Commission staff working paper - Final report on the implementation of the Edicom II Programme : May 2008 {COM(2009) 191 final}
Date: 2009-04-23
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: activity report, data collection, exchange of information, extra-EU trade, intra-EU trade, statistics, trans-European network

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 23.4.2009 
SEC(2009) 527 final  

Commission staff working paper 

FINAL REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF 
THE EDICOM II PROGRAMME  

May 2008 

{COM(2009) 191 final} 

 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
FINAL REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF 
THE EDICOM II PROGRAMME  

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

Executive summary.................................................................................................... 2 

General objectives of the EDICOM II programme .............................................. 10 

Implementation of the work programmes ............................................................. 11 

Identification and management of risks................................................................. 12 

Main findings and achieved results at action level................................................ 14 

ANNEX 1: Objectives, expected results and performance indicators............................... 27 

ANNEX 2: Use of EDICOM II financial resources (2001-2005)........................................ 40 

ANNEX 3: Use of EDICOM II financial resources:  by countries .................................... 45 

ANNEX 4: EDICOM II Programme expenditures Decentralised/Centralised projects, by 
year. ........................................................................................................................... 46  

ANNEX 5: Share of expenditure by Edicom objective....................................................... 47 

ANNEX 6: Number of Decentralised/Centralised Edicom II projects, by objectives 

(2001-2005)................................................................................................................ 47 

ANNEX 7: Number of Decentralised/Centralised Edicom II projects, by year............... 48 

ANNEX 8: Number of Decentralised/Centralised Edicom II projects, by action and year 
(2001-2005)................................................................................................................ 49 

ANNEX 9: Number of Edicom II projects, by objective and country (2001-2005) ......... 50 

ANNEX 10: Number of Edicom II projects, by action and country (2001-2005) ............ 51 

 
 
  
 
 
 
1. 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

Background 

1 

2 

3 

With the creation of the Single Market on 1 January 1993 and the removal of 
customs  formalities  between  the  EU  Member  States,  a  new  system  for 
collecting statistics on the trade in physical goods was implemented, Intrastat. 
The  recording  of  trade  with  EU  countries,  which  was  beforehand  based  on 
customs  declarations,  was  converted  into  direct  surveys  in  companies.  The 
statistical system on the trade between Member States of the European Union 
and the rest of the world, Extrastat, continued to be based on the information 
collected by the customs authorities, via the Single Administrative Document 
(SAD).  

The  Edicom  Decision  No  507/2001/EC  of  12  March  2001  adopted  by  the 
Council and the European Parliament1 set the goal of encouraging a modern, 
rational and effective organisation of the transeuropean collection, treatment 
and  distribution  network 
intra  and  extra-Community  statistics, 
accompanied  by  the  improvement  and  harmonisation  of  statistical  methods. 
The aim was to produce information that is more reliable, less expensive for 
providers  and  administrations,  and  available  more  quickly  as  well  as  being 
able to satisfy user needs in a more relevant way. 

for 

Edicom II was planned to be developed over a period of five years, starting in 
2001, and targeting six main operational objectives: 

–  Objective  1:  An  information  network  of  better  quality,  which  is  less 
costly  and  makes  data  available  more  quickly,  in  accordance  with  the 
requirements of Community policies; 

–  Objective  2:  A  relevant  information  network  adapted  to  the  changing 
needs of users within the framework of Economic and Monetary Union 
and the international economic environment; 

–  Objective 3: An information network which is better integrated into the 
general  statistical  environment  and  adapted  to  the  development  of  the 
administrative environment; 

–  Objective  4:  A  network  improving  the  statistical  services  offered  to 

administrations, users and providers of data; 

–  Objective 5: A network based on tools for the collection of information 
in the light of the latest technological advances in order to improve the 
functions available to information providers; 

–  Objective 6 (horizontal): An integrated and interoperable network. 

1 OJ n° L 76 of 16.3.2001, p.1 

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4 

5 

The six main  operational objectives have been broken down into 13 actions, 
in  accordance  with  the  proposal  included  in  the  ex-ante  evaluation  of  the 
programme. (Annex 8) 

The  management  of  the  EDICOM  II  programme  was  assured  by  the 
European  Commission,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Intrastat  and  Extrastat 
Committees.  Each  year,  the  Commission  adopted  a  decision  defining  the 
annual  work  programme  on  which  the  Committees  had  to  deliver  their 
opinion.  The  approved  annual  work  programmes  were  composed  of 
centralised  and  decentralised  projets,  which  have  been  carried  out 
respectively  by  private  companies  on  behalf  of  Eurostat  and  by  Member 
States. 

Objective and context of the evaluation  

6 

7 

The main purpose of the evaluation presented in this report is to submit to the 
European  Parliament  and  the  Council  a  final  report  of  activities  financed 
under  the  EDICOM  II  programme,  so  as  to  enable  an  assessment  of  the 
achieved  results.  This  report,  which  is  an  update  of  the  mid-term  report 
presented in January 2004, was drawn up by Eurostat Unit G2: International 
Trade Statistics – Methodology and Classifications. 

This evaluation is focused on the EDICOM work programmes for the years 
2001 to 2005. All the actions carried out within these work programmes were 
completed by  the end of  2007.     

Main findings 

8 

9 

10 

11 

The  EDICOM  II  programme  might  be  retained  as  the  programme  that 
contributed most to the enhancement and development of the trans-European 
network  for  the  collection,  production  and  dissemination  of  statistics  on  the 
trading of goods. 

The overall objectives of the programme were clearly defined and the design 
of the annual work programmes 2001-2005, which were strictly in line with 
them, made it possible to achieve concrete results in all the fields interested 
by the programme.  

The  implementation  of  the  work  programme  has  been  particularly  efficient, 
thanks  to  efforts  of  Member  States  and  Eurostat  and  to  the  assistance  of 
specific Working Groups. Progress has been achieved across a wide range of 
fields, from data collection to data validation and dissemination.  

The majority of the projects managed to achieve significant results and many 
applications  have  been  developed  and  implemented.  In  few  cases  specific 
pilot  studies  did  not  produce  better  solutions  compared  to  those  already  in 
place;  however  this  result  should  be  considered  in  any  case  as  positive 
because  knowledge  was  enlarged  and  spread  and  inputs  might  be  used  for 
future developments. 

12 

Difficulties have been encountered in establishing a common harmonised EU 
platform  for  the  production  of  external  trade  statistics  due  to  important 

3 

 
 
 
differences in the technological and administrative environments in Member 
States.  However  Eurostat  has  developed,  via  the  XT-NET  project,  an  open 
and modular system, composed of an important set of interoperable tools that 
might  be  used  as  a  common  platform  for  the  European  network  of  external 
trade statistics. 

13 

More    specifically,  the  main  achievements  in  accordance  with  the  general 
objectives of the EDICOM II Decision are the following:  

A. 

Objective  1:  Measures  relating  to  the  implementation  of  a  higher-quality 
information network, which is less costly and makes data available more quickly, 
in line with the requirements of Community policy 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

The majority of Member States have developed, improved and implemented 
new  methodologies  for  the  calculation  of  advanced  estimators  in  order  to 
cope with the essential need to shorten the time required to supply aggregated 
data to Eurostat. After the Enlargement of the European Union in 2004, also 
the  new  Member  States  have  been  concerned  with  the  development  of 
advanced  estimators  and  two  of  them  have  implemented  studies  in  the 
framework of the work programmes 2004-2005. 

The  exigency  of  disposing  of  quicker  macroeconomic  information  has  been 
regulated at legislative level. The new Intrastat legislation and the amendment 
of the Extrastat legislation have fixed that the transmission of Member States’ 
aggregated  data  to  Eurostat  should  be  realised  within  40  days  after  the 
reference period. At the end of the EDICOM programme all Member States 
complied with these requirements. 

Improvements  have  also  been  achieved  in  the  field  of  data  processing  and 
analysis. The checking and correction of basic data are more automated and 
comparisons  of  Intrastat  data  with  other  sources  are  now  more  systematic. 
Moreover,  many  Member  States  have  worked  successfully  for  enhancing 
methods for the estimation of: the "non-response”, the trade below thresholds 
and  the  statistical  value.  These  countries  took  advantage  of  the  EDICOM 
support  and  are  now  in  the  capacity  to  respect  new  Intrastat  legislation 
requirements for the provision of total trade figures.  

In  parallel  to  the  work  of  Member  States,  Eurostat  focuses  on  the 
development of harmonised methods in various fields such as production of 
advanced  estimators,  updating  methods,  checking  of  basic  and  aggregated 
trade statistics and adjustment for trade below thresholds and late responses. 
Some research has been done in order to achieve reconciliation for extra and 
intra  trade.  Most  of  these  activities  led  to  the  identification  of  new 
methodologies  and  enabled 
their 
implementation.   

the  development  of  software  for 

A database dealing with quality indicators at Member State level has been set 
up  at  the  beginning  of  the  Edicom  programme,  containing  both  quantitative 
and  qualitative  information  obtained  via  a  questionnaire  addressed  to  each 
Member  State.  From  this  information  Eurostat  started  to  publish  an  annual  

4 

 
 
 
“Quality  Report  on  International  Trade  Statistics”,  which  is  now  updated 
yearly using information from the quality database and from Comext2.  

B. 

Objective 2: Measures relating to the implementation of a network of information 
that is relevant and appropriate to users' changing needs, within the framework of 
Economic and Monetary Union and the international economic environment 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

24 

25 

At  centralised  level,  Eurostat  has  developed  and  implemented  a  new 
application  “NICE”  (Nouveaux  Indices  sur  le  Commerce  Extérieur)  for  the 
calculation  of  indices  of  the  unit  value  and  volume  of  Member  States’ 
external  trade.  Methodologies  used  by  Member  States,  third  countries  and 
international organisations for the calculation of specific price indices (SPIs) 
and unit values indices (UVIs) have been analysed and a detailed report has 
been drafted. 

Eight  Member  States  have  undertaken  actions  to  develop  or  improve  the 
production of external trade price indices at national level. Efforts have been 
focused especially on import price indices of non-Eurozone area, in order to 
satisfy  the  needs  of  the  European  Central  Bank  and  the  consequent  new 
requirements of the Short Terms Statistics (STS) Regulation 1158/2005. 

Centralised  studies  have  been  carried  out  for  defining  new  methods  for 
producing  seasonally  adjusted  data.  Eurostat  is  now  able  to  calculate  and 
publish, in the “Euro-Indicators News Release”, monthly seasonally adjusted 
Member  States  and  aggregated  data  (EU27  and  EA15)  within  48  days  after 
the end of the reference period.  

Several Member States have carried out pilot studies on CIF/FOB adjustment 
methodology  in  order  to  establish  a  FOB/FOB  trade  balance  more  coherent 
with figures in the Balance of Payments and National Accounts. 

Different studies have been carried out on methodologies for the treatment of 
confidentiality adopted by Member States and some of them have succeeded 
in reducing the level of confidentiality in their data. Similar results have been 
realised  at  central  level  by  the  introduction  in  Comext  database  of  new 
statistics camouflage procedures. 

In 2002  Eurostat  launched a  pilot study  to present Intra  and Extra-EU  trade 
flows  by  enterprise  characteristics  and  enrich,  in  that  way,  also  business 
statistics  with  trade  variables.  Collected  figures,  as  well  as  figures  from  the 
standardisation  exercises  carried  out  in  the  year  2005  and  2006,  have  been 
published  showing  external  trade  statistics  broken  down  by  six  main 
indicators, respectively for 9, 17 and 18 Member States. The standardisation 
exercise  has  been  launched  also  in  2007,  giving  it  a  sort  of  permanent 
character.   

At  the  opposite,  only  few  Member  States  carried  out  projects  on  CIGET 
(Contribution  of  International  Groups  to  External  Trade)  and  Intra-firm 
statistics.  After  having  worked  mainly  on  methodology  and  informatics 
development,  they  have  produced  data  at  commodity  group  level,  obtaining 

2 COMEXT is Eurostat’s database containing all available information on trade statistics 

5 

 
 
 
                                                 
encouraging results that should be taken as the basis for further developments 
of EU statistics. 

C. 

Objective  3:  Measures  relating  to  the  implementation  of  an  information  network 
better integrated into the general statistical system and adapted to developments in 
the administrative environment 

26 

27 

28 

29 

30 

31 

32 

33 

The objective of implementing an information network better integrated into 
the  general  statistical  system  have  been  achieved  from  one  side  through  the 
adaptation  and  revision  of  the  legislative  framework  and  from  the  other 
through  projects  aimed  at  improving  the  quality  and  interoperability  of 
registers. 

Studies  on  the  simplification  of  the  Intrastat  system  have  been  made  by 
Eurostat and by some Member States particularly on the adoption of a Single 
Flow system, on simplification threshold and lower degree of product detail, 
without the conclusion that substantial modifications were needed.   

A  new  Basic  Intrastat  legislation  has  been  prepared  and  adopted  by  the 
European  Parliament  and  Council  (Regulation  (EC)  N°  638/2004), 
supplemented by a Commission Regulation (Regulation (EC) N° 1982/2004) 
with  implementing  provisions.  In  the  new  legislation  quality  requirements 
have been upgraded and the production of a yearly Quality Report has been 
included.  The  constitution  and  maintenance  of  an  Intrastat  register  of 
operators has been made mandatory as well.    

Within the current legislative framework, measures of simplification adopted 
by  Member  States  continued  to  be  mainly  based  on  the  application  of 
different  thresholds.  The  simplification  on  the  recording  of  the  quantity  in 
Intrastat has been introduced by Commission Regulation (EC) N° 1915/2005.  

