REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts
Date: 2016-10-19
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, Eurostat, atmospheric pollutant, data collection, data transmission, economic statistics, environmental statistics, environmental tax, national accounts, sustainable development

EN 

   EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 19.10.2016  COM(2016) 663 final   REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts  
 
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

on the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 of the European Parliament and 
of the Council on European environmental economic accounts 

1. 

INTRODUCTION 

Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2011 
on  European  environmental  economic  accounts1  (the  Regulation)  introduced  a  common 
framework  for  the  collection,  compilation,  transmission  and  evaluation  of  European 
environmental economic accounts. Article 10 of the Regulation stipulates the following: 

By 31 December 2013 and every 3 years thereafter, the Commission shall submit a 
report on the implementation of this Regulation to the European Parliament and the 
Council. That report shall evaluate in particular the quality of the data transmitted, 
the data collection methods, the administrative burden on the Member States and on 
the respondent units, as well as the feasibility and effectiveness of those statistics. 

The  report  shall,  if  appropriate  and  taking  into  account  the  findings  referred  to  in 
Article 4(2), be accompanied by proposals: 

for 

introducing  new  environmental  economic  account  modules,  such  as 
- 
Environmental  Protection  Expenditure  and  Revenues 
(EPER)/Environmental 
Protection Expenditure Accounts (EPEA), Environmental Goods and Services Sector 
(EGSS), Energy Accounts, Environmentally Related Transfers (subsidies), Resource 
Use  and  Management  Expenditure  Accounts 
(RUMEA),  Water  Accounts 
(quantitative and qualitative), Waste Accounts, Forest Accounts, Ecosystem services 
Accounts, Economy-Wide Material Stock Accounts (EW-MSA) and the measurement 
of unused excavated earthen materials (including soil), 

-  designed  to  further  improve  data  quality  and  data  collection  methods,  thereby 
improving the  coverage  and  comparability  of  data  and  reducing  the  administrative 
burden on business and administration. 

The first report prepared under this Article was published in 2013.2 This is the second report. 
Section 2 provides an overview of environmental economic accounts. Section 3 reports on the 
developments  that  have  taken  place  since  the  last  report.  Section  4  discusses  the  measures 
taken to improve the implementation of the Regulation. 

1 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02011R0691-20140616 
2 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:52013DC0864 

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2. 

ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMIC ACCOUNTS 

Environmental  economic  accounts  are  a  statistical  system  bringing  together  economic  and 
environmental  information,  in  order  to  measure  on  the  one  hand  the  contribution  of  the 
environment  to  the  economy  and  on  the  other  hand  the  impact  of  the  economy  on  the 
environment. They offer a means of monitoring the pressures exerted by the economy on the 
environment  and  of  exploring  how  these  might  be  reduced.  Environmental  economic 
accounts organise environmental data from a large number of different fields using the same 
concepts and terminology as the national accounts. They thus show the interaction between 
economic, household and environmental factors and are consequently more informative than 
national accounts alone. 

Environmental economic accounts provide information on a broad spectrum of environmental 
and  economic  issues.  In  particular,  they  can  be  used  to  assess  trends  in  the  use  of  natural 
resources, the level of emissions and discharges to the environment resulting from economic 
activity,  and  the  extent  of  economic  activity  undertaken  for  environmental  purposes. 
Environmental economic accounts show the amount of pollution produced by industries and 
households  and  allow  this  to  be  evaluated  in  the  context  of  the  employment  and  value  of 
output produced by these sectors, and of their expenditure on reducing pollution. 

The environmental economic accounts provide an integrated framework for producing data, 
calculating indicators and performing analysis. Integrating environment-related data into the 
national  accounts  framework  makes  the  indicators  calculated  more  consistent  and  allows 
analysis to include the social aspects of sustainable development and the employment aspects 
of green growth. 

The Regulation establishes the European environmental economic accounts. The Regulation 
structures the accounts in modules. It originally created three modules (Annexes I to III to the 
Regulation), as follows: 

  Air emissions accounts:  the emissions into the atmosphere of six  greenhouse gases 
(including  among  others:  CO2  and  CO2  from  biomass  used  as  a  fuel)  and  seven  air 
pollutants, with a breakdown covering 64 emitting industries plus households. 

