Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 January 2005 on Community statistics concerning balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment
Date: 2010-06-14
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU statistics, balance of payments, direct investment, foreign investment, international trade, service industry

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 14.6.2010 
COM(2010)307 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT 

on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 of the European Parliament and 
of the Council of 12 January 2005 on Community statistics concerning balance of 
payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment 

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT 

on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 of the European Parliament and 
of the Council of 12 January 2005 on Community statistics concerning balance of 
payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment 

1. 

INTRODUCTION 

The main objective of Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 of the European Parliament and of the 
Council  on  Community  statistics  concerning  balance  of  payments,  international  trade  in 
services  and  foreign  direct  investment1  is  to  establish  a  common  framework  and  statistical 
quality  standards  for  the  systematic  production  of  European  Union  statistics  on  balance  of 
payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment. 

Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 states that the Commission shall submit a report 
to  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  on  the  implementation  the  Regulation  by 28 
February 2010. In particular, the report shall: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

record the quality of the statistics produced; 

assess  the  benefits  accruing  to  the  Union,  the  Member  States  and  the  providers  and 
users of statistical information of the statistics produced in relation to the costs; 

identify areas for potential improvement and amendments considered necessary in the 
light of the results obtained; 

review  the  functioning  of  the  Balance  of  Payments  Committee  and  recommend 
whether the scope of implementing measures should be redefined. 

This  report  examines  the  most  important  aspects  of  the  implementation  of  Regulation  (EC) 
No 184/2005 by the Member States and the measures taken by the Commission to ensure high 
quality European statistics concerning balance of payments, international trade in services and 
foreign direct investment. 

2. 

IMPLEMENTING MEASURES 

Since the adoption of Regulation (EC) No 184/2005, the following implementing regulations 
have been adopted: 

(1) 

Commission Regulation (EC) No 601/2006 of 18 April 2006 implementing Regulation 
(EC)  No 184/2005  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  as  regards  the 
format and the procedure for the transmission of data2;  

1 
2 

OJ L 35, 8.2.2005, p. 23. 
OJ L 106, 19.4.2006, p. 7. 

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(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  602/2006  of  18  April  2006  adapting  Regulation 
(EC)  No 184/2005  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  through  the 
updating of data requirements3;  

Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  1055/2008  of  27 October  2008  implementing 
Regulation  (EC)  No 184/2005  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council,  as 
regards quality criteria and quality reporting for balance of payments statistics4; 

Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  707/2009  of  5 August  2009  amending  Regulation 
(EC)  No 184/2005  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  on  Community 
statistics  concerning  balance  of  payments,  international  trade  in  services  and  foreign 
direct investment, as regards the update of data requirements5.  

3. 

MAIN DATA SETS CONCERNED 

Balance  of  payments  statistics  provide  comprehensive  information  on  transactions  between 
the reporting economy and the rest of the world. Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 concerns the 
collection of the following four datasets:  

–  Quarterly Balance of Payments early estimates (Euro indicators); 

–  Quarterly Balance of Payments; 

–  Annual International Trade in Services; 

–  Annual Foreign Direct Investments. 

In particular, for each of these datasets, data are collected by Eurostat from the Member States 
and used for producing EU aggregates that are published along with the individual Member 
States data on Eurostat’s online database6.  

Generally  speaking,  the  first  estimate  of  the  quarterly  main  aggregates  (current  account 
balance  and  services  account  balance)  is  available  10  weeks  after  the  end  of  the  reference 
period.  The  second  estimate  is  released  15  weeks  after  the  end  of  the  reference  period,  and 
includes  a  broader  set  of  balance  of  payments  items  and  a  geographical  breakdown  that 
consists  of  the  main  economic  partners,  in  particular  the  most  important  developed  and 
emerging economies. 

