REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 of 20 February 2008 establishing a common framework for business registers for statistical purposes and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 2186/93
Date: 2015-03-05
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU statistics, administrative formalities, confidentiality, cost analysis, data recording, exchange of information, statistical method, type of business













EUR-Lex - 52015DC0090 - EN











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52015DC0090

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 of 20 February 2008 establishing a common framework for business registers for statistical purposes and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 2186/93 /* COM/2015/090 final */









1. Introduction
Regulation
(EC) No 177/2008[1] (hereinafter
referred to as the "BR Regulation") establishes a common framework
for business registers for statistical purposes. It entered into force on 25
March 2008 and repealed Regulation (EEC) No 2186/93[2]
(hereinafter referred to as the "repealed BR Regulation"). 
The
BR Regulation aims at:
·            
high
quality and harmonised statistical business registers in the Member States;
·            
improved
statistics related to globalisation.
For
these purposes the BR Regulation requires Member States to:
·            
take
all measures necessary to ensure the quality of their business registers;
·            
transmit
to Eurostat data on multinational enterprise groups and their constituent
units.
In
the long term the quality improvements of the statistical business registers
are supposed to reduce the costs for the production of business statistics and
the administrative burden on respondents. However, in the short and medium
terms, the implementation of the BR Regulation implies some initial costs for
National Statistical Institutes and some modest increase of the administrative
burden, in order to reach the levels of quality and harmonisation necessary to
allow the desired benefits.
Article 6 of the
BR Regulation requires a Commission report to the European Parliament and the
Council on its implementation, “addressing in particular the cost of the
statistical system, the burden on business and the benefits”.
This report
examines the most important aspects of the implementation of the BR Regulation
with regard to the measures taken by the Commission (Eurostat) and the impact
of the BR Regulation on:
·            
the
cost for the National Statistical Institutes and Eurostat (the statistical
system);
·            
the
administrative burden on the respondents;
·            
the
benefits in terms of quality of the statistical business registers and improved
statistical measurement of globalisation phenomena.
The timing of
the report is related to the ongoing preparation of an encompassing and
streamlined Framework Regulation Integrating Business Statistics and the
consequent plans to repeal several Regulations, including the BR Regulation.
2. The BR
Regulation at a glance
All Member
States of the European Union (EU) maintain business registers for statistical
purposes. The BR Regulation establishes a common framework for these registers
through determining a unitary manner to approach, amongst others, the following
aspects: the definition of units, the coverage, the updating, the
characteristics, and the quality of business registers.
The following
aspects must be taken into account when analysing this topic:
·            
Business
registers constitute a crucial resource for the adequate planning, conduction
and coordination of statistical surveys, as an up-to-date business survey frame
is required for an efficient selection of samples;
·            
The
development and standardisation of business registers, thus ensuring their
quality, can contribute significantly to improving the quality of statistical
outputs;
·            
A
common framework for the harmonisation of the national statistical business
registers is needed in order to produce official business and economic
statistics, which are consistent and comparable both across countries and
across statistical domains;
·            
The
standardisation of the business registers and of their use is an indispensable
prerequisite for data integration.
Compared to the
repealed BR Regulation, the BR Regulation goes further into consolidating a
common framework for the harmonisation of national registers. It also extends
the requirements to cover additional variables, most notably at enterprise
group level, thus reflecting the creation of the single market and the on-going
globalisation of the economy as well as the deepening integration of activities
in different sectors.
The BR
Regulation allowed the creation of the EuroGroups Register (EGR) as a useful
statistical tool to provide information on all control relationships within
multinational enterprise groups.
The EGR process
consists of a complex flow of different data sets between Eurostat and Member
States, involving National Statistical Institutes, National Central Banks and
also the European Central Bank.
In addition, the
BR Regulation introduces provisions related to the exchange of confidential
data on multinational enterprise groups and their constituent units between the
Commission (Eurostat) and the National Statistical Institutes of the Member
States, and between the Commission (Eurostat) and central banks.
The BR
Regulation extends the coverage of statistical business registers in order to
be able to capture, to the greatest possible extent, all enterprises that are
active in the national economy. This is the reason why the BR Regulation
introduces the compulsory inclusion of the following NACE Rev.2 sections in the
business registers:
·            
A
– Agriculture, forestry and fishing
·            
O
– Public administration and defence; compulsory social security
The definition
of statistical units in the BR Regulation follows Council Regulation (EEC) No
696/93 of 15 March 1993 on the statistical units for the observation and
analysis of the production system in the Community[3]
(hereinafter the "Statistical Units Regulation"). The BR Regulation
enumerates the statistical units to be recorded in the business registers:
legal unit, local unit, enterprise, enterprise group. The definitions of the
Statistical Units Regulation have not been correctly implemented in all Member
States. Eurostat and the National Statistical Institutes are still working
together towards the goal of a harmonised implementation of statistical units.
