REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the quality of fiscal data reported by Member States in 2018
Date: 2019-03-27
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, 27.3.2019  COM(2019) 155 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the quality of fiscal data reported by Member States in 2018  
 
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

on the quality of fiscal data reported by Member States in 2018 

CONTENTS 

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

2.  MAIN FINDINGS ON THE 2018 REPORTING OF GOVERNMENT DEFICIT AND DEBT LEVELS ....... 2 

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

2.1.1. 

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

2.1.2. 

Reliability ........................................................................................................................ 3 

2.1.3. 

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

Supplementary table for reporting government intervention to support financial 

2.1.4. 
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 

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1. 

BACKGROUND 

Article  8(3)  of  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No 479/2009  on  the  application  of  the 
protocol  on  the  excessive  deficit  procedure  (EDP)1  requires  the  Commission 
(Eurostat)  to  report  regularly  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  on  the 
quality  of  the  actual2  fiscal  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 2017 data) on 8 March 2018.3 

Eurostat regularly assesses the quality of the actual EDP data reported by Member 
States and of the underlying general government sector accounts in accordance with 
Regulation  (EU)  No 549/20134  (ESA  2010).  Its  assessment  concentrates  on  the 
factors that explain the general government surplus/deficit (as a percentage of GDP) 
and  changes  in  the  ratio  of  general  government  debt  to  GDP.  Member  States  send 
that  information  to  Eurostat  twice  a  year  in  the  ‘EDP  notification  tables’,  the 
‘Questionnaire relating to the EDP notification tables’, the ‘Supplementary table on 
government  interventions  to  support  financial  institutions’  and  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 2018. It focuses on the latest reports, submitted in October 2018, 
comparing them where appropriate with the data sent in April 2018 and in 2017. 

2. 

MAIN  FINDINGS  ON  THE  2018  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 a year, before 1 April and before 1 October5. In 2018, EDP reporting covered 
the  2014-2018  period.  The  figures  for  2018  are  those  planned  by  the  national 
authorities, while the 2014-2017 figures are actual data6. In accordance with Article 
8(1) of Regulation (EC) No 479/2009, Eurostat assesses the actual data, but not the 
planned data. 

All Member States met the reporting deadlines for both notifications. 

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     Data for the last four years according to Article 3(2) of Regulation (EC) No 479/2009.  
3  COM(2018) 112 final. 
4  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). 

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

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2.1.2.  Reliability 

Revisions  made  between  the  April  2018  and  the  October  2018  EDP  notifications 
were  due  mainly  to  updates  of  source  data  (primarily  working  balances  and  tax 
data), and methodological changes, such as reclassifications of units or transactions. 

As  a  result  of  revisions  of  2017  data  between  the  April  and  October  2018 
notifications,  ten  Member  States’  government  surplus/deficit  (as  a  percentage  of 
GDP)  improved  and  eight  worsened.  The  largest  positive  revisions  were  made  by 
Poland,  Slovakia,  Sweden  (+0.3  pp  in  each  case)  and  Bulgaria  (+0.2 pp),  and  the 
largest negative revisions by Malta (-0.4 pp), Hungary and Germany (-0.3 pp each). 
The largest upward revisions to the 2017 debt due to reasons other than revision of 
GDP  were  made  by  France  (+1.7  pp),  Bulgaria  (+0.8  pp),  the  Netherlands  and 
Cyprus  (both  +0.5  pp),  Belgium  (+0.4  pp)  and  Malta  (+0.3  pp),  while  Denmark 
revised the debt downwards (-0.3 pp). 

Revisions  of  GDP  had  a  noticeable  impact  on  the  debt  ratio  for  several  Member 
States.  In  particular,  increases  in  the  debt  ratio  due  to  revision  of  GDP  were 
observed  for  Slovenia,  Ireland  (both  +0.5  pp),  Sweden  (+0.2  pp),  Slovakia  and 
Czechia  (both  +0.1  pp),  and  decreases  for  22  Member  States,  the  largest  of  which 
were  for  Greece  (-2.5  pp),  Cyprus  (-1.8  pp),  Portugal  (-1.0  pp),  Italy  and  Bulgaria 
(both -0.6 pp).  

2.1.3.  Completeness of tables and supporting information 

Completion of the reporting tables is a legal obligation and is essential for a 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  (total7 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)8;  

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  

7   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. 

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

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 

table 4 includes mainly data on trade credits and advances9.  

In 2018, EDP tables 1 and 2 covered 2014-201810 and the other tables covered 2014-
2017. 
All Member States provided Eurostat with all the EDP notification tables11 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.  Some  (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. 

Some  Member  States  did  not  provide  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 
EDP table 4. However, complete coverage of all government subsectors as well as 
inside  the  subsectors  has  not  been  achieved  for  all  Member  States  yet.  Some 
Member States flagged data as provisional or estimated. Consequently, the data for 
Belgium,  Bulgaria,  Germany,  Ireland,  France,  Italy,  Cyprus,  Luxembourg,  Malta, 
the  Netherlands,  Poland  and  the  United  Kingdom  might  be  subject  to  revision  in 
future notifications. 

