REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts
Date: 2020-02-14
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU environmental policy, EU statistics, data collection, economic statistics, environmental economics, environmental protection, environmental statistics, national accounts, sustainable development

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 14.2.2020  COM(2020) 56 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts  
 
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

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

(1) 

INTRODUCTION 

Regulation  (EU)  No  691/2011  on  European  environmental  economic  accounts1  (the 
Regulation)  introduced  a  common  framework  for  collecting,  compiling,  transmitting  and 
evaluating  European  environmental  economic  accounts.  Article  10  of  the  Regulation 
stipulates the following: 

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

This is the third report fulfilling this obligation. The previous reports were published in 20162 
and 20133. This implementation report covers 2016 to 2018.  

(2) 

ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMIC ACCOUNTS 

The  European  Green  Deal  resets  the  Commission  commitment  to  tackling  climate  and 
environmental-related challenges4. The Commission commits to put the EU firmly on a new 
path of sustainable and inclusive growth, while protecting and strengthening the EU’s natural 
capital. Under the Green Deal, the EU aims to:  

 

increase the EU’s climate ambition to achieve climate neutrality by 2050; 

  supply clean energy; 

  bring about a circular economy; 

  build in an energy and resource-efficient way;  

  achieve zero pollution and a toxic-free environment; 

  preserve and restore ecosystems and biodiversity;  

  ensure a sustainable and healthy food system;  

  promote sustainable and smart mobility. 

1 
2 
3 
4  

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02011R0691-20140616 
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1478531808092&uri=CELEX:52016DC0663 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:52013DC0864 

https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/european-green-deal-communication_en.pdf 

1 

 
 
 
                                                           
 
Ensuring  a  ‘just  transition’  towards  climate  neutrality  and  financing  the  transition  are  key 
elements to be mainstreamed in all policies. The European Green Deal is an integral part of 
the  Commission’s  strategy  to  implement  the  2030  Agenda  and  the  UN  Sustainable 
Development Goals. 

Environmental  economic  accounts,  or  environmental  accounts  for  short,  are  a  powerful, 
multipurpose  information  framework  addressing  the  sustainability  aspects  of  our  economic 
behaviour.  Mainstream  economic  statistics,  such  as  the  national  accounts,  which  underpin 
GDP, do not take account of environmental aspects in production, consumption, investment or 
financing. The environmental accounts enable the integration of economic and environmental 
aspects to complete this picture.  

The key feature of environmental accounts is integration. This concerns both the integration 
of  environmental  and  economic  aspects,  and  the  integration  into  a  consistent  economic 
accounting  system  of  a  range  of  key  thematic  environmental  aspects  such  as  i)  energy, 
taxation  and  air  emissions;  ii)  material  extractions  and  waste;  and  iii)  government  and 
business  expenditure  and  investment.  This  integration  allows  developing  coherent  indicator 
sets,  and  helps  identifying  possible  synergies  and  trade-offs  between  sectoral  policies.  The 
environmental accounts facilitate this due to the reasons set out below. 

 

 

and 

consistent 

They  generate  coherent  sets  of  indicators  that  are  linked  to  one  another  in  a 
comprehensive 
context. 
Correspondingly, the accounts are well placed for assessment frameworks relating to 
the key components of natural capital (air, water, land and biodiversity) and to serve 
multidimensional,  cross-cutting  topics  such  as  progress  towards  achieving  the 
Sustainable Development Goals or the circular economy; 

environmental 

economic 

and 

They  provide  structure  and  enhance  possibilities  for  analysis.  Information  is 
organised  to  exploit  synergies  across  individual  thematic  areas.  This  enables  cost-
effectiveness  analyses,  scenario  modelling  and  forecasts.  The  accounts  enable  the 
allocation  of  emissions  or  resource  use  to  imports,  exports,  consumption  and 
investment  and  the  calculation  of  footprint-type  indicators  using  input-output 
techniques.  Other  applications  include  measuring  the  contribution  of  natural 
resources  and  energy  to  economic  growth  (growth  accounting,  decomposition 
analysis). 

The accounting approach is useful because it enables high quality information to be produced 
(i.e. by integrating source data and combining them into robust estimates) and available data 
to be reused so as to limit the administrative burden on businesses and citizens.  

At  European  level,  the  European  environmental  accounts  underpin  the  supranational 
dimension of the environmental issues and provide a systematic approach and coverage across 
Member  States  and  environmental  topics  that  enable  policy  assessment  and  comparisons 
across Member States. 