Even  if  the  reform  of  the  Customs  Code  did  not  take  place  during  the 
EDICOM  II  programme,  the  adaptation  of  the  current  statistical  system  to 
future changes has been taken into account in the Extrastat legislation under 
preparation,  to  enter  into  force  in  2009.  To  achieve  this  result,  Eurostat  has 
launched  projects  analysing  the  needs  for  tariff  statistics  and  the  extent  to 
which Customs declarations could be used for statistical purposes. 

Regarding data collection, the legal deadline for the transmission of Member 
States’  Intrastat  aggregated  data  to  Eurostat  has  been  reduced  significantly, 
passing  from  56  to  40  days.  This  limit  has  also  been  fixed  for  the 
transmission of Extrastat aggregated data, which was not regulated before.  

Concrete  improvements  have  also  been  achieved  in  the  transmission  of 
detailed  data  to  Eurostat.  In  2005,  the  provision  of  detailed  monthly  data, 
compared  to  the  legal  deadline,  has  been  realised  by  Member  States,  on 
average, 8 days in advance for Intrastat and 2,6 days for Extrastat.  

Eurostat and Member States have developed projects aimed at improving the 
quality and interoperability of registers. Links between the Intrastat Register 
and the General Business Register have been implemented in Member States 
and the collection of the traders’ identification number would be mandatory 
in the new Extrastat legislation.  

6 

 
 
 
34 

35 

A  methodological  framework  for  the  collection  and  joint  presentation  of 
External  Trade  and  Structural  Business  Statistics  data  has  been  created  and 
results of a pilot study, coordinated by Eurostat, presenting external trade by 
enterprise characteristics, have been published in 2002, 2005 and 2007. 

The  collection  of  CIGET  (Contribution  of  International  Groups  to  External 
Trade) and Intra-Firm trade data has been the object of pilot studies  carried 
out by some Member States, realised under the guidelines of the Task Force 
Trade  Register  and  Globalisation.  The  role  of  foreign-controlled  affiliates 
enterprises  in  delivering/buying  goods  and  services  to/from  international 
markets and the share of trade between affiliates and their parent enterprises 
was an interesting sector to study for economic analysis and information was 
needed for the purpose of a new Regulation on activities of foreign affiliated 
enterprises. 

D. 

Objective 4: Measures relating to the implementation of a network improving the 
statistical service provided to administrations and users and providers of data 

36 

37 

38 

39 

The  identification  of  user  needs  and  satisfaction  in  terms  of  availability  of 
statistics and functioning of the information network has been carried out via 
Internet  surveys,  providing  information  for  the  further  development  of  the 
network.  

Projects undertaken by Eurostat and by some Member States have permitted 
the  development  of  more  modern  and  flexible  dissemination  database 
systems.  The  Comext  database  system  of  Eurostat  has  been  improved  with 
advanced  functionalities  and  a  new  web  based  versions  (Comext  Web)  has 
been  added  to  the  original  dial-up  version.  In  addition  a  new  free  web 
dissemination  system,  Easy  Comext,  has  been  created  in  2004  and  made 
available to the public. At the end of the EDICOM programme the number of 
users of Comext and Easy Comext reached respectively 950 and 7000. Help-
desks  have  been  guaranteed  all  over  the  years  and  monthly  training,  in 
English  and  French  languages,  have  been  delivered  to  Comext  users  in 
Luxembourg, Brussels, Frankfurt and Dublin. 

The  Eurostat  publication  system  has  been  improved  for  taking  into  account 
the  impact  of  the  EU  Enlargement  and  the  exigency  to  reduce  the  time  to 
publish data. Automatic procedures have been set up for the production of the 
monthly  bulletin  and  the  statistical  yearbook.  Delays  for  disseminating 
macroeconomic and seasonally adjusted data in press releases have decreased 
from  53  days  to  48  days,  thus  satisfying  the  expectations  of  the  ECB  and 
other users. 

Specific  tools  to  allow  rapid  and  user-friendly  access  to  classifications, 
information, metadata and related products have been developed and included 
in the classification web server Ramon of Eurostat. In addition a stand-alone 
classification  tool  has  been  developed  by  Eurostat  and  made  available  to 
Member  States.    An  ambitious  project,  aiming  at  developing  common 
software  for  automatic  classification  of  goods  according  to  all  linguistic 
versions  of  the  Combined  Nomenclature,  has  been  abandoned  when  a 
feasibility  study  highlighted  technical  difficulties  and  quite  substantial 
maintenance costs. 

7 

 
 
 
E. 

Objective 5: Measures relating to the implementation of a network based on tools 
for the collection of information in the light of the latest technological advances in 
order to improve functions available to information providers 

40 

41 

42 

43 

44 

45 

Concerning  data  collection  tools,  Eurostat  has  ensured  the  centralised 
maintenance  and  distribution of the updated version of IDEP/CN8  (Intrastat 
electronic  form)  up  to  the  2004  version.  According  to  the  strategy  of 
decentralisation  agreed  by  the  Intrastat  Committee,  starting  from  2004, 
Member  States  were  responsible  for  the  maintenance  and  upgrade  of  their 
collection tools.  

Applications  used  by  Member  States  for  the  transmission  and  data 
dissemination  (CBS-IRIS,  IDEP/CN8)  were  maintained  and  upgraded  with 
new functionalities and different tools have been created to reduce the general 
administrative burden. 

Eurostat and Member States launched new projects to develop and implement 
web-based data collection systems. Additional documentation was produced; 
helpdesk services and training have been provided to users, for a better use of 
IDEP/CN8,  supported  by  updated  and  rewritten  guides.  Different  linguistic 
versions from the original languages of the application have been developed.  

Efforts have been made by Eurostat in maintaining and further developing the 
standardised  messages  (Edifact,  XML);  new  message  documentation  guides 
have also been created while old ones have been updated. 

The  improvement,  promotion,  distribution,  dissemination  and  support  of  all 
modern collection tools have been ensured during the Edicom programme. 

As  results, a  reduction of charge and cost for companies and a reduction of 
the  costs  of  maintenance  for  the  statistical  administrations  have  been  noted, 
together  with  an  improvement  of  data  quality  and  timeliness.  At  the  end  of 
the  programme  100  000  providers  of  statistical  information  were  using 
Intrastat  web  forms  and  the  use  of  paper  decreased  by  about  30%  over  the 
period of the Edicom II programme.  

F. 

Objective 6 (horizontal): Measures relating to the implementation of an integrated 
and interoperable network 

46 

47 

48 

Services  to  users  were  improved  by  the  drafting  of  user  guides,  the 
improvement of the COMEXT system’s functionalities, the development of a 
Web version of Comext, the organisation of courses and the development of a 
stand-alone version of COMEXT for browsing data in DVD or CD-ROM and 
other distribution media. 

In addition, a new specific database system, named Easy XT/NET, has been 
developed  and  made  accessible  to  external  users  allowing  disseminating 
detailed Member States data to the general public free of charge.. 

A  project  was  launched  to  improve  the  existing  methodological  reference 
material  by  developing  an 
system  on  methodology 
(METODOLOGICA) and other tools giving easy access to the information. 

information 

8 

 
 
 
49 

50 

Measures have been launched to modernise the various elements of the trans-
European  network  within  the  Commission  and  Member  States  (XT/NET 
project). Tools and methods have been developed in the following domains:  
data  processing 
communication  between  national 
administrations  and  Eurostat;  improvements  in  software  for  disseminating 
external trade statistics on the trading of goods; user access to statistical data 
and metadata. 

and  validation; 

The  interoperability  of  the  network  was  realised  by  the  development  of 
interconnected  tool  working  in  various  areas  of  the  statistical  production: 
XT/NET validation, Data Loading Interface, NPS (Nomenclature Production 
System), XT/NET edit, XT/NET assist and XT/NET publish. 

Identification and management of risks 

51 

The  following  main  risks  were  identified  and  taken  into  account  during  the 
management of the programme: 

–  capacity to manage the programme; 

–  risks  of  the  means  to  be  implemented  for  meeting  the  programme’s 

objectives; 

–  sustainability  of  the  programme  with  regard  to  the  availability  of 

budgetary resources; 

–  maintenance and coherence of computer tools; 

–  extension of the programme following the EU Enlargement. 

General guidelines adopted for the management of the programme. 

52 

53 

54 

55 

Action has continued to be taken to ensure that the new Financial Regulation 
was 
strictly  applied.  The  Commission  has  provided  appropriate 
recommendations to the Member States. 

Methods and tools, which have been developed during the programme have 
been made available to all the Member States and valorised through seminars, 
workshops or guidelines in order to identify and promote best practices.  

Eurostat  has  guaranteed  the  co-ordination  and  monitoring  of  the  various 
actions. However, Member States have played an important role through their 
participation in specific “Working Groups”.  

The  consequences  of  the  EU  Enlargement  have  been  taken  into  account  in 
centralised actions. New Member States have benefited of the Edicom grants 
from the 2004 work programme onwards.  

56 

The decentralised actions carried out by Member States, have focused on: 

– 

implementation  of 

the 
(coverage, timeliness, confidentiality, reporting); 

the  new  Intrastat  Quality  requirements 

9 

 
 
 
– 

the  introduction  of  the  new  common  methods  and  tools,  which  have 
been developed as part of the programme. 

57 

Reflections have started at the end of the EDICOM programme on whether to 
continue  actions  for  the  enhancement  of  external  trade  statistics  under  a 
dedicated  or  a  wider  programme.  The  objective  should  be  to  ensure  the 
stability  of  the  system  and  the  durability  of  the  tools,  which  have  been 
developed  under  EDICOM  as  well  as  their  improvements.    A  Commission 
the 
proposal  has  been  already  drafted  for  a  programme 
Modernisation of European Enterprise and Trade Statistics (MEETS). 

targeting 

2. 

GENERAL OBJECTIVES OF THE EDICOM II PROGRAMME  

58 

59 

60 

61 

With the creation of the Single Market on 1 January 1993 and the removal of 
customs  formalities  between  the  EU  Member  States,  a  new  system  for 
collecting statistics on the physical trade in goods was implemented, Intrastat. 
The recording of trade with EU countries was converted into direct surveys in 
companies. The statistical system on the trade between Member States of the 
European Union and the rest of the world, Extrastat, continues to be based on 
the  information  available  in  the  SAD  (Single  Administrative  Document), 
which is collected by the customs authorities. Following the implementation 
of Intrastat there was a decline in data quality. In order to restructure the new 
statistical  system,  a  support  programme,  Edicom  I  (Electronic  Data 
Interchange  on  Commerce)  was  implemented  in  the  framework  of  Council 
Decision No 96/715/EC of 9 December 1996. 

The  Edicom  I  programme  produced  satisfactory  results.  The  acceptance  of 
the Intrastat system by data providers was increased, resulting in a fall in the 
non-response  rate,  and  the  time  needed  to  supply  the  data  was  reduced.  In 
addition,  standardisation  and  development  of  tools  facilitated  the  electronic 
information transmission. 

At the same time, the external trade statistics system entered into a new phase 
of  development  characterised  by  increasing  user  needs  at  Community  and 
national  levels.  Moreover,  the  action  plan  on  EMU3  statistical  requirements 
identified external trade statistics as one of the domains in which the needs of 
users were less satisfied. The action plan made clear that, in certain Member 
States, the time needed to supply these statistics was too long.  

To cope with this challenge, Eurostat suggested several strategic orientations 
aiming  at  improving  the  accuracy  and  relevance  of  the  results,  speeding  up 
data availability, redirecting statistical offer, and preparing deeper adaptations 
of  the  system  for  the  medium  and  long  term.  Hence,  with  the  adoption  of 
Decision No 507/2001/EC  of  the European Parliament and of  the Council a 
new programme (Edicom II) was approved for the period 2001 to 2005. 

62 

The general objectives of the new programme, were the following: 

3 Action Plan on EMU Statistical requirements – European Commission (Eurostat in close collaboration with the 

European Central Bank – 25 September 2000) 

10 

 
 
 
                                                 
•  To  encourage  a  modern,  rational  and effective  organisation  of  the  trans-
European  collection,  treatment  and  distribution  network  for  intra  and 
extra-Community  statistics,  accompanied  by  the  improvement  and 
harmonisation  of  statistical  methods,  in  order  to  produce  information 
which is: 

–  More  reliable,  less  expensive  for  providers  of  statistical  information 

and administrations and available more quickly; 

–  Able to satisfy new users needs in a more relevant way. 

•  To  develop  and  promote  existing  tools  for  collection,  treatment, 
transmission  and  distribution  of  statistical  data,  taking  into  account  the 
latest technological developments and seeking the best cost-effectiveness 
ratio.  The  explosion  in  the  exchange  of  electronic  data  is  indeed  setting 
relations between those involved in the economic world, and national and 
Community  statistical  administrations,  which  will  have  to  adapt  to  this 
new technological environment. 

63 

These  two  fundamental  principles  have  been  split  in  six  operational 
objectives and 13 actions. Main findings and achieved results at action level 
are described in chapter 5 and summarized in Annex 1. 

3. 

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WORK PROGRAMMES  

64 

65 

66 

67 

68 

In  line  with  the  Edicom  Decision,  the  Commission  was  in  charge  of  the 
management of the programme.  

In order to draft the annual work programmes, to be submitted to the Intrastat 
and Extrastat Committees for opinion, Eurostat collected from Member States 
proposals  for  decentralised  projects  while  identifying  at  the  same  time  the 
contents  for  the  centralised  projects.  An  Edicom  monitoring  committee 
within Eurostat involving different directorates approved the projects. 

