title: Report from the Commission to the Council Implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2186/93 of 22 July 1993 on Community co-ordination in drawing up business registers for statistical purposes

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text: COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES Brussels, 14. 01. 2000 COM(2000) 3 final REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL Implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) Nº2186/93 of 22 July 1993 on Community co-ordination in drawing up business registers for statistical purposes TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY 1. INTRODUCTION 1. 1. Aim and structure of the report 1. 2. Background of the Regulation 1. 2. 1 The need for good national business registers 1. 2. 2 The need for harmonisation of business registers 2. THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REGULATION: 1993-1998 2. 1. Derogations 2. 1. 1 The German derogation 2. 1. 2 The requests of Belgium and the United Kingdom 2. 2. Measures facilitating the implementation 2. 2. 1 Financial support to the Member States of the European Union 2. 2. 2 Methodological recommendations 2. 2. 3 Training 2. 3. Measurement of the implementation of the Regulation 2. 3. 1 Surveys on business registers 2. 3. 2 Coverage of business registers 2. 3. 3 Units recorded 2. 3. 4 Variables recorded 2. 4. The uses of business registers 2. 4. 1 Results of the 1996 survey 2. 4. 2 Intended uses 2 5 7 7 7 7 8 10 10 10 10 11 11 12 13 13 13 14 15 16 17 17 18 2. 5. Business registers outside the European Union 2. 5. 1 The countries of the European Economic Area 2. 5. 2 Central European Countries 2. 5. 3 Co-ordination with the UN Economic Commission for Europe 2. 6. Conclusions: achievements and work still to be done 3. THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REGULATION: FUTURE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT 3. 1. The need for and principles of a quality policy 3. 2. Quality requirements 3. 2. 1 Coverage of the business register 3. 2. 2 Delineation of statistical units 3. 2. 3 Variables recorded for the units 3. 3. Implementation of the quality policy 3. 4. Other elements of the quality policy and the need for methodological support 4. BEYOND THE REGULATION: THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS REGISTERS 4. 1. The place of business registers in the European system of business statistics 4. 1. 1 Present situation 4. 1. 2 Issues to be solved 4. 1. 3 Future development 4. 2. The use of administrative sources 4. 2. 1 Administrative sources for business registers 4. 2. 2 Satellite registers 4. 3. Enterprise groups and globalisation 3 18 18 19 19 19 21 21 22 22 22 23 23 24 25 25 25 25 27 28 28 28 28 4. 4. The manual of recommendations 4. 5. Conclusion: a work plan for the future 5. CONCLUSION ABBREVIATIONS REFERENCES ANNEX 1 Summary data per country Table 1: Units registered by type of statistical unit Table 2: Coverage by section of NACE Rev. 1 and by type of statistical Table 3: Variables registered by statistical unit Table 4: Sources for business registers by type of statistical unit ANNEX 2 Overview of financial support to Member States, 1993-1997 29 30 32 34 35 37 37 38 40 46 52 53 53 4 REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL Implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) Nº2186/93 of 22 July 1993 on Community co-ordination in drawing up business registers for statistical purposes SUMMARY The Regulation on business registers (BRs)1 for statistical purposes was adopted in 1993. According to the Regulation, Member States are obliged to set up business registers of enterprises carrying out economic activities contributing to the gross domestic product, the legal units responsible for them and their local units (with few exceptions mentioned in the Regulation). The Regulation also lists compulsory and optional characteristics for the three types of units, gives specifications for updating of the BR, access to information by the Commission and the procedures. The report includes information on the role of BRs in the European system of business statistics and reasons for the Regulation, it describes the implementation of the Regulation and it shows the progress made. But it also shows that the implementation is not yet completed. The future of BRs in the European system of business statistics is discussed. The role of BRs in the production of statistics on highly topical issues such as globalisation is taken into account. The experiences from the implementation of the BR Regulation have in general been positive, the convergence and improvements of the totally different BRs from the time before the Regulation has been enormous. The coverage is greatly improved and more than half of the MS already include also the non-compulsory NACE Rev. 1 sections. The cost-benefit ratio for BRs can be very good considering the possible benefits through the efficient use of high- quality BRs. BRs can now be considered as an efficient tool to lower the response burden on businesses, especially for SMEs. Even if the results are fairly good, there remain two main issues where a great deal of work is still needed. These are the harmonisation of statistical units and the quality of BRs. Even though the improvements concerning these issues have also been extensive, the different enterprise delineations used in the MS have huge consequences on the comparability of enterprise statistics. Although the coverage has been highly improved and can be considered generally good, there are some NACE Rev. 1 sections, especially in services, which are not covered well enough, e. g. concerning small enterprises, non-profit institutions and government units. It is a great challenge for the future to develop BRs as a tool for globalisation statistics. This means to include the name and address non-resident legal unit, which controls the legal unit into the BRs, as well as including information on enterprise groups. Studies and extensive development of methodology is needed and will be carried out in the near future. 1 For an overview of abbreviations see page 34. 5 No changes in the text of the BR Regulation are sought in short or medium term, neither on compulsory nor on optional parts. In the long term, the initiatives started on, especially on enterprise groups and globalisation, may lead to a need for changes in the Regulation. In that connection the role of optional variables must be reconsidered. To be able to prepare for the second phase of the development of BRs, the implementation phase of the BR Regulation must be completed rapidly. Some compulsory information is not yet recorded in the BRs of some MS and these MS will be requested to submit a detailed plan and timetable for their inclusion. 6 1. INTRODUCTION 1. 1. Aim and structure of the report On 22 July 1993 the Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2186/93 on Community co-ordination in drawing up business registers for statistical purposes was adopted. According to the Regulation, Member States are obliged to set up for statistical purposes one or more harmonised registers of all enterprises carrying out economic activities contributing to the gross domestic product at market prices, the legal units responsible for them and the local units dependent on them. An exception is made for some activities as defined in the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community, NACE Rev. 1, namely fishery and public sections A, B and L of administration), of which inclusion is optional, and, under certain conditions, households. It was stipulated that the enterprises had to be entered in the business registers before 1 January 1996, and the legal units and local units before 1 January 1997. The Regulation also lists a number of characteristics that have to be registered for each of the three types of units and some of them are optional. Furthermore, the Regulation gives specifications for updating the BR, access to information by the Commission, access to administrative or legal registers by the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs), and procedures, among others for derogations. For the definition of the terms “enterprise”, “legal unit” and “local unit”, the Regulation refers to Council Regulation (EEC) No. 696/93 of 15 March 1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community. that classification (broadly agriculture, The objective of this report is to comply with one specific article of the Regulation: article 10, which reads: Within four years of the date of adoption of this Regulation, the Commission shall submit a report to the Council on the implementation of the Regulation which may be accompanied by suitable proposals taking into account the experience gained. The structure of this report is as follows. In the rest of this chapter some background information on the history of the Regulation, the role of BRs in the European system of business statistics and the main reasons for having such a regulation is given. (When reference is made to BRs this means business registers for statistical purposes, unless stated otherwise. ) The next chapter describes in detail the implementation of the Regulation up till now in the EEA, and includes information on developments in Central European Countries (CEC). Chapter two shows that progress has been made in implementing BRs in the MS, but it also shows that the quality and harmonisation of the BRs need to be improved in the future. The way to do this is discussed in chapter three. In chapter four the scope is widened by looking at the future of BRs in the European system of business statistics, the construction of which has not yet been completed. The role of BRs in the production of statistics on highly topical issues such as globalisation is taken into account as well. The report ends with a concluding chapter. 1. 2. Background of the Regulation 1. 2. 1 The need for good national business registers BRs contain lists of businesses including business identification information such as addresses and variables such as size class and main economic activity. They play an essential role in any advanced national system of business statistics: 7 • • • • • • • The businesses recorded are used in business surveys, whether or not sample-based; BRs make it possible to ensure that business surveys are co-ordinated and do not have undue overlaps or gaps; Co-ordination makes it possible to have efficient survey designs; BRs make it more easy to link results of different business surveys; They make it possible to monitor and reduce the total response burden at the level of the individual business; BRs can possibly be linked to registers of other administrations, thereby allowing the efficient use of information registered with other administrations; They can be used as a direct source of information on the total population of businesses in a country, its characteristics and its evolution over time. As a consequence of these features, BRs are considered very cost-efficient framework tools for business statistics. 1. 2. 