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

All  Member  States  submitted  replies  to  the  ‘Questionnaire  related  to  the  EDP 
notification  tables’12.  Although  the  coverage  and  quality  of  answers  continued  to 
improve, progress is still needed, as some Member States 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 
2018  related  to  2007-2017.  All  but  five  Member  States  (Estonia,  Malta,  Poland, 
Romania and Slovakia) reported government interventions in that period. In Finland 
(in  2008)  and  Czechia  (in  2013-2015),  the  only  interventions  reported  concerned 
contingent  liabilities.  In  2017,  most  countries  reported  a  neutral  or  limited  deficit-
increasing impact of government intervention to support financial institutions, with 

9  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 

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

tables 1 and 2A. 

11  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 

12  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. 

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the  exception  of  Portugal,  Italy  and  Cyprus,  where  this  impact  was  larger.  The 
biggest accumulated impacts on government debt at the end of 2017 were observed 
in Greece, Cyprus and Ireland.  
Together  with  its  EDP  news  release,  Eurostat  published  a  background  note13  on 
government interventions to support financial institutions with more information on 
the content of the supplementary table and data findings.  

2.1.5.  Questionnaire on intergovernmental lending 

Member States report data on bilateral intergovernmental lending, usually provided 
under  financial  assistance  programmes.  Those  data  and  further  information  on  the 
European Financial Stability Facility are also included in the EDP news release. In 
2014-2017, 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-week' 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. 

For the autumn 2018 reporting period, a first round of requests for clarification was 
sent to all Member States by 5 October and a second by 12 October; a third round 
was  sent  to  16  Member  States  and  a  fourth  to  one.  Eurostat  asked  some  Member 
States  to  provide  revised  ‘EDP  notification  tablesʼ,  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  tablesʼ.  In  most  cases,  changes  to  data  were  corrections  of  technical 
errors, internal inconsistencies and adjustments. A few changes related to updates of 
the source data for actual and planned data. 

2.2.2.  Dialogue and methodological visits 

Regulation  (EC)  No 479/2009  provides  for  Eurostat  to  make  dialogue  and 
methodological  visits  to  Member  States.  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  exceptional  cases  where  significant 
risks or problems with data quality have been clearly identified. 

13  https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1015035/9306957/Background-note-on-gov-interventions-

Oct2018.pdf  

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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. 

In 2018, Eurostat made EDP dialogue visits to the Netherlands, Finland, Romania, 
Germany, Poland, Greece (twice), Lithuania, Malta, Bulgaria, Belgium, Croatia and 
Italy.  There  were  also  ad  hoc  visits  to  France  and  Spain,  one  technical  visit  to 
Iceland and no methodological visits. 

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 website14. 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  national  accounting  issues  in 
relation to past or future operations. Eurostat provides advice in accordance with the 
published guidelines15. Since July 2016, in the interests of transparency, Eurostat has 
published all its letters of advice16 without first seeking the consent of the Member 
State in question, as was the practice previously. In 2018, it published 21 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. 
On 8 May 2018, Eurostat published a guide17 on the statistical treatment of energy 
performance contracts. 

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 meetings of the EDP statistics working group, Eurostat 
organised three task force meetings (two on EDP methodological issues and one on 
government finance statistics). 

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

edp-visits-to-member-states 

15   http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/government-finance-statistics/methodology/guidance-on-accounting-

rules 

16   http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/government-finance-statistics/methodology/advice-to-member-states 
17   
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1015035/8885635/guide_to_statistical_treatment_of_epcs_en.pdf  

6 

 
 
                                                           
Following the November 2017 ECOFIN Council conclusions, Eurostat analysed the 
effectiveness  of  the  new  ‘Procedures  for  the  development  and  implementation  of 
methodology  underpinning  EDP  data’18  after  one  year  of  experience,  focusing  on 
their  application  for  the  development  of  the  different  type  of  methodological 
guidelines  which  interpret  and  complement  ESA  2010.  The  November  2018 
ECOFIN  Council  conclusions  on  EU  Statistics19  underlined  that  the  Council 
welcomed the progress in the introduction of methodological changes in a structured 
and  scheduled  manner  and  on  the  new  procedures  regarding  the  new  guidance. 
Eurostat  will  continue  to  work  together  with  Member  States  to  complement  and 
clarify the existing EDP data procedures to ensure their effective application. 
On  22  February  2017,  the  Commission  adopted  its  report20  on  the  investigation 
related to the manipulation of statistics in Austria as referred to in Regulation (EU) 
No  1173/201121  and  a  Recommendation22  for  a  Council  Implementing  Decision 
imposing a  fine on Austria for manipulation  of  debt  data in  Land Salzburg. Under 
Article 8(1) of the Regulation, the Council adopted the Implementing Decision23 on 
28  May  2018  and  imposed  a  fine  of  EUR  26.82  million  on  Austria  for  the 
misrepresentation  of  government  debt  data  due  to  the  serious  negligence  of  three 
government entities. 