Where  necessary,  proposals  for  centralised  and  decentralised  projects  were 
discussed  by 
(Quality,  Methods,  Trade 
Registers/Globalisation, IT and Information Communication Technology). 

thematic  Working  Groups 

In  the  framework  of  the  Edicom  II  programme,  393  projects  were  financed 
and finalised, representing an annual average of 78 contracts/grants per year 
(Annexes 6 to 10). Taking into consideration the overall number of projects, 
it  might  be  stated  that  the  Edicom  II  focused  on  two  main  objectives:  the 
improvement  of  quality  and  the  creation  of  a  network  based  on  tools  for 
gathering  information  using  latest  technological  development.  An  important 
number of projects have been also allocated to the development of statistical 
products, which respond better to user needs. 

There  was  a  substantial  equilibrium  between  centralised  and  decentralised 
budget  expenditure.  Projects  carried  out  by  Member  States  accounted 
approximately  for  the  48,1%  of  the  Edicom  budget  expenditure  (excluding 
supporting  measures),  while  the  remaining  51.9%  of  the  Edicom  budget 

11 

 
 
 
69 

70 

71 

expenditure  was  awarded  to  private  firms  in  accordance  with  the  call  for 
tender procedure4 (Annexes 3 and 4). 

Private  firms  and  Member  States  have  submitted  final  reports  to  Eurostat 
concerning the actions carried out under the Edicom programme on the basis 
of recommendations provided by Eurostat on how to present a complete final 
report in order to allow the work carried out to be properly evaluated. 

The  Working  Groups  on  Quality,  Methods,  Trade  Registers/Globalisation, 
and ICT have assisted Eurostat in monitoring and evaluating actions 1 to 8, 
12 and 13 of the Edicom II programme. Eurostat has itself monitored actions 
9, 10 and 11, since these were not coordinated by a working party. 

In  order  to  spread  the  knowledge  among  Commission  and  national 
administrations, the results of all actions were made available in the Eurostat 
documentary database CIRCA.   

As  regards  monitoring,  some  indicators  have  been  defined  to  assess  the 
implementation of the programme. These indicators include the time needed 
to  supply  advanced  estimators;  the  bias  of  initial  estimates  with  respect  to 
final  results;  number  of  Member  States  that  have  developed,  implemented 
and promoted Intrastat web forms, etc.  

4. 

IDENTIFICATION AND MANAGEMENT OF RISKS  

72 

The following main risks were identified. 

Capacity of managing the programme  

73 

74 

75 

In  order  to  guarantee  the  smooth  running  of  the  programme,  the  necessary 
financial and human resources had to be available, each year, to finance and 
monitor its implementation. The rules of the new Financial Regulation were 
applied  since  2003  to  both  centralised  and  decentralised  actions.  It  can  be 
stated  that,  the  new  budgetary  rules  were  stricter  than  before,  especially  in 
case  of  sub-contracting  of  grants,  for  which  there  was  already  a  tight 
framework. 

Eurostat faced difficulties in finding on the market a wide offer of technical 
expertise required to carry out some centralised actions, due to the specificity 
of  the  work.  The  limited  number  of  enterprises  replying  to  public  tenders 
bears witness to this. 

some 

cases  Member 

In 
in 
States 
implementing/managing  actions  they  have  launched  due  to  the  lack  of 
competent internal resources, as staff usually worked on Edicom projects in 
addition  to  their  normal  activities.  As  a  consequence  twenty  proposed 
projects were cancelled or abandoned. 

difficulties 

faced 

also 

4  The  share  of  budget  expenditure  has  been  calculated  on  the  basis  of  the  information  provided  by  Eurostat 
without taking into account 474 500 Euro and 367 581 Euro of provisionally unpaid invoices in 2004 
and 2005 which have been suspended after Eurostat’s ex post controls (situation on 15th March 2008).  

12 

 
 
 
 
                                                 
Risks  of  the  means  to  be  implemented  for  meeting  the  programme’s 
objectives 

76 

77 

78 

79 

The Edicom programme was launched on the basis of an ex-ante evaluation 
identifying  the  actions  to  be  taken  and  assessing  the  necessary  means  for 
implementing them.   

The  management  of  the  programme  was  strictly  in  line  with  the  ex-ante 
evaluation.  However,  in  some  cases  the  means  and  procedures  needed  for 
achieving the programme’s objectives have been re-examined in view of the 
preliminary  results  of  some  projects  and  on  the  basis  of  the  changing  of 
conditions incurred between the drafting of the programme and its realisation. 
This  occurred  for  example  when  studies  carried  out  centrally  and  in  the 
Member States did not demonstrate the need for a drastic simplification of the 
Intrastat collection system. Thus, the simplification objective, which had been 
included  by  the  Commission  in  the  ex-ante  evaluation,  was  therefore 
tempered in practice.  

In other cases, the cost/benefit analysis of certain actions and surveys carried 
out on Providers of Statistical Information and on user needs provided inputs 
for  better  targeting  the  programme  by  partially  re-evaluating  the  content  of 
some operational objectives. 

The need of consistency between the timing of realisation of various actions 
has been also taken into consideration. For example, a number of tools were 
developed  during  the  first  years  of  the  programme  and  were  then  applied 
either centrally or in the Member States consequently. 

Sustainability  of  the  programme  with  regard  to  the  availability  of 
budgetary resources 

80 

81 

The financial envelope of the Edicom programme was correctly dimensioned 
for covering all the activities forecasted during the Edicom decision.  

The main objectives of the ex-ante evaluation have been achieved due to the 
regular  availability  of  budgetary  resources.  There  has  been  one  exception 
linked to the late adoption of the Commission financing decision in 2003 and 
the postponement of certain actions of the 2003 Edicom programme in order 
to comply with the instructions of the Commission to reduce the office's work 
programme.  These  have  shown  how  dependent  the  programme  was  on 
external events or decisions. 

Maintenance and coherence of computer tools 

82 

83 

The  Edicom  programme  had  a  strong  IT  profile.  Several  tools  have  been 
developed  and  updated.  Some  tools  have  a  generic  utility  (they  can  for 
example  be  used  in  other  areas  of  statistics  or  other  environments)  while 
others were specific to statistics relating to the trading of goods. 

Since  the  Edicom  programme  had  a  limited  duration,  it  was  important  to 
assess the necessary evolutionary maintenance costs of these tools and ensure 
that the necessary resources could be available at the end of the programme – 

13 

 
 
 
 
 
 
at Community level for centralised tools and in the Member States for tools 
developed for national purposes. 

5. 

Extension of the programme following Enlargement 

84 

The  Edicom  II  programme  initially  was  limited  to  EU-15  Member  States, 
which  were  the  only  ones  who  could  benefit  from  grants.  Following  the 
Enlargement  of  the  European  Union,  from  work  programme  2004  onward, 
new Member States were also beneficiaries of the EDICOM II grants.    

5.  MAIN FINDINGS AND ACHIEVED RESULTS AT ACTION LEVEL 

85 

The  measures  or  activities  undertaken  in  the  2001-2005  programmes  have 
been classified according to the six main objectives.   

Objective  1:  An  information  network  of  better  quality,  less  costly  and  making 
data  available  more  quickly,  in  accordance  with  the  requirements  of  the 
Community policies. 

Action 1:  Development of advanced estimators 

86 

87 

88 

89 

Fourteen  Member  States  (Austria,  Belgium,  Denmark,  Finland,  Germany, 
Greece,  Hungary,  Luxembourg,  Netherlands,  Portugal,  Slovakia,  Spain, 
Sweden  and  United  Kingdom)  carried  out  studies  in  the  field  of  advanced 
estimators,  in  order  to  set  up  methodologies,  find  and  test  alternative 
methods, implement or enhance the production of advanced estimators. Eight 
(Austria,  Belgium,  Greece,  Hungary,  Luxembourg, 
Member  States 
Netherlands,  Slovakia,  United  Kingdom)  concentrated  their  effort  in  the 
framework of a single work programme, while six Member States (Denmark, 
Finland,  Germany,  Portugal,  Spain  and  Sweden)  carried  out  multi-annual 
activities.  Results  are  varying  from  methodological  reports,  positive 
assessment  of  current  methods,  development  and  implementation  of  new 
systems.  In  few  cases,  however,  expected  results  were  not  completely 
achieved  due  to  inconsistency  of  the  findings  or  missing  complementary 
information for the study. 

Concerning Eurostat centralised actions, a comparison between several now-
casting  methods  has  been  successfully  made.  An  application,  named 
EMDSAS, incorporating the various methods has been developed, tested and 
implemented.  It  enables  the  production  of  short-term  statistics  for  Member 
States  who  are  late  in  transmitting  their  results.  The  development  is  also 
useful for the new Member States in order to comply with Intrastat deadlines 
for the transmission of results.  

On  the  other  hand,  Eurostat  has  compared  the  methodologies  used  by 
Member  States  for  advanced  estimation  and  a  harmonised  methodology  has 
been proposed combining an ARIMA model and a growth rate factor model. 
Based on these results, an application has been developed.  

Finally, Eurostat has carried out an analysis of the updating processes used by 
Member  States.  The  time  series  have  been  analysed  and  models  for  the 
update  patterns  have  been  proposed  and  tested.  An  IT  application  has  been 

14 

 
 
 
developed  enabling  the  automatic  creation  of  forecasting  models  and  the 
consequent correction for the biases of the updates. 

Action 2:  Quality 

90 

91 

92 

93 

94 

95 

96 

Fourteen  Member  States  (Czech  republic,  Denmark,  Finland,  Germany, 
Greece,  Hungary,  Italy,  Luxembourg,  Malta,  Poland,  Portugal,  Spain, 
Sweden and United Kingdom) managed to improve their quality controls and 
correction  systems  by  developing  and  implementing  more  automated 
processes  for  checking  basic  data  and  output  statistics.  The  comparison  of 
Intrastat  data  with  other  sources  has  been  also  used  by  Member  States  to 
enhance data quality. 

Eight  Member  States  (Belgium,  Denmark,  France,  Germany,  Netherlands, 
Portugal, Spain and United Kingdom) undertook mirror statistics analysis in 
order to find reasons and highlight the impact of discrepancies at bilateral or 
at EU total trade level.  

Furthermore,  twelve  Member  States  (Cyprus,  Denmark,  Finland,  France, 
Germany,  Greece,  Italy,  Lithuania,  Portugal,  Spain,  Sweden  and  United 
Kingdom)  have  carried  out  studies  and  in  most  of  the  cases  improved  their 
current  system  of  imputation  for  non-declared  trade  (trade  below  thresholds 
or non-response) and/or for the estimation of the statistical value.  

Four Member States (Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, Finland) have worked on 
outlier  detection,  using  software  developed  by  Eurostat  with  some 
modifications  to  take  into  account  their  national  systems  specificities  and 
different levels of aggregation. 

Other  different  projects  have  been  carried  out  by  Member  States. 
Luxembourg focused on minimizing the potential loss of data following the 
EU  Enlargement,  Finland  studied  the  structure  of  its  trade  with  Russia, 
Denmark put in place a Quality Surveillance System to monitor and publish 
information  regarding  the  development  of  quality  indicators  of  national 
figures. 

Eurostat  improved  its  outlier  detection  system  and  undertook  projects  to 
collect  and  analyse  the  methods  used  by  Member  States  to  check  the 
individual data/records provided by  companies and  methods  check data at a 
more aggregated level of product and geographical classifications. The aims 
were to have a thorough evaluation of the current methods in use in view of 
the  feasibility  of  a  common  EU  platform.  These  projects  led  to  a  global 
proposition  for  quality  controls  of  input  and  output  trade  statistics,  which 
have  been  included  into  the  XTNET  validation  system  developed  under 
Edicom action 12. 

In  the  field  of  quality  reporting,  various  activities  have  been  undertaken 
aimed  at  enhancing  quality  measurement,  control  and  assurance.  Proposals 
made  on  data  quality  have  finally  been  integrated  into  the  new  Intrastat 
Regulations;  mirror  leaflets  have  been  released  and  a  database  has  been 
created to collect Member States’ quantitative and qualitative information on 
quality  indicators.  This  database,  named  Quality  Information  for  External 
Trade  (QUIET),  was  updated  annually  via  a  questionnaire  sent  to  Member 

15 

 
 
 
97 

98 

States  and  become,  together  with  information  extracted  directly  from 
Comext,  one  of  the  main  sources  of  information  for  the  Eurostat  Quality 
Report on External Trade Statistics. 

Regarding  the  treatment  of  asymmetries,  the  aim  was  to  compare  and 
implement  specific  models  to  reconcile  the  divergent  data  on  the  basis  of 
several  methods.  Eurostat  succeeded  in  identifying  models  of  reconciliation 
for Intra and Extra EU trade and MIRSTAT and RECONSAS software have 
been developed. Eurostat has carried out a feasibility study for developing a 
world  trade  matrix  in  order  to  satisfy  existing  and  future  data  needs  and 
studies on the stability of data series and on CIF/FOB methodologies. 

Finally,  Eurostat  has  completed  a  project  aimed  at  investigating  the 
adjustment methods used by Member States in the field of non-declared trade 
(trade below thresholds and non-responses). For this purpose, a questionnaire 
was  sent  to  the  Member  States.  The  responses  made  it  possible  to  describe 
and  compare  methods  used  by  the  Member  States.  Simulations  have  been 
carried  out  and  finally  the  different  methods  for  adjustment  have  been 
implemented  in  an  application  (ADJSAS),  which  can  be  used  to  estimate 
non-declared  trade  at  individual  or  global  level.  New  Member  States  and 
Acceding countries could use results of  this analysis to select their methods 
among those already implemented with success in other MS.   