  Environmentally related taxes by economic activity: environmental taxes for four 
broad groups: energy, transport, pollution and resources, with a breakdown covering 
64  paying  industries  plus  households  and  non-residents.  All  tax  revenue  figures  are 
consistent  with  national  accounts  and  can  be  compared  with  GDP,  total  taxes  and 
social contributions, and other economic aggregates. 

  Economy-wide  material  flow  accounts:  the  amounts  of  physical  inputs  into  the 
economy,  material  accumulation  in  the  economy  and  outputs  to  other  economies  or 
back to the environment. 

The  European  environmental  accounts  are  compiled  according  to  the  international  standard 
System  of  Environmental-Economic  Accounting  2012  –  Central  Framework.3  This 

3 http://unstats.un.org/unsd/envaccounting/seea.asp 

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framework  was  produced  and  released  under  the  auspices  of  the  United  Nations,  the 
European Commission (Eurostat), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, the 
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the International Monetary Fund 
and the World Bank group. 

3. 

DEVELOPMENTS SINCE THE LAST REPORT 

3.1. 

LEGAL FRAMEWORK 

One  major  development  since  the  last  implementation  report  was  the  amendment  of  the 
Regulation with the addition of three further modules (Annexes IV to VI),4 as follows: 

  Environmental  protection  expenditure  accounts:  expenditure 

incurred  by 
economic  units  (private  entities,  public  entities  and  households)  for  environmental 
protection purposes. 

  Environmental goods and services sector accounts: information on the production 
and export of goods and services that have been designed and produced specifically 
for  the  purpose  of  environmental  protection  or  resource  management.  The 
employment associated with these activities is also reported. 

  Physical  energy  flow  accounts:  flow  of  energy  from  the  environment  into  the 
economy (extraction of natural inputs), within the economy (manufacture and use of 
energy  products)  and  from  the  economy  to  the  environment  (discharge  of  energy 
residuals). 

The data required under Annexes IV to VI is to be sent to the Commission (Eurostat) for the 
first  time  in  2017  (with  time  series  to  be  provided  starting  from  2014).5  In  preparation  for 
this,  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  is  promoting  pilot  studies  and  voluntary  data  collection 
exercises. 

3.2. 

OTHER LEGISLATION TO IMPROVE QUALITY 

In  2015,  the  Commission  adopted  one  Implementing  Regulation  and  one  Delegated 
Regulation  to  complement  the  general  framework  established  in  the  Regulation.  Both 
Regulations  were  designed  to  ensure  comparability  across  countries  and  to  enforce  quality 
standards. They were as follows: 

  Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2174 of 24 November 2015 on the 
indicative  compendium  of  environmental  goods  and  services,  the  format  for  data 
transmission  for  European  environmental  economic  accounts  and  modalities, 
structure  and  periodicity  of  the  quality  reports  pursuant  to  Regulation  (EU) 

4 Regulation (EU) No 538/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 amending Regulation (EU) 
No 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts (OJ L 158, 27.5.2014, p. 113). 
5 A number of Member States benefit from derogations under Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2016/335 of 
7 March 2016 granting derogations from Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on 
European environmental economic accounts with regard to Spain, France, Italy and Cyprus (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/ALL/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2016.062.01.0018.01.ENG). 

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No 691/2011  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  on  European 
environmental economic accounts.6 

This  act  establishes  rules  implementing  the  Regulation  in  relation  to  three  separate 
topics: the indicative compendium of environmental goods and services (pursuant to 
Article 3(5) of the Regulation), the technical format in which data are to be sent to the 
Commission  (pursuant  to  Article  6  of  the  Regulation)  and  the  modalities,  structure 
and periodicity of the quality reports (pursuant to Article 7(3) of the Regulation). 

In respect of the first of the three topics, the act defines the scope of the environmental 
goods  and  services  accounts  (Annex  V  to  the  Regulation),  in  order  to  facilitate  that 
this Annex is applied in the same way in all countries. 