2 The need for harmonisation of business registers Given the importance of BRs for national statistical systems, and the need to build a European statistical system of good quality with harmonised data on the MS based on common concepts, definitions and classifications, the question arose in the 1980s whether the BRs of the MS needed to be harmonised. It was decided to make an inventory of the BRs of the NSIs before answering that question. This inventory was carried out in 1988/1989. The inventory clearly established two facts: - The quality and coverage of the BRs in a number of MS was not a sufficient basis for the European business statistics envisaged; and - The BRs of the MS were far too heterogeneous in definitions applied to form the basis for comparable business statistics. In particular, the recorded statistical units varied between countries. Also the inventory led to two conclusions: - There was a need to establish a common set of definitions of statistical units by means of a regulation; and - There was a need to help MS build the necessary infrastructure for recording the most important of those units with a sufficient coverage and with a number of standardised variables; again the means chosen was a regulation. As a consequence, the Regulation on statistical units and the BR Regulation were drafted and adopted. An additional consideration for the Regulations was that a new statistical collection system was being set up covering trade in goods and services between MS (Intrastat), and this system could benefit from improved, harmonised BRs. Furthermore, it was acknowledged that the use of such BRs would have a positive effect on the response burden on businesses, as regards statistics surveys. In view of the fact that BRs were at a different stage of development in the MS, it was neither considered feasible nor desirable to oblige MS in the short run to administer BRs that cover all statistical units used or planned to be used in the European system of business statistics. 8 On the contrary, it was decided to develop comprehensive, harmonised BRs in two stages, the first of which was dealt with in the present Regulation. As a consequence, the Regulation refers to only two statistical units (the enterprise and the local unit), and one unit to which the statistical units are related (the legal unit)2. Other statistical units of the European statistical system such as the kind-of-activity unit, the local kind-of-activity unit and the institutional unit are not covered by the Regulation. The precise contents and timetable of the second stage of the development of business registers will be based on the present evaluation; plans for the future are outlined in chapter four. 2 The legal unit was not itself considered a statistical unit, because this unit is not comparable between countries. Moreover, it sometimes carries out economic activities in combination with other dependant legal units, in which case it is better to combine the legal units into the enterprise for statistical purposes in order to avoid distortion of statistical outcomes. 9 2. THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REGULATION: 1993-1998 2. 1. Derogations The Regulation mentions the possibility of derogations from the implementation of the Regulation in Article 8 and defines the procedure to be followed in Article 9. Derogation has been granted to the Federal Republic of Germany3. Two other countries, Belgium and the United Kingdom, submitted a derogation request or sought advice on whether they should apply for derogation; in both cases derogation was not deemed necessary. No other countries requested derogations. 2. 1. 1 The German derogation for derogation4 concerned the deadlines for The German request implementation: an extension of the deadlines to 31 December 1999 was sought. The reasons for the request can be summarised as follows: • • • • A change of law was needed to get access to legal and administrative files, which would require time; The creation of a BR of about 3 million units would mean a great deal of work for the Statistisches Bundesamt (the German NSI) and for the statistical offices of the Länder; an immense effort would be needed in terms of technology and manpower; Carrying out the large number of branch-based surveys necessary and compiling the corresponding databases could best be done by a sequential approach; The non-market sector was almost entirely not included in the periodic surveys; the establishment of a register for this sector would require a considerable development time. Together with the request, Germany submitted a timetable for the implementation of the Regulation within the boundaries set by the requested derogation. After a positive advice of the Working Group on Business Registers, the Statistical Programme Committee (SPC) accepted the timetable and granted the German request5. The requests of Belgium and the United Kingdom 2. 1. 2 Belgium requested6 derogation for a number of issues concerning coverage, units and variables to be recorded, updating requirements and the timetable for implementation. The most important points were differences in the definition of the local unit due to administrative data availability and switching the order of implementation of the legal unit and the enterprise. The differences in the local unit definition would be temporary. This would be solved by 1 January 1998, and in the meantime an approximation for the local unit would be available. 3 4 5 6 In October 1993 the Federal Republic of Germany also lodged an appeal at the Court of Justice of the European Communities requesting the annulment of the Regulation (case C-426/93); this appeal was rejected by the Court in its decision of 9 November 1995. The Statistisches Bundesamt submitted the request on 17 August 1994. An analysis of the derogation request and the timetable applicable to Germany can be found in SPC document 95/16/1. The request was submitted by the Belgian NSI on 6 February 1995. 10 Switching the order of implementation of the legal unit and the enterprise implied that only during the year 1996 the legal unit would have to be used as an approximation for the enterprise. The Working Group on Business Registers agreed with Eurostat that in this case derogation would not be needed; the SPC agreed with this view and the derogation procedure was cancelled. Most points raised were actually a question of clarification of the Regulation. Moreover, the local unit issue and the switch between the implementation of the legal unit and the enterprise were considered of little consequence, since the solutions proposed were adequate. The United Kingdom informed Eurostat that they were seeking to restrict coverage of the BR to traders registered for VAT or for PAYE (employers). In this way the smallest businesses would not be registered, and the United Kingdom requested an opinion from Eurostat on this. The Working Group on Business Registers observed that agreement existed on the convention that an enterprise must employ at least one person half time7. An analysis by Eurostat showed that the threshold for VAT in the United Kingdom was such that conversion to hours worked implied the inclusion of all half-time businesses. Therefore it was agreed that with the present threshold there was no reason for the United Kingdom to seek derogation. 2. 2. Measures facilitating the implementation 2. 2. 1 Financial support to the Member States of the European Union In view of the different stages of development of BRs in the MS when the Regulation was adopted and the costs to implement the Regulation, the Commission made funds available to support the MS with the implementation. In the years 1993 to 1997 the total financial support amounted to 2. 81 million ECU (see Annex 2). During the first four years the support was given by means of contracts, in which the NSIs agreed to carry out certain specified activities. In 1997 the support took the form of subsidies to activities carried out by the NSIs; these activities were agreed on as well. Most of the projects concerned setting up or redesigning BRs, or improving the coverage of BRs. The available budget was allocated on the basis of project proposals from the MS. Not all MS made proposals when the opportunity was given, which is natural considering the different state of the BR of the MS and the different needs. The budget was not enough to fund or subsidise all eligible proposed projects. For the allocation of the available budget the following criteria were applied8: • • • 7 8 The needs in terms of the discrepancy between the actual situation of the BR and the situation as required by the Regulation; The efforts that the MS itself was undertaking to address the needs; The degree to which the project proposal addressed the needs in terms of: - coverage of the mandatory scope of the Regulation, the publication: Business registers for See section 6. 3 of recommendations, volume 1, Office for official publications of the European Community. Of course some formal conditions had to be met as well, for instance the requirement that the costs could be clearly assigned to the project. statistical purposes: methodological 11 - - - registration of the three types of unit (enterprise, local unit and legal unit), registration of the characteristics which are mandatory according to the Regulation, and quality improvements • • Cost efficiency of the proposed project; Country proportionality in terms of relative wealth and size of the business population of the country. 2. 2. 2 Methodological recommendations From the beginning it was clear that the implementation of the Regulation was not an easy affair in respect of statistical methodology, for two reasons. In the first place, the BR Regulation and, even more importantly, the Regulation on statistical units to which it refers for the definition of the units to be registered, cannot be applied without an interpretation of the concepts, definitions and rules of those regulations, and the expert discussions that preceded the drafting of both regulations showed that such interpretation would require a large effort. In the second place, due to the different stage of development of BRs in the MS, some countries with no or little experience in the field of BRs would need methodological guidelines in order to set up and develop their BRs. sufficient two reasons were These the development of methodological to start recommendations, but there was an even more compelling reason: It became increasingly clear that international comparability of business statistics was not feasible if the definitions of statistical units, particularly the enterprise, were applied differently in the BRs of the MS. (See also paragraph 3. 2. on quality requirements. ) Therefore the derivation of enterprises from legal units is one of the main subjects of the methodological recommendations that have been developed so far. Other subjects covered are: • • • • • • Objectives of BRs; Principles of maintenance; Operational rules for the local unit; Definition of a number of characteristics; Some principles of register access; Some quality guidelines. These methodological recommendations were published in 1996. Further methodological recommendations are being developed. At present draft recommendations exist on the treatment of changes in BRs and on special operational rules for the treatment of large and complex enterprises. The methodological recommendations have been one of the main factors that have made it possible to implement the Regulation to the extent described in the next section. It that senses the achievements are considerable. However, there is still need for further and more detailed recommendations. This is one of the obstacles to finalise the implementation of the Regulation. The plans for future additions to the recommendations are described in paragraph 4. 4. 12 2. 2. 3 Training It was clear from the outset that there was a need to provide training in the field of BR. Therefore courses were organised by the institute TES (Training of European Statisticians), an institute associated with Eurostat and the NSIs of the MS. The courses were given by staff from the Norwegian and Danish NSIs and closely co-ordinated with Eurostat. In parallel with the courses, software has been developed by Statistics Norway on behalf of Eurostat to demonstrate the management of BRs. The software shows how legal units, which are the input to the BR from administrative sources such as VAT registers and registers administered by social security institutions, are processed in order to produce BR output in the form of statistical units, i. e. , enterprises and local units. This software is now being used in TES courses, and further applications are being considered. The theory of statistical units can best be demonstrated by practical cases. Therefore Eurostat, showing how enterprises and local units relate to legal units has developed a set of cases. These cases are used for training purposes - the training software can handle the cases - but they are also important as a complement to the methodological recommendations, since they give the much needed ultimate interpretation of the definitions of statistical units. 