Objective 2:  A  relevant  information  network  adapted  to  the  changing  needs  of 
the  users  within  the  framework  of  Economic  and  Monetary  Union  and  the 
international economic environment 

Action 3:  New short term indicators  

99 

100 

101 

102 

In  order  to  supply  decision-makers  at  Community  level  with  a  set  of 
indicators  for  interpreting  the  development  of  external  trade  and  its 
interaction  with  the  EU  internal  activities,  the  efforts  undertaken  in  the 
framework of the EDICOM II programme have focused on the measurement 
of  export  and  import  prices,  on  seasonal  adjustments,  on  calculation  of 
historical time series and CIF/FOB adjustments. 

The  application  NICE  for  the  calculation  of  indices  of  the  unit  value  and 
volume  of  Member  States'  external 
trade  has  been  developed  and 
implemented  into  Eurostat's  production  environment  enabling  unit  value 
indices for all combination of variables “reporter/partner/flow/product” to be 
calculated every month. The maintenance of the system and the improvement 
of  the  procedures  have  been  guaranteed  for  the  duration  of  the  EDICOM  II 
project.  

Eurostat  has  also  analysed  import  and  export  price  indices  methodologies 
adopted  by  different  Member  States,  third  countries  and  international 
organisations  and  prepared  a  reference  methodology  for  countries,  which 
were not calculating them yet.  

A  comparative  analysis  of  import  Specific  Price  Indices  (SPIs)  and 
corresponding Unit Value Indices (UVIs) has been made by Eurostat for four 
Member States (DE, FI, NL and SE) on the basis of the Intra and Extra-EU 
imports,  with  reference  period  1995,  disaggregated  according  to  CPA  1996 

16 

 
 
 
up  to  4  digit  numerical  codes  when  available.  If  from  one  side  UVIs  are 
relatively simple and inexpensive to calculate, from the other they are based 
on  average  prices,  which  do  not  take  into  account  the  changes  in  the 
composition  of  flows.  SPIs  may  provide  much  better  indicators  of  price 
change  for  heterogeneous  commodities;  however  some  Member  States 
consider  that  cost  and  complexity  for  their  calculation  outweigh  the 
usefulness of the quality improvement. 

Eight Member States (Austria, Germany, Finland, France, Italy, Netherlands, 
Poland  and  Slovakia)  have  undertaken  works  to  improve  their  national 
measure  of  external  trade  price  indices  (development  of  new  methodology, 
pilot  surveys,  calculation/comparison  of  unit  price  and  unit  value  indices). 
Results  of  some  studies  on  price  indices  and  unit  value  indices  in  foreign 
trade highlights that differences are due to mode of calculation, time of price 
registration  and  basket  of  goods.  However  both  indices  do  not  vary 
fundamentally.  

In order to comply with the amended Short Term Statistics Regulation, which 
added variable 340 “Import prices” to the list of variable included in Council 
Regulation  1165/98,  Italy  carried  out  a  pilot  study,  while  Austria,  Belgium, 
Finland and France drafted a methodology for the collection of import prices 
for CPA classes of Eurozone and/or non-Eurozone and transmitted gathered 
data to Eurostat.   

Centralised  studies  have  been  carried  out  by  Eurostat  for  defining  new 
methodologies  and  assess  quality  indicators  concerning  seasonally  adjusted 
data.  In  the  field  of  adjustments  of  short  time  series,  X-12  ARIMA  and 
TRAMO-SEATS  methods  have  been  tested.  Studies  on  seasonal  variations’ 
corrections  have  been  carried  out  and  quality  indicators  for  the  corrected 
series have been evaluated. 

Denmark  and  Finland  have  completed  the  restoration  of  their  external  trade 
historical time series, respectively for the period 1966-1979 and 1984-1994.  

Nine  Member  States  (Austria,  Denmark,  Finland,  France,  Greece,  Italy, 
Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden) have undertaken projects in the fields of 
CIF/FOB  adjustments.  These  projects  were  mainly 
the 
improvement  of  the  methodology  and  the  development  of  new  software. 
Internationally  used  methods  and  data  sources  have  been  analysed  and 
surveys  have  been  carried  out  for  the  better  calculation  of  transport  and 
insurance costs.  

targeted 

to 

103 

104 

105 

106 

107 

108 

Latvia  has  created,  after  analysis  and  definition  of  a  new  methodology,  a 
computer  programme  for  transforming  invoice  values  into  statistical  values 
for each combination of CN2/partner country. 

Action 4: 

Confidentiality  

109 

The diagnostic study undertaken by Eurostat has increased the understanding 
of  the  processes  used  by  Member  States  in  dealing  with  confidentiality. 
Member  States  apply  the  principle  of  passive  confidentiality,  under  which 
declarants  may  request  that  their  data  remain  confidential  if  private 
information  can  be  disclosed  from  their  publication.  There  are  great 

17 

 
 
 
110 

disparities in the share of confidential data between Member States and a lack 
of coherence at EU level.  

in  order 

information 

to 
the  publishable 

Six  Member  States  (Denmark,  Finland,  France,  Italy,  Portugal  and  United 
Kingdom)  have  conducted  studies  in  the  framework  of  the  treatment  of  the 
the  management  of 
confidential 
confidentiality  and  maximize 
the 
examination  of  the  practical  process  of  confidentialisation  at  national  level 
appears  that  periodic  reminders  sent  to  enterprises  allow  suppressions  to  be 
reviewed and in some cases removed, so that data previously confidential can 
be  released  into  the  public  domain.    The  development  of  automatic 
procedures  for  the  treatment  of  confidentiality  has  been  also  studied  by 
Denmark and Portugal. 

information.  From 

improve 

111 

A  set  of  recommendations  on  the  management  of  confidentiality  has  been 
drafted  after  a  study  on  practices  of  confidentiality  used  by  Member  States. 
Eurostat  has  drafted  guidelines  on  confidential  data  to  Member  States.  If 
applied,  these  measures  would  improve  the  quality  of  data  at  national  level 
and the coherence of statistics at EU level.  

Action 5:  New statistical products  

112 

113 

114 

115 

Germany,  Greece,  Finland  and  Italy  carried  out  studies  related  to  the 
Contribution  of  International  Groups  to  External  Trade  (CIGET  statistics) 
or/and  Intra-Firm  trade  (in  most  of  cases  at  aggregated  level  of  the  NACE 
classification).  Concrete  results  have  been  obtained  by  merging  information 
of  three  registers:  the  Business  Register,  the  Register  of  Foreign  Trade 
operators  and  the  Foreign  Affiliate  Trade  Statistics  (FATS)  register.  In  this 
manner, some steps towards a full collection system of intra-firm statistics in 
EU have been made; however more work should be dedicated to this subject 
in order to obtain harmonised and exhaustive EU figures.  

Ten Member States (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Denmark, Finland, 
Italy,  Luxembourg,  Portugal  and  Sweden)  have  focused  their  efforts  in 
preparing or adapting their systems for publishing external trade data broken 
down  by  enterprise  characteristics.  This  has  been  achieved  by  linking 
different sources of available information at national level (General Business 
Register,  Intrastat  Register,  VAT  register,  Trader’s  Register,  etc.).    These 
preparatory  works  have  allowed  publishing,  in  2007,  the  results  of  a  pilot 
study  presenting  “External  Trade  by  Enterprise  Characteristics”  in  18 
Member States and in two EFTA Countries (Norway and Island) on the basis 
of  six  indicators  (concentration  of  trade,  trade  by  activity  sector,  by  size-
class,  by  partner  countries,  by  number  of  partner  countries,  by  products). 
Similar  pilot  studies  have  been  launched  in  the  year  2002  and  2005  with  a 
lesser degree of detail. 

Belgium made a publication presenting an analysis of national exports for the 
period  1995-2000,  broken  down  by  region,  size  class  and  activity  sector  of 
exporting enterprises. 

Austria  and  Netherlands  carried  out  studies  for  comparing/combining 
transport data captured in foreign trade statistics with transport statistics data, 

18 

 
 
 
in  order  to  improve  the  overall  data  quality  in  external  trade  or  in  both 
statistics. The result of the Austrian study showed that there were very close 
correlations  between  transport  and  trade  statistics  data.  The  Netherlands 
succeeded  to  produce  a  transport-trade  integrated  database  showing  trade 
flows  to/from  the  country,  broken-down  by  continent  of  origin/destination, 
loading/unloading and mode of transport.  

Objective 3:  A  network  of  information  which  is  better  integrated  into  the 
general statistical system and adapted to the developments of the administrative 
environment 

Action 6: 

Registers 

116 

117 

realised  studies 

Eurostat 
two  different  methodological 
frameworks:  one  for  the  collection  of  CIGET  and  Intra-firm  data;  the  other 
for  the  collection  and  joint  presentation  of  external  trade  and  business 
statistics.  

for  creating 

Twelve  Member  States  (Austria,  Czech  Republic,  Denmark,  Finland, 
Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden and United 
Kingdom)  have  carried  out  analyses  of  the  current  registers  and  some 
undertook  work  to  create/improve  the  quality  of  Intrastat  and  Extrastat 
registers. The inter-operability of trade registers with other national registers 
(for instance the VAT register and the General Business Register) was also a 
main  subject  of  study.  In  some  countries  the  work  carried  out  allowed  to 
improve the completeness of the available information, the creation of stable 
links  between  registers  and  the  basis  for  the  production  of  external  trade 
statistics by activity sector planned under Edicom action 5. 

Action 7: 

Adapting and modernising Extrastat  

118 

119 

120 

At  centralised  level,  an  inventory  has  been  made  on  unused  but  statistically 
relevant Customs data available at national level. The report showed that only 
few interesting variables were available in enough Member States so as to be 
considered relevant. Nevertheless, it was considered  that their statistical  use 
could significantly enhance both tariff and mirror statistics. 

Another  study  highlighted  the  need  to  improve  and  complete  the  quality  of 
existing tariff statistics and tariff measures information. Additional sources of 
information  of  potential  use  for  negotiations  have  been  analysed  and 
assessed. 

The  first  steps  of  the  modular  Taristat  project  aiming  to  combine  trade  and 
tariff  data  proved  to  be  extremely  complex  due  to  the  fact  that  the  EU’s 
customs tariff database (Taric) provides tariff measures on a daily basis while 
the  Comext  database  contains  monthly  trade  data.  The  achieved  results 
consisted  in  an  application  that  primarily  crosses  basic  monthly  tariff 
information  with  monthly  external  trade  data.  The  results  were  made 
available in two new Comext datasets.  

121 

In  the  framework  of  statistics  on  the  trading  of  goods  with  non-Member 
States,  a  study  investigating  the  needs  and  the  quality  of  transport  data 
provided by Member States has been launched under Work Programme 2003.  

19 

 
 
 
122 

123 

124 

A  number  of  preliminary  studies  were  launched  for  the  revision  of  the 
Extrastat  legislation  that  have  resulted  in  the  elaboration  of  a  draft  new 
European  Parliament  and  Council  Regulation  and  a  new  Commission 
Regulation that are due to being implemented in 2009. 

At  decentralised  level,  seven  Member  States  (Germany,  Denmark,  Finland, 
Italy,  Netherlands,  Greece  and  France) 
launched  actions  aimed  at 
strengthening  the  collaboration  between  authorities  in  charge  of  data 
collection  and  publication  for  improving  the  quality  of  basic  information 
and/or  speed  up  the  availability  of  Extrastat  statistics.  Results  have  been 
reached  by  extending  data  entry  controls  for  electronic  declarations;  by 
updating  Extrastat  registers,  by  developing  programs  for  the  electronic 
transfer  of  statistical  error  enquiries  and  for  the  interactive  correction  of 
invalid/incomplete  data;  by  updating  the  transmission  system  used  for  the 
exchange of data between national administrations. 

Denmark, Greece and Italy carried out studies on potential use of variables of 
the  Single  Administrative  Document,  which  are  not  yet  collected  or  fully 
exploited  for  statistical  purposes.  Some  variables  if  collected  at  statistical 
level  might  be  used  for  enhancing  the  methodology  in  relation  to  UN 
recommendations, for improving data adjustments and the economic analysis 
of trade flows. Netherlands carried out a study on invoicing currency used in 
Extrastat in order to provide information to the European Central Bank, while 
Slovenia adapted and modernised the programs for data processing following 
the full adoption of the Acquis Communautaire. 

Action 8: 

Preparing the adaptation of Intrastat in the long term  

125 

126 

127 

At  centralised  level  an  opinion  poll  was  launched  in  six  Member  States 
(Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom) to reassess the 
burden  on  providers  of  statistical  information.  The  survey  results  did  not 
indicate any serious need for substantial changes on the Intrastat system as its 
burden was judged by operators to be reasonable and acceptable. Over 70% 
of  the  traders  needed  in  fact  less  than  4  hours  a  month  to  complete  the 
Intrastat declaration. The commodity code was considered as the information 
most difficult to determine. In order to simplify and reduce the administrative 
burden  on  enterprises,  tools  allowing  filling  in  declarations  automatically 
have been developed in the framework of the Edicom action 12. 

Also the assessment of user needs confirmed that no substantial change in the 
existing system was expected. In particular, the need for detailed information 
on  commodities  was  highlighted  (from  the  survey,  nine  out  of  ten 
respondents  used  the  Combined  Nomenclature  (CN),  71%  use  CN  codes 
usually or systematically and one respondent in three uses all chapters of the 
CN).  Other  interesting  findings  were  identified  and  taken  into  account,  in 
particular the progress to be made on timeliness and reliability of data. 

