REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the application of 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 and on the application of the granted derogations
Date: 2018-06-29
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, Economic and Monetary Union, European accounting system, application of EU law, data collection, data transmission, economic analysis, economic statistics, national accounts, statistical method

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 29.6.2018  COM(2018) 506 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the application of 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 and on the application of the granted derogations {SWD(2018) 354 final} - {SWD(2018) 355 final}  
 
 
1. 

Introduction 

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 (the 
‘ESA 2010 Regulation’1) contains two provisions laying down reporting requirements: 

• 

Article 6(3) specifies that:  

‘The Commission, after consulting the European Statistical System Committee, shall 
report to the European Parliament and the Council not later than 1 July 2018 on the 
application  of  the  granted  derogations  in  order  to  verify  whether  they  are  still 
justified.’ 

• 

Article 12 specifies that: 

‘Review 

By 1 July 2018 and every five years thereafter, the Commission shall submit a report 
on the application of this Regulation to the European Parliament and the Council. 

The report shall evaluate, inter alia: 

(a) the quality of data on national and regional accounts; 

(b) the effectiveness of this Regulation and the monitoring process applied to the ESA 
2010; and 

(c)  the  progress  on  contingent  liabilities  data  and  on  the  availability  of  ESA  2010 
data.’ 

This  report  satisfies  both  requirements.  It  is  accompanied  by  two  staff  working  documents 
that provide additional detail and analysis. 

Section 2 of the report provides further background information on the aims and uses of ESA 
2010. Section 3 discusses the implementation of the Regulation, covering the points required 
by Article 6(3) and Article 12 mentioned above. Section 4 concludes. 

2. 

Background 

The European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010) is the internationally 
compatible  EU  accounting  framework  for  a  systematic  and  detailed  description  of  an 
economy.  ESA  2010  was  published  as  Regulation  (EU)  No  549/2013  of  the  European 
Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  21 May  2013.  It  was  applied  for  the  first  time  to  data 
transmitted  to  the  Commission  from  1  September  2014;  from  that  date  onwards  Member 
States sent data to Eurostat following ESA 2010 rules. 

1 OJ L 174, 26.6.2013, p. 1. 

1 

 
 
                                                            
ESA  2010  differs  both  in  scope  and  concepts  from  its  predecessor  ESA  952,  reflecting 
developments in measuring modern economies, advances in methodological research and the 
needs of users. The structure of the ESA 2010 is consistent with the worldwide guidelines on 
national accounting set out in the System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA 20083). Eurostat 
has  published  several  manuals  and  handbooks  to  support  the  implementation  of  the  ESA 
20104. 

National  accounts  are  the  source  for  a  multitude  of  key  economic  indicators  for  policy 
making and economic analysis by academia, government and international institutions. Gross 
domestic  product  (GDP)  is  the  most  frequently  used  measure  for  the  overall  size  of  an 
economy,  while  derived  indicators  such  as  GDP  per  capita  are  widely  used  to  compare 
material living standards or to monitor economic convergence or divergence within the EU. 

Moreover,  GDP  components  and  related  indicators  such  as  those  for  output,  imports  and 
exports, domestic (private and public) consumption or investment, give valuable insights into 
the main drivers of economic activity and thus provide a basis for the design, monitoring and 
evaluation of specific EU policies. 

ESA 2010 data are also used for specific administrative purposes such as determining each 
Member  State’s  contribution  to  the  EU’s  fourth  own  resource  (based  on  gross  national 
income5),  the  Excessive  Deficit  Procedure  and  the  Macroeconomic  Imbalances  Procedure 
(see also Section 3c). 

The ESA 2010 Regulation provides for: 

a) a methodology  on common standards, definitions,  classifications and accounting  rules to 
be used for compiling comparable accounts and tables for the EU’s purposes (Annex A to the 
Regulation) 

b) a programme (laid out in annex B of the Regulation) setting out the time limits by which 
Member  States  shall  transmit  to  Eurostat  the  accounts  and  tables  to  be  compiled  in 
accordance with the methodology defined in annex A. 