On an annual basis, international trade in services and foreign direct investment statistics are 
published  in  greater  detail.  Annual  data  on  international  trade  in  services  are  broken  down 
according to a comprehensive list of service types and 42 economies. Data are transmitted by 

3 

4 
5 

6 

OJ L 106, 19.4.2006, p. 10. In particular, Regulation (EC) No 602/2006 is aimed at updating the data 
requirements  and  readjusting  the  level  of  breakdown,  including  some  geographical  breakdowns,  in 
order to improve the quality of the balance of payments statistics;. 
OJ L 283, 28.10.2008, p. 3. 
OJ  L  204,  6.8.2009,  p.  3.  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  707/2009  is  aimed  at  adjusting  the  data 
requirements  for  quarterly  balance  of  payments  and  euro  indicators,  updating  the  geographical 
breakdowns  in  the  light  of  the  new  geo-political  situation  and  introducing  the  activity  breakdown 
according to the new classification of economic activities (NACE rev.2). 
Eurostat Database, available from: 
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/statistics/search_database (18.3.2010). 

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the Member States nine months after the end of the reference period and are published about 
two months later. Annual foreign direct investment statistics include data on flows and stocks, 
according to type of instrument, partner country and economic activity. Data are provided by 
the Member States nine months after the end of the reference period and are published about 
three months later. 

4. 

QUALITY OF THE STATISTICS PRODUCED 

Pursuant  to  Article  4(2)  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  184/2005,  Member  States  are  required  to 
supply  the  Commission  with  a  report  on  the  quality  of  the  data  transmitted.  Furthermore, 
according to Article 4(3), the quality of the data transmitted to Eurostat is to be assessed on 
the  basis  of  quality  reports,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Balance  of  Payments  Committee 
(hereafter referred to as the BoP Committee).  

The  following  analysis  refers  to  the  results  of  the  latest  available  quality  reports  on  data 
delivered  by  the  Member  States  in  2008.  Thus,  the  most  recent  developments,  including 
quality  improvements  recorded  by  various  Member  States  in  2009,  are  not  covered  in  this 
analysis. 

4.1. 

Timeliness 

The criterion of timeliness refers to compliance with the deadlines for data transmission. 

The deadlines are set in Annex I of Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 and further specified in the 
Balance of Payments Vademecum7, which is the reference document for the technical details 
of data transmission. 

Table  1  contains  an  analysis8  of  the  timeliness  of  balance  of  payments  statistics.  It 
demonstrates that for the most part the Member States are able to meet the deadlines for all 
the  data  sets,  with  very  few  exceptions  clustering  in  the  two  foreign  direct  investment 
domains. 

4.2. 

Coverage of data transmitted to Eurostat  

The criterion for data coverage refers to the availability of the data requested by Regulation 
(EC) No 184/2005 according to the reference periods and broken down by geographical area, 
item and activity. It is measured as the share of the number of values provided in relation to 
the total number of values requested.  

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8 

Balance of Payments Vademecum. 
http://circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/dsis/bop/library?l=/sdds_bop_metadata/vademecum_2008pdf/_EN_1.1
_&a=d (18.3.2010). 
Timeliness is assessed as ‘good’ if data were always delivered on or before the deadline, ‘acceptable’ if 
the delay, on average, did not exceed five days, and ‘bad’ in other cases. 

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Table 1: Timeliness of the data transmission  

Euro 
indicators 

Quarterly 
Balance of 
Payments 

International 
Trade in 
Services 

Foreign Direct 
Investment — 
Flows 

Foreign Direct 
Investment — 
Stocks 

reference 
period + 2 
months 

reference 
period + 3 
months 

reference period 
+ 9 months 

reference 
period + 9 (or 
21) month9 

reference 
period +9 (or 
21) months 

Deadline:  

Austria  

Belgium  

Bulgaria  

Cyprus  

good 

good 

good 

good 

Czech Republic  

good 

Denmark  

Estonia  

Finland  

France  

Germany  

Greece  

Hungary  

Ireland  

Italy  

Latvia  

Lithuania  

Luxembourg  

Malta  

Netherlands  

Poland  

Portugal  

Romania  

Slovakia  

Slovenia  

Spain  

Sweden  

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

United Kingdom  

acceptable 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

acceptable 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

Good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

bad 

good 

good 

good 

good 

bad 

good 

bad 

good 

bad 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

good 

bad 

good 

good 

good 

good 

bad 

9 

For FDI (both flows and stocks), there are two separate data requests, with different deadlines: one with 
a deadline of 9 months after the end of the reference period, and the other with a deadline of 21 months 
after the end of the reference period. 

