REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the quality of fiscal data reported by Member States in 2017
Date: 2018-03-08
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU Member State, EU statistics, budget deficit, economic statistics, public debt, public finance, publication of accounts

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 8.3.2018 COM(2018) 112 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the quality of fiscal data reported by Member States in 2017  
 
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

on the quality of fiscal data reported by Member States in 2017 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

1.  BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................................ 2 

2.  MAIN FINDINGS ON THE 2017 REPORTING OF GOVERNMENT DEFICIT AND DEBT LEVELS ....... 2 

2.1.  Timeliness, reliability and completeness ............................................................................. 2 

2.1.1. 

Timeliness ....................................................................................................................... 2 

2.1.2. 

Reliability ........................................................................................................................ 2 

2.1.3. 

Completeness of tables and supporting information ....................................................... 3 

2.1.4. 
Supplementary  table  for  reporting  government  intervention  to  support  financial 
institutions ....................................................................................................................................... 4 

2.1.5. 

Questionnaire on intergovernmental lending ................................................................. 5 

2.2.  Compliance with accounting rules and consistency of statistical data ............................. 5 

2.2.1. 

Exchange of information and clarifications .................................................................... 5 

2.2.2. 

Dialogue and methodological visits ................................................................................ 5 

2.2.3. 

Specific advice by Eurostat ............................................................................................. 6 

2.2.4. 

Recent methodological issues ......................................................................................... 6 

2.2.5. 

Consistency with the underlying government accounts .................................................. 7 

2.3. 

Publication ............................................................................................................................. 8 

2.3.1. 

Publication of headline figures and detailed reporting tables ........................................ 8 

2.3.2. 

Reservations on the quality of data ................................................................................. 8 

2.3.3. 

Amendments to the reported data ................................................................................... 9 

2.3.4. 

Publication of metadata (inventories) ............................................................................. 9 

3.  CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................ 9 

1 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1. 

BACKGROUND 
Article  8(3)  of  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No 479/20091  requires  the  Commission 
(Eurostat)  to  report  regularly  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  on  the 
quality of the actual data reported by Member States. This annual report provides an 
overall assessment of the timeliness, reliability, completeness and consistency of the 
data  and  their  compliance  with  accounting  rules.  The  Commission  adopted  the 
previous report (on 2016 data) on 9 March 2017.2 

Eurostat regularly assesses the quality of the actual data reported by Member States 
and  of  the  underlying  general  government  sector  accounts  in  accordance  with 
Regulation  (EU)  No 549/20133.  That  assessment  concentrates  on  the  factors  that 
explain  the  general  government  deficit/surplus  and  changes  in  general  government 
debt.  Member  States  send  that  information  to  Eurostat  twice  per  year  in  the  ‘EDP 
notification  tables’,  the  ‘Questionnaire  relating  to  the  EDP  notification  tables’,  the 
‘Supplementary table on government interventions to support financial institutions’ 
as  well as via bilateral clarifications. Eurostat also  maintains contact with  Member 
States through regular EDP dialogue visits. 

This  report  is  based  on  the  main  findings  and  results  of  the  EDP  data  reported  by 
Member States in 2017. It focuses on the latest reports, submitted in October 2017, 
comparing them where appropriate with the data sent in April 2017 and in 2016. 

2. 

MAIN  FINDINGS  ON  THE  2017  REPORTING  OF  GOVERNMENT  DEFICIT  AND  DEBT 
LEVELS 

2.1. 

Timeliness, reliability and completeness 

2.1.1.  Timeliness 

Member States are required to report their actual and planned EDP data to Eurostat 
twice  per  year,  before  1  April  and  before  1  October.4  In  2017,  EDP  reporting 
covered  the  2013-2017  period.  The  figures  for  2017  are  those  planned  by  the 
national authorities, while the 2013-2016 figures are actual data.5 In accordance with 
Article  8(1)  of  Regulation  (EC)  No 479/2009,  Eurostat  assesses  the  actual  data 
reported by Member States, but not the planned data. 

All Member States met the reporting deadlines for both notifications. 

2.1.2.  Reliability 

Revisions  made  between  the  April  2017  and  the  October  2017  EDP  notifications 
were  due  mainly  to  source  data  updates,  primarily  working  balances  and  tax  data, 
and methodological changes, such as reclassifications of units or transactions. 

