REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 January 2005 on Community statistics concerning balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment
Date: 2023-02-27
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, application of EU law, balance of payments, data collection, direct investment, foreign investment, international trade, service industry, trade statistics

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 27.2.2023  COM(2023) 96 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 January 2005 on Community statistics concerning balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment  
 
 
1. 

INTRODUCTION 

The main objective of Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 of the European Parliament and of the 
Council  on  Community  statistics  concerning  balance  of  payments,  international  trade  in 
services and foreign direct investment1 is to set out common rules and quality standards for EU 
statistics that are regularly produced in these three areas. 

According to Article 12, the Commission must submit a first report to the European Parliament 
and the Council on the implementation of the Regulation by 28 February 2018 and then every 
5 years. In particular, the report must: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

evaluate the quality of data on balance of payments, international trade in services and 
foreign direct investment; 

assess the benefits of such statistical information for the EU, Member States, providers 
and users, versus the costs; 

identify areas for improvement and any necessary amendments given the results of the 
evaluation. 

This  report  examines  the  most  important  aspects  of  the  implementation  of  Regulation  (EC) 
No 184/2005 by the Member States and the measures taken by the Commission to ensure high 
quality European statistics on balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign 
direct investment. 

2. 

IMPLEMENTING MEASURES 

Since the adoption of Regulation (EC) No 184/2005, the Commission adopted the following 
legal acts: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

(5) 

Commission Regulation (EC) No 601/20062; 
Commission Regulation (EC) No 602/20063; 
Commission Regulation (EC) No 1055/20084; 
Commission Regulation (EC) No 707/20095; 
Commission Regulation (EU) No 555/20126; 

1 OJ L 35, 8.2.2005, p. 23. 
2 Commission Regulation (EC) No 601/2006 of 18 April 2006 implementing Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 of the 
European Parliament and of the Council as regards the format and the procedure for the transmission of data (OJ 
L 106, 19.4.2006, p. 7). 
3 Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No 602/2006  of  18 April  2006  adapting  Regulation  (EC)  No 184/2005  of  the 
European Parliament and of the Council through the updating of data requirements (OJ L 106, 19.4.2006, p. 10). 
4 Commission Regulation (EC) No 1055/2008 of 27 October 2008 implementing Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 of 
the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council,  as  regards  quality  criteria  and  quality  reporting  for  balance  of 
payments statistics (OJ L 283, 28.10.2008, p. 3). 
5 Commission  Regulation (EC) No 707/2009 of 5 August 2009 amending  Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 of the 
European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics concerning balance of payments, international 
trade in services and foreign direct investment, as regards the update of data requirements (OJ L 204, 6.8.2009, 
p. 3). 
6 Commission  Regulation  (EU)  No 555/2012  of  22 June  2012  amending  Regulation  (EC)  No 184/2005  of  the 
European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics concerning balance of payments, international 
trade  in  services  and  foreign  direct  investment,  as  regards  the  update  of  data  requirements  and  definitions 
(OJ L 166, 27.6.2012, p. 22). 

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Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/5057. 

(6) 
Regulation  (EU)  No 2016/1013  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council8,  amending  
Regulation (EC) No 184/2005, aligned that Regulation with Articles 290 and 291 TFEU, by 
replacing implementing powers conferred on the Commission by that Regulation by powers to 
adopt delegated and implementing acts. 

The legal acts mentioned above set out the required format and procedure for the submission 
of data by Member States  to  Eurostat, the update of data requirements and the timeline and 
quality  criteria  of  national  quality  reports.  Furthermore,  the  6th  edition  of  the  Balance  of 
Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6) of the International Monetary 
Fund (IMF), published in 2009, provides a conceptual framework for the compilation of balance 
of  payments  (BOP)  and  international  investment  position  (IIP)  statistics  by  IMF  member 
countries. It lays down uniform definitions and classifications to establish a common basis for 
the  collection  and  compilation  of  data  on  external  developments  and  to  facilitate  the 
comparability of data across countries. At the European level, the requirements to be met by 
balance  of  payments  statistics  are  laid  down  in  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No 555/2012 
amending Regulation (EC) No 184/2005. 

3. 