The  second  and  third  topics  are  relevant  to  all  the  modules  in  the  Regulation. 
Implementing  standards  on  the  technical  format  in  which  data  for  the  European 
environmental  economic  accounts  are  to  be  sent  to  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  (the 
second topic) will create efficiency gains and reduce the administrative burden on the 
national authorities. The same standards can also then be used when sending statistical 
data  for  international  purposes,  e.g.  to  the  OECD  and  to  United  Nations  agencies. 
Those standards lead to efficiency gains, e.g. data transmissions between institutions 
can  be  done  machine-to-machine  without  human 
Introducing 
specifications for the quality reports (modalities, structure and periodicity) (the third 
topic) will, meanwhile, ensure the elements for the Commission (Eurostat) to monitor 
statistical  quality.  The  quality  reports,  required  by  Article  7  of  the  Regulation,  are 
essential  for  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  to  be  able  to  assess  the  quality  of  the  data 
provided by the Member  States.  They are also necessary for validating the data and 
identifying areas where further quality improvements are needed.  

intervention. 

  Commission  Delegated  Regulation 

(EU)  2016/172  of  24  November  2015 
supplementing Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 of the European Parliament and of the 
Commission as regards specification of the energy products.7 

This  act  specifies  the  energy  products  to  be  used  for  the  physical  energy  flow 
accounts  (Annex  VI  to  the  Regulation).  The  list  of  energy  products  determines  the 
scope and the classification to be used which ensures the international comparability 
of the data. 

3.3. 

DATA COLLECTION METHODS AND ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN 

Environmental economic accounts do not generally require any new data to be collected, but 
instead  make  use  of  existing  data.  This  is  because  they  collate  data  from  a  wide  range  of 
sources, e.g. statistics on energy, transport, agriculture, government expenditure and taxation, 
and other non-statistical sources, in addition to the national accounts data. Member States can 

6 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2015.307.01.0017.01.ENG 
7 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2016.033.01.0003.01.ENG&toc=OJ:L:2016:033:TOC 

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adjust existing data to bring it into line with the concepts used in national accounts, and thus 
fulfil the requirements set out in the Regulation. 

The fact that environmental economic accounts re-use existing data means that the additional 
response burden placed on businesses and households is kept very small, provided that data 
sources exist and are maintained. Countries can also choose to set up specific data collection 
exercises  for  the  purposes  of  the  environmental  economic  accounts,  which  will  help  to 
improve data quality. One example of where this has been done is the environmental goods 
and services sector accounts (Annex V to the Regulation), for which some countries have set 
up  small,  dedicated  surveys  to  complement  their  other  sources  of  data.  These  surveys  have 
annual or multiannual periodicity and the burden placed on businesses is low. 

The  work  required  to  produce  the  accounts  is  largely  performed  by  the  national  authorities 
(typically  the  National  Statistical  Institutes)  and  involves  processing  existing  data  and 
improving their analytical potential. The number of staff required to compile the accounts in 
each national authority is  estimated at, on average,  four to six  full-time equivalents  in  total 
for  the  six  Annexes  to  the  Regulation.  This  staff  cost  adds  considerable  value  to  the  basic 
data and increases the potential for analysing mutual interactions. Several national authorities 
used pilot studies (co-financed by the Commission) to set up the methods for processing and 
analysing the data. 

3.4. 

FEASIBILITY AND EFFECTIVENESS 

The  modules  laid  down  in  the  Regulation  are  tested  and  piloted  before  the  Commission 
proposes  a  legal  framework,  thus  ensuring  their  feasibility  (see  section  4.2  below).  The 
testing  is  carried  out  in  cooperation  with  the  Member  States  so  as  to  benefit  from  their 
expertise and ensure there is a common understanding of the feasibility of the modules. Pilot 
studies of further potential new modules are currently being carried out. 

The effectiveness of the environmental economic accounts depends on two factors: first, how 
existing information can be re-organised into a common framework; and second, how and to 
what extent the accounts are used. 