Eurostat publishes the data transmitted in accordance with Annex B on its website, and adds 
EU and euro area aggregates. 

3. 

a) 

Implementation of the Regulation 

Availability of data on national and regional accounts 

2  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  2223/96  of  25 June  1996  on  the  European  system  of  national  and  regional 
accounts in the Community (OJ L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1). 
3 http://unstats.un.org/unsd/nationalaccount/docs/SNA2008.pdf. 
4 See http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/esa-2010/manuals-guidelines for a listing. 
5 Gross national income (GNI) based on ESA 2010 is first converted to ESA 95 standards (see Section 3c). 

2 

 
 
                                                            
The  ESA  2010  Regulation  requires  the  Member  States  to  provide  data  as  specified  in  its 
Annex  B.  Article 6  of  the  Regulation  allowed  Member  States  to  apply  for  temporary 
derogations to the ESA 2010 transmission requirements before 17 October 2013. This section 
of the report addresses developments in data availability in the Member States and presents 
the results of an analysis of the derogations granted. 

Data availability according to the ESA 2010 requirements 

The  Commission  (Eurostat)  assesses  on  a  regular  basis  whether  Member  States’  data 
availability is in accordance with the ESA 2010 requirements. The underlying analysis covers 
the  assessment  of  data  completeness  and,  to  a  limited  extent,  timeliness.  The  assessments 
took  place  in  October  2015,  April  2016,  February  2017  and  January  2018.  It  can  be 
concluded  that  data  availability  clearly  improved  between October  2015  and  January  2018: 
whereas  in  2015  64 %  of  the  tables  transmitted  by  Member  States  were  sent  without  any 
shortcomings  and  4 %  were  sent  with  serious  problems,  in  2018  the  corresponding 
percentages were 81 % and 1 %, respectively — see Figure 1. 

Figure 1: Data availability for the 22 tables6 of the ESA 2010 transmission programme (Oct 2015-Jan 
2018), EU and Norway 

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90% 100%

2015

2016

2017

2018

64% 

24% 

8% 

4% 

71% 

74% 

81% 

21% 

5% 

3% 

21% 

3% 

2% 

16% 

3% 

1% 

√ 

(√) 

P

N

Complete  data  delivery.  This  means  that  the  Member  State  provides  all  the  data.  Only  very  minor, 
infrequent shortcomings may be present.  
Almost complete data delivery. Few or minor shortcomings may exist, but the important indicators are 
provided.  
Data  are  delivered  with  shortcomings  concerning  important  indicators  or  an  accumulation  of  less 
important indicators exists. 
Data are delivered with significant shortcomings or no data delivery at all. 

Derogations and their development over time 

After a careful assessment against predefined criteria, the Commission adopted implementing 
Decision  2014/403  granting  888  temporary  derogations  to  27  Member  States7.  In  addition, 
the EFTA Surveillance Authority granted 145 derogations to Norway and Iceland. 

6 Data transmission for an additional table (table 29 'accrued-to-date pension entitlements in social insurance') 
only became compulsory by end-2017. Therefore this table is not considered in the assessments. 

3 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                            
As  derogations  to  transmission  requirements  reduce  data  availability  and  thus  affect  user 
interests, Eurostat monitors the state of play of the granted derogations on a regular basis and 
checks  that Member  States  respect  the  derogations'  expiry  dates.  Extensive  monitoring  was 
performed at the end of 2015, 2016 and 2017. In the monitoring process all derogations are 
categorised in four classes: ‘closed’, ‘on track’, ‘with difficulties’ and ‘not yet addressed’. 

Between  end-2015  and  end-2017  the  number  of  derogations  on  track  or  already  closed 
increased or remained stable in all Member States. For the 28 Member States together we can 
see a clear shift from derogations that are not yet addressed (a drop from 31 % to 13 %) to 
closed derogations (increase from 25 % to 54 %) — see Figure 2. 