Summary studies have been carried out on methodological aspects linked to 
alternative  data  collection  systems,  coverage  and  statistical  evaluation  of 
trade,  new  statistical  products,  links  between  registers  and  other  statistics 
(balance of payments, national accounts etc.).  

20 

 
 
 
128 

129 

130 

131 

132 

133 

134 

135 

136 

On the basis of the studies mentioned above, Eurostat, with the assistance of 
the Working Group Methods, has drafted a new Basic Intrastat legislative act 
having  in  mind  that  the  legislation  had  to  be  more  understandable  and 
transparent; while taking at the same time fully into account the requirements 
of users and the reinforcement of quality aspects.  

The  new  Intrastat  Basic  Regulation  has  been  adopted  by  the  European 
Parliament  and  Council  in  2004,  and  was  supplemented  by  a  Commission 
Regulation  with  the  implementing  provisions  and  recommendations  for  the 
application at national level. (Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 of the European 
Parliament  and  of  the  Council  and  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No 
1982/2004). 

At decentralised level, Sweden, in the context of the 2002 Work Programme, 
analysed  the  possible  impact  of  the  adoption  of  the  Harmonised  System 
nomenclature.  Providers  on  statistical  information  were  in  favour  of  a 
simplification  of  the  product  nomenclature,  which  would  also  cause  an 
important  reduction  of  the  workload  in  Statistics  Sweden,  while  users’ 
opinion was different.  

Germany,  France,  Sweden  and  United  Kingdom,  due  to  confidentiality 
reasons, had to participate more actively in the Eurostat survey on the Burden 
of Intrastat launched in 2001, as written inquiries had to be sent and collected 
by the national competent administration. Results have been then transmitted 
to  Eurostat  for  processing.  Surveys  with  similar  purpose  have  been 
conducted, under the Work Programme 2005 by Latvia, in parallel to a user 
satisfaction survey, and by Italy. 

Also at decentralised level, in the context of the 2004 Work Programme, Italy 
has launched a study in order to analyse the impact of the EU Enlargement on 
the national Intrastat figures. 

An international seminar on “Intrastat simplification”  has been organised and 
held  in  the  United  Kingdom:  the  raising  of  thresholds  and  the  Single  Flow 
System were retained as the most promising options. Still in the framework of 
simplification measures, sampling methods to reduce the number of Intrastat 
PSIs have been explored by UK: the stratification by trade value method was 
the most accurate. 

Germany  and  Sweden  carried  out  studies  on  the  effects  of  the  possible 
introduction of the simplification threshold foreseen in article 10 (4)(c) of the 
Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council. 

Germany,  Italy  and  Sweden  carried  out  studies  on  the  possible  adoption  of 
the  Single  Flow  System,  which  might  have  some  negative  effects  on  data 
availability (due to non- homogeneous collection of “non mandatory” data in 
MS and missing information for other statistics).  

In  order  to  improve  the  quality  of  data  provided  by  PSIs,  Intrastat  seminars 
have  been  organised  in  Slovakia  and  an  e-learning  application  on  Intrastat 
content was developed in Denmark and made available on the web. 

21 

 
 
 
Objective 4:  A  network 
administrations, users and data providers 

improving 

the 

statistical 

service  offered 

to 

Action 9: 

Coordination of dissemination  

137 

138 

139 

140 

141 

142 

143 

144 

The  identification  of  user  needs  and  satisfaction  in  terms  of  statistics  and 
system has been monitored via Internet surveys, with the purpose to provide 
orientations for the further development of the Comext  system. Users  had a 
very  positive  perception  of  the  quality  of  Comext  data.  A  large  number  of 
respondents  have  expressed  a  very  positive  opinion  on  the  evolution  of 
Comext interface and content. 

The projects undertaken by Eurostat have permitted the development of more 
modern  and  flexible  dissemination  systems,  based  on  the  use  on  new 
technologies  and  on-line  dissemination.  The  Czech  Republic,  Denmark  and 
France have operated changes in their national dissemination systems in order 
to better adapt to new technologies and users demand, while Belgium realised 
a feasibility study.   

Spain carried out an information campaign in order to provide notice to PSIs 
about  the  elimination  of  IDEP/CN8  and  the  availability  of  a  new  tool  for 
submitting Intrastat declarations. The transition has been made successfully, 
without registering any increase in the “non-response” rate.  

(i.e.  advanced  estimators),  delays 

Due  to  technical  improvements  and  to  the  application  of  new  statistical 
methods 
for  dissemination  of 
macroeconomic data in press releases have decreased from 53 days in 2002 to 
48  days  in  2006.  Eurostat  thus  met  the  expectations  of  users,  such  as  the 
ECB, by making available raw data and seasonally adjusted data rapidly. This 
improvement  has  been  achieved  also  thanks  to  new  regulations  fixing  the 
legal  transmission  deadline  for  Intrastat  and  Extrastat  aggregated  data  to  40 
days and thanks to the reduction of the time necessary for the compilation of 
the press release, which passed from 3.5 days to 1.5 days. 

Dissemination of detailed monthly data has also been improved thanks to the 
reduction in delays of data transmission. 

In  parallel,  actions  have  been  launched  to  adapt  Eurostat  databases  and 
publications to integrate the effects of the EU Enlargement. For this purpose 
the  reconstitution  of  historical  series  since  1989  has  been  obtained  by 
retropolation and the software for the production of regular publications, such 
as  the  “Monthly  Bulletin”  and  the  “Trade  Statistical  Yearbook”,  have  been 
modified. 

The  analysis  of  the  external  trade  of  the  EU  and  Euro-zone  carried  out  by 
Eurostat has led to the production of several short publications (Statistics in 
Focus);  and  longer  annual  publications  (i.e.  Panorama)  on  the  evolution  of 
trade. 

Similarly, the dissemination of detailed data has also been sped up thanks to 
the reduction of delays in data transmission to Eurostat, to the improvement 
of  the  Comext  On-line  and  to  the  creation  of  Easy-Comext  interactive 
database, which is accessible, in free dissemination, via the web.  

22 

 
 
 
145 

Users  help-desk  services  have  been  permanently  guaranteed.  In  addition 
support  to  users  has  been  provided  via  specific  Comext  training  courses 
delivered in Brussels, Luxembourg, Madrid and Frankfurt, for which specific 
Comext documentation and training manuals have been prepared.  

Action 10: Automatic classification system  

146 

147 

148 

149 

150 

151 

Eurostat has launched projects for ensuring the evolutionary maintenance of 
products related to the CN and designing an automatic classification system. 

The  evolutionary  maintenance  of  products  related  to  the  CN  has  been 
developed  with  satisfactory  results.  During  the  first  part  of  the  programme, 
actions  have  been  concentrated  on  making  available  and  disseminating  in 
time products in the 11 official languages of the European Union. After the 
EU  Enlargement  of  2004  efforts  have  been  focus  in  adapting  programs  and 
databases for taking into accounts the specifications of the 9 new Community 
languages.  The  evolutionary  maintenance  has  been  realised  also  by  the 
adoption of most updated version of software and databases. 

In view to modernise the CN a study on the purpose (tariff or statistics) and 
on the relevance (national or Community) of sub-headings of CN have been 
made. In addition the identification of the “low trade sub-headings” has been 
carried out by identifying those products for which the total trade of one year 
did not surpass 20 Mio Euro in 2004 (EU-15) or 30 Mio Euro in 2005 (EU-
25).  

The results of the feasibility study for an automatic classification system have 
highlighted the complexity of integrating such a tool in the existing system as 
well as high development and maintenance costs. The project was not carried 
further. In alternative a project has been launched to develop a specific tool in 
Eurostat’s  classification  web  server  “RAMON”,  allowing  to  browse  the 
Combined  Nomenclature,  display  CN  official  texts,  notes  and  hierarchies, 
search by CN codes, keywords and full-text and export CN elements. 

In  addition  a  new  stand-alone  combined  classification  search  tool  has  been 
developed  and  made  available  to  Member  States  in  two  different  packages: 
one  addressed  to  the  Competent  National  Administration,  the  other  to 
Declarant Parties. The new tool, which works under the Windows operating 
system,  allows  to  browse  the  CN,  display  CN  official  texts,  notes  and 
hierarchy,  search  by  CN  codes,  keywords,  full-text  and  finally  export  CN 
elements. 

At decentralised level, France has launched a study on the implementation of 
a  keywords  index  and  a  new  search  engine  for  the  nomenclatures  used  in 
national applications (DEB on the web, “Cherche-mots”, IDEP/CN8, RITA), 
following  the  decision  of  Eurostat  to  stop  the  provision  of  the  annual  file 
“keywords on the CN” contained in the CD-Rom Intrastat.  

Action 11:  Dissemination of metadata  

152 

At centralised level, efforts have been made for enhancing the dissemination 
of  metadata.  There  were  no  projects  launched  by  Member  States  under  this 
action. 

23 

 
 
 
153 

154 

Three  projects  covered  the  need  to  re-write,  implement  and  maintain 
computer tools that ensured the coherent and user-friendly availability of the 
annual  Intrastat  version  of  the  Combined  Nomenclature  and  its  related 
products in all official languages. The increased level of linguistic variety due 
to the Enlargement has been managed with satisfactory results. 

The  fourth  centralised  projects  dealt  with  the  inventory  and  analysis  of  the 
ways  to  implement  the  most  advanced  technologies  to  speed  up  the 
distribution  of  metadata  and  facilitate  their  accessibility  to  the  public. 
Following surveys on users’ needs, studies on comparable solutions adopted 
at  international  level  and  the  development  of  an  alternative  prototype,  the 
Eurostat’s classifications web server RAMON has been finally chosen as the 
most  appropriate  base  for  the  on-line  dissemination  of  nomenclatures  and 
their related products.  

Objective 5:  A  network  based  on  information-gathering  tools  taking  into 
account the latest technological developments in order to improve the function 
offered to data providers 

Action 12:  Collection Tools  

155 

156 

157 

158 

159 

At  a  centralised  level,  information-gathering  tools  have  been  maintained  or 
developed  in  order  to  improve  functions  offered  to  data  providers  (offline 
tools,  online  tools,  web  forms  and  CN  Search  tools)  and  work  has  been 
carried  out  on  standardisation  messages  for  electronic  data  collection  and 
production controls. 

The  development  of  online  tools  represented  a  constant  activity  during  the 
EDICOM Programme. The most important result was the creation of Intrastat 
Web  Form  systems,  which  allow  data  gathering  via  the  Internet  and  the 
electronic administration of the collected statistical information. 

A stand-alone classification search application called “CN Search tool” was 
developed at centralised level in order to allow Declarant Parties to download 
product  nomenclatures  via  a  web  interface.  A  number  of  developments 
concerning  web  forms,  offline  tools  and  integrated  tools  have  been  carried 
out. 

Among  offline  tools,  it  is  important  to  highlight  the  production  of  annual 
updates  of  the  IDEP/CN8  software  and  the  distribution  of  CD-ROMs  to 
Member States. As the 2004 version of the software was the last developed at 
central  level,  decentralised  projects  were  launched  on  the  ‘IDEP/CN8 
Maintenance and Support’ to ensure the continuity of the service provided by 
Eurostat. 

So, at  decentralised level, most Member States have based theirs actions on 
the  development  and  the  maintenance  of  IDEP/CN8  systems,  allowing  a 
better autonomy and flexibility of the tools, as well as a better harmonisation 
of the communication between enterprises and data collection centres.  

24 

 
 
 
 
160 

161 

162 

163 

164 

Actions with all Member States have led to the improvement of the existing 
current collection tools (Deb on the Web, ROS, Intr@web, CBS-IRIS, ELIS, 
IDAIS,  WG3Stat),  or/and  the  development  and  implementation  of  the 
Intrastat Web forms as data collection tools. 

Another project successfully dealt with the EDIFACT messages maintenance, 
the  production  of  Message  Implementation  Guidelines  and  the  support  to 
competent  national  administrations  (CNAs)  and  providers  of  statistical 
information (PSIs). 

Great importance was also given to modernising and standardising messages 
with the use of new technology and technical features in the existing process, 
like transmission format standardisation (Message INSTAT/XML or Gesmes 
format) for Intrastat data collection. 

All these projects were sustained by a lot of promotional campaigns inviting 
PSI’s  to  use  web,  online  and  offline  tools  rather  than  paper  for  data 
transmission. These campaigns were carried out by means of brochures, CD-
Rom/floppy disk, calls, technical assistance and interactive training courses in 
different languages, information meetings and seminars. 

The  quality  of  created  tools  and  promotional  campaigns  at  centralised  and 
decentralised  level  have  increased  the  number  of  PSI’s  making  Intrastat 
declaration  via  Web  (approximately  100  000  users),  a  facility  of  data 
acquisition, a considerable reduction of the amount of lines sent on paper or 
floppy disk (decrease of paper about 30%), and as aimed, a real improvement 
of  data  transmission  quality/consistency  and  consequently  a  reduction  of 
burden, cost for data providers and collecting authorities. 

Objective 6 (horizontal): 

Integrated and interoperable network 

Action 13: 

Integrated system-Interoperability-Network implementation 

165 

166 

Services to users were improved by the drafting of user guides, improvements 
of  the  COMEXT  system’s  functionalities,  organisation  of  training  courses 
and development of the COMEXT stand-alone version for browsing data on 
CD-ROM and other distribution media (COMEXT DVD-Rom, distributed to 
500 users per month).  

