REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Decision No 1297/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on a Programme for the Modernisation of European Enterprise and Trade Statistics (MEETS)
Date: 2011-12-07
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU programme, Eurostat, data recording, economic recession, economic statistics, economic support, foreign trade, trade statistics, type of business

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 7.12.2011 
COM(2011) 859 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

on the implementation of Decision No 1297/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of 
the Council of 16 December 2008 on a Programme for the Modernisation of European 
Enterprise and Trade Statistics (MEETS) 

 
 
 
 
  
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

on the implementation of Decision No 1297/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of 
the Council of 16 December 2008 on a Programme for the Modernisation of European 
Enterprise and Trade Statistics (MEETS) 

1. 

INTRODUCTION 

Under the terms of Article 6 of Decision No 1297/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of 
the  Council  of  16  December  2008  on  a  Programme  for  the  Modernisation  of  European 
Enterprise  and  Trade  Statistics  (MEETS),  (hereinafter  referred  to  as  the  MEETS  Decision), 
the Commission shall 'by 31 December 2010, and thereafter on an annual basis until 2013, … 
submit  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  a  report  on  the  implementation  of  the 
MEETS Programme'.  

This  report  is  the  second  such  report  to  provide  an  overview  of  the  progress  made  by  the 
Member  States  and  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  in  implementing  the  activities  under  the 
MEETS Programme since the previous reporting period. The emphasis in the first report was 
on  the  actions  started  and/or  continued  in  the  annual  work  programmes  for  2009  and  2010. 
For  these  first  two  years,  the  level  of  implementation  of  MEETS  operational  credits  was 
almost  80%1. The  principal explanation for this figure is the reduced ability of the Member 
States to take part in EU projects after the economic and financial crisis of 2008.  

This  second  report  covers  the  initial  main  results  achieved  so  far,  as  well  as  the  major 
initiatives covered by the annual work programme for 2011, which was adopted in 2010.  

All MEETS activities are in line with the strategy set out in the Communication of 10 August 
2009  from  the  Commission  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  on  the  production 
method of EU statistics: a vision for the next decade2. 

2. 

OBJECTIVES, ANNUAL ACTIONS AND PRIORITIES 

Even though the MEETS programme runs until the end of 2013, a first overall evaluation was 
carried  out  at  the  end  of  2010.  Following  this  evaluation,  the  MEETS  annual  work 
programme  for  2011  was  adjusted.  A  streamlining  of  the  programme  took  place,  which 
resulted  in  a  review  of  the  number  of  MEETS  projects  and  annual  actions,  and  a  move 
towards fewer strategic orientations. 

1 

2 

Eurostat signalled in the Annual Activity Report 2010 an exception regarding the use of MEETS credits 
on the budget of 2010. This exception was taken into account in the calculation of the level of execution 
of MEETS operational credits for the first two years. 
COM(2009) 404. 

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The main pillars of the MEETS programme continue to be organised around the collaborative 
networks  in  the  European  Statistical  System  (ESS),  known  as  'ESSnets'.  All  of  the  eight 
planned ESSnets are now up and running, the last one having been launched in early 2011. As 
a result of the streamlining exercise, the 2011 work programme provides for a longer period 
of support to a number of these ESSnets in the form of multi-annual grants, in place of annual 
grants.  

Funding has also been provided for the individual grant agreements concluded with National 
Statistical  Institutes  (NSIs),  and  a  number  of  external  studies  were  also  contracted.  Other 
projects are ongoing which have no financial implications or which are integrated into other 
activities.  

In total, the EU budget for the 2011 work programme is set at a little over € 11 million, and it 
covers 19 annual actions plus the technical and administrative support needed to implement 
the programme. Grants, either through ESSnets or in the form of individual grants, remain the 
most common instrument for financing the actions (at around 90%). 

2.1. 