Figure 2: State of play derogations (end-2015 – end-2017), total EU 

Verification of granted derogations 

As  specified  in  the  second  paragraph  of  Article 6(3)  of  the  ESA  2010  Regulation,  this 
Commission report assesses whether the justifications for the derogations that Member States 
provided in 2013 are still valid. For that purpose Eurostat launched a questionnaire in which 
Member States had to indicate whether their derogations are:  

  still valid (in which case they can remain unchanged);  
  partially valid (one or more aspects of the derogations has to be amended); or  
  no longer valid (the derogations can be dropped because they have been solved and 

data are delivered). 

From the analysed questionnaire results it can be concluded that most Member States already 
solved many of the problems which originally triggered the application for derogations even 

7 Commission Implementing Decision 2014/403/EU of 26 June 2014 on granting derogations to Member States 
with  respect  to  the  transmission  of  statistics  pursuant  to  Regulation  (EU)  No  549/2013  of  the  European 
Parliament  and  of  the  Council  concerning  the  European  system  of  national  and  regional  accounts  in  the 
European Union (OJ L 195, 2.7.2014, p. 1). 

4 

 
 
 
 
 
                                                                                                                                                                                         
ahead of the year when they were due to expire. Of the 365 derogations of all EU Member 
States that were expected to expire in 2018, 2019 or 2020, 67 % (244 derogations) are still 
valid and can remain unchanged.  

For 27 % of the derogations (98 derogations — all concerning derogations that can be closed 
since data have already been delivered ahead of time) the justification is no longer valid.  

For a relatively limited number of derogations (23, or 6 %) the justification is partially valid. 
This  concerns  derogations  for  which  the  scope  can  be  narrowed,  e.g.  by  deleting  variables 
from the derogation, shortening the period covered, advancing the first year of transmission, 
etc.  

In line with the results of the review, it is appropriate that Decision 2014/403/EU is amended 
to take into account the changes in the justifications of existing derogations. 

Actions undertaken to improve data availability 

Eurostat,  in  cooperation  with  the  national  data  compilers,  is  continuously  working  on 
improving  data  availability  for  its  users.  Data  availability  is  monitored  regularly  during 
periods of data production, but also by way of structural (annual) monitoring and the regular 
annual review of the state of play of derogations. 

Member  States  have  made  and  still  make  significant  efforts  to  improve  data  availability  in 
accordance  with  the  ESA  2010  requirements.  The  Commission  (Eurostat)  supports  these 
efforts  through  meetings,  workshops,  courses,  guidance  manuals  and  documents.  Technical 
cooperation is conducted through the Working Groups on National Accounts and Excessive 
Deficit  Procedure  under  the  guidance  of  the  meeting  of  the  Directors  of  Macroeconomic 
Statistics of the National Statistical Institutes. 

Financial support from the Commission to Member States is an important tool to encourage 
them to improve data availability and lift derogations, even before their expiry date. Between 
2010 and 2017 a number of grants were provided to Member States for the implementation of 
ESA 2010 and to improve ESA 2010 data, including the development of voluntary data and 
data covered by derogations. 

In the limited number of cases where Member States’ failure to provide data in accordance 
with  the  ESA  2010  obligations  seriously  harms  data  availability,  Eurostat  reminds  the 
Member States concerned of the transmission requirements. 

Conclusion 

Data  availability  improved  significantly  between  October  2015  and  January  2018.  Most  of 
the  derogations  that  expired  at  the  latest  in  2017  have  been  resolved  by  the  respective 
Member States. In addition, a significant number of Member States are providing (part of) the 
data covered by derogations even before the first transmission date laid down in Commission 
Implementing  Decision  2014/403/EU.  It  is  appropriate  for  the  Commission  to  amend 
Decision  2014/403/EU  to  take  into  account  the  changes  in  the  justifications  of  existing 
derogations. 