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The  European  environmental  accounts  are  based  on  the  international  standard  System  of 
Environmental-Economic Accounting 2012 – Central Framework (SEEA CF)5. This standard 
was  produced  and  released  under  the  auspices  of  the  United  Nations,  the  European 
Commission  (Eurostat), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN,  the Organisation 
for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Monetary Fund and 
the World Bank group.  

The Regulation  establishes the European environmental  economic accounts.  The Regulation 
has EEA relevance6. It structures the accounts in modules, originally creating three modules 
(Annexes I to III to the Regulation), as follows: 

 

 

 

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

Environmentally related taxes by economic activity: environmental taxes for four 
broad groups: energy, transport, pollution and resources, with a breakdown covering 
64 paying industries plus households and non-residents.  

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

Since 2013, there has been an obligation to submit data to the Commission (Eurostat) under 
Annexes I to III. 

Three additional modules were added in 2014 (Annexes IV to VI)7, as follows: 

 

 

 

Environmental  protection  expenditure  accounts:  expenditure  undertaken  by 
economic units for environmental protection purposes. 

Environmental  goods  and  services  sector  accounts:  output,  value  added  and 
exports of goods and services that have been specifically designed and produced to 
protect the environment or manage resources. The employment associated with these 
activities is also reported. 

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

Since 2017, there has been an obligation to submit data to the Commission (Eurostat) under 
Annexes IV to VI. 

5 
6 

7 

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

It  covers  Norway  and  Iceland.  Liechtenstein  has  a  complete  derogation.  The  bilateral  Statistical 
Agreement of Switzerland with the European Union, includes the Regulation since December 2019  

Regulation  (EU)  No  538/2014  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  16  April  2014 
amending Regulation (EU) 691/2011 on European environmental accounts 

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In October 2019, the European Court of Auditors published the Special Report No 16/2019 on 
European Environmental Economic Accounts8. The Court checked whether the Commission 
set  up,  managed  and  used  the  environmental  accounts  well.  The  Court  concluded  that  the 
environmental  accounts  are  an  important  source  of  data  for  monitoring  and  evaluating 
environmental policies, such as the 7th environment action programme, and progress towards 
achieving  the  United  Nations’  Sustainable  Development  Goals.  The  Court  made  three 
recommendations  regarding  i)  the  strategic  framework  for  environmental  accounts,  ii) 
relevance for policymaking and iii) timeliness of data. While some of the recommendations 
concur  with  ongoing  activities  by  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  and  the  Member  States,  the 
Court’s Report will require additional work. 

(3) 

ACTIVITIES SINCE THE LAST REPORT 

LEGAL FRAMEWORK 

There  have  been  no  new  legal  acts  related  to  the  Regulation  since  the  last  implementation 
report in 2016.  

DATA COLLECTION METHODS AND ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN 

Environmental economic accounts do not generally require new data to be collected. Instead 
they  mostly  make  use  of  existing  data  already  held  by  national  authorities,  complemented 
with additional estimates where needed. This is because they collate data from a wide range 
of sources, e.g. underlying statistics on energy, transport, agriculture, government expenditure 
and taxation, as well as some non-statistical sources, in addition to the national accounts data. 

To fulfil the data requirements set  out in  the Regulation,  Member States can adjust  existing 
data to bring it into line with the concepts in the SEEA CF. This may require specific work 
from Member State national statistical offices. The fact that environmental economic accounts 
reuse  existing  data  means  that  the  additional  response  burden  placed  on  businesses  and 
households is very small, as long as data sources exist and are maintained. Countries can also 
choose  to  set  up  specific  data  collection  processes  for  the  purposes  of  the  environmental 
economic accounts, which will help to improve data quality. One example of where this has 
been  undertaken  is  the  environmental  goods  and  services  sector  accounts  (Annex  V  to  the 
Regulation), which involved some countries setting up dedicated surveys to complement their 
other  sources  of  data.  These  surveys  have  annual  or  multiannual  periodicity  and  the  burden 
placed on businesses is often low. 