Objective  1:  To  review  priorities  and  develop  target  sets  of  indicators  for  new 
areas 

Identifying areas of lesser importance 

Since  the  adoption  by  the  ESSC  of  a  new  strategy-driven  approach  in  November  2010,  the 
areas of lesser importance in business and trade statistics are identified in the framework of 
the  annual  strategic  review  of  Eurostat's  priorities.  The  review  in  2010  resulted  in  the 
streamlining  of  the  MEETS  programme  and  the  identification  of  a  number  of  negative 
priorities  which  need  to  be  developed  further  into  concrete  proposals  for  amending  existing 
legal acts. These concern the statistics/series on Kind of Activity Unit in Annexes 2 and 4 of 
the Structural Business Statistics (SBS) Regulation3 and the industrial new orders variable of 
Annex  A  to  the  Short-Term  Statistics  (STS)  Regulation4.  Furthermore,  work  continues  on 
lessening the requirements for Intrastat and on rebalancing the international trade statistics for 
goods and services in favour of services.  

Developing new areas (enterprise groups, globalisation, entrepreneurship, innovation) 

At  the  end  of  2010,  and  based  on  the  results  of  an  initial  study,  methodological  work  was 
launched relating to the development of statistics on enterprise groups in two priority areas, 
namely: "intra-group trade" and "research and development and innovation". A Europe-wide 
consultation of multnational enterprises was undertaken on the feasibility of central reporting 
of  these  data  by  the  parent  company.  In  addition,  following  a  thorough  study  of  the 
information currently available at national and European level, an inventory was developed of 

3 

4 

Regulation  (EC)  No  295/2008  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  11  March  2008 
concerning structural business statistics (recast). OJ L 97, 9.4.2008, p. 13. 
Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  1165/98  of  19  May  1998  concerning  short-term  statistics.  OJ  L  162, 
5.6.1998, p. 1. 

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the various possible ways of collecting data on the two key areas related to enterprise groups. 
Both activities resulted in recommendations on how best to collect the data in the two areas 
concerned  and  have  provided  a  methodological  basis  for  ESS  data  collection  on  enterprise 
groups via their parent companies. An initial assessment of this methodological work will be 
integrated in the activities of the ESSnet on the Profiling of Large and Complex Multinational 
Enterprise groups before starting any pilot-tests (see objective 2). 

The study regarding the availability within the ESS and calculation of indicators proposed in 
the OECD Handbook on Economic Globalisation Indicators was finalised by the beginning 
of 2011. Following the streamlining of the MEETS programme, further methodological work 
and  the  organisation  of  pilot-tests  will  take  place  within  the  framework  of  the  ESSnet  on 
Measuring Global Value Chains (see objective 3).  

Regarding the monitoring of policies related to entrepreneurship, work is continuing on the 
development  of  the  legal  framework  for  the  collection  of  harmonised  data  on  employer 
business demography. In addition, a first EU-wide voluntary data collection was launched in 
2011  for  the  proposed  high-growth  indicators  of  innovative  firms,  servicing  the  newly-
established "innovation Union headline indicator" in the Europe 2020 context. Co-operation 
with  the  OECD  also  continued  with  the  elaboration  of  the  joint  Entrepreneurship  Indicators 
Programme  EIP  and  developing  the  determinants  of  entrepreneurship,  incorporating  the 
results of the workshop held at the end of 2010.  

2.2. 

Objective 2: To achieve a streamlined framework of business-related statistics 

Integrating concepts and methods within the legal framework 

The  ESSnet  on  Consistency  of  concepts  and  methods  of  business  and  trade  related 
statistics, which was set up in 2010, started work on the inventory of the implementation of 
statistical units and their definitions in the Member States. Workshops were organised in early 
2011 with experts from Eurostat and the NSIs and a questionnaire was drawn up and tested to 
collect further information. In addition, a report was drafted which outlined the main issues to 
be investigated and the planned methods and procedures. Furthermore, preparatory work was 
done in order to launch work in early 2012 on the target population, frames, reference period, 
classifications  and  their  applications  (breakdowns,  specific  aggregates),  as  well  as  their 
characteristics and definitions.  

