Commission Regulation (EC) No 1055/2008 of 27 October 2008 implementing Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council, as regards quality criteria and quality reporting for balance of payments statistics
Date: 2008-10-27
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU Member State, EU statistics, balance of payments, direct investment, foreign investment, international trade, service industry

28.10.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 283/3

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1055/2008

of 27 October 2008

implementing Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council, as
regards quality criteria and quality reporting for balance of payments statistics

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

(3)

Having regard to the Treaty
Community,

establishing the European

Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 of the European
Parliament and of
the Council of 12 January 2005 on
Community statistics concerning balance of payments, interna­
tional trade in services and foreign direct investment (1), and in
particular Article 4(3) thereof,

Whereas:

for

Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 establishes a common
framework
of
Community statistics concerning balance of payments,
and foreign direct
in services
international
investment.

production

systematic

trade

the

(1)

(2)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in
accordance with the opinion of
the Balance of
Payments Committee set up by Regulation (EC) No
184/2005,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Member States shall supply on an annual basis a quality report
drawn up in accordance with the rules laid down in the Annex.

Article 2

Member States
shall
November every year.

supply their quality reports by 30

It is necessary to specify the common quality standards,
as well as the content and periodicity of
the quality
in accordance with Article 4(3) of Regulation
reports,
(EC) No 184/2005.

Article 3

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

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

Done at Brussels, 27 October 2008.

For the Commission

Joaquín ALMUNIA
Member of the Commission

(1) OJ L 35, 8.2.2005, p. 23.

L 283/4

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

28.10.2008

ANNEX

1.

Introduction

The quality report shall contain both quantitative and qualitative indicators of quality. The Commission (Eurostat)
shall provide the results of the quantitative indicators for each Member State, calculated on the basis of data
provided. Member States shall interpret and comment them, in the light of their collection methodology.

2.

Timeline
— Every year, the Commission (Eurostat) shall supply the Member States by the end of October with draft
documents for quality reports, partially pre-filled with most quantitative indicators and other information
available to the Commission (Eurostat).

— Every year, Member States shall supply the Commission (Eurostat) by 30 November with the completed quality

reports.

3. Quality criteria

The following quality criteria have been identified as relevant: timeliness and coverage of data, methodological
though conceptually
soundness,
relevant, will be treated separately, as a side-component, as it is related to quality on the input side.

stability, plausibility, consistency and accuracy. The component

‘accuracy’,

3.1. Timeliness and coverage of data transmitted to the Commission (Eurostat)

This component refers to adherence to the deadlines for data transmission as well as availability of data according to
the reference periods and geographical, item and activity breakdowns.

3.2. Methodological soundness

Methodological soundness refers to compliance with internationally accepted standards, guidelines and good
practices.

This component will include a limited number of questions, varying from year to year, in the area of methodology,
and will focus on compliance with internationally agreed standards. Member States will also describe the major
methodological changes that have taken place during the reference period and how they affect the data quality.

3.3. Stability

Stability refers to the closeness of the initial estimated value to the final value.

This consists of examining the size of the revisions, their direction and the conformity between the trends derived
from the initial and final estimates.

3.4. Plausibility

Plausibility refers to the absence of unexplained changes.

Member States shall evaluate their internal control procedures (strengths and weaknesses) and describe further plans
for improvement.

3.5. Consistency

Consistency analyses coherence both within the dataset delivered (internal consistency) and with other relevant
datasets of a similar nature (external consistency).

3.6. Accuracy

Accuracy refers to the closeness of the (final) estimate to the true population value.

It will contain a descriptive analysis of the main challenges to improve data coverage, based on a set of parameters.
This criterion will be treated as an additional quality component and will not be taken into account for the overall
quality assessment.