2. 3. Measurement of the implementation of the Regulation 2. 3. 1 Surveys on business registers After the adoption of the Regulation, Eurostat decided in agreement with the Working Group on Business Registers, to hold annual surveys on the state of implementation of the Regulation in the MS and Norway. So far four surveys have been held, the first survey referring to the situation on 1 January 1995, the second to 1 January 1996, the third to 1 January 1997 and the latest to 1 January 1998. For this purpose a questionnaire was developed for the first survey, and modified for the second, third and fourth survey, in order to take into account experiences with the previous survey(s) and to drop or add questions that need not be asked every year. The third and fourth questionnaires were electronic ones. All questionnaires covered: • • • • • • • The state of national legislation concerning BRs and access to administrative sources in the MS; The sources used to update the business registers; The types of units registered, in particular the legal unit, enterprise and local unit; Numbers of units registered; The coverage in terms of NACE Rev. 1; The registration of characteristics; Planned changes. Questions that were asked only in one or two years concerned: • • • Undercoverage of the BR (estimation of missing units); Overcoverage of the BR (estimation of inactive units incorrectly registered as active and units erroneously registered more than once); The use made of the BR; 13 • The resources used (including the resources used for the implementation of NACE Rev. 1). The response to the questionnaires was high: all countries but two responded in 1995, and all responded in 1996, 1997 and 1998. However, there was significant partial non-response, especially concerning quantitative data and information concerning the quality of the recorded data. The results of the surveys are the main source of information on which the following paragraphs are based; unless indicated otherwise, the results of the last survey have been taken to describe the present situation. The main survey results themselves are summarised in Annex 1. 2. 3. 2 Coverage of business registers The coverage required according to the Regulation, in term of NACE Rev. 1, include all sections except agriculture, hunting and forestry; fishing; public administration and defence; and compulsory social security. The present situation in respect of coverage is the following9. The BRs of all MS include the areas traditionally covered by business statistics: mining and quarrying; manufacturing; electricity, gas and water supply; construction; wholesale and retail trade; and hotels and restaurants. In respect of the services sections of NACE Rev. 1, the situation is somewhat less complete. Almost all countries cover: transport, storage and communication; financial intermediation; and real estate, renting and other business activities. Almost all countries also cover the activities: education; health and social work; and other community, social and personal service activities. However, it is quite common that although countries may cover all these sections, they do not include all the classes of which the sections consist. Finally, poorly covered are the sections: private households with employed persons; and extra-territorial organisations and bodies due to lack of methodological guidelines and good sources. The good coverage of the areas of traditional business statistics and the somewhat less coverage of services in general and activities of non-profit organisations in particular is related to two factors. First, obviously the priority in the development of BRs has been those areas for which statistics exist. The development of BR is closely related to their use. Whereas at the European level business statistics on industry and trade have an established history, services statistics have only received due attention relatively recently. In this respect the recently adopted Regulation on structural business statistics is very important. The coverage of the BRs in the services sections will certainly improve along with the implementation of this regulation. The second factor causing delay in BR coverage of some services sections of NACE Rev. 1 is the need for methodological guidelines. The definition and delineation of the enterprise for non-profit institutions is problematic; most NSIs do not have much experience in the field, at least not related to BRs. For Eurostat the development of methodological recommendations in this area has a high priority (see also paragraph 4. 2. ); so far the development of methodological recommendations were primarily and necessarily aimed at areas already covered by European statistics. The poor coverage of private households with employed persons and extra-territorial organisations and bodies may also have a methodological cause. Some countries have no 9 The coverage examined is the coverage of the enterprise. 14 enterprises in these sections of NACE Rev. 1 because of the definition of the enterprise: they consider the non-existence of enterprises in these sections an implication of the enterprise definition. This issue needs to be clarified in the future. Finally it should be noted that the coverage of small units is insufficient in some countries. This is to some extent linked to the availability and use of administrative files for statistical purposes. Although Article 7 of the Regulation requires access to administrative and legal registers, in paragraph 4. 2. Improvement of the coverage of small units is an important aspect of the quality policy discussed in chapter three. their use could be improved. This is discussed further 2. 3. 3 Units recorded By far most MS report that they register the required units, as is shown in the first table of Annex 1. All countries record the enterprise and/or the legal unit. The local unit is recorded by all countries except one and this is planned to be added to the BR shortly (see also paragraph 3. 3. ). The conclusion seems justified that there has been significant convergence in the registration of statistical units since the Regulation was drafted. The 1989 inventory showed much more heterogeneity among the twelve MS of the time. However, despite the progress made, the units as registered in the BRs are still far from harmonised. There are seven countries that report registering both the enterprise and the legal unit without in practice making any distinction between the two types of units other than in their characteristics. That is, whereas the enterprise is defined in the Regulation on statistical units as consisting of one or more legal units these countries do not have any enterprise in their BR consisting of more than one legal unit. And those countries that do make a distinction between the enterprise and the legal unit in their BRs tend to apply the enterprise definition in different ways in practice. The importance of the lack of harmonisation of units should not be underestimated. The question whether in a particular case legal units are combined into one enterprise or are treated as separate enterprises has an impact on: • • • • • • • the number of enterprises measured; the size of the enterprises, which also influences their selection for surveys; the classification of enterprises to their main activity, also with an effect on their selection for surveys; the measurement of variables (consolidation effects); the allocation of variables to categories of NACE Rev. 1; economic ratios involving the above data, such as turnover per employee; and the evolution of the above data over time. Recently a study was carried out to measure the impact of differences in the application of the enterprise definition in BRs. This study10, in which three MS were involved, has shown that 10 The impact of diverging interpretations of the enterprise concept on statistical data, a comparison of enterprise profiling practices in Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Study carried out by Statistics Netherlands on behalf of Eurostat, May 1998. 15 the effects on statistical variables such as turnover and employment are very important indeed. Although more extensive studies would be needed to give a more precise quantification of the effects of diverging practices, it is clear that international comparability of business statistics is severely impaired. The differences between the countries concerning the units registered have several causes. They reflect different statistical traditions, which cannot be harmonised rapidly. Where countries were not used to making a distinction between the legal unit and the enterprise, the methodology to do so needs to be developed. The manual of recommendations on BRs and other available methodological documents are helpful but do not provide the operational rules NSIs need because such rules are necessarily country-specific if only because the available administrative sources differ widely. And in some areas there is a need for further European guidelines. Finally it is interesting to note that some countries register more types of units than needed to comply with the BR Regulation; they also register other statistical units defined in the Regulation on statistical units. The enterprise group is kept in the BRs of about half of MS and the local kind-of-activity unit by three MS. No country reported to register the kind-of- activity unit itself. 2. 3. 4 Variables recorded Annex II of the BR Regulation lists the variables to be recorded for the legal unit, the enterprise, and the local unit. Some of the variables are optional. The situation in respect of the main variables will be discussed for each of the three units; this is of course restricted to those countries that do indeed record the unit concerned. The legal unit The legal unit is an input unit for BR, not a statistical unit. Statistics refer to enterprises or other statistical units rather than legal units as such. Therefore the characteristics recorded for the legal unit are of an administrative nature and do not include economic activity and size- class11. The legal form and the date of incorporation of legal persons are quite well recorded; for the legal form countries use their own classification. The date on which the legal unit ceases to be legally responsible for the enterprise is missing in most BRs. Whether a legal person has the character of a “public undertaking” is recorded only for about half of the MS. However, this is a variable, which is needed for compulsory EU statistics (structural business statistics) and the situation should be very rapidly improved. The link with the register of so-called Intra- Community operators (Intrastat) is also recorded only by a small majority of the MS. Two optional characteristics concerning the control over a legal unit are registered by only a few countries: the name and address of any non-resident legal unit, which controls the legal unit; and the identity number of the legal unit in the BR, which controls the legal unit. In the future these variables may become important; this is further discussed in paragraph 4. 4. 