3. Measures
facilitating the implementation
In order to
ensure the implementation of the BR Regulation, a set of measures was developed
to support the Member States during the process.
Regulations
supporting the implementation
Two Commission
Regulations were adopted to contribute to the implementation of the BR
Regulation: 
(1)              
Commission
Regulation (EC) No 192/2009 of 11 March 2009 implementing the Regulation (EC)
No 177/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a common
framework for business registers for statistical purposes, as regards the
exchange of confidential data between the Commission (Eurostat) and Member
States[4]:
it establishes the format, the security and
confidentiality measures as well as the
procedure
for the transmission of data on individual units to the Commission (Eurostat)
and data on multinational enterprise groups to the appropriate national
authorities. The data will be transmitted by electronic means and the
Commission (Eurostat) will upload it through its single data entry point. The
Commission (Eurostat) and the appropriate national authorities keep
the information confidential as specified by the national authorities, in a
secure controlled area with restricted access. 
(2)              
Commission
Regulation (EU) No 1097/2010 of 26 November 2010 implementing Regulation (EC)
No 177/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a common
framework for business registers for statistical purposes, as regards the
exchange of confidential data between the Commission (Eurostat) and central
banks[5]:
it establishes the format, security and confidentiality measures, and the
procedure for the transmission of data, exclusively for statistical purposes,
between the Commission (Eurostat) and national central banks, and between the
Commission and the European Central Bank. The data exchange has to be
explicitly authorised by the appropriate national authority.
Derogations
Article 14 of
the BR Regulation stipulates that, when business registers require a major
overhaul, the Commission may grant a derogation at the request of a Member
State for a transitional period that shall not exceed 25 March 2010. For
agriculture, forestry and fishing, public administration and defence, and
compulsory social security, and for the additional characteristics relating to
enterprise groups, the Commission may grant a derogation at the request of a
Member State for a transitional period that shall not exceed 25 March 2013. In
total, derogations were granted to 15 Member States whose requests were
justified and based on a legitimate need. This additional time allowed Member
States to further adapt their national statistical systems and to bring them in
conformity with the BR Regulation.
BR
Recommendation Manual
In line with
Article 7 of the BR Regulation, the Commission has published a recommendation
manual for business registers, which explains the reasoning behind the
provisions of the BR Regulation for a correct and consistent interpretation in
all Member States. To this end, the already existing BR Recommendation Manual
has been updated in close cooperation between Eurostat and the Member States,
and its new version was published on 1st March 2010. It comprises:
(i)                
The
basics: Objectives, units, contents and access (chapters 1-10);
(ii)              
Unit
demography: Changes and continuity (chapters 11-16, 21-22);
(iii)            
Contents:
Updates and development (chapters 17-20);
(iv)            
Guidelines
for specific domains (chapters 23-24);
(v)              
Specifications
for the data exchange between Eurostat and Member States;
(vi)            
Glossary
for business registers.
The new version
of the BR Recommendation Manual is a tool to obtain better solutions for the
correct and consistent interpretation of the regulation by identifying and
recommending good practices.
Financial
support for Member States
In order to
facilitate the implementation of the BR Regulation, Eurostat has supported
Member States with grants to develop their national systems. 
Trainings for
Member States
Training
programmes on statistical business registers organised by Eurostat were another
means of supporting Member States in the implementation process. 
4. Evaluation of
the implementation of the BR Regulation 
The main source
of information on the implementation of the BR Regulation is the annual inquiry
that Eurostat conducts in 30 countries (Member States and 2 EFTA countries – CH
and NO). In general, the annual inquiry covers mainly the qualitative aspects
of the implementation and in particular the following areas:
·            
The
sources used to update the business registers;
·            
The
types of registered units (in particular the legal unit, the enterprise, the
local unit and the enterprise group);
·            
The
number of registered units;
·            
The
coverage in terms of NACE Rev.2;
·            
The
registration of “characteristics” (variables used in the business registers and
listed in the annex to the BR Regulation).
It was foreseen
that the important improvements in quality, which are the main objectives of
the BR Regulation, would increase the costs for National Statistical Institutes
and the administrative burden on respondents. It was expected that this effect
would be very different from one country to another, given the different stage
of development of each national business register.