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. In particular, total government expenditure and revenue should 
be consistent with the reported EDP surplus/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, since 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 have been resolved. 

18  https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1015035/2041329/Procedures-Dev-and-Implt-Methodology-

EDP-data.pdf  

19  http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-13865-2018-INIT/en/pdf 

20  COM(2017) 94 final. 
21  Regulation (EU) No 1173/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 November 2011 on the 
effective enforcement of budgetary surveillance in the euro area (OJ L 306, 23.11.2011, p. 1). 
22  COM(2017) 93 final. 
23  Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/818 of 28 May 2018 imposing a fine on Austria for the 
manipulation of debt data in Land Salzburg (OJ L 137, 4.6.2018, p. 23). 

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There  are  also  noticeable  inconsistencies  for  France  in  the  recording  of  other 
accounts receivable for central government and social security funds in 2017.  

For  Germany,  Portugal  (2014-2017)  and  Spain  (2014-2016),  the  reporting  of 
statistical  discrepancy  in  the  October  2018  notification  tables  diverges  from 
convention for ESA table 27 and this leads to substantial discrepancies for all years. 

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 
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 23 April24 
and 22 October25, together with all final reporting tables26 notified by Member States 
and also 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.  

It  also  published  a  news  release  on  quarterly  Maastricht  debt,  at  approximately 
t+11527 days, and a news release on quarterly general government deficit. 

Regulation  (EC)  No 479/2009  requires  Member  States  to  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 Member States (Bulgaria, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland and Slovakia) published 
only some of the EDP tables. France published deficit and debt data at national level 
in a format different from the EDP tables. 

2.3.2.  Reservations on the quality of data 

April 2018 

Eurostat maintained its reservation on the quality of data reported by Hungary and 
France. The reservation on the quality of the data reported by Hungary in relation to 
the sector classification of the foundations created by the Hungarian National Bank 

24  https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/8824490/2-23042018-AP-EN.pdf   
25  https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/9328077/2-22102018-AP-EN.pdf  

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

notification-tables 

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

8 

 
 
                                                           
was maintained whereas the reservation due to the sector classification of Eximbank 
was  withdrawn.  The  reservation  on  the  quality  of  data  reported  by  France  was 
amended  compared  to  the  news  release  of  October  2017  in  relation  to  the  sector 
classification  of  the  Agence  Française  de  Développement  and  the  treatment  of  the 
capital injection into AREVA.   

Eurostat withdrew its reservation on the quality of the data reported by Belgium in 
relation  to  the  sector  classification  of  hospitals,  pending  the  results  of  ongoing 
consultations on the issue at EU level. 

October 2018 

Eurostat maintained its reservation on the quality of the data reported by Hungary in 
relation  to  the  sector  classification  of  the  foundations  created  by  the  Hungarian 
National Bank. 

Eurostat  withdrew  its  reservation  on  the  quality  of  the  data  reported  by  France  in 
relation to the sector classification of the Agence Française de Développement and 
on the treatment of the capital injection into AREVA. 

2.3.3.  Amendments to the reported data 

Eurostat  has  made  no  amendments  to  the  data  reported  by  Member  States  in  the 
April or October 2018 EDP notifications. 
2.3.4.  Publication of metadata (inventories)28 

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. 

In  2014,  the  format  of  the  EDP  inventories  was  improved  (making  changes  to  the 
structure and the level of detail) and an agreement was reached with Member States 
on  the  new  inventory  template  for  ESA 2010.  By  the  end  of  2018,  Eurostat  had 
published  revised  inventories  for  24  Member  States.  The  remaining  four  Member 
States  (France,  Ireland,  Luxembourg  and  the  Netherlands)  have  provided  a  draft 
EDP inventory in the new format and further progress is expected. 

3. 

CONCLUSIONS 

Eurostat  acknowledges  continued  overall  improvement  in  the  consistency  and 
completeness  of  the  reported  fiscal  data.  Nevertheless,  the  quality  of  fiscal  data 
needs to be improved further. In 2018, Eurostat sought improvements to the quality 
of  the  fiscal  data  through  bilateral  clarifications  when  assessing  the  EDP 
notifications  and  by  intensifying  contacts  and  consultations  with  Member  States 
between  notifications.  The  publication  of  all  its  letters  of  advice  on  methodology 
improved  knowledge-sharing  and  transparency,  as  did  its  comprehensive  efforts  as 
regards  communication  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. 

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

underlying government accounts. 

9 

 
 
                                                           
Eurostat  maintained  its  reservations  on  the  quality  of  data  reported  in  the  EDP 
notifications  by  France  (April)  and  Hungary  (April  and  October).  It  withdrew  the 
reservations for Belgium (April) and France (October). 

Overall, Eurostat concludes that the quality of the reporting of fiscal data continued 
to  improve  in  2018.  In  general,  Member  States  provided  higher  data  quality  and 
more complete information in  EDP notification tables and other relevant  statistical 
returns. 

10