As regards the first point, the air emissions accounts (Annex I to the Regulation) provide one 
example  of  how  existing  information  has  been  re-organised.  The  air  emission  accounts  use 
information already gathered for the air emission inventories required for reporting under the 
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and under the United 
Nations  Economic  Commission  for  Europe  (UNECE)  Convention  on  Long-range 
Transboundary  Air  Pollution  (CLRTAP).  Further  information  is  then  added  to  the  data  to 
bring  them  into  line  with  the  classifications  and  concepts  of  the  supply-and-use  and  input-
output  tables  used  in  the  national  accounts.  They  can  then  be  used  together  with  similar 
accounts for, e.g. energy, environmental taxes and economic sectors. This information can be 
used  in  causal  frameworks  for  describing  the  interactions  between  society  and  the 
environment,  like  the  framework  'Driving  forces,  Pressures,  State,  Impact  and  Responses 
(DPSIR)' adopted by the European Environment Agency. 

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As  regards  the  second  point,  the  environmental  accounts  underpin  the  seventh  EU 
Environmental Action Programme that is to guide EU policy over the period to 2020, ‘Living 
well,  within  the  limits  of  our  planet’.8  They  are  also  used  in  the  Europe  2020  flagship 
initiative ‘A  resource-efficient  Europe’,9  as  the headline  indicator  ‘resource  productivity’ is 
taken from the material flow accounts  (Annex III to the Regulation). That Annex may also 
play  a  role  in  the  EU  action  plan  for  the  Circular  Economy,10  in  particular  for  calculating 
recycling rates. Environmental taxes (Annex II to the Regulation) are used in environmental 
fiscal  reform  studies  on  ‘greening’  the  European  Semester.11  The  environmental  economic 
accounts are expected to be used to monitor the UN Sustainable Development Goals.12 

Whilst  the  environmental  accounts  are  already  contributing  to  a  number  of  policymaking 
initiatives,  they  have  not  yet  achieved  their  full  potential.  The  accounts  are  new  and  still 
relatively  unknown  among  institutional  users.  Statisticians  can  accelerate  the  growth  of 
awareness by better communicating and promoting the data already available. Explaining the 
analytical power of environmental economic accounts is also part of the initiatives currently 
being  implemented.  Efforts  to  raise  awareness  run  alongside  measures  to  consolidate  the 
accounts and provide assurance of their quality. 

3.5. 

QUALITY OF THE DATA PROVIDED 

This  section  briefly  discusses  the  quality  of  the  data  submitted  by  Member  States  for 
Annexes I to III to the Regulation in the years since the last implementation report, i.e. 2013 
to  2015.  Member  States  will  be  required  to  submit  data  for  Annexes  IV  to  VI  to  the 
Regulation as of 2017. 

2015  was  the  first  year  in  which  all  28 Member  States  submitted  data  according  to  the 
Regulation. Norway and Switzerland also provided data, but Iceland did not (the Regulation 
has EEA relevance). In addition, a number of candidate and potential candidate countries for 
EU membership also submitted some data. Eurostat makes these data publicly available on its 
website,13  together  with  technical  explanations  (metadata)  and  a  dedicated  section14  with 
background information. 

The quality of the data received showed a significant improvement between 2013 and 2015. 
This is for two reasons: first, the temporary derogations15 granted to six Member States for 
the transmission of data under Annexes I to III to the Regulation came to an end. This means 
that  data  were  available  for  all  Member  States  in  2015,  which  simplified  the  production  of 

8 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/action-programme/ 

9 http://ec.europa.eu/resource-efficient-europe/ 
10 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1453384154337&uri=CELEX:52015DC0614 
11 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/green_semester/news_en.htm 
12 http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/ 
13 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database 
14 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/environment/overview 
15 Commission Implementing Decision 2012/691/EU of 6 November 2012 (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32012D0691). 

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aggregates for the EU. Second, some difficulties experienced in 2013 and 2014 in completing 
the questionnaire on time had been resolved by 2015. 

A  further  aspect  is  the  completeness  of  the  questionnaires.  As  regards  Annex  I  to  the 
Regulation,  most  countries  provided  reasonably  complete  questionnaires  in  2015.  The 
coverage of Malta’s data was insufficient and the Commission (Eurostat) estimated most of 
the data published. As regards Annex II to the Regulation, all tables were reported for all the 
years  required.  Croatia  did  not,  however,  allocate  all  tax  revenue  by  economic  activity.  As 
regards  Annex  III  to  the  Regulation,  all  mandatory  tables  were  reported  by  all  countries  in 
2015.  In  previous  years,  several  countries  were  not  able  to  deliver  data  on  extra-EU  trade 
consistently and instead reported extra-EU27 trade, for at least some statistics. 