5 

 
 
To serve users’ interests, Eurostat will, in cooperation with Member States, take all necessary 
actions to achieve full implementation of the ESA 2010 Regulation. Eurostat will remain in 
close  contact  with  Member  States  to  further  improve  data  availability  in  the  coming  years, 
and continue its work on monitoring derogations. 

b) 

Quality of data on national and regional accounts 

This  section  presents:  (i)  Eurostat’s  assessment  of  the  quality  of  national  and  regional 
accounts sent by the EU Member States, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland in 2016; and (ii) 
quality information on Eurostat’s own publication of European aggregates. 

The  quality  assessment  was  carried  out  in  accordance  with  Article 4  of  the  ESA  2010 
Regulation, which requires the quality of national and regional accounts data sent to Eurostat 
to be assessed according to the quality criteria of the European Statistical System established 
by  Regulation  (EC)  No  223/2009  on  European  statistics8.  Commission  Implementing 
Regulation No 2016/23049 sets out the modalities, structure, periodicity and indicators of the 
assessment process. 

The  data  sent  in  2016  were  broadly  in  line  with  the  quality  standards  of  the  European 
Statistical System and the ESA 2010 Regulation. Member States have been  able to comply 
with the new data requirements and methodology, while the process of adapting national data 
compilation  systems  will  continue  until  2020.  The  overall  results  for  the  different  quality 
criteria are given below. 

Relevance 

The completeness rate was very high for quarterly and annual tables and of direct benefit to 
users.  The  average  completeness  rate  for  national  accounts  main  aggregates,  government 
finance statistics, non-financial sector accounts and financial accounts was between 95 % and 
100 %. For supply, use and input-output tables and regional accounts, average completeness 
was  between  88 %  and  97 %.  All  Member  States  sent  non-required  additional  data  on  a 
voluntary basis. 

Accuracy 

Most  EU  Member  States,  Iceland  and  Norway  publish  online  information  on  their  national 
revision policies. Even though a detailed revision analysis of data sent by Member States was 
not  carried  out  for  this  report,  the  analysis  of  revision  rates  of  key  European  aggregates 

8 Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European 
statistics and repealing Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1101/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council 
on  the  transmission  of  data  subject  to  statistical  confidentiality  to  the  Statistical  Office  of  the  European 
Communities,  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  322/97  on  Community  Statistics,  and  Council  Decision 
89/382/EEC,  Euratom  establishing  a  Committee  on  the  Statistical  Programmes  of  the  European  Communities 
(OJ L 87, 31.3.2009, p. 164). 
9  Commission  Implementing  Regulation  (EU)  2016/2304  of  19  December  2016  on  the  modalities,  structure, 
periodicity and assessment indicators of the quality reports on data transmitted pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 
549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 345, 20.12.2016, p. 27). 

6 

 
 
                                                            
showed that Member States provide data of good quality, enabling Eurostat to publish early 
and reliable GDP and employment estimates for both EU and euro area aggregates. 

Timeliness and punctuality 

In 2016, thanks to the data sent by EU Member States, the publication of the preliminary EU 
and  euro  area  GDP  flash  estimates  was  brought  forward  by  15  days  and  the  euro  area 
quarterly  sector  accounts  by  18  days.  This  is  a  major  improvement  in  the  timeliness  of  the 
publication  of  European  aggregates.  Overall,  the  punctuality  of  transmission  of  quarterly 
national accounts was relatively high. By contrast, the punctuality of transmission of annual 
data was rather low: this is an area for improvement. 

Accessibility and clarity 

All EU Member States as well as the EFTA Member States publish online documentation on 
national  accounts  methodology  and  compilation  methods.  However,  the  content  of  the 
available information varies substantially across Member States and could be enriched where 
appropriate. A comprehensive set of documentation is accessible online for around half of the 
EU Member States. 