11 Most enterprises equal legal units, in which case the NSI may choose to keep the data for the two units on the same record in the BR. 16 The enterprise The two main BR variables recorded by all MS, for the enterprise are the economic activity code and the size or size-class in terms of persons occupied. For both characteristics harmonised classifications are used: NACE Rev. 1 (four-digit level) for the economic activity, and a size classification specified in the Regulation for the other variable. However, there are some MS that measure the size-class in terms of employees instead of persons occupied, because they do not have adequate administrative sources for this variable. Under certain conditions secondary activities have to be registered as well; this concerns only enterprises which are the subject of surveys. Most countries do this. The date of commencement of the enterprise is recorded by almost all countries and the date of cessation by a great majority. The net turnover from sales of goods and services (if it exceeds 2 million ECU) is recorded by almost all countries. Only two MS record the optional variable of net assets. The local unit The economic activity code of the local unit is recorded by all MS, and the size-class by all countries except two. Most countries measure the size-class in terms of persons occupied as specified in the Regulation, but there are countries that fail to do so because they lack adequate administrative sources for this variable. The same classifications as mentioned at the enterprise variables are applied. The registration of secondary activities is optional for the local unit, but it is still done in six countries. The date of commencement of the local unit is recorded by almost all countries, but the date of cessation by only about half of the MS, fewer than the case was for the enterprise. All countries record the geographical location code. Finally the variable indicating whether or not the activity carried out is an ancillary activity of the enterprise on which the local unit depends, is recorded by a majority of the countries. 2. 4. The uses of business registers 2. 4. 1 Results of the 1996 survey In 1996 the survey on the implementation of the Regulation included one question on the uses of business registers. The aim of the question was to find out to what extend the BRs were used for business-demographic statistics12, for other economic statistics and for achieving co- ordination among surveys. Seven of the sixteen countries surveyed reported used BRs to produce business demographic statistics for the enterprise and three for the local unit. Other units were used as well for this purpose: three made such statistics for the legal unit and two for the local kind-of-activity unit. All countries except two used the BR for other economic statistics such as on turnover, capital expenditure, value added, operating surplus, assets and employment, liabilities, and profits and losses. The enterprise was used by ten countries and the local unit by five countries for any of those variables. 12 Business demography comprises statistics on the number of enterprises and other units, and their distribution over size classes, sections of NACE Rev. 1, etc. It also includes information on changes in those numbers, such as the number of births of enterprises and their characteristics. 17 Other units were used as well: again three compiled statistics for the legal unit and two for the local kind-of-activity unit. Ten of the sixteen countries used the BR for the co-ordination of surveys and sampling frames. These results have to be interpreted with care. Some countries did not have the enterprise or the local unit at the time, so they could not use them. In some cases they used the legal unit or the local kind-of-activity unit instead. Nevertheless it is remarkable that about half of the countries did not make use of the local unit or a similar unit. 2. 4. 2 Intended uses To interpret the results of the 1996, one has to consider what uses of the BRs were and are required. In fact, strictly speaking there are no requirements. The BR regulation itself does not specify the statistics for which the BRs are to be used. Other regulations such as the Regulation on structural business statistics which require specific business statistics to be compiled do not stipulate that the BRs have to be used. In other words, the BR Regulation requires MS to have a tool for business statistics, but the actual use of this tool is left to the MS13. In practice, of course, the BRs are extensively used in most countries where they are available and of sufficient quality. In fact, the implementation of the SBS Regulation, which is currently taking place, would not have been possible without the availability of BRs in the MS. There is broad consensus that even if there is no formal obligation to use the BRs, their benefit clearly outweighs their costs. And the reduction of the response burden on enterprises which follows when BRs are used as a core tool in the production of business statistics is an important incentive to use them widely. The fact that the use of BRs is left to the MS is broadly in line with the principle of subsidiarity. Countries are in the best position to decide where the BR fits in their national statistical data collection system, how to link data from administrative sources to their statistical system and how to reduce the response burden on enterprises. However, harmonising the use that is made of BRs could be beneficial to the European system of business statistics. If countries use their BRs for all business statistics and use it as a tool for co-ordination of surveys and sampling frames, the data quality and comparability increase. Finally it should be pointed out that the use that is made of BRs depends on how well they are tuned to the requirements of statistics such as specified in the SBS Regulation. The European system of business statistics is currently being constructed; a number of important statistical regulations have been adopted in recent years. However, the statistical units of the statistics with which these regulations are concerned are not always those that are available in the BRs. This limits the present use of BRs. This issue will be dealt with in chapter 4. 2. 5. Business registers outside the European Union 2. 5. 1 The countries of the European Economic Area The BR Regulation also concerns the other EEA countries, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. In Norway the situation is very similar to EU and Norway is also surveyed in the annual inquiry. The results on Norway are annexed to this report along with the results on the EU countries. 13 This is also the main reason why the question on the uses is not repeated every year. 18 In Liechtenstein a new BR was constructed and Iceland has adapted its BR to the EU requirements. 2. 5. 2 Central European Countries Twelve Central European and Baltic countries, Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia are participating in PHARE programme that helps them to develop their BRs and business statistics. This has been done mainly through two CEC pilot projects: enterprise panels in 1995-1998 and its continuation, demography of SMEs, starting in 1998. The results of the surveys have been published, e. g. the characteristics of enterprises, the creation and survival of new enterprises. The situation of the BRs in these twelve countries is also surveyed in a largely similar way as for the EU countries. The CEC countries have done and are still doing great efforts to build their BRs, sometimes totally revising their previous registers. The situation varies: In some countries the BRs are already approaching the requirements of the BR Regulation, while some others still have plenty of work to do, especially with local units. 2. 5. 3 Co-ordination with the UN Economic Commission for Europe The division of work between Eurostat and UN/ECE on BRs has been agreed upon and Eurostat is mainly responsible for developing the methodology on BRs and monitoring the situation in EU, EEA and PHARE countries. UN/ECE monitors the situation in other European countries, in TACIS countries (former Soviet Union and Mongolia) and non- European countries participating in the UN/ECE work on BRs (USA, Canada, Japan, etc. ). According to the TACIS programme, EU can also help the TACIS countries. UN/ECE and Eurostat have joint meetings on BRs annually or every second year. An important international forum for discussions and exchange of information are the annual international Roundtable meetings on Business Survey Frames. Roundtable meetings are mainly attended by OECD countries. The subjects vary from reporting the progress achieved to BR technology, globalisation, business demography, BR standards, etc. 2. 6. Conclusions: achievements and work still to be done The overview of the first four years of implementation of the Regulation shows a mixed picture. Much has been achieved: the MS all operate BRs with the most important economic units and variables and a good overall coverage. Terminology has been harmonised. Methodological guidelines have been developed and training provided. However, much remains to be done. There is a number of cases where MS have gaps in the coverage of their BRs, do not record all types of units required, or do not have certain variables. In other cases the quality of parts of the BR is insufficient. Moreover, countries still have much work to do in harmonising the delineation of the statistical units recorded. This has considerable effect on the comparability of the business statistics of the MS. It is clear that, despite the progress made, the implementation of the Regulation is not finished. There are two aspects to this: • Some countries have not applied elements of the Regulation concerning coverage, units recorded and variables; and 19 • Where the Regulation has been applied to create BRs with the required contents, the quality of the BRs may not be sufficient to provide a tool for good and comparable European business statistics. The first point has to be corrected to the extent that the requirements of the Regulations are clear. This means concretely the following: • • • Any four-digit group of NACE Rev. 1 within the scope of the Regulation that is not covered by the BR of a MS should be added to the BR immediately. If this is not possible, the MS will be requested to submit a detailed plan and timetable for their inclusion. An exception is made for private households with employed persons and extra-territorial organisations and bodies, because some issues have to be resolved first at the EU level. If the BR of a MS presently does not record which large enterprises consist of more than one legal unit, this should be changed immediately, starting with the simplest cases. If this is not possible, the MS will be requested to submit a detailed plan and timetable for the delineation of large enterprises. Any non-optional variable listed in annex II of the Regulation that is not recorded by the BR of a MS should be added to the BR immediately. If this is not possible, the MS will be requested to submit a detailed plan and timetable for their inclusion. Similarly, if the size-class variable is not based on persons occupied, this should be changed immediately or, in case this is not possible, the MS will be requested to submit a detailed plan and timetable how this can be achieved. As for the second point, a quality policy is being developed which is outlined in the next chapter. This policy is based on the assumption that all required types of information are actually recorded, although possibly not to a sufficient extent and with sufficient quality. 20 3. THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REGULATION: FUTURE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT 3. 1. The need for and principles of a quality policy The first three years after adoption of the Regulation, the efforts of the NSIs of the MS were aimed at the creation of BRs or the adaptation of BRs to the requirements of the Regulation. At the same time Eurostat tried to facilitate this by several measures as described in paragraph 2. 2, and paid especially attention to methodological issues, since this was recognised as a potential bottleneck for the implementation of the Regulation. At the beginning the main aim was that the required types of units and variables were recorded, and that the relevant economic activities were covered. Given the starting position, ensuring that certain types of unit and certain economic activities were covered was bound to precede considerations of quality. With this pragmatic approach much has been achieved. Paragraph 2. 