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Table 2: Coverage 

Euro 
indicators 

Quarterly 
Balance of 
Payments 

International 
Trade in 
Services 

Foreign Direct 
Investment — 
Flows 

Foreign Direct 
Investment — 
Stocks 

Austria  

Belgium  

Bulgaria  

Cyprus  

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

Czech Republic  

complete 

Denmark  

Estonia  

Finland  

France  

Germany  

Greece  

Hungary  

Ireland  

Italy  

Latvia  

Lithuania  

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

Luxembourg  

complete 

Malta  

complete 

Netherlands  

complete 

Poland  

Portugal  

Romania  

Slovakia  

Slovenia  

Spain  

Sweden  

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

incomplete 

complete 

incomplete 

complete 

incomplete 

incomplete 

complete 

incomplete 

complete 

incomplete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

incomplete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

incomplete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

incomplete 

incomplete 

incomplete 

incomplete 

incomplete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

incomplete 

complete 

incomplete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

complete 

incomplete 

incomplete 

incomplete 

complete 

United Kingdom  

complete 

incomplete 

incomplete 

complete 

incomplete 

The  data  requests  used  for  computing  this  indicator  are  specified  in  Annex  I  of  Regulation 
(EC) No 184/2005. Table 2 summarises10 this indicator by Member State and by data set.  

All  the  Member  States  complied  with  the  requests,  at  least  partially,  and  no  data  sets  are 
missing. The large majority of Member States delivered four complete data sets, or three out 

10 

The  coverage  is  considered  ‘complete’  if  more  than  98 %  of  the  requested  values  were  provided, 
‘incomplete’ if the request was partially fulfilled and less than 98 % of the values were provided, and 
‘missing’ if there was no response to the request. 

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of  four.  Only  three  Member  States  (the  Netherlands,  the  United  Kingdom  and  Sweden) 
delivered most of the data sets incomplete. 

The most difficult request concerns international trade in services, with only sixteen Member 
States able to comply fully. 

4.3.  Methodological soundness 

The criterion relating to methodological soundness refers to compliance with internationally 
accepted standards, guidelines and good practices.  

All the Member States are broadly in line with the international standards as defined in: the 
Balance  of  Payments  Manual,  5th  edition  (BPM5),  published  by  the  International  Monetary 
Fund  (IMF);  the  Benchmark  Definition  of  Foreign  Direct  Investment,  3rd  edition  (BD3), 
published by the Organisation for the Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); and 
the  Manual  on  Statistics  of  International  Trade  in  Services,  jointly  published  by  the  United 
Nations (UN), the European Commission, the IMF, the OECD, the UN Conference on Trade 
and  Development  (UNCTAD)  and  the  World  Trade  organisation  (WTO).  Deviations  from 
this  methodology  are  regularly  monitored  via  the  Quality  Reports.  These  divergences  are 
discussed in the BoP Committee and the Balance of Payments Working Group, the aim being 
to foster harmonisation. 

International standards have recently been revised. The 6th edition of the Balance of Payments 
Manual  (BPM6)  was  issued  in  November  2008,  the  4th  edition  of  Benchmark  Definition  of 
Foreign Direct Investment (BD4) was completed in April 2008, and the updated version of the 
Manual  on  Statistics  of  International  Trade  in  Services  (MSITS  2010)  was  approved  by  the 
United Nations Statistical Commission in February 2010.  

Coordinated implementation of the new standards, already agreed with the Member States in 
the BoP Committee, should step up the level of compliance and, hence, the comparability of 
the underlying statistics. 