1  Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure 

(EDP) annexed to the Treaty establishing the European Community (OJ L 145, 10.6.2009, p. 1). 

2  COM(2017) 123 final. 
3  Regulation  (EU)  No  549/2013  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  21  May  2013  on  the 
European  system  of  national  and  regional  accounts  in  the  European  Union  (ESA  2010)  (OJ  L  174, 
26.6.2013, p. 1). 

4  Article 3(1) and (3) of Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 
5  Actual data may be final, half-finalised or estimated figures. 

2 

 
 
                                                            
Regarding revisions of 2016 data between the April and October notifications, eight 
Member States’ government surplus/deficit (as a percentage of GDP) improved and 
10 worsened. The largest positive revisions were made by Denmark, Sweden (+0.3 
pp  each),  the  Czech  Republic  and  Finland  (+0.2 pp  each)  and  the  largest  negative 
revisions by Estonia (-0.6 pp), Slovakia (-0.5 pp) and Greece (-0.3 pp). The largest 
upward revisions to the 2016 debt, due to other reasons than revision of GDP, were 
made by Sweden (+0.9 pp), Hungary, Cyprus (+0.7 pp each) and Luxembourg (+0.3 
pp), while in Malta the debt was revised downward (-0.4 pp). 

Revisions  of  GDP  had  a  noticeable  impact  on  the  debt  ratio  for  several  Member 
States.  In  particular,  increases  due  to  revision  of  GDP  were  observed  for  Greece 
(+1.7 pp), Luxembourg, France (+0.4 pp each) and Latvia (+0.2 pp), and decreases 
for  24  Member  States,  the  largest  of  which  were  for  Ireland  (-2.7  pp),  Croatia, 
Cyprus, Slovenia (-1.3 pp), the United Kingdom (-1.0 pp), Austria, Hungary (-0.9 pp 
each), Italy (-0.6 pp), Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Finland (-
0.5 pp each).  

2.1.3.  Completeness of tables and supporting information 

Completion  of  the  reporting  tables  is  a  legal  obligation  and  is  essential  for  proper 
assessment  by  Eurostat  of  the  quality  of  the  data.  Article  8(2)  of  Regulation  (EC) 
No 479/2009 requires Member States to transmit to Eurostat the relevant statistical 
information, which ‘(…) in particular (…) means: 

(a)  data from national accounts; 

(b)  inventories; 

(c)  EDP notification tables; 

(d)  additional questionnaires and clarification related to the notifications.’ 

There are four main EDP notification tables: 

 

 

 

table  1  covers  the  reporting  of  government  surplus/deficit  (total  and  by 
government subsector) and  debt levels (total6  and by category  of financial 
instrument).  It  also  covers  GDP  at  current  market  prices  and  government 
expenditure on gross fixed capital formation and interest; 

tables  2A  to  2D  provide  the  data  that  explain  the  transition  between  
national  definitions  of  government  balance  (‘working  balance’  in  national 
accounts  methodology)  and  the  surplus/deficit  of  each  government 
subsector (‘net lending/net borrowing’ in national accounts methodology)7;  

tables  3A  to  3D  provide  the  data  that  explain  the  contributions  of  the 
government surplus/deficit and other relevant factors to the variation in the 
government debt level and the consolidation of debt; and  

6   The Protocol  on the excessive deficit procedure annexed to the Treaty on the functioning of the EU,defines 
government debt as the consolidated gross debt of the whole general government sector outstanding at the 
end of the year (at nominal value). According to Regulation (EC) No 479/2009, government debt includes 
currency and deposits (AF.2), debt securities (AF.3) and loans (AF.4) as defined in ESA 2010. 

7   Article 3(2) of Regulation (EC) No 479/2009. 

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 

table 4 includes mainly data on trade credits and advances.8  

In 2017, EDP tables 1 and 2 covered 2013-20179 and the other tables covered 2013-
2016. 
All Member States provided Eurostat with all the EDP notification tables10 in April 
and  October.  In  the  October  reporting,  they  all  completed  EDP  table 1  in  full  and 
provided  details  in  EDP  table 2  on  the  link  between  the  working  balance  and  the 
EDP  surplus/deficit  for  all  subsectors.  For  the  first  time,  the  United  Kingdom 
reported  transition  items  in  EDP  tables 2A  and  2C.  Some  countries  (Germany, 
Austria)  did  not  report  all  transition  items  as  requested  in  the  template  and  some 
(Germany,  Italy,  the  Netherlands,  Finland  and  Sweden)  included  some  residual 
transition items. 