A  project  was  launched  to  improve  the  existing  methodological  reference 
material by creating the new information database (METODOLOGICA) and 
developing  tools  giving  easy  access  to  the  information.  A  specific  web 
system dissemination database on External trade (Easy COMEXT) has been 
developed and made accessible in free dissemination to external users, from 
October  2004,  allowing  disseminating  more  detailed  Member  States  data  to 
the public then before. (70 000 extractions per month in 2006). 

167  Measures have been launched to modernise the various elements of the trans-
European network within the Commission and Member States, including the 
new Member States (XTNET project).  

168 

A  lot  of  tools  and  methods  have  been  developed  and  updated  in  different 
domains  like  processing  and  validation  of  data;  communication  between 

25 

 
 
 
169 

170 

national  administrations  and  Eurostat;  user  access  to  statistical  data  and 
metadata,  and  data  dissemination  (Comext  server,  Easy  Comext  Client, 
Analytical  Comext  client,  NPS,  XTNET-edit,  XTNET-assist,  XTNET-
publish, Comext-OLE). 

The enhancing of the analytical interface allowed Member States to improve 
the deadlines for the transmission  of  data to  Eurostat, consequently also  the 
dissemination at centralised level was sped up.  

At decentralised level, Greece has initiated actions on the implementation of 
XT-NET, in order to evolve to a more homogeneous system of data collection 
at European level, and Germany, with the development of the new programs 
especially  focused  on  correction  of  inconsistencies  found  in  reporting  of 
product  and  partner  country  confidentiality,  nationality  of  the  means  of 
transport and conversions of products, is now able to produce external trade 
data  that  can  be  directly  loaded  by  Eurostat  into  Comext  without  going 
through a time-consuming correction process. 

26 

 
 
 
ANNEX 1: 

Objectives, expected results, performance indicators and actual results of the Edicom II 
programme (2001-2005). 

Objective  1:  An  information  network  of  better  quality,  less  costly  and  available  more 
quickly, in accordance with the requirements of the Community policies. 

Expected results 

Performance indicators 

Actual results 

Action  1:  To  speed 
up  the  availability 
of  the  statistics  at 
aggregated  level  by 
improving statistical 
estimation 
techniques 

Member  States 
aggregated 
figures  for  the  intra  and  extra 
euro area trade have been made 
available  around  40  days  after 
the end of the reference month. 

The time needed to supply data 
at aggregated level; 

amended 

According  to  the  new  Intrastat 
Extrastat 
and 
legislations,  Member  States 
should  provide  Eurostat  with 
Intra  and  Extra-EU  aggregated 
statistics    within  40  days  after 
the end of the reference month 

Number  of  Member  States 
complying with the deadline for 
to 
transmission  of  data 
the 
Eurostat. 

the  deadline 

All  Member  States  are  in  line 
the 
with 
to 
transmission 
Eurostat. 

for 
data 

of 

Euro-zone  and  EU  aggregated 
figures are published around 46 
the 
days  after 
reference period. 

the  end  of 

The  average 
Eurostat 
releases. 

timeliness 
for 
to  publish  press 

Delays for the dissemination of 
EU  and  Eurozone  aggregated 
figures  in  press  releases  have 
decreased from 53 days in 2002 
to  48  days  in  2006,  better 
satisfying  ECB  requests  and 
other user needs. 

The  average  extent  of 
the 
revisions  of  monthly  detailed 
data 
reduced 
significantly  for  some  Member 
States.  

been 

has 

centralised 

level 
(EMDSAS) 

an 
At 
application 
for 
estimating  missing  data  has 
been  developed,  and  improved 
by clarifying the process and by 
simplifying 
together 
with  a  program  for  adjusting 
data revision (UPDATSAS). 

its  use, 

New methods or tools enabling 
Member  States  and/or  Eurostat 
to  decrease  the  revision  bias 
have been developed. 

The  bias  of  initial  estimates 
with  respect  to  final  results  at 
aggregated level; 

Availability 
implementation 
developed. 

and 
tools 

of 

27 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Expected results 

Performance indicators 

Actual results 

2: 

Action 
To 
provide high-quality 
statistics 
trade 
and 
quickly 
by 
punctually, 
the 
controlling 
basic 
of 
quality 
statistics,  enhancing 
quality 
measurement 
assurance, 
asymmetries, 
developing 
imputing 
harmonising 
statistical methods. 

and 
tackling 

and 

A  common  platform  at  EU 
level  to  control  basic  statistics 
has been developed. 

A list of controls recommended 
by Eurostat has been released; 

Number  of  Member  States  in 
agreement  with  the  common 
platform. 

framework 

for 
A  common 
quality  assurance  has  been 
developed, covering: 

Number  of  Member  States 
regularly  sending  a  quality 
report 
EUROSTAT 
according to a common layout; 

to 

The regular reporting on quality 
from  Member  States 
and 
Eurostat  including  assessment 
of users satisfaction and ad-hoc 
methods to control output data; 

EUROSTAT  regularly  releases 
a synthesis quality report; 

A quality database. 

A  quality  database  has  been 
developed and updated. 

tools 

Relevant 
that  enable 
Eurostat  and  Member  States  to 
cope  with  asymmetries  have 
been developed.  

Level of asymmetries; 

28 

Different 
recommendations 
have  been  listed  by  Member 
States  to  allow  the  detection 
and 
of 
asymmetries. 

resolution 

the 

a 

provided 

In  the  framework  of  action  12, 
the  XTNET  validation  project, 
has 
common 
platform  for  the  validation  of 
basic data. Few Member States 
have  already  started  to  put  in 
place  this  system.  Full  results 
would  be  seen  within  few 
years.   

(QR) 

in  order 

Eurostat  and  most  of  Member 
States  have  produced  Quality 
Reports 
to 
analyse  data  quality  and  to 
trade 
improve 
statistics,  these  QR  have  been 
produced  in  accordance  with 
the official definition of quality 
in 
the  European  Statistics 
System. 

international 

been 

developed 

A  quality  database  “QUIET” 
has 
at 
centralised  level.  However  for 
the  production  of  the  latest 
the 
Eurostat  quality  reports 
information  has  been 
taken 
directly from the questionnaires 
fulfilled by Member States. 

of 

the 

period 

Over 
the 
programme,  asymmetries  on 
aggregate  level  have  decreased 
in spite of EU enlargement with 
10 
States.  
Important  asymmetries  remain 
on detailed level.  

new  Member 

Different  Members  States  have 
done  studies  in  order  to  reduce 
asymmetries.  Eurostat 
and 
Denmark  have  developed  an 
application    in  order  to  study 
for 
the 
reconciliation  of  external  trade 
data.  

asymmetries 

and 

recommendations 
Different 
have  been  listed  by  Member 
States  to  allow  the  detection 
and 
of 
asymmetries. 

resolution 

the 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Expected results 

Performance indicators 

Actual results 

(Continued) 

(Continued) 

Availability  of  reconciliation 
tools. 

The  Reconsas  tool  for  solving 
aggregate 
level  asymmetries 
based  on  time  series  has  been 
developed  and  tested.      The 
political  decision  to  use  it  in 
publications has not been taken 
yet. 

Methods/tools 
enabling 
Member  States  to  estimate  or 
impute  the  non-declared  trade 
have  been  developed 
and 
implemented. 

Number  of  Member  States 
using  adjustment  methods  for 
non-response  and  trade  below 
the assimilation threshold. 

Only  four  countries:  GR,  ES, 
FR  (for  the  years  2002-2005) 
and  MT  did  not  apply  any 
adjustments 

Member 

States 
The 
transmission 
of 
monthly data revisions has been 
improved. 

process 

Eurostat 
A 
of 
set 
recommendations 
been 
released;  Number  of  Member 
States 
agreement  with 
Eurostat recommendations. 

has 

in 

The  average  extent  of 
the 
revisions  of  aggregated  data 
supplied by MS to Eurostat has 
in 
been 
some 
Intrastat. 
Member  States  have  still  room 
for improvement. 

reduced,  especially 
However 

29 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Objective 2:  A  relevant  information  network  adapted  to  the  changing  needs  of  the 
users  within  the  framework  of  Economic  and  Monetary  Union  and  the  international 
economic environment 

Expected results 

Performance indicators 

Actual results 

A  new  application  for 
the 
calculation of unit value indices 
has been developed. 

Availability 
new 
of 
application  for  the  calculation 
of unit value indices. 

a 

3: 

Action 
To 
provide  new  short-
term 
indicators 
adapted to the needs 
economic 
of 
analysis  at  EU  and 
EMU level 

for 

Different 
the 
software 
calculation  of  external  trade 
indices  and  the  realisation  of 
new  statistical  products  have 
and 
developed 
been 
implemented  both  at  Eurostat 
and  at  Member  States  level. 
(Action 5) 

A  system  for  the  production  of 
import/export  price  statistics  of 
the 
zone  has  been 
euro 
developed. 

Number  of  Member  States 
producing  import  and  export 
price specific indices not based 
on unit values but on real price 
information. 

Seasonal  adjustment  methods 
used  by  Eurostat  have  been 
improved. 

Availability 
indicators 
adjusted data. 

of 

on 

quality 
seasonally 

Gradually  ever  more  Member 
States  switched  to  providing 
export/import  prices  specific 
indices.  Currently  26  Member 
States  provide  export  data  and  
the  Euro  Area  Member  States 
(have 
import 
figures. 

provide 

to) 

tested 

Different  methodologies  have 
to 
been  defined  and 
assess 
the 
parameters 
seasonal 
adjustments and to adjust short-
time series. 

the  stability  of 
for 

A  method  at  the  Community 
and  euro  zone  levels  to  obtain 
FOB/FOB  trade  balance  has 
been developed. 

of 
(Number 

CIF/FOB 
Availability 
adjustments 
of 
Member  States  making  these 
adjustments). 

Austria,  Denmark,  Finland, 
France,  Greece,  Netherlands, 
Slovakia  and  Sweden  have 
studied/proposed 
new 
methodologies 
calculate 
CIF/FOB  adjustments,  while 
Italy developed a pilot survey. 

to 

30 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Expected results 

Performance indicators 

Actual results 

A  methodology  making 
it 
possible to publish real value of 
trade  statistics  (at  a  level  of 
aggregation  to  be  determined 
with  Member  States)  has  been 
developed. 

Percentage  of  confidential  data 
in  external  trade  (in  quantity 
and value). 

According  to  figures  published 
in the 2007 Quality Report, the 
impact  of  confidentiality  on 
total  EU  figures  of  the  year 
2005  attained  1%  of  arrivals, 
3.5%  of  dispatches,  3.7%  of 
imports and 3.5%.of exports.  

4: 

To 
Action 
and 
manage 
the 
improve 
of 
processing 
of 
confidentiality 
statistics 
an 
in 
integrated  approach 
at 
and 
national 
European level. 

Users  of  COMEXT  have  more 
information  on  the  impact  of 
trade 
confidential  data 
statistics. 

in 

of 

Availability 
a 
recommendation  guide  and  its 
implementation  by  Member 
States. 

the 

quality 

Eurostat  produced  two  guide-
books.  The  first  targeted  to  
of 
improve 
aggregates  in  Comext  and  the 
second 
useful 
providing 
information  to  Member  States 
on  the  management  rules  for 
confidentialising data. 

5: 

To 
Action 
user 
increase 
by 
satisfaction 
providing  a  more 
complete  range  of 
statistics 

EU’s 

Statistics  on  the  proportion  of 
the 
international 
transactions  carried  out  by 
related  firms  belonging  to  the 
same  enterprise  group  have 
been made available. 

Intra-firm  statistics  available  at 
EU level. 

and 

Only 
few  Member  States 
carried  out  Edicom  projects  on 
CIGET and Intra-firm statistics. 
After having worked mainly on 
IT 
methodology 
on 
developments,  CIGET 
and 
Intra-firm  statistics  have  been 
the  basis  of 
calculated  on 
commodity 
groups.  These 
encouraging  results  should  be 
taken as the basis for the further 
development of EU statistics. 

Trade 

“External 

From  the  other  side,  results  of 
the EU standardisation exercise 
on 
by 
Characteristics” 
Enterprise 
carried  out  in  2002,  2005  and 
2006,  have  been  published 
presenting 
trade 
statistics  broken  down  by  six 
main indicators respectively for 
9,  17  and  18  Member  States. 
The 
been 
continued  also  in  2007  and 
results  are  not  far  from  being 
published. 

exercise 

external 

has 

External 
structural  business 
have 
comparable. 

trade  statistics  and 
statistics 
been  made  more 

Trade  data  by  activity  sectors 
are available. 

31 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Objective 3:  A  network  of  information  which  is  better  integrated  into  the  general 
statistical system and adapted to the developments of the administrative environment 

Expected results 

Performance indicators 

Actual results 

6: 

Action 
improve 
interoperability 
registers 

To 
the 
of 

Registers  of  extra-Community 
traders have been developed. 

Number  of  Member  States 
producing  a  register  for  the 
extra-Community trade. 

to 

for 

to  verify 
use 

The  available  registers  have 
been studied by Member States  
order  to  describe  the  current 
the 
situation  and 
the 
possiblity 
the 
information 
improvement or the creation of 
registers or for the development 
of new statistical figures. Czech 
republic  developed  an  Intrastat 
Register, Greece an Extra-trade 
Register,  Finland  a  register  for 
Intrastat and Extrastat operators 
and  Portugal  a  register  on 
international trade operators. 

