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: 2025-12-16
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU environmental policy, EU statistics, application of EU law, data collection, economic statistics, environmental economics, environmental protection, environmental statistics, national accounts, sustainable development

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 16.12.2025  COM(2025) 765 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  
 
 
(1) 

INTRODUCTION 

Regulation  (EU)  No  691/2011  on  European  environmental  economic  accounts (1)  (the 
Regulation)  introduced  a  common  framework  for  collecting,  compiling,  transmitting  and 
evaluating European environmental economic accounts. Article 10 of the Regulation states as 
follows. 

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 fifth report fulfilling this obligation. The previous reports were published in 2022 (2), 
2019 (3), 2016 (4) and 2013 (5). 

(2) 

ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMIC ACCOUNTS 

Since 2019, the European Green Deal has formed the basis for the Commission’s commitment 
to  tackling  climate  and  environmental  challenges.  However,  new  global  challenges  have 
emerged,  and  the  European  Commission  aims  to  make  the  EU  more  sustainable,  more 
competitive, more resilient, and better prepared for climate change. 

The  economy  and  the  environment  are  inextricably  linked.  Consistent  and  complete 
information  on  the  environmental  impacts  of  our  economic  activities,  on  the  social  and 
economic benefits we receive from the environment, and on the benefits  from protecting the 
environment  supports  the  implementation  of  the  EU’s  priorities  regarding  strengthening  the 
sustainability  and  resilience  of  production  in  the  EU  and  the  willingness  to  decarbonise  the 
economy. Therefore, policymakers require high-quality statistics on the connections between 
the environment and the economy to monitor progress and decide on policy actions. 

Environmental  economic  accounts  (environmental  accounts  for  short)  are  a  powerful, 
multipurpose information framework looking at the sustainability and climate impacts of the 
EU’s economic activities. Mainstream economic statistics alone, such as national accounts, are 
not  designed  to  fully  take  into  consideration  the  environmental  effects  of  production, 
consumption,  investment  or  financing.  By  integrating  economic  and  environmental  aspects, 
environmental accounts provide a more complete picture of the situation. 

The forthcoming revised national accounts standard ESA 202X will include natural resources 

(1) 

(2) 

OJ L 192, 22.7.2011, p.1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2011/691/2025-06-24. 

COM(2022) 718, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52022DC0718. 

(3) 
COM(2020) 56, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/TXT/?qid=1583142055591&uri=CELEX:52020DC0056. 

(4) 
COM(2016) 663, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/TXT/?qid=1478531808092&uri=CELEX:52016DC0663. 

(5) 

COM/2013/0864, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:52013DC0864. 

1 

 
 
 
to a much greater degree than before. The compilation of national accounts will therefore rely 
more than ever on sound environmental accounts data. 

European environmental accounts underpin the supranational aspect of environmental issues, 
taking a systematic approach and providing coverage across Member States and environmental 
topics to enable policy assessment and comparisons across Member States. 

The  key  feature  of  environmental  accounts  is  integration,  namely  the  integration  of  various 
kinds  of  information  (statistical,  administrative,  modelled,  …),  and  the  integration  of 
environmental  and  economic  aspects  such  as  (i) energy  use,  taxation  and  air  emissions; 
(ii) material extraction and waste; and (iii) environment- and climate-related government and 
business expenditure (including investments); (iv) the extent and condition of ecosystems, and 
the contributions ecosystems make to society and the environment. 

Environmental accounts are an efficient and effective way of assembling information because: 

- 

- 

they reuse available data, making it possible for new information to be produced with 
limited administrative burden on businesses and members of the public; 

they make it possible to cross-check and compare information from different sources, 
thereby making it possible to derive high-quality information with limited effort. 

European  environmental  accounts  are  based  on  the  international  standards  System  of 
Environmental-Economic  Accounting  Central  Framework  (SEEA  CF) (6)  and  System  of 
Environmental-Economic Accounting: Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) (7). These standards 
were produced and published by the UN, the European Commission (Eurostat), the Food and 
Agriculture  Organisation  of  the  UN,  the  Organisation  for  Economic  Cooperation  and 
Development (OECD), the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The SEEA CF is 
being revised, with an update scheduled for 2028. 