A  number  of  areas  and  specific  items  have  been  identified  for  which  countries  struggle  to 
ensure  that  data  are  of  good  quality.  The  quality  reports  allowed  the  following  technical 
issues to be identified, in relation to which further improvements are required: 

  Annex I: the main difficulties involve the reconciliation of the data with the estimates 
produced  to  meet  the  reporting  obligations  set  by  the  United  Nations  Framework 
Convention  on  Climate  Change  and  the  UNECE  Convention  on  Long-range 
Transboundary  Air  Pollution  (‘bridging  items’),  the  coverage  of  emissions  of 
fluorinated gases and the allocation of road transport emissions to NACE industries. 
  Annex  II:  the  main  difficulty  for  around  half  the  Member  States  is  estimating  the 
taxes  paid  by  non-residents.  Furthermore,  some  countries  allocated  tax  revenues  to 
economic  activities  using  administrative  data  that  are  not  suitable  for  this  purpose. 
These  issues  are  in  the  process  of  being  resolved.  Improved  cooperation  with  the 
authorities producing the National Accounts will facilitate consistency. 

  Annex  III:  the  items  that  present  difficulties  are  those  that  need  to  be  estimated,  at 
least partly, due to a lack of available statistics. These include: crop residues, fodder 
crops  and  grazed  biomass,  sand  and  gravel  extraction,  and  the  adjustment  to  the 
residence principle. 

The  statistical  data  submitted  by  Member  States  under  the  Regulation  is,  overall,  of  high 
quality. There are still a number of areas where improvement is needed, and the Commission 
(Eurostat) continues to work with the Member States to resolve issues at a technical level. A 
number of measures are being implemented or are planned to improve quality, as explained 
in section 4.2. 

4. 

IMPROVEMENT ACTIONS 

This  section  discusses  proposals  for  introducing  new  environmental  economic  account 
modules  (subsection  4.1)  and  measures  being  taken  for  improving  data  quality  and  data 
collection methods (subsection 4.2), as required under Article 10 of the Regulation. 

The initiatives presented in this section are the result of two main strategies. The first is the 
implementation strategy16 that was approved by the United Nations Statistical Commission in 

16 http://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/doc13/BG-SEEA-Implementation.pdf 

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February 2013 for the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Central Framework, 
which  is  the  international  statistical  standard  which  the  European  environmental  economic 
accounts  adhere.  This  worldwide  implementation  strategy  recommends  a  flexible  and 
modular  approach,  in  order  to  accommodate  different  policy  needs  and  levels  of  data 
availability. 

The  second  is  the  European  Strategy  on  Environmental  Accounts  for  the  period  2014  to 
2018.17  This  is  a  programme  of  further  work  agreed  by  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  and  the 
Member  States  in  the  European  Statistical  System  Committee.  The  Strategy  co-ordinates 
European efforts and paves the way for possible new modules in the Regulation. The Strategy 
programme of work for the period 2014 to 2018 focuses on: 

  consolidating  the  quality  of  the  accounts  in  Annexes  I  to  III  to  the  Regulation  (air 

emissions, environmental taxes and material flows); 

  promoting the use of existing environmental economic accounts; 
 

improving  timeliness  of  the  accounts,  including  by  developing  early  estimates,  in 
order to make environmental policy aspects more prominent in economic planning; 
implementing  the  accounts  in  Annexes  IV  to  VI  to  the  Regulation  (expenditure  on 
environmental  protection,  the  environmental  goods  and  services  sector  and  physical 
energy flow accounts); 
investing  in  statistical  infrastructure  (i.e.,  reference  methodologies,  classifications, 
specialised  software,  etc.)  to  improve  the  availability,  quality  and  usefulness  of  the 
environmental accounts; 

 

 

  developing methodologies for and launching voluntary data collections in other areas 
(water and forests, environmental subsidies and similar transfers and expenditure on 
resource management). 