MAIN DATASETS CONCERNED 

Balance of payments statistics provide comprehensive information on transactions between the 
reporting  economy  and  the  rest  of  the  world.  Regulation  (EC)  No 184/2005  concerns  the 
collection of the following five datasets: 

-  balance of payments monthly statistics; 

-  balance of payments and international investment position quarterly statistics; 

- 

- 

- 

international trade in services annual statistics; 

foreign direct investment transactions (including income); 

foreign direct investment positions. 

For each of these datasets, data are collected by Eurostat from the Member States and used for 
producing EU aggregates that are published along with the individual Member States’ data on 
Eurostat’s online reference database. 

Monthly  balance  of  payments  data  and  the  first  quarterly  advance  indicators  of  balance  of 
payments derived from monthly estimates are available 7 weeks after the end of the reference 
period. The first estimates of quarterly balance of payments/international investment position 
(BOP/IIP) are released 14 weeks after the end of the reference period. The quarterly balance of 
payments incorporates a much broader set of information than the monthly advanced estimates 
and  is  presented  in  more  detail.  On  the  financial  side,  the  simultaneous  and  consistent 
compilation  of the BOP  financial account,  the investment  income and the  IIP reinforces the 
quality  of  quarterly  estimates  and  allows  a  more  complete  analysis  of  cross-border 

7 Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/505 of 19 December 2018 amending Annex I to Regulation (EC) 
No 184/2005  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council,  as  regards  the  geographical  breakdown  levels 
(OJ L 85, 27.3.2019, p. 1). 
8 Regulation (EU) 2016/1013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 amending Regulation 
(EC) No 184/2005 on Community statistics concerning balance of payments, international trade in services and 
foreign direct investment (OJ L 171, 29.6.2016, p. 144). 
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relationships. Quarterly BOP/IIP also includes a geographical breakdown of the main economic 
partners, in particular the most important developed and emerging economies. 

In addition to the quarterly releases, international trade in services and foreign direct investment 
(FDI)  statistics  are  published  in  greater  detail  once  a  year.  Annual  FDI  data  include  more 
information than quarterly FDI data, due to the availability of annual financial statements of 
enterprises. Thanks to more information and more complete quality checks on FDI stocks, it is 
possible to calculate the different components of their variations and FDI income. An important 
improvement is that Eurostat established a data collection for Member States on inward direct 
investment positions according to the ultimate investing economy. The aim of this voluntary 
data  collection  is  to  show  the  ‘true’  origin  of  FDI  –  the  ultimate  investor.  Annual  data  on 
international trade in services are broken down according to a comprehensive list of services 
items and a geographical breakdown at Geo 5 level. Data are submitted by the Member States 
9 months after the end of the reference period and are published around 2.5-3 months later. 
Annual FDI statistics include data on flows and stocks by type of instrument, partner country 
and  economic  activity.  In  addition,  separate  FDI  statistics  are  requested  for  resident  special 
purpose entities. Data are provided by the Member States 9 months after the end of the reference 
period and are published approximately 3 months later. 

4. 

QUALITY OF THE STATISTICS PRODUCED 

According to Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 184/2005, Member States must provide the 
Commission  with  a  report  on  the  quality  of  the  data  submitted.  Furthermore,  according  to 
Article 4(4), the quality of the data submitted to Eurostat is to be assessed on the basis of quality 
reports, with the assistance of the European Statistical System Committee (the ESS Committee). 
The following analysis refers to the results of the latest available quality reports (i.e. the 2022 
reports, which refer to data submitted by the Member States in 2021). 

4.1.  Methodological soundness and statistical procedures 

The methodological soundness and statistical procedures, concepts, definitions and practices 
used to compile balance of payments, international trade in services, foreign direct investment 
and the international investment position statistics are in broad conformity with the principles 
and guidelines outlined in the BPM6, taking into consideration the particularities agreed at EU 
level for the compilation of euro-area and EU aggregates. 

4.2. 

Timeliness and punctuality 

Punctuality of monthly and quarterly balance of payments, quarterly international investment 
position, annual international trade in services statistics and foreign direct investment worsened 
compared  with  the  previous  quality  report  for  2021  referring  to  2020  data,  with  four  more 
Member States delivering datasets after the deadline. 

4.3. 