The environment and climate affect people the world over and many cross-border aspects of 
both  are  associated  with  air  emissions,  materials  and  trade,  water  use,  energy,  taxation, 
investments,  etc.  Global  standards  are  therefore  essential.  This  is  why  the  SEEA  CF  is 
coordinated with the European System of Accounts and the Balance of Payments. 

Within  the  framework  of  the  above  standards,  the  Regulation  establishes  European 
environmental accounts, for reporting by Member States, data sources, the carrying out of pilot 
studies, etc. It has European Economic Area (EEA) relevance (8). It breaks the accounts down 
into nine modules, as follows. 

(6) 

(7) 

https://seea.un.org/. 

https://seea.un.org/ecosystem-accounting. 

It covers Norway and Iceland. Liechtenstein has a complete derogation. The bilateral Statistical Agreement 

(8) 
of Switzerland with the European Union includes the Regulation since December 2019. (Decision No 2/2019 of the 
European Union/Switzerland Statistical Committee of 2 December 2019 replacing Annex A to the Agreement between 
the European Community and the Swiss Confederation on cooperation in the field of statistics [2020/51]; OJ L 17, 
22.1.2020, p. 7, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec/2020/51/oj). 

2 

 
 
 
-  Air  emissions  accounts:  the  emissions  into  the  atmosphere  of  six  greenhouse  gases 
(including CO2 and CO2 from biomass used as 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:  taxes  related  to  energy, 
transport,  pollution  and  natural  resources,  including  special  categories  for  CO2  and 
emission  trading  schemes,  with  a  breakdown  covering  64  paying  industries  plus 
households and non-residents. 

-  Economy-wide material flow accounts: the amounts of physical inputs feeding into 
the economy, material accumulation in the economy, and outputs to other economies or 
inputs back into the environment. This is essential information for monitoring progress 
towards a circular economy. 

-  Environmental  protection  expenditure  accounts:  spending  by  economic  units  for 
environmental protection purposes. Expenditure includes investments and categories of 
consumption. 

-  Environmental goods and services sector accounts: output, value added and exports 
of goods and services 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), with a breakdown covering 64 industries plus households. 

-  Forest  accounts:  data  on  forest  resources  and  economic  activity  in  the  forestry  and 
logging industry in a way that is fully compatible with data reported under ESA 2010. 

-  Environmental subsidies and similar transfers accounts: current and capital transfers 
from the government to businesses and households, intended to support activities that 
protect  the  environment  and  natural  resources,  including  the  production  and  use  of 
environmental products. 

-  Ecosystem accounts: the extent and condition of ecosystem assets and the services they 
provide  to  society  and  the  economy.  Examples  of  ecosystem  services  include  crop 
provision, crop pollination, nature-based tourism and global climate regulation. 

Each of the above modules is defined in one annex to the Regulation. Member States have been 
required to submit data to the Commission (Eurostat) under Annexes I to III since 2013, under 
Annexes IV to VI since 2017, and Annexes VII and VIII since late 2025, with data under Annex 
IX (ecosystem accounts) due to have been submitted by the end of 2026. 

(3) 

ACTIVITIES SINCE THE LAST REPORT 

3 

 
 
Amendments of the Regulation and other derived legislation 

Regulation  (EU) 2024/3024  of 27 November 2024 amended Regulation  (EU) No 691/2011. 
First,  it  added  three  new  modules  on  forest  accounts,  environmental  subsidies  and  similar 
transfers accounts, and ecosystems accounts. 

The  new  modules  on  forest  accounts  and  environmental  subsidies  and  similar  transfers  are 
based on pre-existing voluntary data submissions (respectively, since 2016 and 2015). 

The ecosystem accounts module is new for most Member States. It builds on the UN SEEA EA 
standard established in 2021, as well as on experience gained in Eurostat, the Joint Research 
Centre  of  the  Commission  (JRC)  and  some  Member  States  over  the  last  few  years.  First 
developed by the JRC in the INCA project (9), Eurostat, the JRC and a group of national experts 
have  been  developing  methodologies  since  2021,  with  Eurostat  organising  voluntary  data 
collections in 2023 and 2024 in preparation for the first round of reporting under the Regulation 
in 2026, and the Commission (Eurostat) co-financing capacity building in the Member States 
with annual grants since 2017. 