3. showed that generally speaking the implementation of the Regulation has been a success: the MS (at least the fourteen to which no derogations apply) all have a BR with the most important economic units and variables and a good overall coverage. Terminology has been harmonised. However, it has also become clear that the quality of the BRs is less than perfect in a number of cases and countries are far from harmonised in the delineation of the statistical units recorded. After the initial years of implementation, the time has come to focus on improving the quality of BRs; in fact, a number of MS have already plans for improvements. Eurostat initiated the discussion with the MS on a quality policy in June 1997. The Regulation does not specify quality requirements. Although the requested registration of units, the variables and coverage are formulated in absolute terms, a 100% quality is clearly not the objective of the Regulation. Not only is it obvious that such quality would be extremely cost-inefficient and would cause a huge response burden on businesses, but also Article 5 of the Regulation gives some very general rules for register updating which imply a less than perfect quality. According to this article, “As a general rule, information obtained from administrative files or annual surveys shall be updated annually, other information being updated every four years”. A procedure for implementing rules is established by the Articles 8 and 9. is the intention of Eurostat to reach an agreement with the MS on certain quality It requirements and on the way to implement them. In accordance with the subsidiarity principle, the MS will remain responsible for designing their own updating strategy taking into account considerations of cost efficiency, data availability, national needs and business response burden, provided that the quality requirements are met. Those requirements would guarantee a sufficient level of quality and data comparability as needed for the European system of business statistics. This implies that quality requirements would pertain to the output of BRs rather than to updating procedures; as a consequence, they would focus on statistical units (enterprises and local units) rather than on BR input units (legal units). The quality requirements would have to respect the following principles: • • Subsidiarity as just explained; All quality requirements must be measurable; 21 • • The quality requirements must be based on the needs of the European system of business statistics, in particular data comparability between countries and compar- ability between different types of business statistics; The quality requirements will be restricted to the units and variables whose registration is compulsory according to the Regulation, and to their coverage; there will be no requirements for optional data. 3. 2. Quality requirements Quality requirements are presently being developed; only a general idea of what they will look like can be given for the time being. A distinction is made between requirements concerning the coverage of the BR, the delineation of statistical units, and the variables recorded. 3. 2. 1 Coverage of the business register The quality requirements concerning the coverage of BR must differentiate between units of different size, and will depend on the economic activity carried out. Obviously the coverage of large enterprises has to be more complete than for smaller enterprises, not only because of their economic significance, but also for reasons to lighten the administrative burden on SMEs. But for those services industries where small enterprises dominate, the norms have to take this feature into account as well. The requirements would typically specify a minimum percentage of coverage for each stratum. This percentage could be expressed in terms of value added. The requirements about coverage can not be limited to the areas about which business statistics are compiled traditionally. The Regulation on structural business statistics has a much wider scope already (see paragraph 2. 3. 2. ), and the BR Regulation itself stipulates a wide coverage, which was chosen with an eye on the future. Moreover, BRs are also important for other statistics than structural business statistics, such as business demography, employment statistics and, indirectly, national accounts. For similar reasons the coverage requirements also have to include small units; BRs are a crucial tool for SME statistics. Although the level of coverage of units is easy to define, it is very difficult to measure, because this supposes knowledge about the extent to which units are not registered. For this other data sources are needed, and they may not be readily available. 3. 2. 2 Delineation of statistical units The need for quality norms concerning the delineation of statistical units, in the first place the enterprise, comes from its impact on statistical measurements. Paragraph 2. 3. 3. also showed the need for quality norms in this area. As was the case with coverage, and largely for the same reasons, the quality requirements will have to differentiate between enterprises of different size, and will depend on the economic activity of the enterprise; they are meant to specify a minimum degree of correct delineation for each stratum. Unfortunately, developing quality standards for unit delineation is very complicated. It is very difficult to define what is a correct delineation and to measure it, considering the fact that BR updating procedures vary widely among countries and depend on the use of national data sources. There are also a number of technical problems when this aspect of quality is to be monitored statistically. And it is clear that in order to formulate 22 quality standards for the delineation of units in some services industries, methodological recommendations are a prerequisite. It has been proposed to start specific methodological recommendations with the treatment of holding companies and complex businesses with staff agencies. This kind of work must be done in co-operation with persons working on classifications. 3. 2. 3 Variables recorded for the units Quality requirements for variables can of course only refer to variables whose registration is compulsory. The most important requirements will concern the economic activity (NACE Rev. 1 code at four-digit level) and the size-class in terms of persons occupied, for the enterprise and the local unit. Quality standards for the economic activity code can be formulated with relative ease, although their measurement is not as easy. Quality requirements for economic activity can be differentiated according to size-class. They would have to apply to the entire BR for the same reasons as given at the coverage requirements14. Requirements concerning the correctness of the size-class have to take into account the specific factors that determine the quality of this variable, in particular the availability of administrative files. In some countries it is very difficult to obtain data on the number of persons occupied as distinguished from the number of employees; in some MS data from social security registers can only be obtained with a long delay. Such factors are bound to influence the quality requirements; and for reasons of business response burden they should. 3. 3. Implementation of the quality policy Several steps can be distinguished in implementing the quality policy. The first step is, as discussed above, to formulate and agree on the quality requirements. These requirements have to be realistic; the level of ambition must be a feasible aim within a period of five to ten years for a large majority of the MS. The ambitions cannot take into account only the need for good quality BRs, but must also be based on the present state of the BRs as described in chapter 2 and improvements that have already been planned. Some of the planned improvements are: • • • • Concrete plans to include additional NACE Rev. 1 sections to their BRs; The last missing statistical unit (in one MS) will be added; Plans to add one or more new variables; To improve the quality by the use of additional administrative sources. The second step is monitoring the quality of the BRs; if quality standards are agreed on, their implementation has to be checked. Ideally the quality of BRs is systematically measured, for instance by means of a regular quality survey15, but unfortunately this tends to be very costly. In a number of cases the quality will have to be assessed by indirect methods, such as comparison with data from other sources or analysis of the way administrative files are updated. Although measuring the quality of BRs is often problematic, it is important to agree not only on quality standards, but also on ways to assess the actual quality of BRs. 14 15 Another reason is the fact that classification errors in one area by definition affect other areas. A quality survey can be defined as a representative sample survey of the BR or a part thereof with the aim of establishing the degree of correctness of the contents of the BR or the part investigated. 23 The next step is to agree on a procedure of reporting about the quality of the BRs to Eurostat. they need to be The contents and frequency of such reports need to be established; standardised. This, again, may be a complicated and time-consuming affair, as experience with the Regulation on structural business statistics has shown. Nevertheless, a reporting arrangement is an essential part of any quality policy. If there is agreement on quality requirements, the measurement of quality and the reporting procedure, this should be formalised in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation. Article 8 of the Regulation stipulates that implementation rules shall be adopted in accordance with Article 9, which describes the procedure to be followed. As part of this procedure the SPC will give its opinion before the implementation rules are finally adopted. The implementation rules, consisting of quality requirements, the quality measurement and the reporting arrangements, will be subjected to this procedure. In addition to the formal implementation of the quality policy as described above, there is more that can be done. Eurostat tries to stimulate the spread of good practices; there are many things that MS can learn from each other in the field of BR quality improvement, in particular in making optimal use of administrative files and keeping the administrative burden on businesses as low as possible. Some current initiatives are described in paragraph 4. 2. 3. 4. Other elements of the quality policy and the need for methodological support In a study on the implementation of enterprises in the business registers in three MS (see also paragraph 2. 3. 3), the effects on some key statistical variables were investigated. The study did not include the most simple cases but there are more complicated cases than those studied. The study showed that for all 21 enterprise groups investigated, the delineation was done differently in the three countries according to their profiling rules, resulting in inconsistent statistics. The differences in the delineation have a very serious impact on data comparability, and it urgently calls for standardised application of concepts and definitions in order to reach harmonised and comparable business statistics. Between Eurostat and all Member States there is a coherent view on the need for quality aspects in the Business Registers, but many Member States have also expressed requests for further guidelines and harmonised definitions. The first steps have been taken towards collecting documentation on the profiling rules in the Member States and to develop a “case law” in order to establish methodological support for a more harmonised European statistics. Other suggested work includes comparing BRs with exogenous data, for example the labour force survey estimates on employment or other administrative systems. The need for application of quality standards is recognised and supported by the Member States. 24 4. BEYOND THE REGULATION: THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS REGISTERS 4. 