Relevance 

As  Regulation  (EC)  No 184/2005  was  intended  to  respond  to  the  needs  of  data  users,  it  is 
important  to  analyse  how  these  data  are  used  and  to  determine  the  benefits  of  balance  of 
payments statistics for users. 

Balance of payments statistics are used intensively for policymaking purposes by the relevant 
national  and  international  institutions.  The  European  Commission  and  the  Council,  the 
European  Central  Bank  (ECB)  and  the  Eurosystem,  the  IMF,  the  Bank  for  International 
Settlements (BIS), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the 
G7 and G20, all make use of these statistics. 

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Balance  of  payments  and  international  investment  position  statistics  are  used  for  monetary 
policy purposes. In combination with other indicators, statistics on the exchange of goods and 
services  are  used  to  assess  inflationary  pressures  in  the  economies  coming  from  external 
demand as well as to quantify the contribution of net exports to gross domestic product. Balance 
of payments and international investment position data are also used to assess the sustainability 
of the external balance of national economies having their own currency or a currency union 
(e.g.  the  euro  area)  to  which  national  economies  belong  and  the  possible  pressures  on  the 
exchange rate. In addition, balance of payments and international investment position data are 
used extensively within the macroeconomic imbalances procedure (MIP). 

Balance  of  payments  statistics  are  also  included  in  the  Convergence  reports  prepared  and 
published  by  the  European  Commission  and  the  ECB  on  individual  Member  States  not  yet 
participating in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). 

Articles 143 and 144 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union refer explicitly to 
the balance of payments, requiring the Commission to keep the Council regularly informed on 
the development of the balance of payments situation in Member States not participating in the 
EMU. 

Current  account  developments  in  individual  Member  States  are  analysed  in  relation  to  their 
competitiveness,  whereas  direct  and  portfolio  investment  statistics  are  used  to  analyse  the 
attractiveness of Member States for international investors. 

Balance of payments statistics should be consistent with other key statistics collected in related 
statistical areas with EU relevance, such as: 

-  gross  domestic  product  (incorporating  cross-border  transactions  in  goods  and  services) 
including flash estimates, for which monthly balance of payments indicators are needed; 

-  gross national income (incorporating cross-border transactions in goods and services as well 

as income); 

- 

the  rest  of  the  world  accounts  in  the  EU  and  in  the  euro  area  quarterly  sector  accounts, 
including financial accounts. 

Apart from the main aggregates, the following specific items have particular relevance for some 
users: 

-  Detailed information  on international  trade in  services published  annually  by Eurostat  is 

important for trade negotiations and the definition of customs policies. 

-  The geographical breakdown of balance of payments statistics helps to monitor interactions 

between the EU and non-EU countries. 

-  The composition of financial flows and stocks (in terms of direct investment, portfolio and 

other investment) is valuable for assessing financial stability. 

-  Detailed information on foreign direct investment flows is important to measure the degree 
of openness of certain  markets,  or to  assess the overall  profitability  of direct  investment 
capital invested through the use of income and positions statistics. 

The members of the Balance of Payments Working Group (the BOPWG) acknowledge that the 
implementation of Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 has triggered a number of changes that have 
improved the quality of balance of payments statistics from several points of view. In assessing 
the  benefits  of  this  Regulation  for  national  data  compilers  and  users,  the  members  of  the 
BOPWG were asked to give scores ranging from 1 to 5 (a score of 1 being the fewest benefits, 
a score of 5 being the highest), with the following results: 

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-  The  average  score  for  the  availability  of  more  detailed  data  on  balance  of  payments, 

international trade in services and foreign direct investment to data users is 3.8. 

-  The  average  score  for  the  availability  of  more  timely  and  punctual  data  on  balance  of 
payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment to data users is 3.9. 

-  The  average  score  for  enhanced  consistency  of  balance  of  payments  data  with  national 

accounts data is 4.4. 

The BOPWG further noted that the methodological changes and new standards of the BPM6, 
as well as the increased attention paid to international investment position data, introduced at 
EU level in 2014 by Commission Regulation (EU) No 555/2012, brought clarity and important 
additional information to statistical data users involved in macroeconomic policy and economic 
research.  Another  acknowledged  benefit  is  that  the  Regulation  improved  comparability  and 
consistency of the data across Member States. 