Coherence 

For this report a limited analysis of coherence was carried out. The overall internal coherence 
within  and  between  selected  national  accounts  tables  was  very  high  for  nearly  all  Member 
States. Small discrepancies noted for a few Member States were mainly caused by rounding 
practices. 

c) 

Effectiveness of the Regulation and monitoring process 

Effectiveness of the Regulation 

The  aim  of  Regulation  (EU)  No  549/2013  is  to  set  up  the  ESA  2010  and  to  ensure 
comparable, up-to-date and reliable data for EU policy and other purposes. Article 5(1) states 
that ‘[t]he ESA 2010 shall be applied for the first time to data established in accordance with 
Annex B to be transmitted from 1 September 2014’. Following these first transmissions by all 
Member  States,  Eurostat  published  the  first  ESA  2010  results  for  GDP  and  its  main 
aggregates  on  17 October  2014,  including  an  analysis  of  the  impact  of  methodological 
changes and statistical improvements on the level of GDP. 

The  most  significant  methodological  change  introduced  by  ESA  2010  is  the  recording  of 
research  and  development  expenditure  as  gross  fixed  capital  formation  instead  of  as 
intermediate consumption, as was the case in the previous ESA. This change acknowledged 
the rising importance of intellectual property in the economies of Member States and makes 
the ESA more useful for users. This methodological change increased the level of GDP in the 
euro area and the EU-28 in all years, for example by 1.9 % for 2010. 

7 

 
 
Taking further into account the analysis of availability and quality of the data in Sections 3a 
and  3b  of  this  report,  the  Commission  considers  that  the  Regulation  has  been  effective  in 
establishing  the  ESA  2010  and  is  effective  in  ensuring  the  provision  of  comparable,  up-to-
date and reliable data by the Member States. 

Effectiveness of the monitoring process applied to the ESA 2010 

The implementation of the ESA 2010 in the Member States is monitored in different ways. 

The completeness and quality of the data transmitted by the Member States are continuously 
monitored, with particular focus on following up on derogations. This process was described 
in Sections 3a and 3b above. 

The data reported for gross national income (GNI) are monitored in a dedicated process in the 
context  of  own  resources,  governed  by  Regulation  (EC,  Euratom)  No  1287/2003  (GNI 
Regulation)10. A transition mechanism is in place under which for the years 2010 to 2013 the 
ESA  2010-based  estimates  of  GNI  are  converted  into  ESA  95  figures  using  an  agreed 
method. From the reporting year 2014 onwards, the GNI own resource is based on ESA 2010 
data. 

Under the GNI Regulation, the Commission (Eurostat) verifies the sources and methods used 
by  Member  States  to  calculate  GNI.  It  does  this  using  annual  and  multiannual  verification 
mechanisms. 

The annual verification process is based on the data sent through the GNI Questionnaire and 
accompanying Quality Report sent out each year before 22 September. This process leads to 
an opinion of the GNI Committee on the appropriateness of  the GNI data for own resource 
purposes. 

The multiannual verification process is based on many elements, but first and foremost on the 
‘GNI  Inventory  of  sources  and  methods’  produced  by  each Member  State  and  discussed  in 
Eurostat  visits  to  each  Member  State.  Ultimately,  where  the  Commission  considers  that 
changes  should  be  made  to  the  methodology  underlying  the  GNI  figures,  it  can  place 
reservations. As a result, the figures are improved where needed. 

Government  deficit  and  debt  data  are  monitored  in  the  context  of  the  Excessive  Deficit 
Procedure (EDP). This also involves validating the underlying government finance statistics 
(GFS) data in relation to EDP. The legal basis for monitoring the government data is Council 
Regulation (EC) No 479/200911. Commission Regulation (EU) No 220/201412 stipulates that 
ESA 2010 must be used for EDP and GFS purposes as of 1 September 2014. 

10  Council  Regulation  (EC,  Euratom)  No  1287/2003  of  15 July  2003  on  the  harmonisation  of  gross  national 
income at market prices (GNI Regulation) (OJ L 181, 19.7.2003, p. 1). 
11 Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 of 25 May 2009 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive 
deficit procedure annexed to the Treaty establishing the European Community (OJ L 145, 10.6.2009, p. 1). 

8 

 
 
                                                            
The  legal  basis  of  EDP  provides  for  regular  in-depth  reporting  to  the  Council13  and  the 
European  Parliament,  including  on  GFS  aspects.  Eurostat  additionally  reports  regularly  on 
the consistency of the underlying GFS data with EDP as well as on comparability, accuracy, 
availability/timeliness  and  dissemination  aspects  (as  well  as  a  range  of  additional  quality 
indicators). 