National  authorities  (typically  the  national  statistical  institutes)  carry  out  most  of  the  work 
required to produce the accounts, which involves processing existing data and improving their 
analytical  potential.  The  average  number  of  staff  required  to  compile  the  accounts  in  each 
national  authority  is  estimated  at  between  four  and  six  full-time  equivalents  for  the  six 
Annexes  to  the  Regulation.  There  are  differences  across  Member  States  because  of  their 
circumstances, existence/extent of data sources, etc. The accounts add considerable value to 
the basic data and increases the potential to analyse mutual interactions between the topics in 

8 

https://www.eca.europa.eu/en/Pages/DocItem.aspx?did=51214 

4 

 
 
                                                           
the Annexes e.g. air emissions and energy use. Several national authorities used pilot studies 
(co-financed by the Commission) to set up the methods for processing and analysing the data. 

FEASIBILITY AND EFFECTIVENESS 

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

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

As regards the first point, the air emissions accounts (Annex I to the Regulation) provide one 
example  of  how  existing  information  has  been  reorganised.  The  air  emission  accounts  use 
information  already  gathered  for  the  air  emission  inventories  that  are  required  for  reporting 
under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and under 
the  United  Nations  Economic  Commission  for  Europe  Convention  on  Long-range 
Transboundary  Air  Pollution  (CLRTAP).  Further  information  is  then  added  to  the  data  to 
bring them into line with the classifications and concepts used in the national accounts. Then 
the  air  emissions  accounts  can  be  combined  with  input-output  tables  to  produce 
environmental footprints; they can be used with national accounts to calculate how much the 
environment contributes to economic growth (decomposition analysis).  

The  air  emission  accounts  can  also  be  used  together  with  environmental  accounts  for  other 
areas  such  as  energy  or  environmental  taxes.  This  information  can  be  used  in  causal 
frameworks  for  describing  and  analysing  the  interactions  between  society  and  the 
environment,  like  the  framework  'Driving  forces,  Pressures,  State,  Impact  and  Responses' 
adopted by the European Environment Agency. 

As regards the second point, the environmental accounts underpin the  7th  EU environmental 
action programme to 2020, ‘Living well, within the limits of our planet’9. The environmental 
economic  accounts  are  used  to  monitor  the  progress  towards  the  Sustainable  Development 
Goals  in  an  EU  context10.  The  environmental  accounts  are  also  used  to  measure  progress 
made  in  the  EU’s  policies  on  the  circular  economy,  as  indicators  based  on  environmental 
accounts are part of the EU monitoring framework for the circular economy11. Environmental 
taxes (Annex II to the Regulation) are used in environmental fiscal reform studies12.  

QUALITY OF THE DATA TRANSMITTED SINCE THE LAST REPORT 

9 
10 

11 

12 

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

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-statistical-books/-/KS-01-18-656.  Example 
indicators  based  on 
environmental accounts are: ‘resource productivity’, ‘circular material use rate’ and ’shares of environmental taxes 
in total tax revenues’. 

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/circular-economy/indicators/monitoring-framework 
based on environmental accounts is ‘circular material use rate’. 
https://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/green_semester/index_en.htm 

.  One  example 

indicator 

5 

 
 
                                                           
The Regulation requires Member States, as well as EEA countries, to report data to Eurostat.13 
Switzerland along with a number of candidate countries and potential candidate countries for 
EU  membership  also  report  some  data  on  a  voluntary  basis.  This  implementation  report 
focuses  on  the  first  group  of  countries  (EU/EEA  countries).  Eurostat  validates  the  data 
received  and  makes  them  publicly  available  on  its  website14,  together  with  technical 
explanations (metadata) and a dedicated section15 with background information. 

The  vast  majority  of  Member  States  consistently  report  complete  data  sets  according  to  the 
deadlines set in the Regulation. A small number of Member States reported a delay, usually a 
few  days;  only  one  Member  State  reported  a  longer  delay.  Those  delays  had  no  practical 
impact on the processing or dissemination of the data.  

A  number  of  areas  and  specific  items  have  been  identified  for  which  countries  struggle  to 
ensure that data are of good quality. The Commission (Eurostat) continues to work with the 
Member States to  resolve issues  at  a technical  level.  Until these areas  are fully resolved, in 
order  to  minimise  the  information  loss  for  users  from  such  incomplete  reporting,  the 
Commission (Eurostat) filled gaps in the data submitted by Member States and calculated EU 
aggregates.  

The activities carried out between 2016 and 2018 to improve the quality of the data include 
the following. 

As  regards  the  accounts  which  are  reported  since  2013,  and  for  which  there  is  more 
experience, the previous implementation report already identified specific areas and items for 
which  countries  struggle  to  ensure  that  data  are  of  good  quality.  The  issues  stated  in  the 
previous implementation report that are now solved or are being solved, are described below. 