These three modules will improve the information available for several EU actions and goals, 
including the climate neutrality ambition, the Farm to Fork strategy, the EU forest strategy, the 
EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 and the Global Biodiversity Convention, the soil strategy for 
2030, the Nature Restoration Regulation, and the zero-pollution action plan. They will also help 
to increase the relevance of the monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals for the EU. 

Thanks to the integrated structure of the accounts, the new modules will also add considerable 
value to the basic statistical data and increase the capabilities of the six existing modules, as it 
will be possible to combine new and old accounts to derive new indicators. 

For instance, the new ecosystem accounts can be combined with existing air emissions accounts 
to compare the volume of carbon sequestration by ecosystems with the volume of greenhouse 
gas  emissions.  There  is  also  a  strong  link  between  ecosystem  accounts,  forest  accounts  and 
economy-wide material flow accounts in terms of the extraction of biomass. 

Besides  the  three  new  modules,  Regulation  (EU)  2024/3024  of  27  November  2024  has 
improved the situation in other ways. The Commission (Eurostat) was mandated to publish and, 
if necessary, collect data from Member States about investments in climate change mitigation 
(see below). The Commission (Eurostat) was also required to create a new digital publication 
on  climate  change  and  a  portal  with  data  from  environmental  accounts.  The  Commission 
(Eurostat)  was  given  the  task  of  doing  a  study  of  the  feasibility  of  monetary  valuation  of 
ecosystem services and data quality studies on water, energy subsidies and climate adaptation. 
Improvements  have  also  been  made  in  relation  to  new  data  sources  for  the  accounts,  pilot 
studies, derogations and EU financing. 

Below are listed other measures with a legal basis that have been taken since the last report to 
the European Parliament and the Council. 

(9) 

https://ecosystem-accounts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/. 

4 

 
 
 
-  Commission  Implementing  Regulation  (EU)  2024/1769 (10)  as  regards  updating  the 
indicative compendium of environmental goods and services and of economic activities. 
This Regulation established the reference list setting out the scope of the compilation of 
Annex V to Regulation (EU) No 691/2011. 

-  Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1131 (11) amending Regulation (EU) No 
691/2011  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  as  regards  investments  on 
climate change mitigation and introducing the classification of environmental purposes. 
Climate change mitigation, including related investments, is indispensable to achieve 
the objective of climate neutrality in the EU by 2050. This is why characteristics of other 
investments in climate change mitigation are included in the European environmental 
accounts. The data cover all sectors and activities of the economy relevant for climate 
change mitigation and are broken down by Member State. The first data submission on 
investments in climate change mitigation is due in October 2025. The classification of 
environmental purposes is a new classification established by the UN in 2024, replacing 
the  old  classification  of  environmental  protection  activities  and  expenditure  (CEPA 
2000) and the classification of resource management activities (CReMA 2008). 

-  Commission  Delegated  Regulation  (EU)  2023/137 (12)  introduced  NACE  Revision 2 
update 1. As the NACE classification of economic activities governs data submissions 
from  Member  States  to  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  for  environmental  economic 
accounts, Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/472 (13) amended Annexes IV 
and V to Regulation 691/2011 by updating the data submission requirements expressed 
in terms of NACE Revision 2 in order to align them with the updates made to it. The 
implementation of NACE Revision 2 update 1 in Regulation (EU) 691/2011 will start 
in the future. 

Despite the intensive preparatory technical work for the three new modules with all Member 
States, eight countries requested derogations for the implementation of one or several of the 
three new modules, meaning that they will start reporting data 1-2 years later than the rest of 
the  Member  States.  All  derogation  requests  were  duly  justified  and  granted  in  Commission 
Implementing  Decision  (EU)  2025/1170  of  13  June  2025 (14).  Thirteen  Member  States 
requested derogations for the submission of data on climate change mitigation investments for 
one or two years starting from October 2025. 

(10) 

(11) 

(12)  

(13)  

(14) 

OJ L, 2024/1769, 27.6.2024, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2024/1769/oj. 

OJ L, 2025/1131, 4.6.2025, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2025/1131/oj. 

OJ L 19, 20.1.2023 p. 5, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2023/137/oj. 