Macroeconomic  Imbalances  Procedure  indicators  are  computed  on  the  basis  of  underlying 
statistics produced by national statistical institutes and central banks, stemming from different 
domains  including  national  accounts  and  balance  of  payments.  Eurostat  is  actively 
monitoring the quality of those underlying statistics and in particular the consistency between 
balance  of  payments  and  national  accounts  statistics,  with  a  focus  on  the  non-financial 
accounts.  For  the  monitoring  of  financial  accounts  and  balance  of  payments,  Eurostat 
cooperates with the European Central Bank. 

The  introduction  of  ESA  2010  ensured  the  consistency  of  GDP  compilation  with  the 
international  standards  for  national  accounts.  This  contributes  to  a  better  comparability  not 
only across EU Member States but also on a global basis. However, some challenges remain 
in relation to globalisation: for example, the impact on GDP of the relocation of the business 
of large multinational enterprises in small and open economies. 

Furthermore,  a  common  harmonised  European  revision  policy  for  national  accounts  and 
balance of payments statistics covering benchmark and routine revisions has been developed 
and  its  voluntary  implementation  by  the  Member  States  has  started.  The  policy  aims  to 
improve adherence to the twofold principle of alignment at national level between statistical 
domains and coordinated alignment at EU level across Member States. 

In  conclusion,  the  Commission  considers  that  the  combination  of  the  various  monitoring 
activities is effective in ensuring high-quality and comparable ESA 2010 statistics. 

12  Commission  Regulation  (EU)  No  220/2014  of  7 March  2014  amending  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No 
479/2009 as regards references to the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union 
(OJ L 69, 8.3.2014, p. 101). 
13 Economic and Financial Committee. 

9 

 
 
 
 
                                                                                                                                                                                         
d) 

Progress on contingent liabilities data 

Data  on  contingent  liabilities  are  collected  by  Eurostat  in  the  context  of  Council  Directive 
2011/85/EU14.  Article 14(3)  of  that  Directive  laid  down  new  statistical  requirements  on  the 
Member States: 

‘For all sub-sectors of general government, Member States shall publish relevant information 
on  contingent  liabilities  with  potentially  large  impacts  on  public  budgets,  including 
government guarantees, non-performing loans, and liabilities stemming from the operation of 
public  corporations,  including  the  extent  thereof.  Member  States  shall  also  publish 
information on the participation of general government in the capital  of private and public 
corporations in respect of economically significant amounts’. 

The ESA 2010 Regulation acknowledges the above (in Recitals 19, 20 and 22) and requires 
the  Commission  to  report  to  Parliament  and  the  Council  on  the  availability  of  the  related 
information at specified intervals (see Articles 11 and 12). In this context, in June 2016, the 
Commission published the first ‘Report on implicit liabilities with potential impact on public 
budgets’15 and a further report will be prepared in 2018. 

The data collected by Eurostat in the context of the above Directive are the main source of 
information  on  government  contingent  liabilities  in  Member  States16.  The  templates  for  the 
data  collection  and  the  implementation  guidance  were  provided  in  Eurostat’s  Decision  of 
22 July  2013  on  government  deficit  and  debt  —  Supplement  on  contingent  liabilities  and 
potential obligations to the EDP related questionnaire17. 

This Decision specifies that Eurostat will collect and publish selected indicators related to the 
following  contingent 
liabilities:  government  guarantees,  off-balance  public-private 
partnerships  (PPPs),  liabilities  of  government  controlled  entities  classified  outside  general 
government (public corporations) and non-performing loans (government assets18). 

