
observation can be made public
outside the receiving institution or
not. A blank space indicates non-
confidential data.

Sender organisa-
tion

CL_ORGANISATION

AN3

Entity that sends the data.

17

Recipient

CL_ORGANISATION

AN3

Entity that receives the data.

NB: AN = alphanumeric (e.g. AN…8 — alphanumeric up to eight positions but field can be empty, AN1…8 — alphanumeric with at
least one position and up to eight positions, AN1 — alphanumeric one position, exact); N = numeric (e.g. N1 — numeric one position,
exact).

15

16

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ANNEX III

DEROGATIONS

The following table indicates for each Member State the transition periods and derogations granted in Annexes I (module
inward statistics on foreign affiliates) and II
to Regulation (EC)
No 716/2007. If a derogation is necessary a distinction is made between a complete derogation when no information
can be provided and a partial derogation where some of the provisions cannot be met. In the case of a partial derogation
the tables indicate whether the provisions that cannot be met relate to the transmission of results (20 months) or the
activity coverage.

(module outward statistics on foreign affiliates)

Member State

Module inward statistics on foreign affiliates

Module outward statistics on foreign
affiliates

Extension of the data transmission period to 26
months for reference year 2007

Exemption from activity breakdown: NACE Rev. 1.1
division 67 and corresponding codes in NACE Rev.
2 for reference years 2007-2010

Germany

Spain

France

Complete derogation for reference
years 2007-2008

Complete derogation for reference
years 2007-2008

Luxembourg

Complete derogation for reference years 2007-2008 Complete derogation for reference

Malta

Poland

Slovenia

Extension of the data transmission period to 26
months for reference years 2007-2008

Exemption from activity breakdown: NACE Rev. 1.1
divisions 65 and 67 and corresponding codes in
NACE Rev. 2 for reference years 2007-2010

years 2007-2008

Extension of the data transmission
period to 26 months for reference
years 2007-2008

Complete derogation for reference
year 2007

United Kingdom

Exemption from activity breakdown: NACE Rev. 1.1
section J for reference year 2007

Complete derogation for reference
years 2007-2008