4.4. 

Stability 

The criterion for stability relates to the degree of closeness of the initial estimated values to 
the final values.  

Stability can be measured by the mean absolute percentage error11, an indicator agreed by the 
BoP Committee. Table 3 shows the latest available figures for this indicator with respect to 
the main items of the balance of payments of the European Union. An indicator with a low 
value means a high level of stability. This is the case for most of the items, although sizeable 
revisions are detected in income and its subcomponents, in particular as regards compensation 
of  employees  and  direct  investment  income.  These  are  among  the  items  which  are  more 
difficult to measure and where the largest revisions are expected, because of the data source 

11 

The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) is defined as follows: 

MAPE

=

1
N

N

∑

t

1
=

)(
tX
f

−

)(
tX
i

)(
tX
i

where Xf(t) is the initial estimate for BoP item X in reference quarter t; Xi(t) is the last available estimate 
for  the  same  BoP  item  in  reference  quarter  t;  N  is  the  number  of  observations  within  the  considered 
time-frame (that is, one year; as MAPE is computed for quarterly figures, N equals 4). 

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normally  used.  In  fact,  the  final  values  for  these  items  are  generally  based  on  the  result  of 
annual surveys, whereas the initial ones rely on estimations, which do not offer a high degree 
of accuracy. 

Table 3: Mean absolute percentage error for the EU aggregates 

Credits 

Debits 

2006 

2007 

2006 

2007 

Current account 

-Goods 

-Services 

Transport 

Travel 

Other services 

-Income 

2.3 % 

0.1 % 

0.7 % 

1.4 % 

4.8 % 

1.9 % 

9.3 % 

Compensation of employees  

11.4 % 

2.9 % 

0.9 % 

1.9 % 

2.3 % 

3.2 % 

1.5 % 

8.2 % 

9.4 % 

1.3 % 

0.4 % 

1.4 % 

1.6 % 

3.2 % 

1.6 % 

6.9 % 

6.7 % 

1.5 % 

0.5 % 

1.8 % 

4.5 % 

2.8 % 

0.9 % 

6.0 % 

1.7 % 

Direct investment income 

22.3 % 

19.8 % 

20.4 % 

20.9 % 

Portfolio investment income 

Other investment income 

-Current transfers 

3.8 % 

1.1 % 

10.5 % 

2.4 % 

2.8 % 

0.8 % 

4.1 % 

2.0 % 

5.8 % 

4.7 % 

1.7 % 

2.0 % 

4.5. 

Internal consistency 

Internal consistency measures coherence within the dataset delivered on the basis of net errors 
and  omissions,  although,  in  principle,  the  balance  of  payments  accounts  are  balanced.  Thus 
the sum of all the items should add up to zero. However, in practice, imbalances do occur as a 
result of imperfections in source data and compilation. Net errors and omissions are derived 
residually  as  the  item  balancing  the  accounts.  Sometimes  compilation  errors  offset  one 
another, so that the size of this residual item does not necessarily provide any indication of the 
overall accuracy of the statement. However, net errors and omissions are generally considered 
a good indicator for measuring the internal consistency of the balance of payments. 

Table 4: Average Relative Error 2005-2007 

Austria  

Belgium  

Bulgaria  

Cyprus  

Czech Republic  

Denmark  

Estonia  

Finland  

France  

3 % 

2 % 

9 % 

3 % 

2 % 

5 % 

2 % 

6 % 

Germany  

Greece  

Hungary  

Ireland  

Italy  

Latvia  

Lithuania  

Luxembourg 

13 %  Malta  

6 % 

2 % 

2 % 

5 % 

2 % 

1 % 

3 % 

1 % 

4 % 

Netherlands  

Poland  

Portugal  

Romania  

Slovakia  

Slovenia  

Spain  

Sweden  
United 
Kingdom  

5 % 

4 % 

7 % 

3 % 

2 % 

3 % 

2 % 

7 % 

4 % 

Table  4  shows  the  Average  Relative  Error  recorded  by  the  Member  States  for  the  period 
2005-2007.  This  indicator  is  based  on  net  errors  and  omissions,  and  is  also  analysed  in  the 