In 2013,
additional ad hoc questions on costs for the statistical system and burden on
businesses related to the implementation of the BR Regulation were included in
the questionnaire.
Unless indicated
otherwise, the content of the following sections results from the annual
inquiries (responses of the 2 EFTA countries included) as well as from some
administrative records on grants that were awarded by Eurostat to Member
States.
4.1. Costs for
the statistical system
4.1.1. Costs
incurred by the National Statistical Institutes of responding countries
The costs for
the European Statistical System to operate their business registers for one
year, and the supplementary costs resulting from the changes of the BR
Regulation can only be roughly estimated and most countries either provided
only partial information or were not able to provide any figures at all.
This is
explained i.a. by the fact that the harmonisation of the statistical business
registers is a long and gradual process that was started by the repealed BR
Regulation and it is still ongoing.
For many
countries (18) it was not possible to precisely isolate the costs associated to
the implementation of the BR Regulation from a larger pool of general costs
(e.g. overall redesign of the IT system, shared personnel between multiple
domains etc.). Some countries performed individually developments of the
national business registers so they were already compliant with the BR
Regulation at the moment of its entering into force.
According to the
National Statistical Institutes, the main expenses refer to the IT developments
needed in order to comply with the BR Regulation as well as additional staff
costs.
A better
indication was obtained in qualitative terms. All 30 countries replied and the
overall results showed that in about 75% of the cases the cost of implementing
the BR Regulation was estimated none, negligible or moderate, and that only in
about a quarter of the cases the impact was described as substantial. Some
Member States indicated that the implementation of the BR Regulation did not
result in any additional costs as they had already met the requirements prior
to this implementation. 
Table 1: Cost
estimates by National Statistical Institutes
 Cost estimate || Number of countries || Percentage of legal units covered (2013 survey) 
 None or negligible || 16 || 54.0% 
 Moderate || 7 || 18.8% 
 Substantial || 7 || 27.2% 
Most countries
felt that the implementation of the BR Regulation did neither reduce the costs
for launching surveys (28 over 30 countries) nor the time required for these
surveys (29 countries).
4.1.2. Financial
support granted by Eurostat 
Taking into
consideration the different stages of development of statistical business
registers in the Member States and the costs implied by the implementation of
the BR Regulation, the Commission provided funds to support the Member States.
These have to be taken into account when evaluating the overall cost of the
statistical system.
Most of the
projects were targeted at the set-up or redesign of the business register,
and/or the improvement of its coverage.
The focus of the
2008 – 2013 grants was on the development of national business registers in
order to improve their communication with the EGR. The general objectives of
these grants were as follows:
·            
Development
and testing the matching of the EGR data with the national business registers;
·            
Definition
of national preference and priority rules for the EGR;
·            
Interaction
between the central EGR register and the national statistical business register
environments; 
·            
Development
and implementation of methods and tools for the EGR at national level.
Total amounts of
the grants awarded to Member States[6]:

 Year || Amount paid (EUR) || Main area of support 
 2008 || 352 850 || Quality, system development (source and processes) 
 2009 || 370 793 || Quality, system development (processes) 
 2010 || 440 579 || System development (processes) 
 2011 || 354 765 || Coverage, system development (source and processes) 
 2012 || 66 937 || System development (processes) 
 2013 || 606 366 || System development (source and processes) 
 Total amount paid || 2 192 290 
The above
mentioned amounts contributed to improve the capacity of national business
registers to provide information on multinational enterprise groups to the EGR.

Member States
also received support for the implementation of a more efficient way of using
the data already existing in the economy by simplifying data collection in
order to avoid double burden on businesses and improving quality of statistical
information. This was done by the means of: on-line data collection, automated
integration of data from different registers, automatic export of the
statistical data from companies' accounts into electronic questionnaires etc.
4.2. Burden on
businesses 
The expected
initial increase in the burden on businesses proved to be very different from
one country to another and quite difficult to measure. The most important and
encouraging finding was that the burden did not reach in any case a level
generating major problems to the respondents.
The great
majority of the answering National Statistical Institutes were only able to
provide qualitative assessments.
For roughly 70%
of the legal units covered by the inquiry, National Statistical Institutes
reported no increase of the burden on businesses. For 2 countries the BR
Regulation meant even a reduction of burden.
For roughly 30%
of the legal units the National Statistical Institutes felt that the
implementation of the BR Regulation increased moderately the burden on
businesses.
There were cases
of countries where the burden increased in the first years of implementing the
Regulation, related to the fact the sectorial coverage was extended, as well as
to the need to cover additional variables at enterprise group level.