Not all Member States provided all breakdowns in all EDP tables 3, in particular for 
local government. 

The  general  government  stock  of  trade  credits  and  advances  should  be  reported  in 
the EDP table 4. However, complete coverage of all government subsectors as well 
as  inside  the  subsectors  was  achieved  for  just  over  half  of  the  Member  States. 
Belgium,  Bulgaria,  Germany,  Ireland,  France,  Italy,  Cyprus,  Luxembourg,  Malta, 
the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom flagged the data they provided as 
provisional, i.e. subject to revision in future notifications. 

The  completeness  of  EDP  tables  can  still  be  improved.  However,  the  remaining 
issues are expected to have little impact on data quality. 

All  Member  States  submitted  replies  to  the  ‘Questionnaire  related  to  the  EDP 
notification  tables’11.  Although  the  coverage  and  quality  of  answers  continued  to 
improve,  progress  is  still  necessary,  as  some  countries  did  not  report  all  requested 
details.  In  particular,  this  concerns  data  on  central  government  claims  and  debt 
cancellations, the breakdown of other accounts receivable/payable, the recording of 
government guarantees (mainly for local government) and data on capital injections. 

2.1.4. 

Supplementary  table  for  reporting  government  intervention  to  support  financial 
institutions 

Since  15  July  2009,  Eurostat  has  collected  a  set  of  supplementary  data  on 
government  interventions  to  support  financial  institutions.  The  data  collected  in 
2017 related to the 2007-2016 period. All but five Member States (Estonia, Malta, 
Poland,  Romania  and  Slovakia)  reported  various  government  interventions  during 
that  period.  In  Finland  (2008)  and  the  Czech  Republic  (2013-2015),  the  only 
interventions reported concerned contingent liabilities. In 2016, apart from Slovenia 

8  See the statements accompanying the Council minutes of 22 November 1993; 

https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/gfs/images/e/e7/Statements_9817.en93.pdf 

9  Regulation  (EC)  No 479/2009  only  explicitly  requires  Member  States  to  provide  planned  data  in  EDP 

tables 1 and 2A. 

10  Member States’ EDP notification tables can be found on Eurostat’s website:   

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/government-finance-statistics/excessive-deficit-procedure/edp-notification-
tables. 

11  The questionnaire comprises 13 sections requesting quantitative and some qualitative information in various 
areas, e.g. transactions in taxes and social contributions, and with the EU, acquisitions of military equipment, 
government  guarantees,  debt  cancellations,  government  capital  injections  into  public  corporations, 
public-private partnerships, rerouting transactions, etc. 

4 

 
 
                                                            
 
and  Cyprus,  all  countries  reported  a  limited  increase  in  their  deficits  or  a  neutral 
impact  due  to  government  intervention  to  support  financial  institutions.  With  its 
EDP news release, Eurostat published a background note with more information on 
the content of the supplementary table and data findings.12  

2.1.5.  Questionnaire on intergovernmental lending 

Member  States  provide  data  on  bilateral  intergovernmental  lending,  usually  under 
financial  assistance  programmes.  Those  data  and  further  information  on  the 
European Financial Stability Facility are also included in the EDP news release. In 
2013-2016, the data related mainly to lending to Greece, Ireland and Portugal. 

Bilateral  intergovernmental  lending  is  deducted  when  calculating  the  EU-28  and 
euro  area  aggregates  for  Maastricht  government  debt,  since  both  are  shown  on  a 
consolidated basis. 

2.2. 

Compliance with accounting rules and consistency of statistical data 

2.2.1.  Exchange of information and clarifications 

In  the  three  weeks'  notification  period  between  the  spring/autumn  reporting 
deadlines  and  the  publication  of  the  data,  Eurostat  contacted  all  national  statistical 
authorities  to  ask  for  further  information  and  clarify  the  application  of  the 
accounting  rules  to  specific  transactions.  This  involved  several  rounds  of 
correspondence. 