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Quality Reports. It is equal to the average of the absolute value of net errors and omissions 
during the period in question (measured as a share of the average of current account credits 
and  debits),  as  recorded  in  the  quarterly  balance  of  payments  of  the  Member  States.  In 
principle,  as  errors  and  omissions  should  be  equal  to  zero,  this  indicator  should  be 
insignificant.  This  is  indeed  the  case  for  the  majority  of  Member  States.  Only  one  Member 
State (France) records a value for the indicator in excess of 10 %, and for six Member States it 
is higher than 5 %. 

5. 

BENEFITS  ACCRUING  TO  USERS  AND  RELEVANCE  OF  BALANCE  OF  PAYMENTS 
STATISTICS 

Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 is a response to the needs of data users. This Section analyses 
how these data are used and the benefits of balance of payments statistics. 

Balance of payments statistics are used intensively for policy-making purposes by the relevant 
national  and  international  institutions.  The  European  Commission  and  the  Council,  the 
European  Central  Bank  (ECB)  and  the  Eurosystem,  the  IMF,  the  Bank  for  International 
Settlements, the OECD, the G3 and G7, all make use of these statistics.  

Balance of payments statistics, along with the international investment position, are a tool for 
monitoring monetary policy. In combination with other indicators, statistics on the exchange 
of  goods  and  services  are  used  to  assess  inflationary  pressure  as  well  as  any  impact  of 
international demand on exports and, hence, on gross domestic product. Current account and 
international  investment  positions  as  a  whole  are  used  to  assess  the  sustainability  of  the 
exchange rate.  

Balance of payments statistics are also included in the Convergence reports published by the 
European Commission and the ECB on individual Member States not yet participating in the 
Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).  

The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (hereafter the TFEU) refers explicitly 
to  the  balance  of  payments  (in  Articles  143  and  144  for  instance),  and  requires  the 
Commission  to  keep  the  Council  regularly  informed  on  the  development  of  the  balance  of 
payments situation in Member States not participating in the EMU.  

Current  account  developments  in  individual  countries  are  analysed  in  relation  to  their 
competitiveness, whereas direct investment statistics are used to analyse the attractiveness of 
each country.  

Balance  of  payments  statistics  are  an  important  source  for  other  key  statistics  collected  in 
related statistical domains with EU relevance, such as: 

–  Gross  Domestic  Product  (incorporating  cross-border  transactions  in  goods  and 
services)  including  flash  estimates,  for  which  monthly  balance  of  payments 
indicators are needed; 

–  Gross  National  Income  (incorporating  cross-border  transactions  in  goods  and 

services as well as income);  

–  the  rest  of  the  world  account  in  the  EU  and  in  the  Euro  Area  quarterly  sector 

accounts, including financial accounts. 

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Apart  from  the  main  aggregates,  specific  items  of  the  balance  of  payments  have  particular 
relevance for some users: 

–  detailed  information  on  international  trade  in  services  published  on  an  annual 
basis by Eurostat is important for trade negotiations and the definition of customs 
policies; 

–  the  European  Commission  and  the  G8  have  launched  measures  to  foster 

remittances and improve information about them; 

–  the geographical breakdown of the balance of payments statistics may contribute 

to monitoring interactions between the EU and third countries; 

–  the  composition  of  financial  flows  (in  terms  of  direct  investment,  portfolio  and 

other investment) is valuable for assessing financial stability. 

The  BoP  Committee  members  acknowledge  that  the  adoption  of  Regulation  (EC) 
No 184/2005 has triggered a number of changes that have improved the quality of balance of 
payments statistics from several points of view: 

–  it  has  improved  the  harmonisation  of  balance  of  payments  data  compiled  by 

different Member States; 

–  data users now have more detailed balance of payments statistics; 

–  it has provided a sound legal basis for the preparation of the National Statistical 

Programmes of the Member States; 

–  data are more timely and more accurate. 