 

 

13 

14 
15 
16  

The issues solved are, for Annex I (air emissions accounts): coverage of emissions of 
fluorinated gases. For Annex III (economy-wide material flow accounts): i) estimates 
for crop residues, fodder crops and grazed biomass, sand and gravel extraction (with 
guidance  and  proposed  solutions  in  a  new  Eurostat  handbook16  published  in  2018 
and  newly  available  Eurostat  crop  production  statistics);  ii)  the  adjustment  to  the 
residence principle for the whole EU. 

The issues being solved are, for Annex I: the reconciliation with the estimates for the 
UNFCCC  and  CLRTAP  reporting  obligations  (solution  in  preparation  using 

For  the  three  new  modules,  Spain,  France,  Italy  and  Cyprus  benefited  from  derogations  under  Commission 
Implementing Decision (EU) 2016/335 of 7 March 2016 granting derogations from Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 
on  European  environmental  economic  accounts  with  regard  to  Spain,  France,  Italy  and  Cyprus  (http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2016.062.01.0018.01.ENG).   
In addition, Regulation (EU) 691/2011, Annex IV, section 5.1 grants a derogation for those NACE codes, which 
Member States are not obliged to collect under Regulation (EC) 295/2008 on structural business statistics. 
Iceland  has  a  temporary  derogation  to  report  the  data  in  Annexes  IV  to  VI  until  2019,  as  specified  in  an  EFTA 
Surveillance Authority Decision of 20 October 2015. Liechtenstein has a complete derogation from 691/2011, as 
specified in Decision of the EEA Joint Committee No 98/2012 of 30 April 2012 amending Annex XXI (Statistics) 
to 
(https://www.efta.int/sites/default/files/documents/legal-texts/eea/other-legal-
documents/adopted-joint-committee-decisions/2012%20-%20English/098-2012.pdf) 
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/environment/data/database 
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/environment/overview 
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-GQ-18-006 

Agreement 

EEA 

the 

6 

 
 
                                                           
international  databases  of  passenger  air  transport  and  truck  road  transport).  For 
Annex  II  (environmentally  related  taxes  by  economic  activity):  i)  the  allocation  of 
tax revenue to non-residents has significantly improved as almost 70% of countries 
are now reporting on this aspect fully; ii) cases of non-suitable administrative source 
data are now limited following revisions of macroeconomic statistics. 

Besides addressing those issues, the quality of data for Annexes I to III has been consolidated 
since the 2016 implementation report by means of i) producing longer time series; ii) closing 
data gaps; iii) improving consistency; iv) improving validation and dissemination procedures; 
and v) increasing the voluntary reporting of supplementary variables and breakdowns beyond 
the Regulation’s requirements. Furthermore, the data are disseminated faster thanks to special, 
model-based early estimates by Eurostat and a faster delivery by Member States.  

As  regards  Annexes  IV  to  VI  (respectively:  environmental  protection  expenditure  accounts, 
environmental  goods  and  services  sector  accounts,  and  physical  energy  flow  accounts),  the 
activities  over  2016-2017  running  up  to  the  first  reporting  deadline  late  in  2017  included 
preparatory  work  for  the  first  mandatory  data  collection,  including  i)  annual  voluntary  data 
collections; ii) Commission (Eurostat) guidance; iii) producing handbooks; and iv) providing 
compilation tools and training. Since 2018, training has continued and work has focused on 
providing  feedback  to  Member  States  on  the  quality  of  the  data  submitted.  Expert  groups 
(‘task forces’) have been developing solutions for two methodological issues: i) the allocation 
of road transport emissions to the NACE classification (concerning mainly Annexes I and VI) 
and  ii)  the  update  of  the  classification  of  environmental  economic  activities  (concerning 
Annexes IV and V). 

Overall,  for  all  Annexes  I  to  VI,  the  data  quality  improved  over  2016-2018.  The  statistical 
data for Annexes I to III submitted by Member States under the Regulation is of high quality. 
The data for Annexes IV to VI show a lower level of maturity because obligatory reporting 
only  started  in  2017,  i.e.  until  then  there  had  been  only  two  collection  rounds.  In  addition, 
Annexes IV and V are more complex than the other Annexes and require other categories of 
source data. The Commission expects the quality of the data for Annexes IV to VI to improve 
in  the  next  few  years.  There  are  still  areas  where  improvement  is  needed.  The  Commission 
(Eurostat) continues to work with the Member States to resolve issues at a technical level. A 
number of measures are either being implemented or are planned in order to improve quality, 
see next section. 