 18  Member  States  now  link 
trade  and  business  registers.  
Coverage  rates  have  increased 
to well over 90%.  

to 

At this stage, 16 Member States 
link  Business 
are  able 
Register  with  Trade  Register 
(Intra  and  Extra);  while  only  2 
Member  States  are  not  able  to 
link 
Intrastat  and  Business 
Register.  12  Member  States  do 
not have a register for Extrastat 
operators,  as  Extrastat  registers 
are  not  required  by  Extrastat 
Regulation. 

legislative 
A  new  Extrastat 
framework 
under 
is 
preparation and should enter in 
force in 2009.  

still 

The  quality  of  registers  has 
been improved. 

and 

indicators  of 
their 

trade 
Quality 
registers 
links 
(register  coverage,  proportion 
declarants 
trade 
the 
of 
identified 
the  General 
in 
Register, etc.). 

The interoperability of registers 
has been improved. 

Existence  of 
links  between 
intra-  and  extra-  trade  registers 
and 
the  General  Business 
Register. 

Action  7:  To  adapt 
the  Extrastat  system 
to  new  information 
needs  and  customs 
developments 

A new Extrastat legislation has 
been  adopted  which  has  the 
main following characteristics: 

Availability 
legislation. 

of 

the 

new 

the  legislation  is  easier  to 
more 
and 

(cid:131) 
understand 
transparent; 

it  takes  into  account  the 
users 

(cid:131) 
requirements 
(aggregates, Tariff data,…); 

of 

(cid:131) 
it  takes  into  account  the 
at 
recommendations 
international 
and 
developments in customs rules. 

level 

32 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Expected results 

Performance indicators 

Actual results 

(Continued) 

2. Metadata on Tariff measures 
have  been  made  accessible  to 
users of community statistics. 

Availability  of  metadata  on 
Tariff measures. 

External 
trade  statistics  by 
mode  of  transport  have  been 
made  available  in  Comext  and 
New  Cronos.  Short  Term 
(SIF)  publications 
Statistics 
have  been  produced.  External 
trade 
tariff 
measures  have  been  made 
available  to  Comext  selected 
users. 

statistics 

by 

3.  Co-operation  between  the 
customs  administrations  and 
the  authorities  responsible  for 
statistics has been improved 

Improvement of the quality and 
timeliness 
Extrastat 
of 
statistics. 

The  transmission  of  detailed 
Member  States  external  trade 
to  Eurostat  has  been 
data 
reduced during the EDICOM II 
programme  by  5  days.  On 
average, data are now available 
within  40  days after the  end  of 
the  reference  month,  or  2  days 
in  advance  compared  to  the 
legal requirement. 

to 

the 

system 

continue 

In  order 
to 
harmonise the level and quality 
of  Intrastat  information  and  to 
to 
adapt 
the 
changing 
environment, 
Eurostat,  with  the  assistance  of 
the  Working  Group  “Methods” 
and  the  Committee  on  Intrastat 
statistics, has succeeded to draft 
a  new  basic  and  implementing 
Intrastat 
legislations,  which 
were  adopted  respectively  by 
the  European  Council  and 
Parliament and by the European 
Commission. 
new 
legislations  entered  into  force 
in January 2004. 

The 

Action  8:  To  adapt 
the  Intrastat  system 
to  the  development 
of its environment 

A  new  Intrastat  legislation  has 
been  adopted  which  has  the 
main following characteristics: 

Availability 
legislation. 

of 

the 

new 

legislation 

(cid:131) 
the 
understandable 
transparent; 

is  more 
and  more 

it  takes  into  account  the 

(cid:131) 
requirements of users; 

quality  aspects  have  been 

(cid:131) 
reinforced; 

(cid:131) 
possibilities 
simplification  of 
have been examined. 

for 
further 
the  system 

33 

 
 
 
 
 
Objective 4:  A  network  improving  the  statistical  service  offered  to  administrations, 
users and data providers 

Expected results 

Performance indicators 

Actual results 

The identification of user needs 
and  satisfaction  in  terms  of 
statistics  and  system  has  been 
monitored  via  internet  surveys, 
with  the  purpose  to  provide 
further 
for 
orientations 
the 
development  of 
the  Comext 
system.  85%  of  users  are 
satisfied  overall  with  the  trade 
statistics 
large 
number  of  respondents  have 
expressed 
a  very  positive 
opinion  on  the  evolution  of 
Comext interface and content. 

they  use.  A 

methods 

Due  to  technical  improvements 
and  to  the  application  of  new 
(i.e. 
statistics 
advanced  estimators),  delays 
for 
of 
dissemination 
macroeconomic  data  in  press 
releases  (like the  external trade 
balance:  intra  and  extra  MU 
and  intra  and  extra  EU)  have 
decreased from 53 days in 2002 
to  48  days  in  2006.    Eurostat 
thus  meets  the  expectations  of 
some  users,  such  as  the  ECB, 
by  making  available  raw  data 
as  well  as  seasonally  adjusted 
data rapidly. This improvement 
has been achieved thanks to the 
new regulations fixing the legal 
transmission  deadline  for  all 
aggregated data to 40 days and 
thanks  to  the  reduction  to  time 
for the compilation of the press 
release,  which  is  passed  from 
3.5 days to 1.5 days. 

of 

Dissemination 
detailed 
monthly  data  has  also  been 
to 
improved 
the 
thanks 
reduction  of  delays 
in  data 
transmission to Eurostat. 

9: 

To 
Action 
disseminate relevant 
statistics  as  quickly 
as  possible  to  all 
users. 

of 

the 
studies 
Periodical 
information  needs  to  improve 
dissemination 
been 
undertaken. 

have 

Satisfaction of users. 

Dissemination 
of  macro-
economic  statistics  has  been 
improved in particular, through 
a  macro-economic  database. 
Selected  data  have  been  made 
available on the www. 

Delay  in  disseminating  macro-
economic data.  

Access to detailed statistics has 
been improved. 

Delay in disseminating detailed 
data. 

34 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Expected results 

Performance indicators 

Actual results 

10: 

To 
Action 
provide 
external 
trade  operators  with 
methods/tools 
for 
classifying  goods  in 
the 
Combined 
Nomenclature.  

facilitate 

Tools,  which 
the 
classification  of  goods  in  the 
Combined  nomenclature,  have 
been made available. 

The  Combined  nomenclature 
has been modernised. 

Availability of the tools. 

there  has  been 

This  action  has  been  mainly 
targeted  to  maintain,  develop 
and integrate the softwares and 
systems  used  by  Eurostat  for 
updating the Intrastat version of 
the  Combined  Nomenclature. 
informatics 
Regarding 
the 
aspects 
the 
creation  of  all  the  products 
the  Combined 
linked  with 
Nomenclature like: explanatory 
indices, 
notes, 
alphabetic 
keywords,  correlation 
tables 
between  nomenclatures  and 
also the publication, in different 
file 
official 
languages, of the yearly version 
of the CN nomenclature. 

formats 

and 

Availability 
version  of 
nomenclature. 

a 

of 
revised 
the  Combined 

In order to modernise the CN in 
the future, in  the framework of 
the  WP  2004  and  2005  the 
analysis  of  the  reasons  and  
the  CN-8 
  of 
usefulness 
subheadings 
the 
of 
nomenclature  has  been  carried 
out.  

the 

centralised 

in  use  for 
of 

level 
concentrated 

This action has been carried out 
only. 
at 
Eurostat 
the 
efforts  on  the  improvement  of 
the 
the  system 
CN 
production 
nomenclature,  achieving 
the 
concrete  result  that  the  2002 
and 2003 annual versions of the 
in  11 
CN  were  produced 
languages  in  an  efficient  way 
and diffused in time to Member 
States 
for  dissemination  at 
national level. 

11: 

To 
Action 
provide  users  with 
tools  necessary  for 
the  integration  and 
dissemination 
of 
nomenclatures, 
classifications 
other 
products. 

and 
related 

Nomenclatures  and  metadata 
on  nomenclatures  are  easily 
managed  and  accessible  by  all 
users. 

Satisfaction of users. 

35 

 
 
 
 
 
Objective 5:  A  network  based  on  information-gathering  tools  taking  into  account  the 
latest technological developments in order to improve the function offered to data providers 

Expected results 

Performance indicators 

Actual results 

12: 

To 
and 

Action 
develop 
implement 
appropriate  electronic 
data  collection  tools 
in the Member States 

On-line 
and  off-line  data 
collection  systems  have  been 
made  available  to  PSIs  in  the 
Member States. 

of 

Share 
electronic 
declarations  in  the  different 
Member  States  expressed  in 
number  of  PSIs  declarations 
and trade value. 

Many  Members  States  have 
worked on the development of 
Intrastat  Web  Forms  (IWF), 
IWF  online  tools  and  offline 
tools  (to  replace  IDEP/CN8 
after  decentralisation  in  2004). 
Even  if  they  used  or  have 
implemented IDEP/CN8, some 
Member States have chosen to 
replace 
it  slowly/definitively 
by  new  system  allowing  VAT 
payers  to  submit  data  through 
Web  applications:  Deb  on  the 
Web,  ROS,  Intr@web,  CBS-
IRIS,  ELIS,  IDAIS,  WG3Stat. 
were 
In 
approximately 
000 
companies  using  the  software 
IDEP/CN8. 

there 
80 

2005, 

PSIs  have  better  and  enhanced 
access  to  collection  tools  and 
other related information. 

interface, 

download 

Availability of collection tools.  A  web-base  tool  enables  the 
easy  browsing,  searching  and 
retrial  of  CN  codes  has  been 
system 
implemented.  The 
allows 
of 
the 
product  nomenclatures,  via  a 
in  a  more 
Web 
and 
simply, 
intuitive  way.  During 
the 
“Data  Production”  workshop 
organised  by  Eurostat 
in 
in 
December 
Luxembourg,  the  CN-Search 
Tool  and  tailor  made  database 
Combined 
with 
the 
Nomenclature 
other 
available information in the 20 
official  languages  of  the  EU 
has been distributed. 

user-friendly 

2005 

and 

36 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Expected results 

Performance indicators 

Actual results 

Several  researches  have  been 
launched,  at  Eurostat  and 
Member  States  level,  in  order 
to  solve  specific  problems  of 
standardisation 
message 
/  XML),  data 
(GESMES 
collection 
monitoring 
inventory 
(STADIUM)  and 
(EDIFLOW),  and  improve  the 
transmission  modules  hiding 
the 
layer 
telecommunication 
(IDEP/IRIS). 
  For  Member 
States,  this  action  consisted  in 
the  creation  and  promotion  of 
on 
electronic 
tools 
development  of  systems 
to 
receive  data  in  XML  format 
the  PSIs,  and  make 
from 
available  all-online  and  off-
Intrastat 
line 
declaration. 
INSTAT/XML 
message has been implemented 
in  the  IDEP/CN8  package  in 
parallel with the corresponding 
format 
EDIFACT 
CUSDEC/INSTAT. 
This 
package has been distributed to 
the  national 
the 
traders  by 
administrations 
twelve 
of 
Member States. 

electronic 

and 

(Continued) 

Standardised  Messages  have 
improved  and  adapted 
been 
and 
the 
implemented 
Member States. 

by 

Number of Member States who 
standardised 
adapted 
messages. 

the 

37 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Objective 6 (horizontal): 

Integrated and interoperable network 

Expected results 

Performance indicators 

Actual results 

Validation work started only in 
the  last  year  of  the  Edicom 
programme.  Only  GR  and  DE 
really 
the 
implementation  of  XTNET 
validation rules. 

worked 

on 

in 

Tools  and  methods  have  been 
developed 
the  following 
domains:  data  processing  and 
validation; 
communication 
national 
between 
administrations  and  Eurostat; 
users  access  to  statistical  data 
and metadata. 

database 

trade 
has 

specific  web 

system 
A 
on 
dissemination 
(Easy 
External 
COMEXT) 
been 
developed and made accessible 
to  external  users  allowing 
disseminating  more  detailed 
Members  States  data  to  the 
public then before. 

of 

user 

functionalities, 
of 

Users 
internet  support  and 
monthly  training,  in  English 
and  French  languages,  have 
been delivered to Comext users 
Luxembourg,  Bruxels, 
in 
Frankfurt and Dublin. Services 
to  users  were  improved  by  the 
drafting 
guides, 
improvements  of  COMEXT 
the 
system’s 
organisation 
training 
courses  and  the  development 
of  the  COMEXT  stand-alone 
version  for  browsing  data  in 
other 
CD-ROM 
distribution  media.  Tools  and 
methods  have  been  developed 
in 
following  domains: 
processing and validating data; 
communication 
between 
national  administrations  and 
Eurostat; 
to 
statistical  data  and  metadata, 
including  greater  use  of  the 
Internet  and  improvements  to 
the  software  for  disseminating 
statistics  on 
trading  of 
the 
goods. 

access 

user 

and 

the 

the 

13: 

To 
Action 
and 
modernise 
improve 
trans-
European network for 
collection, 
the 
production 
and 
dissemination of trade 
statistics 

controls 

Enhanced 
and 
appropriate  tools  have  been 
developed  and  implemented  in 
the Member States. 

Number  of  Member  States 
having  implemented  common 
validation procedures. 

Data  access  and  transmission 
of data between Member States 
and  Eurostat 
been 
improved. 

have 

Timeliness  of  detailed  data 
availability. 

Electronic  dissemination  tools 
have  been  developed  and 
implemented in Eurostat. 

Users  satisfaction;  Volume  of 
data accessed; Number of users 
accessing  online  information; 
Availability  of 
appropriate 
metadata;  Number  of  courses 
and  participants  for  the  use  of 
data access systems. 