The  European  Strategy  on  Environmental  Accounts  does  not  prevent  individual  Member 
States  from  additionally  developing  other  streams  of  work,  according  to  their  national 
circumstances, policy needs and financial means. 

4.1. 

PROPOSALS FOR NEW MODULES 

Since  the  last  progress  report,  three  of  the  areas  proposed  as  topics  for  new  modules,  in 
accordance with Article 10 of the Regulation, have been adopted, as explained in section 3.1. 
They  are  set  out  in  Annexes  IV  to  VI  to  the  Regulation,  and  are:  environmental  protection 
expenditure accounts, the environmental goods and services sector, and physical energy flow 
accounts. 

There  have  also  been  developments  in  other  areas  listed  in  Article  10  of  the  Regulation, 
including: 

•  A task force of experienced Member States developed a framework for collecting data 
on  environmental  subsidies  and  other  transfers.  Eurostat  published  guidelines  and  a 

17 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1798247/6079569/ESSC-2014-21-EN-24-EuropeanStrategy-env.pdf 

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first data collection took place in 2015. Those framework and guidelines explain the 
relevant  concepts  and  reporting  tables  and  indicate  how  to  compile  the  data. 
Environmental subsidies is a more demanding area than environmental taxes because 
record-keeping in public finance statistics is more complex. 

•  The  Commission  (Eurostat)  is  preparing  a  handbook  on  resource  management 
expenditure accounts. There are some similarities between this and  the legal module 
on  environmental  protection  expenditure  accounts  (Annex  IV  to  the  Regulation), 
meaning that the experience gained in the latter area after 2017 will help in deciding 
how to proceed with the former. 

•  The Commission is working on an experimental project on integrated natural capital 
and ecosystem services accounting. This is a long-term project scheduled to produce 
results  by  2020.  The  main  objectives  are  to  integrate  existing  EU-level  data  sets 
(satellite  images,  land  use  and  cover  surveys  and  models)  and  to  capitalise  on  the 
expertise  of  the  project  partners  to  develop  a  consistent  EU  framework  compatible 
with more detailed accounts at national level.  

•  The  Commission  (Eurostat)  has  streamlined  and  simplified  the  existing  framework 
and  the  voluntary  data  collection  exercise  for  forest  accounts.  This  exercise  was 
necessary  because  past  pilots  did  not  meet  users’  expectations  and  there  was  not 
sufficient demand.  

•  The Commission (Eurostat) has carried out basic conceptual work on physical water 
flow accounts for the water accounts. This is documented in a draft manual. No data 
collection has been launched. 

The Commission (Eurostat) is gaining experience in the areas mentioned above, with a view 
to possible improvements that could be introduced in the future, but has not yet proposed any 
changes in the Regulation. The development of new modules continues but at a slower pace. 
The modules that produce most benefits at lowest cost were those already introduced in the 
Regulation. The remaining  potential  new  modules  have  proportionally  less benefits and  are 
more costly. Producing accounts can be costly, e.g. if the underlying data sources do not yet 
exist or do not provide sufficient information and must therefore be created or supplemented.  

Of the areas where new developments are taking place, environmental subsidies accounts is 
perhaps  the  most  promising  in  the  short  term.  A  regular,  annual  voluntary  data  collection 
exercise was introduced in 2015, with the agreement and cooperation of the Member States. 
Experimental work on ecosystem accounts will also be a focus. Monitoring progress towards 
a circular economy as stated in the Commission Communication 'Closing the loop  - An EU 
action plan for the Circular Economy'18 requires a set of indicators based on several sources, 
among  which  environmental  accounts  (economy-wide  material  flow  accounts)  and  waste 
statistics.  

At the same time, work is also being carried out to further improve the quality of the existing 
modules, on the basis of the experience gathered to date. 

18 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1453384154337&uri=CELEX:52015DC0614 

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The  technical  discussions  held  in  DIMESA19  between  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  and  the 
Member  States  concluded  that  some  of  the  areas  listed  as  potential  future  modules  in 
Article 10 of the Regulation would not, in fact be suitable areas for development. This is the 
case for ‘economy-wide material stock accounts’ and ‘unused excavated materials (including 
soil)’.  The  relevance  of  these  accounts  is  limited  in  most  countries,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
produce sufficiently accurate estimates to make them fit for policy making. 