Using the example of the autumn 2017 reporting period, a first round of requests for 
clarification  was  sent  to  all  Member  States  by  6  October,  a  second  round  to  26 
Member  States,  a  third  to  17  and  a  fourth  to  one.  Eurostat  asked  some  Member 
States  to  provide  revised  'EDP  notification  tables',  revised  tables  for  underlying 
government  accounts  (i.e. annual  expenditure  and  revenue  accounts,  and  quarterly 
financial and non-financial accounts) and revised 'Questionnaire relating to the EDP 
notification tables'. In most cases, changes to data in the October 2017 notification 
period were corrections of technical errors, internal inconsistencies and adjustments 
provided  in  the  EDP  notification  tables  or  in  the  related  questionnaire.  A  few 
changes related to updates of the source data, including planned 2017 data. 

2.2.2.  Dialogue and methodological visits 

Regulation  (EC)  No 479/2009  provides  for  dialogue  and  methodological  visits. 
Representatives of DG ECFIN and the European Central Bank regularly take part in 
such visits as observers. In the course of regular (at least biennial) dialogue visits to 
Member  States,  Eurostat  reviews  reported  data,  examines  methodological  issues, 
discusses statistical processes and sources described in the inventories and assesses 
compliance with the relevant accounting rules (delimitation of general government, 
time  of  recording  and  classification  of  government  transactions  and  liabilities). 
Methodological  visits  are  undertaken  only  in  specific  cases  where  substantial  risks 
or potential problems with data quality are identified. 

Ad  hoc  or  technical  visits  can  also  be  organised  if  Eurostat  raises  a  specific 
important  issue  with  a  Member  State  that  can  be  resolved  only  by  meeting  the 
authorities concerned. 

12  http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1 015 035/2 022 710/Background-note-on-gov-interventions-OCT-

2017-final.pdf 

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In  2017,  Eurostat  made  EDP  dialogue  visits  to  Croatia,  Ireland,  Greece  (twice), 
Italy,  Cyprus,  the  United  Kingdom,  France,  Sweden,  Latvia,  Slovenia,  Estonia, 
Austria, Slovakia and Spain. There were also ad hoc visits to Poland, Luxembourg 
and Hungary. 

Eurostat made no methodological visits in 2017. 

The final findings of each dialogue visit, including the action points agreed and the 
status  of  the  issues  raised,  are  sent  to  the  Economic  and  Financial  Committee  and 
published on Eurostat’s website.13 The dialogue visits and implementation of action 
points have considerably improved data quality over time. 

2.2.3. 

Specific advice by Eurostat 

Member  States  regularly  consult  Eurostat  to  clarify  various  national  accounting 
issues in relation to past or future operations. Eurostat provides advice in accordance 
with  the  published  guidelines14.  Since  July  2016,  in  the  interests  of  transparency, 
Eurostat has published all its letters of advice15 without first seeking the consent of 
the Member State in question, as was the practice previously. In 2017, it published 
12 letters of advice. 

2.2.4.  Recent methodological issues 

Eurostat  monitors  the  application  of  the  ESA 2010  rules  and  its  methodological 
decisions by analysing the data reported by Member States in the EDP tables and the 
'Questionnaire relating to the EDP notification tables', and through discussion with 
national statistical authorities during EDP dialogue visits. 

It provides additional methodological guidance on the accounting rules for EDP and 
Government  Finance  Statistics,  which  complement  the  general  ESA 2010  rules. 
Guidance  notes  are  released  under  Eurostat’s  responsibility  after  consultation  with 
the national statistical authorities. Clarifications explaining the accounting rules for 
very specific issues are also released under Eurostat’s responsibility. 

In  2017,  Eurostat  published  guidance  notes  on  mobile  phone  licences,  exploration 
rights  and  other  licences  (27  March)  and  on  recording  of  energy  performance 
contracts in government accounts (19 September). 

The Member States' guidelines for completing the EDP general government deficit 
and debt notification, for use by EDP statistics compilers, were updated in line with 
ESA 2010 (23 March). 

Issues insufficiently covered in existing manuals and guidance were further analysed 
and discussed in technical working groups and task forces. 

Apart  from  the  two  regular  EDP  Statistics  working  group  meetings,  Eurostat 
organised  four  task  forces  (on  energy  performance  contracts,  a  government  deficit 
and debt manual, government finance statistics and the classification of government 
functions) and two dedicated expert meetings (on financial defeasance structures and 
toxic debts). 