OJ L, 2025/472, 11.3.2025, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2025/472/oj. 

OJ L, 2025/1170, 16.6.2025, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2025/1170/oj. 

5 

 
 
 
New data and indicators, new publications 

Since the last report in 2022, in addition to the new modules, the Commission (Eurostat) has 
increased  the  amount  of,  and  improved  the  quality  of,  the  information  available  from  the 
environmental accounts. 

-  The Commission (Eurostat) has released: 

-  an Environmental Economic Account Statistical Data Portal (‘Dashboard’) (15) 

and 

-  a digital publication on climate change mitigation (16) 

as required by Article 10 of the amended Regulation. 

Both  products  were  released  in  December  2024.  The  dashboard  summarises  key 
environmental economic account indicators in a user-friendly and interactive way. The 
digital publication ‘Statistics on climate change mitigation’ provides interactive graphs 
and maps so users can delve into environmental account data. 

-  Since  November  2021,  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  has  been  releasing  estimates  of 
quarterly greenhouse gas emissions (17) that are fully consistent with national accounts. 
They take just four and a half months after the end of the reference period to publish. 
The timely publication of emission estimates responds to the need, from a policy point 
of view, for faster and more frequent information. The new estimates do not require any 
additional reporting by Member States. 

- 

In  addition  to  the  publication  of  data  reported  by  the  Member  States  under  the 
Regulation,  Eurostat  publishes  early  estimates  of  the  air  emissions  accounts  for 
greenhouse gases at T + 12 months after the end of the reference period, and at T + 6 
months for material flow accounts. 

-  The  Commission  (Eurostat)  combines  environmental  accounts  with  macro-economic 
models such as multi-regional input-output tables, in order to produce better quality and 
more detailed environmental footprints of the EU’s consumption, such as its greenhouse 
gas (18) or material footprint (19). 

(15)  

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/dashboard/environmental-accounts/. 

(16)  
explained/index.php?title=Statistics_on_climate_change_mitigation. 

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-

(17)  
explained/index.php?title=Quarterly_greenhouse_gas_emissions_in_the_EU. 

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-

(18) 
explained/index.php?title=Greenhouse_gas_emission_footprints. 

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-

(19) 
explained/index.php?title=Material_flow_accounts_statistics_-_material_footprints. 

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-

6 

 
 
 
Data collection methods and administrative burden 

Environmental accounts do not generally require citizens or businesses to fill in new surveys as 
they  mostly  use  data  already  held  by  national  authorities.  These  existing  data  are  often 
complemented with additional estimates e.g. from models, if necessary. In addition to data from 
national  accounts,  environmental  accounts  integrate  data  from  a  wide  range  of  sources, 
including  statistics  on  energy,  transport,  materials,  agriculture  and  forestry,  government 
expenditure, and taxation, as well as non-statistical sources such as Earth observation data, data 
from bio-physical models and biodiversity information from citizen science. 

To fulfil the data requirements set out in the Regulation, authorities in the Member States may 
need  to  adjust  existing  data  to  align  them  with  the  concepts  of  the  Regulation.  These 
adjustments  may  require  a  certain  amount  of  work  on  the  part  of  national  authorities  and 
citizens, such as adapted or expanded household or business surveys to provide data for selected 
variables in environmental accounts. 

Countries  can  also  choose  to  set  up  specific  data  collections  for  environmental  accounts,  to 
improve data quality.  For instance, some countries have set up surveys to complement their 
other data sources for the environmental goods and services sector accounts (Annex V to the 
Regulation). These surveys are done every year or every few years. The resulting additional 
burden on businesses is very low. 

In  conclusion,  the  administrative  burden  on  businesses  and  households  to  provide  data  for 
environmental accounts is very small. 

Regarding the administrative burden on national authorities, the situation is as follows. National 
authorities, typically the national statistical institutes or occasionally the ministries of energy 
or  environment,  do  most  of  the  work  to  produce  the  accounts.  Other  national  authorities 
contributing to the accounts include nature protection authorities and tax administration. This 
work  largely  consists  in  re-using  and  integrating  existing  statistical  data  sources  such  as 
business surveys and non-statistical data sources like administrative records.  