6. 

COSTS AND BURDEN OF BALANCE OF PAYMENTS STATISTICS 

The  estimation  of  the  costs  involved  in  the  collection  and  dissemination  of  balance  of 
payments  statistics  is  quite  complex.  There  is  a  wide  range  of  data  sources  which  are  also 
used for the production of other statistics or linked to reporting by financial institutions and 
enterprises to regulatory authorities. Hence, it is difficult to disentangle the specific costs of 
collecting  and  producing  the  balance  of  payments  data  from  the  total  cost  incurred  for 
collecting data often used for other purposes. Besides, in certain Member States data may be 
collected  by  two  different  institutions,  the  national  central  bank  and  the  national  statistical 
office, making reliable estimates even more complicated. 

After  consulting  the  Members  of  the  BoP  Committee,  it  is  possible  to  estimate  the  labour 
input  required  for  the  production  and  dissemination  of  balance  of  payments  statistics  in  the 
EU. It amounts to approximately 900 full time equivalents. These resources can be more or 
less spread across the various balance of payments domains. The dataset which absorbs most 
input is the quarterly balance of payments, which requires 57 % of the resources, followed by 
international  trade  in  services  (23 %)  and  foreign  direct  investment  (20 %).  The  significant 
labour  input  required  for  the  production  of  quarterly  balance  of  payments  can  mostly  be 
attributed to the resources required for the production of a large set of statistics related to the 
financial account. 

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It  was  estimated  that  extra  activities  related  to  the  implementation  of  Regulation  (EC) 
No 184/2005 only generated rather a modest share of this input (about 13 %). 

Balance of payments data are needed for national purposes too and were already collected by 
the  Member  States  before  the  adoption  of  Regulation  (EC)  No 184/2005.  Therefore,  only 
limited additional resources are required to comply with its requirements. 

It should also be borne in mind that there is significant overlapping between the requirements 
of  Regulation  (EC)  No 184/2005  and  the  data  requests  of  other  national  and  international 
organisations, particularly those of the ECB and the IMF. The data produced by the Member 
States  specifically  for  Regulation  (EC)  No 184/2005  are  indistinguishable  from  others 
produced to comply with other data requirements.  

As  regards  the  burden  on  respondents  created  by  the  collection  of  data  on  balance  of 
payments,  the  Member  States  have  only  very  limited  information,  and  not  enough  to  allow 
any  sort  of  estimation.  Moreover,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  introduction  of  a 
reporting threshold on cross-border transactions at EU level, set initially at EUR 12 500 and 
then increased to EUR 50 000, has triggered a change most of the Member States' balance of 
payments collection systems. Before the introduction of the threshold most of the collection 
systems relied on settlements data collected from banks and payment service providers. Now 
almost all the collection systems are based on direct reporting and/or surveys. This change has 
meant  a  redistribution  of  the  burden  from  banks and  financial  intermediaries,  the  main  data 
providers under the settlement system and whose statistical obligations are now significantly 
reduced,  to  enterprises  and  households.  Whether  this  redistribution  has  also  reduced  the 
burden  on  the  overall  system,  and  to  what  extent,  is  an  issue  which  needs  further 
investigation.  There  is  not  enough  information  currently  available  for  conclusions  to  be 
drawn.  

7. 

AREAS FOR POTENTIAL IMPROVEMENTS AND AMENDMENTS 

Following  several  regulatory  developments,  briefly  summarised  in  Section  2,  in  general 
Regulation  (EC)  No 184/2005  may  be  considered  to  be  up-to-date.  Data  requirements  have 
been  modified  with  a  view  to  improving  the  methodology  used  in  computing  the  EU 
aggregates.  The  aim  was also  to  adapt the geographical  breakdown  to the new geo-political 
situation and the activity breakdown to the new classification of economic activities, NACE 
rev. 2. 