The project "Improvement of consistency between balance of payments and international 
including 
transaction  statistics"  has  been  closed.  The 
recommendations and a full reconciliation table, contributed to the work of the Task Force on 
consistency between Balance of Payments statistics and trade statistics.  

this  project, 

results  of 

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Developing statistics on enterprise groups 

There  was  a  lot  of  progress  to  report  in  the  context  of  the  EuroGroups  Register5  (EGR), 
which  aims  to  provide  consistent  and  coordinated  survey  frames  for  high  quality  statistics 
relating to globalisation.  

The ESSnet on EGR Methodology took the development of the methodology of central and 
national  EGR  processes  and  the  data  model  a  stage  further  (EGR  version  2).  The  EGR 
population of 5 000 Multinational Enterprise Groups (MNEs) was finalised and work began 
on extending the EGR population, bringing the total to 10 000 MNEs. Guidelines on the EGR 
methodology  were  disseminated  to  Member  States.  The  analysis  of  the  full  coverage  of  the 
EGR  population  for  Foreign  Affiliates  Statistics  (FATS)  and  statistics  on  Foreign  Direct 
Investment (FDI) is ongoing. 

In  addition,  the  number  of  grants  provided  in  2009  (16)  and  in  2010  (8))  supported  the 
definition  of  the  EGR  processes  and  methods  at  national  level  for  importing,  validating, 
merging and exporting EGR data in the national register environments. They also covered the 
definition  and  the  first  phase  of  the  construction  of  tools  to  automate,  where  possible,  the 
EGR  processes  at  national  level  and  to  enhance  the  quality  of  the  EGR  data.  All  MS  have 
access to all results of these grant actions and can thus benefit from such access in order to 
prepare and develop the national implementation of the EGR. 

The ESSnet on Profiling of Large and Complex Multinational Enterprise Groups is part 
of  the  EGR  framework.  Its  goal  is  to  achieve  coordinated  and  meaningful  statistical  unit 
structures  and  agreement  on  the  reporting  of  statistics  for  enterprise  groups.  A  feasibility 
study on international profiling and a study on statistical units related to MNE  were  carried 
out  in  2010.  The  resulting  methodological  work  will  be  further  developed,  taking  actual 
testing into account. The feasibility of implementing the recommendation on the definition of 
enterprise will be assessed in the framework of the activities of the ESSnet on Consistency.  

Conducting Community surveys to minimise the burden on enterprises 

A  study  is  being  prepared  on  the  methodological  issues  related  to  the  use  of  EU  sampling 
schemes in data collections.  

2.3. 

Objective  3:  To  support  the  implementation  of  a  more  efficient  method  of 
producing enterprise and trade statistics 

Making  better  use  of  data  that  already  exist  in  the  statistical  system,  including  the 
possibility of estimates 

The work on "data warehousing and data linking in the production of business statistics” 
is being carried out by an ESSnet that was set up in the second half of 2010. As a first step, 

5 

The legal basis was established by Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 of the European Parliament and of the 
Council  of  20 February  2008  establishing  a  common  framework  for  business  registers  for  statistical 
purposes and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 2186/93. OJ L 61, 5.3.2008, p.6. 

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the ESSnet initiated a stocktaking of the existing data linking and warehousing approaches. A 
questionnaire was developed and sent to the ESS Member States and Switzerland in order to 
create an inventory of current best practices in integrated business data systems and to obtain 
an overview of the problems encountered and desired solutions. Results were presented and 
discussed  in  a  workshop  which  took  place  in  April  2011.  The  survey  and  discussions 
demonstrated the need to analyse a number of broad topics in relation to the establishment and 
operation  of  a  data  warehouse.  These  included  an  exact  definition/scope  of  the  statistical 
datawarehouse  in  this  ESSnet,  the  metadata,  the  position/role  of  the  business  register,  data 
confidentiality  and  inconsistency,  and  quality.  The  ESSnet  will  fulfil  the  role  of  an  expert 
group,  building  up  a  knowledge  base  and  defining  and  providing  guidelines  and  also 
providing services in the form of peer reviews and consultancy. 