The average number of staff in national authorities required to compile the accounts is estimated 
to  be  between  six  and  nine  full-time  equivalents  (FTE)  for  the  nine  annexes  to  the 
Regulation (20). 

The older annexes I-VI each require, on average 0.5 FTE to 1 FTE each. Initially, the three new 
annexes are estimated to require two to three additional FTEs in each national authority (21), 
with  the  exact  number  depending  on  factors  such  as  the  Member  State’s  circumstances,  the 
extent of existing data sources. 

As production systems mature over time, it is expected that efficiency gains can be expected. 

(20) 
European statistics. 

Source: Member States’ national statistical institutes, data collected in the 2020 cost analysis of 

(21) 
the expert group ‘Directors of sectoral and environmental statistics and accounts (DIMESA)’ in 2021. 

Source: Member States’ national statistical institutes, data collected from, and for discussion in, 

7 

 
 
 
Burden  reduction  and  simplification  are  very  important  for  the  Commission.  In  cooperation 
with national statistical authorities, Eurostat is implementing measures to reduce the burden of 
data collection and reporting. 

•  Eurostat staff develop methodologies, write guidelines, provide compilation tools, run 
expert  groups  and  manage  grants  that  are  essential  for  creating  efficiencies  and 
coordination in the Member States. 

•  Commission (Eurostat) expert groups coordinate data production, promote the sharing 

of good practices and common solutions, and increase efficiencies 

•  The  Commission  (Eurostat)  has  developed  and  provided  Member  States  with  a 
compilation tool and EU wide data for ecosystem services accounts (the INCA tool), 
and a compilation tool for energy accounts (the PEFA builder). Member States using 
these tools will have little to do to implement energy and ecosystem services accounts 
that are of satisfactory quality. Member States can also use their own tools and data. 

•  Ecosystem extent and condition accounts can be largely based on existing EU-wide data. 

•  Several  national  authorities  have  used  grants  (co-financed  by  the  Commission)  to 
implement  methods  or  to  develop  the  necessary  tools  for  data  production  thereby 
becoming more efficient. 

Those Commission (Eurostat) initiatives have significantly decreased the administrative burden 
and costs in the Member States. The reduction is estimated at approximately one to two FTEs 
per Member State and least 2 million euros per year for all Member States together. 

In conclusion, the burden on national authorities is limited and much smaller compared to the 
benefits from environmental accounts. Eurostat is very attentive and constantly seeks to reduce 
the data collection burden. To this end, Eurostat and maintains constant communication with 
the Member States on this matter. 

(4) 

FEASIBILITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF THE STATISTICS 

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

As  regards  the  first  factor,  this  is  illustrated  by  the  estimation  of  the  crop  provisioning 
ecosystem service in the new Annex IX based on existing information from the material flow 
accounts in Annex III. 

As regards the second factor,  environmental  accounts  inform  economic  analysis and impact 
assessments  and  are  used  to  monitor  progress  towards  achieving  policy  objectives.  Several 
environmental account indicators such as the material footprint, the circular material use rate, 
the share of environmental taxes in total tax revenues, and the greenhouse gas footprint of EU 
consumption,  have  been  used  to  monitor  progress  the  EU  is  making  towards  achieving  the 

8 

 
 
Sustainable  Development  Goals (22),  and  in  the  monitoring  of  the  8th  General  Union 
Environment Action Programme to 2030 (23). 

In  the  EU  circular  economy  monitoring  framework (24),  several  indicators  for  the  input  of 
materials into the economy and use of primary and secondary materials are compiled using the 
environmental accounts. 

Indicators derived from the environmental accounts will also help to monitor the EU’s progress 
towards  achieving  the  goals  of  the  Convention  on  Biodiversity (25)  and  the  effectiveness  of 
other biodiversity protection and zero pollution policies. 

The ecosystem condition indicators are aligned with the indicators used to monitor the Nature 
Restoration Regulation.  This means that environmental accounts can be used to monitor the 
EU’s progress towards reaching the relevant targets. 

Presenting policy-relevant indicators in the new environmental accounts dashboard (26), and the 
in-depth  analysis  of  interdependencies  between  climate  change  mitigation  and  economic 
activities presented in the digital publication on climate change mitigation (27), will support use 
of the accounts for policymaking. 