When  analysing  the  completeness  of  the  data,  the  BOPWG  observed  a  slight  improvement 
compared  with  the  previous  quality  report,  notably  for  quarterly  balance  of  payments  and 
foreign direct investment. Regarding monthly and quarterly balance of payments and quarterly 
international  investment  position,  all  27  Member  States  were  100%  compliant  for  reference 
months in 2021. Completeness of data related to international trade in services statistics was 
99% on average. The EU average rate of completeness was estimated at 98% for both foreign 
direct investment flows and foreign direct investment stocks. 

4.4. 

Accessibility 

Data  are  also  available  on  national  websites  and  accompanied  by  the  relevant  metadata 
information, with some limitations due to national dissemination policies applied to national 
data  and  data  sent  to  Eurostat.  Eurostat  publishes  these  monthly  and  quarterly  balance  of 
payments,  quarterly  international  investment  position  and  revaluations,  annual  international 
trade in services statistics and foreign direct investment data in its public database.  

Data availability to the final users improved, with 23 Member States considering 100% of main 
items  for  quarterly  balance  of  payments  and  24  Member  States  for  quarterly  international 
investment  position  as  publishable.  Some  Member  States  flag  their  national  data  as  ‘non-
publishable’ or ‘confidential’. This circumstance limits the value of statistical information that 
can be provided to the users. 

Generally,  balance  of  payments,  international  investment  position,  international  trade  in 
services  and  foreign  direct  investment  data  serve  a  wide  range  of  users.  They  are  used 
extensively in EU policymaking, in macroeconomic analysis by business and academic users 
as well as by the general public. 

4.5. 

Accuracy and reliability 

In the goods, services and secondary income accounts relatively small revisions were recorded 
for both monthly and quarterly balance of payments. The primary income account was more 
affected by revisions, especially due to direct investment income. One reason is that information 
on direct investment and its income components is more complete on an annual basis, when the 
annual  financial  statements  of  companies  become  available.  Mean  values  of  revisions  were 
generally higher for financial account items than for current account items, while the size of 
revisions for main  international  investment  position items  was  much less significant  than in 
balance of payments. 

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4.6. 

Coherence and comparability 

4.6.1. 

Internal consistency 

The overall consistency with integrity rules is satisfactory. There are almost no discrepancies 
for  quarterly  and  annual  international  trade  in  services  and  foreign  direct  investment  data. 
Significant  efforts  have  been  made  by  the  Member  States  to  reduce  the  size  of  errors  and 
omissions, as shown in relation to the current account and the international investment position. 
However, in some cases their size still remains substantial9. 

4.6.2.  External consistency 

The overall EU situation for consistency between balance of payments and international trade 
in  goods  statistics  (ITGS)  remains  good,  with  discrepancies  usually  explained  by 
methodological  differences resulting from the  two different  recording  standards (BPM6 and 
IMTS 2010). Full or very good consistency between the current account of balance of payments 
and national accounts could be observed in a number of Member States, while for some other 
Member  States  differences,  sometimes  substantial,  exist.  Eurostat  and  Member  States  have 
identified several reasons for inconsistencies, e.g. different compilation practices, different data 
sources, vintage and revision effects, as well as different interpretation of statistical manuals 
and  guides.  Joint  efforts  from  Member  States,  the  ECB  and  Eurostat  could  help  minimise 
inconsistencies in future compilation rounds10. 

4.6.3.  Asymmetries 

Intra-EU asymmetries remain problematic. Relative asymmetries in trade in services showed a 
median of 10% for total services of Member States. The median as highest for financial services 
with 24%, followed with a median of 22% for telecommunications, computer and information 
services. For current account components they have remained rather stable over time and have 
even  increased  slightly  for  direct  investment  flows.  Persistent  bilateral  asymmetries  and 
asymmetries at the level of the intra-EU aggregates – differences in the statistics reported by 
Member States with those reported by partner Member States – have led to questions about the 
interpretation  of the statistics by data users. Bilateral  asymmetries, intra-EU asymmetries as 
well  as  extra-EU  asymmetries,  have  negative  implications  for  cross-country  and  economic 
zones comparability and overall data quality. Reducing these asymmetries would be a major 
step towards increasing confidence in official statistics. 

4.7. 