1. The place of business registers in the European system of business statistics 4. 1. 1 Present situation In recent years much progress has been made in building the European system of business statistics. The system is rapidly developing. A number of regulations have been adopted that are relevant to BRs in one way or another, the most important ones being: • • • • • • the Regulation on the statistical classification of economic activities (NACE Rev. 1,1990, amended in 1993) the Regulation on the statistics relating to the trading of goods between MS (Intrastat, 1991, amended in 1999) the Regulation on structural statistics on earnings and on labour costs (1999) the Regulation on the European System of national and regional Accounts (1996) the Regulation concerning structural business statistics (1996, amended in 1998) the Regulation concerning short-term statistics (1998) The NACE Regulation is relevant because it is directly applied in BRs, for classifying both enterprises and local units. This includes classifying secondary activities. There is one other regulation providing standards to be applied in BRs, namely the Regulation on statistical units, as seen earlier. Both regulations preceded the BR Regulation. Apart from regulations providing standards, there are also regulations concerning business statistics to be compiled. MS would need BRs to provide the sampling frames for the statistical surveys. Probably the most important regulation is the SBS regulation, especially because it is comprehensive both in coverage and variables. The new STS regulation (the one on short-term statistics) is also important, for the same reason. Although the statistics compiled on the basis of the Intrastat Regulation are not “business statistics” as such, this regulation, which preceded the BR Regulation, is relevant because it requires MS to maintain lists of Intra-Community operators (article 10), and the BR Regulation itself requires the registration of the Intrastat number for legal units (variable k). The ESA Regulation (the one on the European System of Accounts) is only indirectly relevant. The economic accounts are based largely on business statistics, especially data collected in the context of the SBS Regulation. 4. 1. 2 Issues to be solved There are some problems concerning the place of BRs in the European system of business statistics in its present stage of development. Some regulations do not match in the statistical units to which they refer. In many cases there may be good reasons for this, but consistency should be guaranteed and care should be taken that the BRs can provide the frames needed for European business statistics. The core of the problem is the choice of statistical units in the SBS, STS and ESA Regulations compared with the statistical units registered in the BRs according to the BR Regulation. The main statistical unit of the SBS Regulation is the enterprise, which can be 25 provided by the BRs. But the SBS Regulation also requires data collection on kind-of-activity units for five variables16 in industry and construction, and this unit is not recorded in any of the BRs of the MS according to the annual questionnaire. The kind-of-activity unit is even more important in the STS Regulation, where it is the observation unit for all variables collected on industry and construction17. The unit used for short-term statistics on other activities is the enterprise. The BRs do register secondary activities, but there is no information on whether or not a secondary activity corresponds with a kind-of-activity unit. This will often not be the case, among other things because of the strict data availability requirements for the kind-of-activity unit. Moreover, as the experience with harmonising the enterprise unit among MS has shown (see paragraph 2. 3. 3), it may be assumed that the kind-of-activity unit will not get the same contents in MS without methodological guidelines and tuning of register practice. For data on kind-of-activity units it may be feared that they will not at all be comparable, and that countries may have severe problems in data collection and may incur high costs when they try to establish the population of kind-of-activity units. There is also high risk of negative effects on the response burden on enterprises. The SBS Regulation requires regional data to be compiled as well and in the implementation local unit is specified as the statistical unit on which these data are to be based. MS can use the local unit as available in the BRs or some other locally or regionally defined unit, but some MS may perhaps also choose to use the enterprise for data collection, asking the enterprise to provide a regional breakdown of the variables. It can be concluded that there are no matching problems with the BR Regulation for regional SBS data. The STS Regulation does not require regional data to be compiled. The statistical units used in national accounts are the institutional unit and the local kind-of- activity unit. These units are defined in the Regulation on statistical units18. The institutional unit has a close correspondence with the enterprise, and enterprise statistics are therefore a good information source for national accounts. The use of the local kind-of-activity unit is more problematic. There are currently no European statistics that yield data on that unit, so business statistical data have to be recompiled analytically, for instance by applying output indicators, in order to produce the accounts concerned. Since most BRs do not have the local kind-of-activity unit (with the exception of three MS), the BRs can offer no help. Apart from the practical problems of data collection, accuracy and comparability between MS, the coherence of the business statistics is also a concern. A number of variables of the SBS, STS and ESA Regulations are similar, but their values are compiled for different statistical units. Moreover, this depends on the economic sector concerned. As far as Intrastat is concerned, the issue is different. The Intrastat Regulation preceded the BR Regulation. Therefore it could not refer to existing BRs. As a consequence, the Intrastat Regulation has its own requirement of maintaining a list of units, although the BR Regulation provides a link via a variable of the legal unit. 16 17 18 Turnover, production value, wages and salaries gross investment in tangible goods and number of persons employed. Under certain conditions other types of units may be used. More precisely, they have been redefined and specified in the ESA Regulation. 26 The issues described above are a natural side effect of the rapid development of the European system of business statistics. The need to rethink the choice of the statistical units of the various regulations leads to several possibilities to approach the problems. To mention a few: • • • • • • Leave things as they are and accept the consequences. Reduce the need for data on kind-of-activity units by changing the regulations concerned accordingly; as a compensation information on secondary activities could be added. Integrate the register aspects of the Intrastat Regulation with the BR Regulation, and base the list of Intra-Community traders on enterprises rather than legal units. Change the national accounts requirements such that they are better tuned to available sources such as statistics produced in the framework of the SBS and STS Regulations. Register secondary activities in BRs if and only if they correspond with operational units for which data are available. Register kind-of-activity units as separate units in BRs. 4. 1. 3 Future development All the options mentioned have advantages and disadvantages, in terms of quality of statistics, data comparability, coherence, consistency with wider international guidelines such as those on national accounts, response burden on businesses, costs, etc. The different options have to be investigated. The question of statistical units in the different regulations has to be answered in an integral manner in the long-term. To require a registration of KAUs or local KAUs in the BRs does not seem justified at the moment. The KAU is used as data collection unit only very rarely (possibly in 1-2 MS), others use different methods of estimation. KAUs can be built up in an analytical way. They can be approximated by using local units, or aggregated from local KAUs in those MS, where these are in the BR. To register local KAUs in the BRs would be very important for national and regional accounts, but this requires plenty of resources. The European system of business statistics is under construction and it is important to approach the issues in an open and flexible way. When we have more experience of the implementation of the SBS and STS Regulations, the effects of the inconsistencies can be studied and the inconsistencies can be revised where necessary. To continue the harmonisation and delineation of statistical units is a first priority. Having different profiling rules from country to country has a very serious impact on data comparability, and it calls urgently for standardised application of concepts and definitions in order to reach harmonised and comparable business statistics. The documentation within the MS must be improved, in many cases the national procedures are not well documented. MS will document their profiling rules where this has not yet been done and keep Eurostat informed about them. A special group to be set up will deal with statistical unit cases and such a group would try to develop “case law”. Cases should be based on real examples from the MS. Eurostat will organise the “case law” group and its procedures. Enterprise profiling concerns large and complex enterprises. Small units can be left as they are. Although large enterprises form only a small part (5 % may be a rough estimate) of all enterprises, they involve large part of the economy. The existing operational rules may need to be changed, where they are not clear and applicable. An example is the treatment of 27 ancillary legal units. According to the statistical unit Regulation, an ancillary legal unit serving several enterprises cannot be split. 4. 2. The use of administrative sources 4. 2. 1 Administrative sources for business registers As underlined previously in this report Eurostat respects the principle of subsidiarity leaving to Members States the sources used to update BR as well as their use. The European statistical system encourages the use of administrative sources for statistical purposes when possible. Also the BR regulation states in its article 7 that NSIs are authorised to access administrative sources or legal registers in accordance with the conditions determined by national law. The annex 3 illustrates that administrative sources such as tax registers, social security registers and trade registers have been used by a majority of Members States to update the BR, particularly to compile data at enterprise level. Eurostat has in the recent years developed work regarding the use of administrative sources for statistical purposes. A seminar was organised in Luxembourg in January 1997 whose aim was to encourage the exchange of national experiences. The contributions of the participants showed the interest to use administrative sources, as well as the difficulties linked to their use and the possible further developments. A handbook of national good practices: Use of Administrative Sources for Business Statistics Purposes (Version 1) has been developed. This will serve as a base to study the possible contribution of these sources regarding the implementation of the different regulations newly adopted in the field of business statistics. It has to be underlined that a special attention has been given to small enterprises having in mind the reduction of the response burden. This handbook will be a good opportunity to develop ways in which countries can work together with each other and with Eurostat to exploit administrative sources for business statistics purposes to the fullest extend possible. 