4.2. 

QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 

In accordance with the European Strategy on Environmental Accounts, improving the quality 
of the accounts has been a main area of focus in recent years, and is to remain so over the 
coming  period.  The  quality  improvements  also  have  indirect  benefits,  as  they  increase  the 
relevance  of  the  statistics  and  make  efficiency  gains  possible,  which  in  turn  reduces  the 
administrative burden. 

The Commission (Eurostat) continues to assist the Member States in improving the quality of 
accounts in a variety of ways, including: 

a)  Providing  grants  for  pilot  studies  and  quality  improvements.  Article  4  of  the 
Regulation calls on the Commission to draw up a programme of pilot studies to be carried 
out by Member States on a voluntary basis. The aim of the studies is to develop reporting 
methods  and  improve  data  quality,  to  establish  long  time  series,  to  develop  the  methods 
used  for processing the data and to test the feasibility of introducing  new environmental 
economic  account  modules.  The  Commission  (Eurostat)  has  co-financed  pilot  studies 
every year (up to 70 % of the costs) and has published the results on the CIRCABC site.20 
These  findings  are  taken  into  account  when  planning  quality  improvements  and  the 
introduction of new environmental economic account modules. 

is  working  with 

the  Member  States 

b) Reducing the time delay in the availability of data by producing early estimates. The 
environmental accounts have, to date, been regarded as fairly detailed, structural data. The 
Commission  (Eurostat) 
to  assess  whether 
environmental  accounts  could  be  compiled  earlier,  and  considerable  progress  has  been 
made on this point. The Commission (Eurostat) is also examining ways of producing early 
estimates for some of the main indicators. These estimates would have a higher margin of 
error  and  would  be  less  detailed  than  the  estimates  required  under  the  Regulation,  but 
would  offer  valuable  early information  to  users.  Eurostat  has  now  started  producing  and 
publishing  early  estimates  of  economy-wide  material  flow  accounts  (Annex III  to  the 
Regulation)  seven  months  after  the  end  of  the  reference  year.  This  is  a  considerable 
improvement,  as  the  deadline  given  in  the  Regulation  for  the  transmission  of  data  is 
24 months. Similarly,  the Commission  (Eurostat)  is  also looking  to  start producing early 
estimates  for  environmental  goods  and  services  accounts  (Annex  V  to  the  Regulation). 
The  Commission  (Eurostat)  is  combining  the  data  collected  on  environmental  taxes 
(Annex II to the Regulation) with data on national tax lists compiled under the National 

19 Meeting of Directors of sectoral and environmental statistics and accounts, June 2015. 
20 https://circabc.europa.eu/w/browse/322c6d18-a4d8-4771-ba7c-3432b8da31c1 

11 

 
 
                                                            
Accounts ESA2010 transmission programme.21 This allows statistics to be produced a few 
months  earlier,  without  increasing  the  burden  on  Member  States.  Possible  options  for 
compiling estimates for air emission accounts (Annex I to the Regulation) one year earlier 
are currently being explored. 

c)  Setting  up  voluntary  annual  data  collection  exercises  in  preparation  for  obligatory 
reporting.  Data  are  currently  collected  on  a  voluntary  basis  for  Annexes  IV  to  VI  to  the 
Regulation  (environmental  protection  expenditure  accounts,  environmental  goods  and 
services  sector  accounts  and  physical  energy  flow  accounts).  A  new  data  collection 
exercise on environmental subsidies and similar transfers was launched in 2015. 

d) Producing EU aggregates even where some Member State data are missing.  Having 
EU  estimates  is  very  important  for  European  policy  makers.  The  default  method  for 
producing  EU-level  statistics  is  aggregating  Member  States’  data.  Where  this  is  not 
possible,  due  to  there  not  being  sufficient  national  data, the  Commission  (Eurostat)  uses 
alternative techniques. This is particularly the case for environmental goods and services 
accounts (Annex V to the Regulation) and environmental protection expenditure accounts 
(Annex  IV  to  the  Regulation),  for  which  Member  States  are  still  sending  data  on  a 
voluntary basis. 