13   http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/government-finance-statistics/excessive-deficit-procedure/eurostat-edp-

visits-to-member-states 

14   http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/government-finance-statistics/methodology/guidance-on-accounting-rules 
15   http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/government-finance-statistics/methodology/advice-to-member-states 

6 

 
 
                                                            
Eurostat  continued  to  work  on  the  follow-up  to  the  November  2016  ECOFIN 
conclusions  on  statistics,  in  cooperation  with  the  Economic  and  Financial 
Committee  –  Sub-Committee  on  Statistics  and  the  Economic  and  Financial 
Committee – Alternates. As requested by the Council, it prepared a timely progress 
report and presented it to the EFC. It also prepared a document setting out detailed 
‘Procedures for the development and implementation of methodology underpinning 
EDP  data’16,  the  main  aim  of  which  is  to  establish  stable  procedures  for  EDP  and 
GFS methodological work, with a focus on clarity, transparency and timeliness. The 
document  sets  out  the  various  types  of  methodological  guidance  apart  from 
ESA 2010, the consultation process for each type and implementation details. 

On  22  February,  the  Commission  adopted  a  report  on  the  investigation  into  the 
manipulation of statistics in Austria (pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 1173/2011 on 
the  effective  enforcement  of  budgetary  surveillance  in  the  euro  area  and  the 
Commission  Decision  of  3  May  2016)  and  a  Recommendation  for  a  Council 
Implementing Decision imposing a fine on Austria for manipulation of debt data in 
Land Salzburg. Under Article 8(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1173/2011, the Council is 
to decide on the Recommendation. 

2.2.5.  Consistency with the underlying government accounts 

The  1  April  and  1  October  notification  deadlines  under  Regulation  (EC) 
No 479/2009 were introduced to ensure consistency with the underlying annual and 
quarterly  government  sector  accounts,  as  reported  to  Eurostat  in  various  ESA 
transmission tables. For example, total government expenditure and revenue should 
be consistent with the reported deficit figure. 

EDP  data  were  generally  consistent  with  the  reported  ESA  2010  government 
accounts,  although  there  are  some  concerns  as  regards  balance  sheets  for  financial 
assets  and  liabilities  (stocks)  and  general  government  quarterly  financial  accounts 
(ESA table 27). Further efforts by some Member States are still needed to improve 
the consistency of EDP tables 3 with ESA table 27. 

There  are  substantial  inconsistencies  concerning  net  financial  transactions  for  a 
number  of  years  for  Greece,  because  financial  accounts  reported  by  the  Bank  of 
Greece  are  not  aligned  with  EDP  data  reported  by  ELSTAT.  The  Bank  of  Greece 
has not followed Eurostat guidance on ESA 2010 accounting in relation to a number 
of issues. In October 2015, Eurostat decided not to publish ESA table 27 for Greece 
until the issues had been resolved. 

For  Germany,  Spain  and  Portugal,  the  reporting  of  statistical  discrepancy  in  the 
October 2017 notification tables diverges from convention for ESA table 27 and this 
leads to substantial discrepancies for all years. 

GDP figures were consistent for all Member States, except for minor differences for 
France (April) and Lithuania (October), both countries reporting an advance version 
of annual accounts in the EDP context. 

The  surplus/deficit,  gross  fixed  capital  formation  and  interest  expenditure  data 
reported by Member States were fully consistent with annual and quarterly data on 
government expenditure and revenue (ESA tables 2 and 25). The data on annual debt 

16   http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1015035/2041329/Procedures-Dev-and-Implt-Methodology-EDP-

data.pdf  

7 

 
 
                                                            
and  quarterly  government  debt  (ESA  table  28)  also  matched  perfectly  for  all 
Member States. 

2.3. 

Publication 

2.3.1.  Publication of headline figures and detailed reporting tables 

Under Article 14(1) of Regulation (EC) No 479/2009, ‘[t]he Commission (Eurostat) 
shall provide the actual government deficit and debt data for the application of the 
Protocol  on  the  excessive  deficit  procedure,  within  three  weeks  after  the  reporting 
deadlines […]. That provision of data shall be effected through publication’. 
Eurostat published the government deficit and debt data on its website on 24 April17 
and 23 October,18 together with all final reporting tables19 notified by Member States 
and notes on: 

 

the stock-flow adjustment; 

  government interventions to support financial institutions; 

 

 

the stock of liabilities of trade credits and advances; and  

revisions  of  government  surplus/deficit  and  debt  (this  was  released 
separately for the first time in April).  