Production  and  dissemination  of  balance  of  payments  statistics  during  the 
COVID-19 lockdown 

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on official statistics has been particularly relevant for 
central banks and national statistical offices. Statistical compilers were confronted with source 
data gaps which became an issue due to the pandemic and were involved in methodological 
interventions  to  address  the  related  challenges.  BOP/IIP  statistics  became  more  difficult  to 
compile  due  to  the  impact  of  COVID-19  on  respondents.  Data  therefore  became  less 
comparable across time frames and/or less representative. Imputation for missing values was 
based  on  additional  data  sources,  sample  methodology  adjustments  or  statistical  techniques. 
Challenges for statistical compilers and users included the accuracy of EU aggregates, delays 

9  Quality  report  on  balance  of  payments  (BOP),  international  investment  position  (IIP),  international  trade  in 
services (ITS) and foreign direct investment statistics (FDI) — 2022 edition. 
10 In January 2022, the ECB and Eurostat presented for the first time a Joint ECB-Eurostat report on inconsistencies 
in NA-BOP concerning quarterly financial and non-financial accounts to the CMFB. This work should further 
support national compilers’ efforts undertaken in this context. 

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in the availability of sources for official statistics, and larger uncertainty and data revisions11. 
Accuracy  and  reliability  were  mostly  affected  at  the  beginning  of  the  pandemic,  when 
mitigating measures were not yet well established. 

5. 

COSTS AND BURDEN OF BALANCE OF PAYMENTS STATISTICS 

To compile balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment 
statistics, national compilers indicated that they use data from primary statistics, referring for 
example to customs data, data from the survey on intracommunity trade in goods, data  from 
business registers, tax administration, real estate data or tourism statistics. For Member States 
it is difficult to disentangle the specific costs of collecting and producing the data required under 
Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 from the total cost incurred for data collected for other purposes. 

The  BOPWG  members  estimate  the  direct  labour  input  required  for  the  production  and 
dissemination  of  balance  of  payments  statistics  in  the  EU  at  approximately  557  full  time 
equivalents (based on information from 19 Member States). When breaking down the response 
by  sub-component  of  BOP,  the  dataset  absorbing  most  input  is  the  quarterly  balance  of 
payments, which requires 60.2% of the resources, followed by monthly balance of payments 
statistics (19.7%), international trade in services (11.9%) and foreign direct investment (8.1%). 

Feedback from Member States indicates that, if there was no data submission to Eurostat due 
to Regulation (EC) No 184/2005, possible savings would account for 13.2% of the full time 
equivalents. Balance of payments data are also needed for national purposes and were already 
collected  by  Member  States  before  the  Regulation came  into  force.  Therefore,  only  limited 
additional resources are required to comply with its requirements. It should also be borne in 
mind  that  there  is  significant  overlap  between  the  requirements  of  Regulation  (EC) 
No 184/2005  and  the  data  requests  of  other  national  and  international  organisations  (IOs), 
particularly those of the ECB and the IMF. The data produced by the Member States specifically 
for Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 are indistinguishable from others produced to comply with 
other data requirements. 

For ‘other costs’, Member States were asked to assess the implications of ad hoc surveys. 

On the burden that the collection of data on balance of payments, international trade in services 
and foreign direct investment places on respondents, a few Member States indicated that they 
estimated  the  cost  to  respondents  of  replying  to  surveys  at  between  EUR  1.4  million  (IT 
surveys)  and  EU  22.8  million  (full  coverage  of  BOP  sub-components).  Member  States  also 
indicated that surveys entailed a higher workload for small and medium size enterprises, which 
might be subject to various reporting obligations. 

Since  the  last  report  on  the  implementation  published  on  26  January  2018,  Eurostat  has 
supported  Member  States  regarding  the  implementation  of  concepts  and  methods  of  macro-
economic statistics including balance of payments statistics with EUR 1.7 million. 

6. 

AREAS FOR POTENTIAL IMPROVEMENTS AND AMENDMENTS 

In general, Member States underlined the importance of international cooperation. Eurostat’s 
role is appreciated in providing the BOPWG as a forum for the structured exchange of views 

11 Eurostat and the ECB published a Methodological note for Member States on how to address the challengers: 
‘Guidance on the compilation of balance of payments statistics in the context of the COVID-19 crisis’ Eurostat, 
Directorate  C  Unit  C5  –  Integrated  global  accounts  and  Balance  of  Payments  -  European  Central  Bank, 
Directorate General Statistics Division – External statistics and sector accounts 1 July 2020. 