(4) 

IMPROVEMENT MEASURES 

This  section  discusses  proposals  for  introducing  new  environmental  economic  accounts 
modules and the measures being taken to improve data quality and data collection methods, as 
required under Article 10 of the Regulation. 

The initiatives presented in this section are the result of two main strategies. The first is the 
implementation strategy17 for the SEEA CF, which is the international statistical standard that 
the  European  environmental  economic  accounts  adhere  to.  This  worldwide  implementation 

17 

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

7 

 
 
                                                           
strategy  recommends  a  flexible  and  modular  approach,  in  order  to  accommodate  different 
policy needs and the availability of different levels of data. 

The second is the European strategy for environmental accounts for 2019 to 202318. This is a 
programme of further work agreed by the Commission (Eurostat) and the Member States and 
adopted  by  the  European  Statistical  System  Committee.  This  strategy  coordinates  European 
efforts and paves the way for possible new modules. The objectives for 2019 to 2023 are to: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

continue  to  improve  the  quality  of  the  current  European  environmental  accounts, 
including long time series and timeliness; 

better  communicate  the  relevance  and  content  of  the  European  environmental 
accounts, including communicating the environmental modules as a whole system; 

serve user needs by offering further extensions, applications and indicators, including 
footprints, based on the current European environmental accounts; 

assess the need to adjust the European environmental accounts to new priorities and 
areas; 

support  those  who  produce  the  accounts  in  the  Member  States  with  financial 
resources, training, handbooks and compilation tools;  

contribute to the further development of global standards of the UN SEEA and global 
initiatives such as monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals. 

The European strategy for environmental accounts does not prevent individual Member States 
from also developing other streams of work, according to their national circumstances, policy 
needs and available resources. 

PROPOSALS FOR NEW MODULES  

Article  10  of  the  Regulation  states  that  this  implementation  report,  where  appropriate  and 
taking into account the findings of pilot studies, must be accompanied by proposals for new 
modules in a number of named areas19.  

Several  new  accounts  continue  to  be  developed,  including  those  listed  in  Article  10  of  the 
Regulation,  and  the  programme  for  pilot  studies,  established  under  Article  4(2)  of  the 
Regulation,  continues  to  be  used.  Over  2016-2018,  Member  States  piloted  studies  on 
ecosystem accounts, environmental subsidies and similar transfers, water accounts as well as 
resource management expenditure accounts.  

Besides those pilots, there was other development work, as described below. 

 

18 
19 

On  environmental  subsidies  and  similar  transfers,  Eurostat  has  been  running  a 
voluntary  data  collection  since  2015.  Some  13  Member  States  have  participated  so 
far but a critical mass of Member States has yet to be reached. More recently, work 
on  fossil  fuels  subsidies  is  under  way  in  the  context  of  Sustainable  Development 

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1798247/6191525/European+Strategy+for+Environmental+Accounts/ 
Three  of  the  new  areas  listed  in  Article  10  eventually  became  Regulation  Annexes  IV  to  VI,  and 
therefore are not candidates for future areas. 

8 

 
 
                                                           
 

 

 

Goals  indicators.  Environmental  subsidies  is  an  area  more  demanding  than 
environmental  taxes  because  their  recording  in  public  finance  statistics  is  more 
complex.  

On  ecosystem  accounts,  there  has  been  substantial  development  driven  by  the 
Commission  INCA  project20  (phase  1  completed  and  phase  2  advancing),  which  is 
scheduled  to  end  in  2020.  Member  States  are  not  required  to  join  at  this  stage  but 
they  are kept  informed and will be able to  join if the project  is  successful. Besides 
INCA,  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  contributed  to  the  release  of  the  Technical 
Recommendations in support of the SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting21 in 
December 2017and to the revision of the SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting 
scheduled to end by 202022. 

On  water  accounts,  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  did  conceptual  work  on  physical 
water  flow  accounts,  which  was  documented  in  a  draft  manual.  No  data  collection 
has been launched. The Commission (Eurostat) follows the activities of the European 
Environmental Agency in order to produce water accounts. 