The feasibility of the new modules added to the Regulation is inherent in their design, as they 
have been tested by dedicated task forces with national experts and/or through grants before the 
Commission  proposed the amendment.  Methodological  support in  the form  of handbooks is 
provided by the Commission (Eurostat) in collaboration with Member States. 

(5) 

QUALITY OF THE DATA TRANSMITTED SINCE THE LAST REPORT 

The Regulation requires Member States and EEA countries, to submit data and reports on the 
quality of their data to Eurostat (28). A few candidate countries and potential candidates for EU 
membership also submit data required by the Regulation on a voluntary basis, partly or fully. 
This  implementation  report  focuses  on  the  first  group  of  countries  (EU/EEA  countries). 
Eurostat validates the data and data quality reports received and makes them publicly available 

https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2785/1111373. SDG indicators based on environmental accounts are ‘air 

(22) 
emission intensity of industry’, ‘material footprint’, ‘gross value added in the environmental sector’, ‘circular material 
use rate’ and ‘shares of environmental taxes in total tax revenues’. This report also uses carbon footprints in the 
chapter on spillover effects. 

(23) 
programme/8th-eap-indicator-based-progress. 

https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/topics/at-a-glance/state-of-europes-environment/environment-action-

(24) 

(25) 

(26). 

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/circular-economy/monitoring-framework. 

https://www.cbd.int/gbf. 

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/dashboard/environmental-accounts/. 

(27)  
explained/index.php?title=Statistics_on_climate_change_mitigation. 

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-

Switzerland has been submitting data under the bilateral Statistical Agreement of Switzerland with the 

(28) 
European Union since December 2019. Liechtenstein has a complete derogation from Regulation (EU) No 691/2011, 
as specified in Decision of the EEA Joint Committee No 98/2012 of 30 April 2012 amending Annex XXI (Statistics) to 
the EEA Agreement (OJ L 248, 13.9.2012, p. 36, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec/2012/98(2)/oj). 

9 

 
 
 
on its website (29), together with technical and methodological explanations and background 
information (30). 

Most Member States submit complete data sets and quality reports within the deadlines set in 
the Regulation (31). During the reporting periods, a few Member States missed the deadlines, 
usually by only a few days, but this had no tangible impact on users. 

Overall, the statistical data submitted by Member States for all annexes under the Regulation 
are of very good quality and have further improved between 2022 and 2025. This is documented 
in the quality performance indicators for air emissions accounts and material flow accounts that 
Eurostat  publishes  with  the  metadata.  The  coherence  between  energy  accounts  and  air 
emissions accounts is regularly assessed and has also improved. 

The Commission (Eurostat) expects the quality (completeness) of the newly introduced data for 
Annex V on climate change mitigation investments to improve in the next two years, as many 
Member  States  have  obtained  a  derogation.  This  additional  time  will  allow  them  to  better 
prepare themselves. For the first years of data submissions, the data will therefore be missing 
for  those  Member  States  and  Eurostat  will  estimate  them  using  modelling  techniques. 
Improvements are still needed in this area. The Commission (Eurostat) continues to work with 
the Member States to resolve technical and methodological issues. 

Additional measures to improve data quality are either planned or already being implemented, 
as detailed in the next section. 

(6) 

IMPROVEMENT MEASURES 

The Commission  (Eurostat) and the Member States have  agreed on a European strategy  for 
environmental  accounts.  The  current  version  covers  the  period  from  2024  to  2028 (32).  The 
strategy, which is not required by the Regulation, sets out a work programme and coordinates 
European efforts to increase the use of the environmental accounts and develop them further, 
including  any  potential  new  modules.  Regarding  the  implementation  of  the  Regulation,  the 
strategy has the following objectives. 

- 

Improve  communication  about,  and  increase  the  use  of,  the  environmental  accounts. 
This will ensure that they remain useful for policy and other types of use cases. This 
objective may also include more timely data, visualisations and presentations. It also 
includes further use of indicators based on environmental accounts or raising awareness 
and providing information for expert users and the public. 

(29) 

(30) 

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/data/database. 

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/environment/overview. 