Furthermore, a great deal of progress was achieved in the three projects covering the linking 
of micro-data for individual statistics:  

–  An exercise involving structural business statistics, foreign trade, international sourcing 
micro  data  linking  was  implemented  and  a  methodology  for  this  data  extraction  and 
micro  data  linking  was  developed.  The  results  are  taken  into  account  in  another  major 
action  which  began  in  early  2011  with  the  launch  of  the  ESSnet  on  Measuring  Global 
Value  Chains.  This  ESSnet  will  address  one  of  the  major  initiatives  put  forward  in  the 
Europe 2020 Strategy and its aim is to compile data on the increasingly globalised business 
activity and organisation and its impact on job creation and sustainable growth. The project 
also  aims  to  help  policy  makers  to  make  better  informed  decisions  and  to  monitor  the 
globalisation/internationalisation of economies by developing and providing indicators on 
economic globalisation. 

–  The  study  undertaken  for  the  project,  “new  statistical  indicators  on  external  trade  by 
business characteristics”, resulted in a compilers' guide for the production of statistics on 
international trade by enterprise characteristics based on the linkage between trade data and 
Business  Register  information.  The  study  also  provided  information  on  methodological 
issues  related  to  the  compilation  of  combined  external  trade  and  business  statistics.  As  a 
result,  a  requirement  to  compile  these  statistics  annually  was  included  in  the  revised 
Intrastat and Extrastat Regulations. Regular production started in 2011, with 2009 as first 
referenc year. Several pilot studies for which grants were given to Member States are still 
ongoing  in  order  to  identify  and  develop  new  statistical  indicators  which  combine  trade 
and  business  statistics.  A  further  aim  of  these  studies  is  to  improve  the  qualitative  and 
methodological issues around the compilation of these new indicators.  

–  The ESSnet on Linking micro-data on ICT usage is currently studying the feasibility of 
alternative  survey  strategies  to  improve  data  representativeness  in  linked  datasets, 
including their cost-benefit analysis. 

As  part  of  the  project  "Methodology  for  modern  business  statistics  (optimal  sampling, 
model based estimation, data integration)" work is ongoing on the review of the Handbook 

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on methods for European business statistics and on methodological developments in key areas 
such  as  integration  of  surveys,  modern  data  collection  methods  and  advanced  estimation 
techniques.  

Making better use of data that already exist in the economy 

In  order  to  help  Member  States  to  use  administrative  data  for  statistical  purposes  in  the 
most  efficient  way,  the  MEETS  programme  provides  the  NSIs  with  financial  support  to 
develop their systems for the collection and processing of data. The grant agreements signed 
with 16 NSIs in 2009 resulted in the implementation of new ways of updating the Business 
Registers for statistical purposes,  innovative methods  for  estimating  the  data  for  micro-  and 
small companies, creation of tools for quality checks, correction or errors and storage of the 
data. This will lead to a reduction in the reporting burden on companies and will enhance the 
quality of statistical information. 

The  ESSnet  on  the  use  of  administrative  and  accounts  data,  which  was  launched  in  2009, 
continues to investigate the practical issues related to the use of these data in order to produce 
statistics which are common to all NSIs. The results of the research and analytical work done 
in  the  first  two  years  of  activity  will  be  further  developed  into  recommendations  and 
dissemination of good practices. The main results achieved so far concern the preparation of 
the  overview  of  national  practices  on  the  use  of  administrative  data,  the  description  of  the 
national practices on the use of different methods to estimate incomplete data sets when using 
administrative data for STS, and the production of a list of indicators for assessing the quality 
of business statistics based on administrative data.  

Developing tools for the more efficient extraction, transmission and treatment of data 

Within the project "Making better use of customs data in external trade statistics (Extrastat)", 
several grant agreements were signed with Member States at the end of 2010. The aim is to 
provide support for the adaptation of their data collection systems for Extrastat statistics to the 
new  customs  systems  introduced  by  the  Modernised  Customs  Code6.  Initial  results  are 
expected by the beginning of 2012. 

For  the  project  "facilitating  the  use  of  the  Combined  Nomenclature",  the  individual  grants 
provided to National Statistical Institutes resulted in the availability of classification aids for 
Intrastat declarants. Web based tools and other materials were developed that make it easier to 
identify the correct commodity codes. This will enhance the quality of the data and reduce the 
burden on respondents. 