On  forest  accounts,  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  has  streamlined  and  simplified  a 
voluntary  data  collection  process.  The  experience  in  some  participating  Member 
States  is  that  past  pilots  did  not  meet  the  users’  expectations  and  work  was 
discontinued at national level, but in other Member States demand is high.  

Member States would support the development of new modules but at a slower pace as they 
have  concerns  regarding  the  resources  needed  for  regular  production.  The  modules  that  are 
seen  to  produce  the  most  benefits  at  the  lowest  cost  are  those  already  introduced  in  the 
Regulation. The remaining potential new modules are considered to have proportionally less 
benefits and are more costly.  

Priorities about relevance may shift in the future. There is a lot of technical progress ongoing, 
e.g.  big  data,  satellite  images  (Copernicus),  etc.  Demand  for  information  in  order  create 
policies making is rising in areas such as those related to the Sustainable Development Goals, 
the  circular  economy,  natural  capital,  etc.  The  annual  sustainable  growth  strategy23  has  a 
stronger  focus  on  environmental  sustainability,  including  climate  change,  as  one  of  its 
strategic  objectives  alongside  productivity,  fairness  and  macroeconomic  stability24.The 
Commission will continue to monitor the implementation of this Regulation. 

QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS: RECENT ACTIVITIES 

Improving  the  quality  of  the  accounts  will  continue  to  be  a  focus  for  the  following  years. 
Improving the quality has been a focus of the European strategy for environmental accounts 

20 

21    

22 
23  

24  

Integrated  system  of  Natural  Capital  and  ecosystem  services  Accounting,  see  the  project  description 
(http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/capital_accounting/pdf/KIP-INCA-ScopingPaper.pdf ) and the final report 
for phase 1 (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/capital_accounting/pdf/KIP_INCA_final_report_phase-1.pdf). 

https://seea.un.org/sites/seea.un.org/files/technical_recommendations_in_support_of_the_seea_eea_final_white_co
ver.pdf 
https://seea.un.org/content/seea-experimental-ecosystem-accounting-revision 
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/TXT/?qid=1578392227719&uri=CELEX%3A52019DC0650 
https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/2020-european-semester-annual-sustainable-growth-strategy_en.pdf 

9 

 
 
                                                           
as  well.  Quality  improvements  also  increase  relevance  and  make  efficiency  gains  possible, 
which  in  turn  decrease  administrative  burden.  The  following  are  the  current  and  upcoming 
activities. 

(a) 

(b) 

(c) 

25 

26 
27 

Providing  grants  for  pilot  studies  and  quality  improvements.  Article  4  of  the 
Regulation calls on the Commission to draw up a programme of pilot studies to be 
carried  out  by  Member  States  on  a  voluntary  basis.  The  aim  of the  studies  is  to:  i) 
develop  reporting  methods  and  improve  data  quality;  ii)  establish  long  time  series; 
iii)  develop  the  methods  used  for  processing  the  data  and  iv)  test  the  feasibility  of 
introducing  new  modules  for  environmental  economic  accounts.  The  Commission 
(Eurostat) has co-financed pilot studies every year (now up to 90% of the costs) and 
published  the  results  in  the  public  online  site  ‘Communication  and  Information 
Resource Centre for Administrations, Businesses and Citizens (CIRCABC)’25. These 
findings are taken into account when planning quality improvements and introducing 
new modules for environmental economic accounts. 

Producing  early  estimates  to  reduce  the  time  delay  in  the  availability  of  data. 
The  environmental  accounts  have  originally  been  regarded  as  fairly  detailed, 
structural  data,  which  becomes  available  with  long  delays.  The  Commission 
(Eurostat)  and  the  Member  States  are  assessing  whether  environmental  accounts 
could be compiled and submitted earlier and are also examining ways of producing 
early  estimates  for  some  of  the  main  indicators.  These  early  estimates  may  have  a 
higher  margin  of  error  and  may  be  less  detailed  than  the  data  required  under  the 
Regulation,  but  appear to offer valuable early information  to  users. Early  estimates 
enable statistics to be produced several months earlier, without increasing the burden 
on  Member  States.  Considerable  progress  has  been  made  to  have  more  and  better 
early estimates. As a result, the Commission (Eurostat) now produces and publishes 
early  estimates  of  economy-wide  material  flow  accounts  (Annex  III  to  the 
Regulation) 6 months after the end of the reference year, which is 18 months earlier 
than the deadline in the Regulation. Similarly, the Commission (Eurostat) compiles 
estimates  for  air  emission  accounts  (Annex  I)  12  months  after  the  end  of  the 
reference period, which is one year earlier than required in the Regulation. Work is 
also ongoing to streamline the data collected on environmental taxes (Annex II) with 
data  on  national  tax  lists  compiled  under  the  National  Accounts  ESA2010 
transmission  programme26.  The  Commission  (Eurostat)  is  exploring  the  feasibility 
and quality of early estimates for the other modules. 