Future improvements implying amendments to Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 might include: 

–  further  updating  of  the  data  requirements  related  to  the  adoption  of  the  new 
international standards, BPM6, BD4 and MSITS 2010. The Balance of Payments 
compilers  agreed  to  implement  the  new  standards  in  2014,  together  with  the 
adoption of the new standards in National Accounts. Data requirements should be 
modified  before  2014  to  enable  the  new  standards  to  be  implemented  in  a 
harmonised manner by all the Member States; 

–  the  quality  criteria  for  the  quality  reports  required  by  Regulation  (EC) 
No 184/2005  are  defined  in  Regulation  (EC)  No 1055/2008.  As  they  differ  to  a 
certain extent from the quality criteria defined in Article 12(1) of Regulation (EC) 

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No  223/2009  on  European  statistics12,  they  could  be  updated  accordingly.  The 
timeline may need to be modified as well so that the data production cycle can be 
better synchronized with the quality reporting exercise; 

–  adoption  by  the  Commission  of  the  implementing  measures  of  Regulation  (EC) 
No 184/2005,  including  its  Annexes,  in  accordance  with  the  new  legal 
possibilities introduced by the TFEU. 

–  updating  of  the  data  requirements  introducing  the  collection  of  statistics  on 
international  trade  in  services  according  to  mode  of  supply,  as  defined  in  the 
MSITS 2010, with particular attention to mode 4 (presence of physical persons).  

Other  possible  improvements,  not  requiring  amendments  in  Regulation  (EC)  No 184/2005, 
were suggested by the Members of BoP Committee: 

–  at  present,  datasets  delivered  to  Eurostat  are  also  provided  to  other  European 
institutions  and  international  organisations,  such  as  the  ECB,  the  IMF  and  the 
OECD.  There  are  minor  differences  in  these  datasets,  as  the  level  of  detail 
required  by  each  organisation  may  not  be  exactly  the  same.  The  burden  on 
Member  States  could be  significantly reduced if the data requirements of all the 
international  organisations  were  harmonised.  If  this  objective  can  be  achieved, 
data transmission could be further simplified using Eurostat as a hub which passes 
on  the  data  received  from  the  Member  States  to  other  requesting  organisations. 
This procedure is already used for providing quarterly data on international trade 
in  services  to  the  ECB,  and  could  easily  be  extended  to  other  datasets  and 
organisations; 

–  promoting the exchange of best practices for methodology as well as the exchange 
institutions  at  national  and 

of  micro-  and  macro-data  among  statistical 
international level; 

–  exploiting for statistical purposes the provisions of Council Directive 2008/8/EC 
of 12 February 2008 amending Directive 2006/112/EC on the place of supply of 
services13.  Thus,  it  would  be  possible  to  set  up  a  system  to  record  international 
trade  in  services  within  the  EU  similar  to  the  system  already  in  force  for 
measuring trade in goods. 

8. 

FUNCTIONING OF THE BALANCE OF PAYMENTS COMMITTEE 

The  BoP  Committee  was  established  after  the  entry  into  force  of  Regulation  (EC) 
No 184/2005  and  was  convened  for  the  first  time  on  8  July  2005,  when  the  Rules  of 
Procedure and the tasks of the Committee were adopted. 

12 

13 

Regulation  (EC)  No  223/2009  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  11  March  2009  on 
European statistics and repealing Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1101/2008 of the European Parliament 
and  of  the  Council  on  the  transmission  of  data  subject  to  statistical  confidentiality  to  the  Statistical 
Office  of  the  European  Communities,  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  322/97  on  Community  Statistics, 
and Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom establishing a Committee on the Statistical Programmes of 
the European Communities. OJ L87, 31.3.2009, p. 164. 
OJ L 44, 20.2.2008, p. 11. 