Table 2:
Assessment by National Statistical Institutes of the change in burden:
     Overall assessment by National Statistical Institutes of the change in burden on businesses || Change in burden on businesses || Number of countries || Percentage of legal units covered 
 - (burden reduced) || 2 || 5.7% 
 0 (no change) || 18 || 63.5% 
 + (burden increased moderately) || 10 || 30.7% 
 ++ (burden increased substantially) || 0 || - 
In almost all
countries (29) the BR Regulation had no impact on the number of surveys
addressed to businesses and on the simplification of the existing ones. 23
countries responded that no additional questions had to be included in the
existing surveys.
4.3. Benefits of
the BR Regulation (national and ESS level)
The implementation
of the BR Regulation proved to be beneficial for the quality of statistical
business registers and allowed moving forward important steps towards the
statistical measurement of globalisation.
The main
benefits at national level reported by National Statistical Institutes can be
summarised as follows:
·            
increased
data accuracy in individual statistical domains (9 countries)
·            
coordination
among different statistical domains (13 countries)
·            
a
more complete picture on public enterprises (7 countries)
·            
input
for the national enterprise group register (19 countries)
·            
harmonisation
in the area of enterprise groups (15 countries)
·            
improved
tools for analytical purposes (7 countries)
·            
improved
tools for data dissemination (2 countries)
Moreover, the
implementation of the BR Regulation implied a more efficient use of
administrative sources for 15 countries, led to a more extensive use of
commercial sources for 7 countries, and meant the use of additional
administrative resources for 13 countries. 
Some countries
underlined the fact that with the information on enterprise groups it was
possible to compile inward foreign affiliates’ trade statistics on the basis of
already available data, so that no survey/additional questions were necessary.
The most
relevant benefit of the BR Regulation was at the level of the whole European
Statistical System. The development of the EGR is a crucial step for the
development of accurate and comparable European enterprise statistics and for
the production of statistics on globalisation.
The BR
Regulation and the inclusion of information about the control of legal units in
business registers have permitted to achieve a situation where the structure of
multinational enterprise groups operating in the EU and their national parts
are currently mapped either in the national business registers or in the
EuroGroups Registers, and Member States have established procedures to
cooperate for improving data quality.
Other benefits
arose from increasing coherence and harmonisation at the level of the European
Statistical System. Based on the BR Regulation, important development steps
comprise project work on micro data linking and data warehousing, and the
launching of the European Profiling of large and complex enterprise groups.
Additional
issues
When defining an
enterprise (the statistical unit most business statistics refer to), most
Member States focus on the legal unit only. This practice has a negative impact
on the relevance, accuracy and comparability of European business statistics as
it is translated into an increasing gap between the economic reality and its
statistical description (e.g. the number of enterprises is overestimated). 
The BR
Regulation initiated a collaborative process, which extended beyond the usual
interaction 'Commission (Eurostat) - Member States’; it also required a strong
coordination and cooperation among Member States in the fields of
communication, sharing of experiences and working practices. In addition it
paved the way for a more efficient and extensive use of administrative sources
and the exploitation of additional administrative and commercial sources.
Another result
of the implementation of the BR Regulation was the publication of the 'BR
Recommendations Manual' as a tool to encourage improvement in quality,
consistency and comparability of the principles and contents of business
registers in the Member States. The manual was updated in close cooperation
with the Member States.
Further
developments
Work is underway
in the European Statistical System to promote a consistent implementation of
the Statistical Units Regulation across Member States. This includes work on a
common approach for the treatment of multinational enterprise groups.
The BR
Regulation laid the basis for a more accurate and comparable system of statistical
business registers, contributing to the increase in consistency and quality of
the information provided. This work has not finished but continues with
strengthening the backbone functions of business registers in the envisaged
Framework Regulation Integrating Business Statistics. The aim is to
provide the pre-requisites for the horizontal and vertical integration of
statistical data on businesses and pave the way to the reduction of burden for
businesses and costs for the National Statistical Institutes.
5. Conclusions
The balance between relevant benefits on
one hand and moderate costs for the system and burden on business on the other
hand leads in general to a positive assessment of the implementation of the BR
Regulation, even if the difficulties encountered with regard to the
implementation of the definition of the enterprise according to the Statistical
Units Regulation affect the implementation of the BR Regulation.
[1]               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
[2]               Council
Regulation (EEC) No 2186/93 of 22 July 1993 on Community co-ordination in drawing
up business registers for statistical purposes. OJ L 196, 5.8.1993, p.1
[3]               OJ
L 76, 30.3.1993, p.1.
[4]               OJ
L 67, 12.3.2009, p. 14.
[5]               OJ
L 312, 27.11.2010, p. 1.