4. 2. 2 Satellite registers Satellite registers are not part of the BRs but they are closely linked to it. They are more limited in scope, e. g. in terms of NACE Rev. 1, but they contain one or more characteristics that are not found in the BR, especially variables for stratification purposes. Having some additional characteristics for some specific NACE section(s) can make a survey on these sections more efficient and decrease response burden. The use of satellite registers is entirely based on subsidiarity, there are neither existing nor planned legal acts. At the moment satellite registers are mainly used in transport, tourism and trade. Some MS have plans for several satellite registers in many areas. The use of satellite registers has so far been studied in two areas, tourism and distributive trade. Work on the general treatment of satellite registers, to be included as a chapter in the Manual of Recommendations on BRs is ongoing. 4. 3. Enterprise groups and globalisation After the BR Regulation has been completely implemented, the need for information on enterprise groups (EGs) and on globalisation is very probably the greatest challenge for the development of BRs during the next few years. The information needed concern both EGs territory only (all-resident EG) and in several countries operating in single national 28 (transnational EG or TEG), although usually only the part of a TEG operating in national important territory (truncated EG) can be observed in the BR of a country. The most information needed for EGs are demographic (changes in group structure etc. ) and financial. EGs can also be used as a frame for delineation of enterprises. Although EGs are not in the BR Regulation, they are already included or planned to be included in the near future in the BRs of about half of EU Member States. This is due to their great importance at national level. Other countries are planning a stepwise approach by starting to record links of control between enterprises or considering the use of commercial sources. The inclusion of EGs has thus advanced well, but the solutions and the recording of resident and transnational EGs are country-specific and not harmonised. Because the situation of EGs in BRs is unknown, a feasibility study was started in December 1998. The work will continue on the operationalisation of the definition of EG and the definition of control. The development of statistics on globalisation is very much dependent on the central role of BRs as a framework tool in which much has been invested already. While the information concerning EGs in BRs has developed rapidly, an optional variable g of legal unit in the BR Regulation, “name and address of any non-resident legal unit, other than natural person, which controls the legal unit”, is according to the last inquiry in the BRs of two EU countries. This situation should be rapidly improved. The state of art and proposals for development of globalisation statistics is treated in the report of Globalisation Reflection Group: “The Impact of Globalisation on Statistics – Summary, Conclusions, Recommendations” and work based on the report has been started. This includes how to develop BRs, starting with the feasibility study and preparing the methodology for the treatment of EGs. To develop statistics on globalisation requires work in important are the development of Foreign several areas in addition to BRs. The most Affiliates Trade statistics (developed in the framework of structural business statistics), External Trade statistics, Foreign Direct Investment and Balance of Payments statistics. 4. 4. The manual of recommendations The Manual of Recommendations is an important means for harmonising statistics, and it also has an instructional purpose towards the MS and Applicant countries. The Eurostat publication ‘Business Registers for Statistical Purposes: Methodological recommendations, Volume 1’ (1996) includes the first 10 chapters. It has been translated into 11 EU languages and Russian. In these chapters there are already some outdated and is not always clear which parts of the incomplete matters and references. Moreover, it chapters are an interpretation of the BR Regulation and which parts go beyond that. That needs to be clarified, as well as the first 10 chapters’ relation to the forthcoming additional chapters, before the Manual can be revised. A revision is therefore foreseen in year 2000. The following chapters no. 11-16 are close to final. The chapters are being translated into German and French, finalised and published as volume II in 1999. A future translation into other EU languages is possible. For chapters no. 17-19 various levels of drafts exist. There are also some draft outlines and inputs from MS for new chapters. The schedule for these new chapters depends on their urgency and on the development of the methodological work needed, e. g. concerning enterprise groups and quality. 29 A discussion on improving the formal status of the Recommendations has started. This deals with if the most important parts that can be considered as interpretation of the BR Regulation should have a more binding status. 4. 5. Conclusion: a work plan for the future As was explained in paragraph 1. 2. 2, the adoption of the BR Regulation was meant as a first step, to be followed by a second stage sometime in the future. Because the implementation still requires work to be done, the time has not yet come to embark on the second phase in the evolution of business registers, only to prepare for that. The most important issues subject for development are listed below, there are also obvious links between them. • • • • • Quality improvement requirements are treated in item 3. To improve the quality of the compulsory part of BRs still requires a great deal of work, but the quality of optional sections and characteristics as well as the new statistical units like EGs also need to be assessed (later measured where possible). The work on quality will also result into a new or revised chapter in the Manual of Recommendations. Manual of Recommendations. Work on the development of the manual shall be continued. The plan is presented in item 4. 4 above. The manual can be continuously disseminated to the users, mainly in an electronic format (printed when necessary), giving the status of each chapter (final, first draft, etc. ). Harmonisation of statistical units. This means to develop further the operational rules for statistical units and making case studies (as presented in 4. 1. 3 above). The development of operational rules will result to one or more new chapters for the Manual of Recommendations and for revising some of the existing chapters. The “case law” will be a separate (possibly electronic) document. Research such as developing of a data-model, development of tools such as for sampling. Technological matters and research and development in the field of BRs are, as before, done in co-operation with unit “Research and development and statistical methods”. Annual reporting and co-ordination. The annual report serves several purposes. It monitors the implementation of the BR Regulation, it includes information on sources used and legislation, it includes quality-related issues, which are not proposed to be included into the quality report (item 3), and it includes data concerning business demography, which at the same time have a co-ordination and quality function. Therefore the annual report must be developed further (development of the annual report will also be discussed in the future in more detail). The numbers of enterprises and local units have been collected at NACE Rev. 1 section level as from 1995. According to the SBS Regulation the numbers of enterprises and local units are also collected, but not for all NACE Rev. 1 sections. It is important to bear in mind, that the SBS Regulation covers market activities, while BRs must, according to the BR Regulation, in addition cover non-market contributing to the GDP. Short-term statistics, the SME project, Labour Force Survey, National Accounts etc. include also relevant information for business demography. This information should be co-ordinated both in Member States and at European level when the statistics are produced and especially before they are published. Because BRs are a central tool for business statistics and have a wider coverage than SBS, it is the task of BR to work as the co-ordinator of business demography and survey 30 frames, naturally in close co-operation with SBS, STS and other statistics. Therefore is was discussed at the BR Working Group meeting in June 1998 to include in the annual report also persons occupied (or the size class) and public enterprises. The inclusion of employed persons is important firstly due to the co-ordination aspect, especially with the SBS Regulation and its development. Secondly, it is important due to the slow process of unit delineation. If the numbers of enterprises are not comparable, the employment figures give extremely valuable information. Employment of local units (and enterprise groups, to be included later) is also indispensable. The inclusion of public enterprises is also connected to the SBS, where this information is collected, but only for NACE Rev. 1 sections Mining and quarrying, Manufacturing and electricity Gas and water supply and Construction, which cover less than 30 % of public enterprises. The changing role of public enterprises is equally or even more interesting for other sectors: transport, telecommunications, community services etc, where over 70 % of public enterprises operate. This change should be monitored. The character of public undertaking is compulsory according to the BR Regulation. • Enterprise groups and globalisation, as presented in 4. 3 above. The methodology of EGs is very complicated and it will be developed during and after the feasibility study. The result will be presented as a chapter in the Manual of Recommendations. Information on EGs is also proposed to be included later into the annual report on BRs. 31 5. CONCLUSION The experiences from the implementation of the BR Regulation have in general been positive. The convergence and improvements of the totally different BRs from the time before the Regulation have been enormous. The coverage is greatly improved and more than half of the MS already include also the non-compulsory NACE Rev. 1 sections. The use of terminology has to a large extent been standardised by the Regulations and the Manual of Recommendations. The establishing of BRs has involved substantial costs, but also maintaining the BRs is costly. Nevertheless the cost-benefit ratio for BRs can be very good considering the possible benefits through the efficient use of high-quality BRs. BRs can now be considered as an efficient tool to lower the response burden on businesses, especially for SMEs, and for making efficient surveys that are very cost-effective, compared with enterprise censuses. The cost- effectiveness has not been fully reached in some MS, where lack of administrative sources has caused particular difficulties. The financial support given to the MS (annex 4) has been only a relatively small part of the total costs of revising the BRs. Improving the BR system is still ongoing and the financial support is still to be continued, but to a minor extent. Even if the results are fairly good, especially considering the fact that NACE Rev. 1 had to be implemented at the same time, there remains two main issues where a great deal of work is still needed. These issues are the harmonisation of statistical units and the quality of BRs. Even though the improvements concerning these issues have also been extensive, the different enterprise delineations used in different MS have huge consequences on the comparability of enterprise statistics. Although the coverage has been highly improved and can be considered generally good, there are some NACE Rev. 1 sections, especially in services, which are not institutions and covered well enough, e. g. concerning small