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and sharing of experiences and good practices on matters related to Regulation (EC) 184/2005. 
Overall, the feedback received encourages Eurostat to further cooperate with its partner IOs to 
harmonise data reporting requirements and concepts and methodology in the various statistical 
areas. Some Member States stress the need for guidance on interpreting statistical manuals and 
guidelines,  which  confirms  the  importance  of  Eurostat’s  methodological  advice  on  the 
interpretation of the ESA 2010 and the BPM6 in cooperation with the ECB. 

In addition, Member States preferred that international guidelines allow respondents to use their 
business accounting data as source data. In this regard, Eurostat has developed guidance on how 
to  prepare statistical  estimates under the accounting standards of  IFRS 16, ensuring that the 
estimates  follow  the  terms  under  the  ESA  2010  and  the  BPM6.  Member  States  call  for  a 
simplification  of  statistical  concepts,  which  would  reduce  costs  and  administrative  burden. 
During  the  BPM6  update process  Eurostat  is  informing  Member  States on  a  regular  basis about  all 
relevant changes and encourages them to participate in the global consultations. 

Moreover, Member States are in favour of promoting and sharing the data of those entities that 
are  developing  new  businesses  in  several  countries.  Work  on  crypto  assets,  fintech,  online 
brokers or online booking services for accommodation would in turn close possible data gaps. 

Several Member States stressed the importance of a broader use and exchange of micro- and 
macro data at national and international level. A future legislative act enabling Member States 
to share data with non-member countries is seen as beneficial in this respect. For example, data 
needed  for  the  compilation  of  FDI  are  currently  covered  by  national  statistical  collection 
frameworks, taking different forms depending on the national approach. FDI is considered to 
qualify for a large scale data sharing system and centralised reporting system for multinational 
enterprises. It should be assessed whether the integrated reporting framework for the banking 
industry (IReF) would establish a standardised solution for the reporting scheme across euro-
area countries. 

Some Member States think it would be worth investigating the possibility of making greater 
use of administrative data at European level. Eurostat, for example, has been discussing with 
the BOPWG the possibility for the services sector of using VAT information exchange system 
(VIES)  data  to  adjust  the  intra-EU  total  services,  and  applying  VAT  mini  one-stop-shop 
(MOSS)  /  one-stop-shop  (OSS)  data  to  service  sector  categories  for  balance  of  payments 
purposes. 

On  the  existing  data  requirements,  Member  States  are  in  favour  of  keeping  the  current 
obligations and avoiding an amendment of Regulation (EC) 184/2005 in the short and medium 
term. The current collection of monthly data was deemed burdensome and it was suggested to 
reduce its detail. Similarly, as introducing a more detailed breakdown would imply much higher 
costs, it was also suggested that this be left out at this stage. A more detailed breakdown could 
also imply more data that are flagged as confidential by smaller Member States. 

Some Member States expressed a preference for a possible single data submission to save costs. 
Therefore, Eurostat receives data from Member States, and forwards the data to partner IOs. 

7. 

CONCLUSIONS 

Regulation  (EC)  No 184/2005  has  helped  to  further  harmonise  balance  of  payments, 
international investment position, international trade in services and foreign direct investment 
statistics throughout the EU, to increase the timeliness of the data and to provide the users with 
greater detail of the data. 

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Member  States  underlined  that  the  monthly  data  collection  is  deemed  burdensome  and  new 
variables  would  imply  higher  costs  for  statistical  compilers  and  reporting  agents.  Some 
concerns were raised that the quality for monthly balance of payments would not improve. The 
favoured approach by Member States would be not to amend the Regulation (EC) 184/2005 in 
the short and medium term. 

Overall, results are fairly consistent across Member States on the importance of cooperation 
among Member States, Eurostat and partner international organisations. In particular, Eurostat 
provides  with  its  BOPWG  a  forum  for  promoting  with  Member  States  evidenced-based 
policymaking and fostering macroeconomic development through the provision of robust data 
on balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment. 

9