the 

(Eurostat)  has  published 

e)  Publishing  handbooks  and  providing  methodological  guidance.  Since  2013,  the 
Commission 
following  manuals  and  guidelines: 
Environmental taxes22 (2013), environmental subsidies and similar transfers23 (2015) and 
air  emission  accounts24  (2015).  In  addition,  a  number  of  other  methodologies  have  been 
made  publicly  available  as  working  documents  (economy-wide  material  flow  accounts25 
(2013),  physical  energy  flow  accounts26  (2014),  resource  management  expenditure 
accounts27  (2014)  and  environmental  goods  and  services  sector  accounts28  (2015)).  A 
further  three  methodological  publications  are  being  prepared  for  2016  (environmental 
goods  and  services  sector,  environmental  protection  expenditure  accounts  and  economy-
wide material flow accounts). This reference material facilitates the production of statistics 
and is used by statisticians both within and outside the EU. 

f)  Provide  compilation  tools.  The  Commission  (Eurostat)  makes  tools  for  compiling 
accounts available to Member States and other countries. For example, it provides an IT 
tool, called PEFA-Builder, that compiles physical energy flow accounts (Annex VI to the 

21 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32013R0549 
22 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-GQ-13-005 
23 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-GQ-15-005-EN-N 
24 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-GQ-15-009 
25 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1798247/6191533/2013-EW-MFA-Guide-10Sep2013.pdf/54087dfb-1fb0-40f2-
b1e4-64ed22ae3f4c 
26 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1798247/6191537/PEFA-Manual-2014-v20140515.pdf/12d7dcb3-cc66-46fd-bcb7-
45bbbe9ba541 
27 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1798247/6191545/1-Resource-management-expenditure-accounts---draft-
guidelines-2014.pdf/ 
28 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1798247/6191549/Practical-guide-towards-compiling-EGSS-statistics-
March2015.pdf/f0f8c6c1-0ae9-4f53-9c94-afcc190cc5ba 

12 

 
 
                                                            
Regulation)  on  the  basis  of  energy  statistics.  The  Commission  (Eurostat)  also  maintains 
up-to-date  lists  (classifications)  of  the  products  and  activities  needed  to  compile  the 
accounts.  The  Commission  (Eurostat)  provides  tools  for  calculating  footprints,  which 
measure  the  impact  of  the  economic  actors  in  the  environment  when  using  natural 
resources.  Footprints  are  derived  by  combining  environmental  economic  accounts  with 
other statistics like input-output tables. 

g) Facilitating  training  courses  under  the  European  Statistical  Training  Programme.  The 
Commission  organises  around  four  courses  a  year  on  environmental  economic  accounts. 
The material used in past courses is published on the CIRCABC site.29 

h) Promoting the exchange of experience between countries. The Commission (Eurostat) 
organises  two  working  groups  that  meet  every  year  to  share  experiences,  identify  best 
practices  and  coordinate  improvements.  There  are  also  several  task  forces  that  study 
specific methodological issues and propose recommendations. The Commission (Eurostat) 
participates  in  the  international  initiatives  organised  by  the  OECD,  the  UNECE  and  the 
UN. 

i)  Developing solutions to outstanding methodological problems. In addition to the work 
being  undertaken  to  improve  the  quality  of  Annexes  I  to  III  to  the  Regulation  listed  in 
sections 3.5 and 4.2, the Commission (Eurostat) identified the methodological challenges 
associated  with  the  new  Annexes  IV  to  VI  to  the  Regulation,  and  is  working  to  resolve 
these  issues.  The  main  challenges  for  Member  States  are  determining  the  allocation  of 
emissions and the use of natural resources by NACE industry and developing an integrated 
framework  for  the  monetary  environmental  accounts  modules  (environmental  protection 
expenditure,  resource  management  expenditure,  the  environmental  goods  and  services 
sector and environmental taxes and subsidies). An integrated framework for the monetary 
environmental  accounts  would  allow  the  different  modules  to  be  produced  in  the  same 
way  from  a  set  of  common  data  sources,  and  thus  has  the  potential  to  reduce  the 
administrative burden. 

29 https://circabc.europa.eu/w/browse/6ade1ca8-6a06-44bd-bff0-498217d0ec05 

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