The  Member  States  published  data  at  national  level  and  provided  them  to  Eurostat  for  the 
first time by end-December 2014. Since  then, annual data collection has been  taking place, 
followed by the Eurostat publication by end-January each year. Eurostat publishes the figures 
in millions of national currency and as percentages of GDP in its database, together with the 

14  Council  Directive  2011/85/EU  of  8 November  2011  on  requirements  for  budgetary  frameworks  of  the 
Member States (OJ L 306, 23.11.2011, p. 41). 
15 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1435910317596&uri=CELEX:52015DC0314 
16  Other  Eurostat  data  collections  also  exist (i.e.  the  Supplementary  table  for  financial  crisis,  the  EDP related 
questionnaire,  etc.).  These  provide  limited  and/or  confidential  information  on  particular  types  of  contingent 
liabilities. 
17 
Q.pdf/0b35165a-ee53-470a-a15a-7beaa98aac8b. 
18 The Member States should publish the same indicators at national level and also the data on the participation 
of government in the capital of corporations. 

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1015035/2041337/ESTAT-decision-Suppl-on-conting-liab-EDP-

10 

 
 
                                                            
related  metadata  and  country-specific  footnotes.  An  accompanying  press  release19  is  also 
issued. 

Since the first data collection in 2014, the Member States have made significant progress on 
the completeness (in terms of including all liabilities) and the coverage of the data (in terms 
of  covering  all  of  general  government).  A  number  of  Member  States  reviewed  and  revised 
their figures to better align with the agreed guidelines. 

The  completeness  and  the  coverage  of  data  vary  by  indicator  and  by  Member  State.  In 
Eurostat’s  data  collection,  for  most  Member  States  complete  and  good  coverage  data  are 
available  for  all  indicators.  However,  for  some  Member  States  data  are  not  yet  fully 
exhaustive. In particular, progress is still needed on data about non-performing loans. Also, 
for  liabilities  of  public  corporations,  not  all  Member  States  have  included  the  liabilities  of 
financial institutions and/or the liabilities of units controlled by local government. 

4. 

Conclusions and challenges ahead 

This  report analysed the availability and quality of ESA 2010 data, the effectiveness  of the 
Regulation and monitoring processes and the progress on contingent liabilities, as required by 
Article 6(3) and Article 12 of the ESA 2010 Regulation. 

ESA 2010 was first introduced in the Member States in September 2014. Implementation has 
continued since then, e.g. by resolving derogations granted to individual Member States. In 
this  context,  the  completeness  of  data  has  significantly  improved,  including  on  contingent 
liabilities. Following the analysis in this report, it is appropriate that Decision 2014/403/EU is 
amended to take into account changes in the justifications of existing derogations. 

In 2016, thanks to the data sent by EU Member States, a major improvement was achieved in 
the timeliness of European aggregates, with publication of the preliminary EU and euro area 
GDP flash estimates brought forward by 15 days and the euro area quarterly sector accounts 
by  18  days.  An  analysis  of  revisions  to  these  flash  estimates  demonstrates  that  they  are 
robust. 

The  Commission  considers  that  the  ESA  2010  Regulation,  in  combination  with  various 
monitoring activities based on other legal frameworks, is effective in ensuring the provision 
of  comparable,  up-to-date  and  reliable  data  by  the  Member  States  for  EU  policy  and  other 
purposes.  

Nevertheless,  challenges  remain,  for  example  over  globalisation.  National  accounts  data  of 
small  and  open  economies  are  sensitive  to  relocations  of  operations  of  large  multinational 
enterprises,  often  in  association  with  movements  of  intellectual  property.  Notably, 
globalisation-related  work  will  require  an  intensified  cooperation  and  exchange  of 
information at international level. 

19 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/government-finance-statistics/contingent-liabilities. 

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Another  challenge  for  statistics  is  the  increased  digitalisation  of  the  economy  and  society. 
New  ways  of  production  and  consumption,  as  well  as  for  the  ways  of  exchange  between 
households  and  businesses,  are  emerging.  Users  ask  if  these  new  phenomena  are  properly 
reflected in national accounts.  

A  third  priority  issue  is  to  improve  national  accounts-based  measures  of  well-being, 
sustainability and inequality. 

Eurostat is investing significant resources in addressing these priority issues, within Europe 
as well as with its international partners. 

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