Publishing  handbooks  and  providing  methodological  guidance.  This  reference 
material  enables  the  production  of  statistics  and  helps  statisticians  both  within  and 
outside  the  EU.  Since  the  last  implementation  report  in  2016,  the  Commission 
(Eurostat) has published the following manuals  and guidelines: i) the Handbook on 
environmental  goods  and  services  sector27  (2016);  ii)  the  Practical  guide  on 

https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/b01d2930-990e-44fb-9121-a9a6b00a1283/library/bfd9a826-38e7-4a02-b7d6-
89064f903e51?p=1&n=10&sort=modified_DESC 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32013R0549 
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-GQ-16-008 

10 

 
 
                                                           
(d) 

(e) 

(f) 

(g) 

(h) 

iii) 

environmental  goods  and  services  sector28  (2016); 
the  Handbook  on 
environmental  protection  expenditure  accounts29  (2017);  and  iv)  the  Handbook  on 
economy-wide material flow accounts30 (2018).  
Setting  standards  for  transmissions  of  data  and  quality  reports.  Seeking  better 
efficiency and robustness,  standards for data transmission were agreed between the 
Member  States  and  the  Commission  (Eurostat).  They  are  in  turn  aligned  to  global 
standards  by  the  UN,  the  OECD  and  the  Commission  (Eurostat),  enabling  global 
databases  of  environmental  information  to  be  created.  Quality  reports  based  on 
Microsoft Word and Excel are also being gradually discontinued in favour of reports 
independent of proprietary software. 

Maintaining  classifications.  The  Commission  (Eurostat)  and  the  Member  States 
maintain  and  improve  two  classifications  used  for  Annexes  IV  and  V:  the 
Classification  of  Environmental  Protection  Activities  and  the  Classification  of 
Resource Management Activities. These classifications are also used outside Europe.  

Providing  compilation  tools.  The  Commission  (Eurostat)  creates  tools  for 
compiling accounts available to Member States and other countries. For example, it 
provides  an  IT  tool,  called  PEFA-Builder,  that  compiles  physical  energy  flow 
accounts  (Annex  VI  to  the  Regulation)  on  the  basis  of  energy  statistics.  The 
Commission  (Eurostat)  also  maintains  up-to-date  lists  (classifications)  of  the 
products and activities needed to compile the accounts. The Commission (Eurostat) 
provides  tools  for  calculating  footprints,  which  measure  the  global  impact  of 
economic  actors  (businesses,  families,  government)  in  the  environment  when  they 
use  natural  resources.  Footprints  are  derived  from  combining  environmental 
economic accounts with other statistics like input-output tables.  

Facilitating  training  courses  under  the  European  statistical  training  programme. 
The  Commission  organises  around  five  courses  a  year  on  environmental  economic 
accounts. The material used in past courses is published on the CIRCABC site.31 
Promoting  the  exchange  of  experience  between  countries.  The  Commission 
(Eurostat) organises two working groups32 that meet every year to share experiences, 
identify best practices and coordinate improvements. There are also task forces that 
study  specific  methodological 
recommendations.  The 
Commission  (Eurostat)  participates  in  the  international  initiatives  organised  by  the 
OECD, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the UN. 

issues  and  propose 

(5) 

CONCLUSIONS 

The  Commission  and  the  Member  States  continue  to  improve  the  European  environmental 
accounts under Regulation (EU) No. 691/2011, in particular by means of: 

28 
29 
30 
31 
32  

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-GQ-16-011 
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-GQ-17-004 
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-GQ-18-006 

https://circabc.europa.eu/w/browse/6ade1ca8-6a06-44bd-bff0-498217d0ec05 
Working  group  environmental  accounts  and  working  group  monetary  environmental  statistics  and 
accounts 

11 

 
 
                                                           
  strengthening data quality and effectiveness; 
  better communication; 
  developing further indicators to meet users’ needs; and 
  assessing  the  need  to  adjust  the  European  environmental  accounts  to  new  priorities 

and areas.  

12