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The tasks of the BoP Committee are as follows: 

–  to  define  quality  standards  and  specify  the  content  and  timing  of  the  quality 

reports; 

–  to assist the European Commission in assessing the quality of the data transmitted; 

–  to  define  the  format  and  procedure  according  to  which  Member  States  shall 

transmit the required data to the European Commission; 

–  to  take  the  necessary  measures  for  adapting  Regulation  (EC)  No 184/2005  to 

economic and technical changes; 

–  if  necessary,  to  update  the  definitions  and  data  requirements  (submission 

deadlines, revision, extension and elimination of the data flows, etc.). 

The BoP Committee Members were consulted on the functioning of their Committee and the 
results are very positive. As shown in Chart 1, the tasks of the BoP Committee are assessed as 
'more than satisfactory' by about three  quarters of the Members. According to the results of 
the  consultation,  certain  BoP  Committee  Members  are  of  the  view  that  the  BoP  Committee 
should be more involved in the discussion of strategic, conceptual and methodological issues. 
Other BoP Committee Members expressed the view that the BoP Committee's specific tasks 
are mainly regulatory and should remain so.  

The  BoP  Committee  has  met  six  times  since  2005.  The  main  achievements  of  the  BoP 
Committee include: 

–  expressing  an  opinion  on  all  the  implementing  measures  set  out  in  Section  2  of 

this report; 

–  agreeing on standards and content of the Quality Reports; 

–  discussing,  on  an  annual  basis,  the  state  of  compliance  with  Regulation  (EC) 

No 184/2005 and the quality reporting exercise; 

–  discussing and approving a coordinated approach for all the main methodological 
changes underway, including the implementation of the new manuals (BPM6 and 
BD4) and the classification of economic activities NACE rev. 2; 

–  discussing  developments  related  to  Regulation  (EC)  No 2560/2001  of  the 
European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  19  December  2001  on  cross-border 
payments  in  euros14,  which  introduced  changes  in  the  threshold  for  banks' 
statistical  reporting,  thus  triggering  a  profound  transformation  of  the  balance  of 
payments data collection systems of many Member States. 

14 

OJ L 344, 28.12.2001, p. 13. 

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13 

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Chart  1:  Satisfaction  of  the  BoP  Committee  Members  concerning  the  definition  of  the 

tasks of the Committee (1-5, 1 not satisfied at all, 5 very satisfied) 

60.0%

50.0%

40.0%

30.0%

20.0%

10.0%

0.0%

44.4%

33.3%

18.5%

0.0%

1

3.7%

2

3

4

5

9. 

CONCLUSIONS 

The  entry  into  force  of  Regulation  (EC)  No 184/2005  has  helped  to  harmonise  balance  of 
payments  statistics  throughout  the  EU  and  has  increased  the  availability  of  data  for  users. 
Regulation  (EC)  No 184/2005  also  provides  for  a  legal  basis  for  the  preparation  of  national 
statistical  programmes.  The  quality  of  the  data  produced,  in  its  various  types,  is  closely 
monitored by the BoP Committee. 

In  view  of  the  findings  of  this  report,  in  the  coming  years  it  may  be  possible  to  consider 
amending  Regulation  (EC)  No 184/2005  with  respect  to  the  issues  identified  in  the  review 
process:  

–  updating data requirements in line with the new international standards;  

–  bringing  the  quality  report  exercise  into  line  with  Eurostat’s  approach  to  quality 

and with Regulation (EC) No 223/2009, by modifying the quality criteria; 

–  adoption  by  the  Commission  of  the  implementing  measures  of  Regulation  (EC) 
No 184/2005  in  accordance  with  the  new  legal  possibilities  introduced  by  the 
TFEU. 

In  addition,  cooperation  with  the  ECB  (DG  Statistics)  and  with  other  international 
organisations,  such  as  the  IMF  and  the  OECD,  could  be  strengthened  further  in  order  to 
rationalise and harmonise data requirements, using Eurostat as a hub. 

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Before  putting  forward  the  relevant  proposals,  due  account  will  be  taken  of  the  discussions 
within the BoP Committee and its opinion.  

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