38 

 
 
 
 
 
 
  
Expected results 

Performance indicators 

Actual results 

(Continued) 

information  system  on 

An 
methodology 
(METODOLOGICA) has been 
developed. 

Availability  of  a  database  on 
methodology. 

A  project  was  launched  to 
existing 
improve 
the 
methodological 
reference 
material  (information  system 
methodology 
on 
“METODOLOGICA” 
and 
develop 
tools  giving  easy 
access to the information). 

39 

 
 
 
 
 
ANNEX 2: Use of EDICOM II financial resources (2001-2005) 

Use of EDICOM II financial resources 2001 (Euro) 

Year 2001

Commitment

Budget expenditure

Budget expenditure/
Commitment

Objective 1
(actions 1+2)

Objective 2
(action 3+4+5)

Objective 3
(actions 6+7+8)

Objective 4
(actions 9+10+11)

Objective 5
(action 12)

Objective 6
(action 13)

Total 
(objectives 1 to 6)

Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralisd
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised

Centralised

2 824 594
1 117 400
1 707 194
1 119 657
446 657
673 000
836 535
518 535
318 000
1 199 139
1 199 139
0
1 849 750
702 425
1 147 325
944 122
944 122
0
8 773 797

4 928 278

Decentralised

3 845 519

Support measures
Total 

Centralised

512 735
9 286 532

2 624 540
1 051 490
1 573 050
1 012 118
446 657
565 461
817 320
518 535
298 785
1 020 222
1 020 222
0
1 758 639
702 425
1 056 214
929 982
929 982
0
8 162 821

4 669 311
57.20%
3 493 510
42.80%
362 412
8 525 233

92.92%

90.40%

97.70%

85.08%

95.07%

98.50%

93.04%

70.68%
91.80%  

Source: Evaluators’ elaboration based on data provided by Eurostat. 

40 

 
 
 
Use of EDICOM II financial resources 2002 (Euro) 

Yaer 2002

Commitment

Budget expenditure

Budget expenditure/
Commitment

Objective 1
(actions 1+2)

Objective 2
(action 3+4+5)

Objective 3
(actions 6+7+8)

Objective 4
(actions 9+10+11)

Objective 5
(action 12)

Objective 6
(action 13)

Total 
(objectives 1 to 6)

Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralisd
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised

Centralised

1 846 921
841 860
1 005 061
1 176 006
475 150
700 856
821 034
444 035
376 999
1 054 351
835 245
219 106
2 049 354
614 295
1 435 059
0
0
0
6 947 666

3 210 585

Decentralised

3 737 081

1 554 044
841 860
712 184
848 247
307 780
540 467
733 777
444 035
289 742
968 081
770 034
198 047
1 522 832
606 295
916 537
0
0
0
5 626 981

2 970 004
52.78%
2 656 977
47.22%
352 101
5 979 082

84.14%

72.13%

89.37%

91.82%

74.31%

80.99%

63.41%
79.69%  

Support measures
Total 
Source: Evaluators’ elaboration based on data provided by Eurostat. 

555 267
7 502 933

Centralised

41 

 
 
 
 
Use of EDICOM II financial resources 2003 (Euro) 

Year 2003

Commitment

Budget expenditure

Budget expenditure/
Commitment

Objective 1
(actions 1+2)

Objective 2
(action 3+4+5)

Objective 3
(actions 6+7+8)

Objective 4
(actions 9+10+11)

Objective 5
(action 12)

Objective 6
(action 13)

Total 
(objectives 1 to 6)

Support measures
Total 

Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralisd
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised

Centralised

Decentralised

Centralised

706 544
0
706 544
946 132
111 674
834 458
690 995
0
690 995
163 000
0
163 000
2 372 094
320 640
2 051 454
1 777 075
1 777 075
0
6 655 840

2 209 389

4 446 451

392 000
7 047 840

575 127
0
575 127
832 358
111 674
720 684
557 015
0
557 015
82 135
0
82 135
2 143 800
320 640
1 823 160
1 777 075
1 777 075
0
5 967 510

2 209 389
37.02%
3 758 121
62.98%
143 409
6 110 919

81.40%

87.97%

80.61%

50.39%

90.38%

100.00%

89.66%

36.58%
86.71%

Source: Evaluators’ elaboration based on data provided by Eurostat. 

42 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Use of EDICOM II financial resources 2004 (Euro) 

Year 2004

Commitment

Budget expenditure

Budget expenditure/
Commitment

Objective 1
(actions 1+2)

Objective 2
(action 3+4+5)

Objective 3
(actions 6+7+8)

Objective 4
(actions 9+10+11)

Objective 5
(action 12)

Objective 6
(action 13)

Total 
(objectives 1 to 6)

Support measures
Total 

Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralisd
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised

Centralised

Decentralised

Centralised

1 385 035
318 655
1 066 380
1 178 494
236 347
942 147
226 061
0
226 061
382 402
346 715
35 687
1 585 758
64 000
1 521 758
863 000
822 500
40 500
5 620 750

1 788 217

3 832 533

273 164
5 893 914

888 344
318 655
569 689
793 905
236 347
557 558
130 080
0
130 080
372 218
346 715
25 503
1 157 317
64 000
1 093 317
850 804
822 500
28 304
4 192 668

1 788 217
42.65%
2 404 451
57.35%
223 515
4 416 183

64.14%

67.37%

57.54%

97.34%

72.98%

98.59%

74.59%

81.82%
74.93%

Source: Evaluators’ elaboration based on data provided by Eurostat. 

43 

 
 
 
 
 
Use of EDICOM II financial resources 2005 (Euro) 

Year 2005

Commitment

Budget expenditure

Budget expenditure/
Commitment

Objective 1
(actions 1+2)

Objective 2
(action 3+4+5)

Objective 3
(actions 6+7+8)

Objective 4
(actions 9+10+11)

Objective 5
(action 12)

Objective 6
(action 13)

Total 
(objectives 1 to 6)

Support measures
Total 

Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised
Total
Centralisd
Decentralised
Total
Centralised
Decentralised

Centralised

Decentralised

Centralised

703 075
251 200
451 875
747 650
461 251
286 399
579 327
0
579 327
552 028
552 028
0
2 011 301
1 099 872
911 429
1 595 757
1 474 766
120 991
6 189 138

3 839 117

2 350 021

562 693
6 751 831

579 702
251 200
328 502
615 036
461 251
153 785
360 543
0
360 543
549 028
549 028
0
1 479 816
801 344
678 472
1 330 840
1 286 381
44 459
4 914 965

3 349 204
68.14%
1 565 761
31.86%
462 255
5 377 220

Source: Evaluators’ elaboration based on data provided by Eurostat. 

82.45%

82.26%

62.23%

99.46%

73.58%

83.40%

79.41%

82.15%
79.64%

44 

 
 
 
 
 
ANNEX 3 

Use of EDICOM II financial resources, by countries (Euro). 

Belgium
Denmark
Germany
Greece
Spain 
France
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Austria
Portugal
Finland
Sweden
United Kingdom
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Hungary
Latvia
Lithuania
Malta
Poland
Slovenia
Slovakia
Total MS

Eurostat
Supporting measures
Total*

2002
0
232 054
167 000
0
231 099
122 963
65 621
497 359
19 736
380 954
200 914
237 380
156 923
250 906
94 068

2003
323 163
253 165
313 380
213 785
176 003
223 703
214 366
756 381
6 724
373 233
239 641
208 374
208 952
212 421
34 830

2001
150 000
293 375
297 718
385 361
362 000
103 000
92 000
210 643
7 519
352 000
25 000
393 000
293 213
283 500
245 181

2005
380 000
152 331
0
79 212
0
0
55 913
197 636
14 337
137 880
36 500
0
17 582
157 793
112 694
8 928
0
0
45 638
10 673
95 786
0
0
0
62 858
3 493 510 2 656 977 3 758 121 2 404 451 1 565 761

2004
390 397
149 869
96 338
188 946
0
132 865
92 386
273 656
13 989
67 006
97 360
69 963
137 864
183 981
53 126
8 484
80 081
59 532
21 548
9 366
116 468
21 850
86 092
30 342
22 942

4 669 311 2 970 004 2 209 389 1 788 217 3 349 204
462 255
143 409
8 525 233 5 979 082 6 110 919 4 416 183 5 377 220

223 515

352 101

362 412

2001-2005
1 243 560
1 080 794
874 436
867 304
769 102
582 531
520 286
1 935 675
62 305
1 311 073
599 415
908 717
814 534
1 088 601
539 899
17 412
80 081
59 532
67 186
20 039
212 254
21 850
86 092
30 342
85 800
13 878 820

14 986 125
1 543 692
30 408 637

*The share of budget expenditure has been calculated on the basis of the information provided by Eurostat without taking 
into account 474 500 Euro and 367 581 Euro of provisionally unpaid invoices in 2004 and 2005 which have been suspended 
after Eurostat’s ex post controls (situation on 15th March 2008) 

45 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ANNEX 4 

Edicom II Programme expenditures on Decentralised/Centralised projects, by year (Mio 
Euro) 

o
r
u
E
n
o

i
l
l
i

M

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

4.67

3.49

2.97

2.66

2.21

3.76

1.79

2.88

2001

2002

2003

2004

3.35

1.93

2005

Decentralised projects

Centralised projects

46 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ANNEX 5 

Share of expenditure by Edicom II objective 

Supporting 
measures
5%

Objective 1
21%

Objective 6
16%

Objective 2
14%

Objective 5
25%

Objective 4
10%

Objective 3
9%

ANNEX 6 

Number of Decentralised/Centralised Edicom II projects, by objective (2001-2005) 

25

99

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

11

61

10

46

33

7

15

69

13

4

Objective 1 Objective 2 Objective 3 Objective 4 Objective 5 Objective 6

De ce ntralise d proje cts

Ce ntralise d proje cts

47 

 
 
 
 
 
ANNEX 7 

Number of Decentralised/Centralised Edicom II projects, by year 

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

34

28

6

59

61

59

13

64

25

44

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

Decentralised projects

Centralised projects

48 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ANNEX 8 

Number of Decentralised/Centralised projects, by action and year (2001-2005) 

Actions
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
TOT
of which:
Decentralised Projects
Centralised Projects

2001
13
26
5
2
9
7
2
2
6
2
2
14
3
93

59
34

Years

2003
5
9
3
2
10
2
8
0
2
0
0
21
3
65

59
6

2002
8
16
9
2
7
6
2
7
11
2
2
17
0
89

61
28

2004
4
28
10
1
2
2
2
3
3
3
0
15
4
77

64
13

2005 Nr  Proj.
33
91
31
8
33
18
18
20
27
9
4
84
17
393

3
12
4
1
5
1
4
8
5
2
0
17
7
69

44
25

287
106

49 

 
 
 
 
 
 
ANNEX 9 

Number of Edicom II projects, by objective and country (2001-2005) 

Countrie s Obj. 1
AT
BE
CY
CZ
DE
DK
EE
FI
FR
GR
HU
IE
IT
LV
LT
LU
MT
NL
PL
PT
SK
SI
ES
SE
UK
Tot. De c.
Tot. Ce n.
TOTAL

2
2
1
1
13
16
0
8
2
2
2
0
6
0
1
4
1
3
2
6
1
1
7
11
7
99
25
124

Obj.2
7
2
1
0
4
5
0
8
4
4
0
0
8
1
0
1
0
3
2
2
2
0
0
5
2
61
11
72

Edicom Obje ctive s
Obj.4
0
1
0
1
0
1
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
7
33
40

Obj.5
4
4
0
0
1
5
1
3
6
5
1
5
2
0
2
12
0
4
0
7
0
0
1
5
1
69
15
84

Obj.3
1
0
0
1
6
5
0
5
2
2
0
0
7
1
0
0
0
4
0
1
2
1
0
5
3
46
10
56

Obj.6
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
13
17

Tota l
14
9
2
3
25
32
1
24
16
16
3
5
23
2
3
17
1
14
4
16
5
2
10
26
13
286
107
393

50 

 
 
 
 
 
 
ANNEX 10 

Number of Edicom II projects, by action and country (2001-2005) 

Countries
AT
BE
CY
CZ
DE
DK
EE
FI
FR
GR
HU
IE
IT
LV
LT
LU
MT
NL
PL
PT
SK
SI
ES
SE
UK
Tot. Dec.
Tot. Cen.
TOTAL

1
2
1
0
0
3
3
0
2
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
0
3
1
0
2
4
1
26
7
33

2
0
1
1
1
10
13
0
6
2
1
1
0
6
0
1
3
1
2
2
3
0
1
5
7
6
73
18
91

3
3
1
0
0
0
2
0
4
3
2
0
0
3
1
0
0
0
2
2
0
2
0
0
2
0
27
4
31

4
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
6
2
8

5
4
1
1
0
4
2
0
3
0
2
0
0
4
0
0
1
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
3
1
28
5
33

Edicom actions
7
0
0
0
0
1
2
0
3
1
1
0
0
3
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
14
4
18

8
0
0
0
0
3
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
3
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
4
2
16
4
20

6
1
0
0
1
2
2
0
2
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
2
0
1
1
0
0
1
1
16
2
18

9
0
1
0
1
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
6
21
27

10
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
8
9

11
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
4

12
4
4
0
0
1
5
1
3
6
5
1
5
2
0
2
12
0
4
0
7
0
0
1
5
1
69
15
84

13

0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
13
17

Total
14
9
2
3
25
32
1
24
16
16
3
5
23
2
3
17
1
14
4
16
5
2
10
26
13
286
107
393

51