It  also  published  a  news  release  on  quarterly  Maastricht  debt,  at  approximately 
t+11520 days, and a news release on quarterly general government deficit. 

Under Regulation (EC) No 479/2009, Member States must make public their actual 
data  on  deficit  and  debt.  All  Member  States  publish  deficit  and  debt  figures  at 
national level.  Most  have  informed  Eurostat  that  they  publish  all their EDP  tables. 
Five (Bulgaria, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland and Slovakia) published only some of the 
tables. France published only the deficit and debt figures and none of the EDP tables 
at national level. 

2.3.2.  Reservations on the quality of data 

October 2017 

Eurostat expressed a reservation on the quality of data reported by France in relation 
to the recording of some operations of the Agence Française de Développement. 

It maintained its reservation on the quality of data reported by Belgium and Hungary 
(the reservation on Hungary was partially withdrawn). 

It withdrew its reservation on the quality of data reported by Luxembourg (expressed 
in its news release of 24 April 2017). 

April 2017 

Eurostat expressed a reservation on the quality of data reported by Luxembourg in 
relation to the sector classification of hospitals and a number of technical issues such 

17  http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2 995 521/7 997 684/2-24 042 017-AP-EN.pdf 
18  http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2 995 521/8 338 481/2-23 102 017-AP-EN.pdf 
19   http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/government-finance-statistics/excessive-deficit-procedure/edp-notification-

tables 

20   ‘t’ refers to the end of the period to which reporting relates. 

8 

 
 
                                                            
as the recording of receivables and payables, the size of statistical discrepancies in 
the EDP tables and the unavailability of data for local government. 

It  maintained  its  reservation  on  the  quality  of  data  reported  by  Belgium  and 
Hungary. 

It withdrew its reservation on the quality of the data reported by Cyprus (expressed 
in its news release of 21 October 2016). 

2.3.3.  Amendments to the reported data 

Eurostat  did  not  amend  the  data  reported  by  Member  States  in  the  April  or 
October 2017 EDP notifications. 
2.3.4.  Publication of metadata (inventories)21 

Regulation  (EC)  No 479/2009  specifies  that  the  EDP  inventories  are  part  of  the 
statistical information Member States must provide. It also requires the inventories 
to be published nationally. 

Eurostat  has  altered  the  format  of  the  EDP  inventories,  making  structural  changes 
and  requiring  more  detailed  information.  Agreement  has  been  reached  on  the  new 
inventory  template  for  ESA 2010  and,  by  the  end  of  2017,  Eurostat  had  published 
revised  inventories  for  21  Member  States.  The  remaining  seven  have  provided  it 
with  a  draft  EDP  inventory.  The  final  EDP  inventories  for  Greece,  Ireland  and 
Austria  will  be  published  in  the  coming  months.  Further  progress  is  expected  for 
France, Luxembourg, Cyprus and the Netherlands. 

3. 

CONCLUSIONS 

Eurostat  acknowledges  continued  overall  improvement  in  the  consistency  and 
completeness of the reported data. Nevertheless, the quality of fiscal data needs to be 
improved  further.  In  2017,  Eurostat  sought  more  bilateral  clarifications  when 
assessing  the  EDP  notifications.  It  also  increased  contacts  and  consultations  with 
Member States between notifications. The publication of all its letters of advice on 
methodology improved knowledge-sharing and transparency. The same goes for its 
more  comprehensive  communication  efforts  between  users  and  producers  of 
statistics in relation to methodological developments. 

Consistency  problems  with  quarterly  financial  accounts  persist  for  some  Member 
States, in particular Greece. 

Eurostat expressed reservations on the quality of data reported by Luxembourg  for 
the April EDP notification and France for the October EDP notification. It withdrew 
its reservations on Cyprus (April) and Luxembourg (October) and maintained those 
on Belgium and Hungary (April and October). 

Overall, Eurostat concludes that the quality of the reporting of fiscal data continued 
to  improve  in  2017.  In  general,  Member  States  provided  higher  quality  and  more 
complete information in EDP notification tables and other relevant statistical returns. 

21  Inventories  of  the  methods,  procedures  and  sources  used  to  compile  actual  deficit  and  debt  data  and  the 

underlying government accounts. 

9