[6]               For more detailed
information on the Member States having received financial support from
Eurostat and on the exact amounts paid, please refer to the Annex to this
report
ANNEX
Overview
of financial support to Member States 2008-2013
 Country || Year || Amount (EUR) || Main area of support 
 Belgium || 2009 || 30,950 || system development (processes) 
   || 2010 || 118,803 || system development (processes) 
   || 2011 || 52,849 || system development (processes) 
   || total || 202,602 ||   
 Bulgaria || 2008 || 6,379 || quality 
   || 2009 || 7,142 || quality and system development (processes) 
   || 2011 || 42,244 || coverage and system development (processes) 
   || total || 55,765 ||   
 Cyprus || 2008 || 6,166 || system development (processes) 
 Czech Republic || 2008 || 12,948 || quality and system development (processes) 
 Denmark || 2008 || 14,962 || quality and system development (source and processes) 
   || 2009 || 25,460 || quality and system development (processes) 
   || 2010 || 28,847 || system development (processes) 
   || 2011 || 57,740 || system development (processes) 
   || total || 127,009 ||   
 Estonia || 2008 || 3,840 || quality and system development (processes) 
 Finland || 2008 || 25,542 || system development (processes) 
   || 2009 || 38,118 || quality and system development (processes) 
   || 2010 || 36,470 || system development (processes) 
   || 2011 || 43,164 || system development (processes) 
   || total || 143,295 ||   
 France || 2008 || 18,762 || system development (processes) 
   || 2009 || 5,883 || system development (processes) 
   || 2010 || 18,247 || system development (processes) 
   || 2013 || 209,271 || system development (source and processes) 
   || total || 252,163 ||   
 Germany || 2008 || 101,182 || quality and system development (source and processes) 
   || 2009 || 47,317 || system development (processes) 
   || 2010 || 46,467 || system development (processes) 
   || 2012 || 66,937 || system development (processes) 
   || 2013 || 90,309 || system development (source and processes) 
   || total || 352,212 ||   
 Hungary || 2009 || 18,794 || system development (processes) 
   || 2011 || 49,298 || system development (source and processes) 
   || total || 68,092 ||   
 Ireland || 2009 || 12,996 || system development (processes) 
 Latvia || 2008 || 5,941 || system development (processes) 
   || 2009 || 6,962 || system development (processes) 
   || total || 12,903 ||   
 Lithuania || 2008 || 2,686 || system development (processes) 
   || 2009 || 8,843 || system development (processes) 
   || total || 11,529 ||   
 Malta || 2008 || 3,134 || system development (processes) 
 Netherlands || 2008 || 20,411 || quality and system development (source and processes) 
   || 2009 || 43,283 || system development (processes) 
   || total || 63,695 ||   
 Poland || 2008 || 14,366 || quality and system development (processes) 
   || 2010 || 24,126 || system development (processes) 
   || 2013 || 25,070 || system development (processes) 
   || total || 63,561 ||   
 Portugal || 2008 || 32,501 || quality and system development (source and processes) 
   || 2009 || 36,724 || system development (processes) 
   || 2010 || 102,814 || system development (processes) 
   || 2013 || 69,861 || system development (processes) 
   || total || 241,900 ||   
 Romania || 2008 || 8,723 || system development (processes) 
   || 2009 || 6,062 || system development (processes) 
   || 2011 || 33,491 || system development (processes) 
   || total || 48,276 ||   
 Slovakia || 2008 || 7,687 || system development (processes) 
   || 2009 || 20,712 || system development (processes) 
   || 2013 || 151,242 || system development (processes) 
   || total || 179,641 ||   
 Slovenia || 2011 || 59,511 || system development (source and processes) 
   || 2013 || 22,017 || system development (processes) 
   || total || 81,528 ||   
 Spain || 2008 || 5,851 || quality and system development (processes) 
   || 2013 || 38,597 || system development (processes) 
   || total || 44,448 ||   
 Sweden || 2008 || 25,179 || system development (processes) 
   || 2009 || 45,311 || system development (processes) 
   || 2010 || 64,805 || system development (processes) 
   || total || 135,295 ||   
 United Kingdom || 2008 || 36,590 || quality and system development (source and processes) 
   || 2009 || 16,235 || system development (processes) 
   || 2011 || 16,468 || system development (processes) 
   || total || 69,293 ||   
 EU total || 2008 || 352,850 ||   
   || 2009 || 370,793 ||   
   || 2010 || 440,579 ||   
   || 2011 || 354,765 ||   
   || 2012 || 66,937 ||   
   || 2013 || 606,366 ||   
   || total || 2,192,290 ||