In  April  2011,  the  Member  States  were  invited  to  participate  in  the  project  "Facilitation  of 
data  transfer  from  enterprises  to  national  statistical  institutes".  Support  will  be  provided  for 
the  development  of  IT  systems  for  the  collection  of  statistical  data  from  enterprises,  the 

6 

Regulation (EC) No 450/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 laying 
down the Community Customs Code (Modernised Customs Code). OJ L 145, 4.6.2008, p.1. 

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development  of  national  statistical  taxonomies  and  he  creation  of  national  statistical  XBRL 
taxonomies.  

2.4. 

Objective 4: To modernise Intrastat 

Harmonising methods to improve quality under a simplified Intrastat 

As a result of the streamlining exercise, the two projects "Improvement of data quality under a 
simplified Intrastat system" and "Reduction of asymmetries in Intrastat" which were launched 
at the beginning of the MEETS programme were merged into one at the end of 2010 under the 
title "Harmonising methods to improve quality in intra EU-trade statistics".  

Under  this  new  project,  Member  States  continue  to  receive  support  in  reconciling  the 
assymetries  and  developing  and  implementing  measures  to  improve  quality,  applying  the 
methodological  guidelines  developed  under  a  service  contract  in  2010.  The  two  EU-wide 
reconciliation rounds organised in 2009 and 2010 have led to the correction and/or prevention 
of a number of significant assymetries, while for some specific goods (gas, electricity, vessels, 
aircraft)  a  need  for  further  improvement  of  the  methodological  instructions  was  identified. 
Grants were provided to Member States for the reconciliation exercises.  

Making better use of administrative data 

To  enhance  the  use  of  administrative  data  by  Member  States  in  the  production  of  Intrastat 
statistics, grants were made in 2010. The projects are still ongoing. They concern the use of 
administrative data for the validation of data collected in the Intrastat system and the (further) 
development of joint data collection systems in a number of Member States for Intrastat, VAT 
and VAT Information Exchange (VIES).  

Improving and facilitating data exchange within Intrastat  

The  studies  undertaken  and  the  support  provided  to  Member  States resulted  in  an  increased 
use of electronic means and technologies for data validation through automated processes and 
the application of advanced statistical concepts for error detection and auto-correction. 

3. 

CONCLUSION 

The MEETS Decision details the actions which are to be financed during the period covered 
by the programme. This justifies the relatively large number of initiatives undertaken in the 
first two years of the programme. However, one of the results of the economic and financial 
crisis  of  2008  was  a  "saturation"  of  financing  possibilities  in  the  NSIs  owing  to  the  lack  of 
human  resources.  Therefore,  there  was  a  need  to  streamline  the  programme  by  integrating 
certain initiatives and/or to focus them towards the six main areas organised through ESSnets: 
consistency  of  concepts  and  methods,  EGR,  profiling  large  and  complex  multinational 
enterprise  groups,  micro-data  linking  and  data  warehousing  in  statistical  production, 
methodology for business statistics, and the use of administrative and accounting data. 

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The ESSnets that started in 2009 or early 2010 did a great deal of work, in particular on the 
EGR methodology, Profiling and the Use of administrative data. For the other main pillars of 
the  MEETS  programme  (consistency  of  legal  acts,  data  warehouse  and  data  linking 
initiatives), the activities concerned preparatory work, putting the basic infrastructure in place 
(launching  ESSnets,  multi-beneficiary  grant  agreements,  etc.)  and  creating  networks  of 
national experts. 

In  addition,  financing  via  individual  grants  continued,  mainly  in  order  to  accompany  the 
progress  in  methodology  and  to  test  certain  methodological  recommendations,  but  also  to 
develop tools for more efficient extraction, transmission and processing of data. A number of 
results are already available, but most actions are still ongoing. 

It is important to regard all actions as inter-connected initiatives, so as to make the national 
procedures for the collection of enterprise and trade statistics more efficient. This requires a 
long-term  commitment  and  constant  monitoring.  Further  progress  reports  will  therefore  be 
provided in 2012 and 2013. The final evaluation will take place at the beginning of 2014. 

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