(31)  
b598-7b3b9efb14e4/details. 

https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/c4687299-277c-42f8-8747-dee3f17341de/library/f4f240c1-054c-4363-

(32) 
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1798247/6191525/European+Strategy+for+Environmental+Accounts.pdf/b
eb67371-bcdf-442e-b323-22c891b717a4?t=1707816517927. 

10 

 
 
 
-  By way of example, Eurostat intends to publish early estimates for energy accounts in 

2026. Examples of new communication products can be found in Section 4. 

-  Prepare  the  implementation  of  the  three  new  modules  on  forests,  ecosystems  and 
environmental  subsidies  (Section  3).  Preparatory  activities  include  voluntary  data 
collections,  the  publication  of  Eurostat  handbooks,  agreed  data  validation  rules  and 
training for national compilers. 

-  Cooperate with other data producers. This concerns both cooperation with parts of the 
statistical  system  (such  as  social  statistics,  to  develop  broader  measures  of 
sustainability)  and  with  other  producers  outside  the  statistical  system  (such  as 
environmental  agencies,  the  research  community  and  ministries).  It  also  includes 
cooperation  and  methodological  coordination  with  the  international  statistical 
community, for example for the review of the SNA, ESA 202X and the work on the 
Balance  of  Payments  and  International  Investment  Position  Manual,  7th  edition 
(BPM7). The forthcoming revised national accounts standard ESA 202X will include to 
a much stronger degree than before natural resources. 

-  Explore  new  data  sources  to  increase  data  quality  and  make  data  production  more 

efficient. 

-  Establish a research agenda for European environmental accounts for the future. A first 

version of the research agenda was established in mid-2025. 

The strategy is accompanied by an action plan with a list of actions and deadlines, for each 
objective listed above. 

(7) 

PROPOSALS FOR NEW MODULES AND NEW ENVIRONMENTAL STATISTICAL PRODUCTS 

The  Commission  may  propose  new  modules  for  the  topics  listed  in  Article  4(2) (33)  –  in 
particular  on  energy  subsidies  –  based  on  the  results  of  the  pilot  and  feasibility  studies 
conducted by the Member States. 

For two of those topics (fossil fuel subsidies and climate change adaptation), the Commission 
(Eurostat) has developed the following statistical tools in the last two to three years. 

-  A voluntary data collection on potentially environmentally damaging subsidies, begun 
in 2023 and to be continued on a yearly basis. The evaluation of the methodology and 
of the results is done in collaboration with Member States.  

-  An experimental methodology and macro-economic data on climate change adaptation, 

based on available statistical data.  

The EU’s work on these two topics is a major international contribution to the G20 Data Gaps 
Initiative III and to the update of the international SEEA CF. 

The Commission and Member States together will continue to develop new modules. Article 4 
of  the  Regulation  requires  the  Commission  to  carry  out  an  assessment  of  methodological 

(33) 
support measures potentially harmful to the environment and waste accounts. 

Water accounts (quantitative and qualitative), resource management expenditure accounts, subsidies or 

11 

 
 
 
possibilities and the feasibility of monetary valuation of ecosystem services. Article 10 of the 
Regulation  requires  the  Commission  to  assess  the  quality  of  the  data  available  on  energy 
subsidies, including fossil fuel subsidies, on climate change adaptation and on water. 

However, the Commission (Eurostat) believes that the timing is not right for proposing new 
modules  unless the demand for them increases from a policy perspective. Implementing  the 
three  new  modules  involves  considerable  effort  on  the  part  of  the  Member  States.  The 
experience with the first two waves of modules established in 2011 and 2014 has also shown 
that the Commission and Member States need to continue investing in production systems and 
in  improving  data  production  over  several  data  submissions  before  production  systems  are 
mature and the quality of the data is stable. 

(8) 

CONCLUSIONS 

Since the last report, the Commission and the Member States have made further progress in 
implementing  European  environmental  accounts  under  Regulation  (EU)  No  691/2011,  in 
particular by: 

- 

- 

- 

enlarging the scope with three new thematic modules added to the Regulation, plus new 
variables on climate change mitigation investments; 

improving data quality and making data production more efficient; 

expanding communication about environmental accounts; 

-  developing further indicators to meet users’ needs; and 

- 

continuously  assessing  the  need  to  adjust  and  improve  the  quality  of  European 
environmental accounts in light of new priorities and areas. 

12