enterprises, non-profit government units. In many MS there are also still problems to record certain compulsory variables. The importance of good quality is not questioned by the MS and the principles on which good quality should be based on are to a large extent agreed upon. However, the problems of quality measurements are, due to the use of administrative sources, extremely difficult and remain to be solved. The use of business registers is a matter of subsidiarity and there are no plans to regulate it. The use of BRs, as well as the updating procedures, differ a great deal between MS. Since BRs have an important place in the European Statistical System, a manual of best practices has been prepared on the use of administrative sources. BRs are used extensively as survey frames and co-ordination tools but also as data source for business demography. For business demography, i. e. the numbers, characteristics, births and deaths of enterprises and local units (in the future also enterprise groups) there are also other sources and the role of BRs as co- ordination tool is extremely important. Depending on the legislation in a MS, there may also be extensive non-statistical use of BRs. It can be used for administrative purposes in some MS and its non-confidential information may also be used extensively for commercial purposes. It is a great challenge for the future to develop BRs as a tool for globalisation statistics. This means to include optional variable g of the BR Regulation, “name and address of any non- resident legal unit, other than natural person, which controls the legal unit” into the BRs as well as including information on enterprise groups. Extensive studies and development of methodology is needed and will be carried out in the near future. In the long term a legal act may need to be considered in order to achieve a European harmonisation on enterprise groups. 32 The results obtained in implementing other regulations may have an effect on the important business statistics, development of BRs. This mainly concerns the two most Structural Business Statistics and Short-term Statistics, where the effects of the inconsistent use of statistical units can be studied during the next few years. Relations to the use of statistical units in other statistics like National Accounts and Intrastat is also important. At this moment no changes for the BR Regulation is foreseen from the requirements of these other regulations. Nevertheless the methodology needed for the harmonisation of the use of statistical units and for building up certain units in an analytical way requires extensive work. To develop methodology on BRs has been, and is furthermore, a focal point and a responsibility for Eurostat. This does not concern only EU countries but also EEA, CEC and other European countries, as agreed between Eurostat and UN/ECE. In spite of the huge improvements on methodology, it is an ever evolving issue, clearly indicated by the need for new chapters as well as the need to revise old chapters in the Manual of Recommendations. The Manual is a means of harmonisation as well as an important means of instruction. The norms for BRs have been firstly developed for areas, where statistics have a long history (like industry and trade) and the norms still need to be specified for certain services, especially on the treatment of non-profit institutions and government units. No changes in the text of the BR Regulation are sought in short or medium term, neither on compulsory nor on optional parts of the Regulation. In the long term, the initiatives started on, especially on enterprise groups and globalisation, may lead to a need for changes in the Regulation. In that connection the role of optional variables must be reconsidered. But, to be able to prepare for the second phase of the development of BRs, the implementation phase of the BR Regulation must be completed rapidly. Some compulsory information is not yet recorded in the BRs of some MS and these MS will be requested to submit a detailed plan and timetable for their inclusion. 33 ABBREVIATIONS BR CEC EEA ESA MS NSI SBS Business Register for statistical purposes Central European Countries European Economic Area European System of national and regional Accounts Member State(s) National Statistical Institute Structural Business Statistics SME Small and Medium Enterprises SPC STS TES Statistical Programme Committee Short-Term Statistics Training of European Statisticians NACE Rev. 1 Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community VAT Value Added Tax PAYE Pay As You Earn EU European Union PHARE Poland–Hungary: aid for economic restructuring (Community Aid programme for central and east European countries) TACIS Technical assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States ADSO Administrative Sources FATS Foreign Affiliates Trade Statistics EG KAU GDP Enterprise Groups Kind-of-Activity Unit Gross Domestic Product 34 REFERENCES (cid:1) EUROPEAN REGULATIONS NACE Rev. 1 • • Council Regulation (EEC) Nº3037/90 of 9 October 1990 on the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community Council Regulation (EEC) Nº761/93 of 24 March 1993 amending Council Regulation (EEC) Nº3037/90 on the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community Statistical Units Council Regulation (EEC) Nº696/93 of 15 March 1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community Registers Council Regulation (EEC) Nº2186/93 of 22 July 1993 on Community co-ordination in drawing up business registers for statistical purposes ESA Council Regulation (EC) Nº2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community Structural Business Statistics (SBS) • • Council Regulation (EC, EURATOM) Nº58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics Council Regulation (EC, EURATOM) Nº410/98 of 16 February 1998 amending Council Regulation (EC, EURATOM) Nº58/97 concerning structural b business statistics Short-Term Statistics (STS) Council Regulation (EC) Nº1165/98 of 19 May 1998 concerning short-term statistics 35 INTRASTAT • • Council Regulation (EEC) Nº3330/91 of 7 November 1991 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States Regulation (EC) No 1182/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 1999 amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States with a view to reducing the data to be provided Statistics on the structure and distribution of earnings Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 of 9 March 1999 concerning structural statistics on earnings and on labour costs (cid:1) OTHER REFERENCES • • • • Business registers for statistical purposes: methodological recommendations, volume 1, Office for official publications of the European Community, 1996. Statistical Business Registers: Problems and Opportunities. Proceedings of the 82nd DGINS conference, Vienna 1996. Enterprises in Europe. Fourth Report. European Commission. The impact of diverging interpretations of the enterprise concept on statistical data, a comparison of enterprise profiling practices in Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Study carried out by Statistics Netherlands on behalf of Eurostat, 1998. 36 ANNEX 1 SUMMARY DATA PER COUNTRY Table 1: Units registered by type of statistical unit (absolute and relative figures) Table 2: Coverage by section of NACE Rev. 1 and by type of statistical unit (absolute and relative figures) Table 3: Variables registered by statistical unit (absolute and relative figures) Table 4: Sources for business registers by type of statistical unit 37 Table 1: Units registered by type of statistical unit (absolute and relative figures) Units registered by type of statistical unit B DK D EL E F 868 518 867 908 - 422 302 422 302 477 196 2 088 000 2 088 000 2 274 000 463 606 463 606 501 457 2 438 786 2 437 944 2 764 715 4 942 943 3 539 686 4 194 967 IRL - 110 442 116 238 I 3 730 148 3 730 148 4 608 710 L 19 365 19 176 20 232 NL A P FIN S UK NO Total EU 906 074 816 737 886 001 244 989 244 011 301 993 1 384 552 1 384 552 1 411 788 315 756 315 756 378 549 662 891 662 485 744 974 1 973 317 1 966 116 2 431 983 446 695 446 695 418 183 20 571 689 19 068 869 21 112 803 B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO Total EU 1998 TOTAL EU + NO 21 018 384 19 515 564 21 530 986 1997 TOTAL EU + NO 946 308 420 849 1 705 000 466 477 2 384 654 4 587 648 - 3 858 546 Enterprises 751 384 420 849 1 705 000 466 477 2 384 654 3 213 339 101 655 3 858 546 19 257 19 257 843 356 299 850 1 289 858 337 502 661 727 1 952 348 393 762 19 875 035 20 268 797 830 446 299 401 1 289 858 337 502 661 321 1 947 585 346 089 18 287 274 18 633 36 Local units - 493 147 1 879 000 484 340 2 731 616 3 726 327 110 095 5 247 999 - 905 000 314 506 1 330 355 401 015 743 813 2 395 352 367 373 20 762 565 21 129 93 B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO Total EU 1996 TOTAL EU + NO 821 634 439 750 1 118 000 850 000 2 301 432 4 304 635 - 17 609 1 155 449 262 135 1 193 718 328 000 530 578 1 925 200 442 000 15 248 140 15 690 140 - - 439 750 1 118 000 700 866 2 301 432 2 353 773 476 627 1 294 000 - 2 719 101 2 672 715 95 530 - - 262 808 227 170 - - - - - 758 382 262 080 1 193 718 808 926 325 747 42 651 - - - 1 751 500 - 11 142 309 11 142 309 532 568 2 214 000 254 768 11 409 035 11 663 80 NL A P FIN S UK NO Total EU 1995 TOTAL EU + NO 855 827 225 000 771 461 225 000 818 000 285 000 - - - 230 000 553 000 1 633 675 - 11 371 306 11 371 306 - - -- 1 629 917 200 953 9 277 764 9 478 717 637 000 1 800 000 236 809 11 114 322 11 351 13 MS + NO Stat. Unit Legal units Enterprises Local units MS + NO Stat. Unit Legal units MS + NO Stat. Unit Legal units Enterprises Local units MS + NO Stat. Unit Legal units Enterprises Local units B DK D EL E F IRL I L 696 550 441 311 265 000 1 042 558 2 259 000 2 899 385 - - 441 311 461 247 265 000 1 042 558 2 259 000 2 316 017 279 000 1 077 432 2 638 412 2 652 231 - 57 500 66 000 270 000 270 000 400 000 38 MS + NO Stat. Unit Legal units Enterprises Local units MS + NO Stat. Unit Legal units Enterprises Local units MS + NO Stat. Unit Legal units Enterprises Local units Units registered by type of statistical unit (%) B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO Total EU 91,78 115,51 - 100,35 100,35 96,77 122,46 122,46 121,02 99,38 99,38 103,53 102,27 102,23 101,21 107,74 110,16 112,58 - 108,64 105,58 96,67 96,67 87,82 100,56 99,58 - 107,44 98,35 97,90 81,70 81,50 96,02 107,34 107,34 106,12 93,56 93,56 94,40 100,18 100,18 100,16 101,07 100,95 101,53 113,44 129,07 113,83 103,51 104,27 101,69 B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO Total EU 115,17 - - 95,70 95,70 103,47 152,50 152,50 145,21 54,88 66,56 - 103,62 103,62 100,46 106,57 136,52 139,42 - - 115,25 1468,20 2310,16 - 109,36 72,99 109,50 111,88 114,39 114,24 96,55 108,05 108,05 3119,16 102,90 124,72 - - - 139,67 101,41 111,20 108,19 89,09 - 144,20 130,34 164,12 181,98 NL A P FIN S UK NO Total EU 135,01 98,30 98,89 116,50 116,48 114,30 - - - 142,61 95,95 - - - 83,61 117,84 107,46 123,00 - 0,00 107,58 134,09 120,10 102,65 - - - - - B DK D EL E F IRL I L 117,96 - - 99,65 99,65 103,33 421,89 421,89 463,80 81,53 67,23 0,00 101,88 101,88 103,06 148,47 101,63 100,77 - - 144,74 - 97,34 56,79 39 1998/1997 TOTAL EU + NO 103,70 104,7 101,90 1997/1996 TOTAL EU + NO 129,1 167,2 181,16 1996/1995 TOTAL EU + NO 137,9 117,55 102,75 Table 2: Coverage by section of NACE Rev. 1 and by type of statistical unit (absolute and relative figures) LEGAL UNIT – Coverage by section of NACE Rev. 1 B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO MS + NO Nace Rev. 1 A (opt) B (opt) C D E F G H I J K L (opt) M N O P Q Total of Sections MS + NO Nace Rev. 1 A (opt) B (opt) C D E F G H I J K L (opt) M N O P Q Total of Sections 77 790 374 406 56 372 261 83 911 226 552 63 830 24 961 42 139 145 182 3 912 5 367 64 595 70 228 2 319 319 868 518 85 321 3 210 318 29 217 5 218 30 326 79 466 14 341 18 637 6 104 92 116 197 5 609 20 177 31 446 553 46 - - 2 000 260 000 5 000 323 000 1 107 000 278 000 1 000 - 25 000 6 000 - 1 000 80 000 - - - - 812 64 913 357 39 112 207 512 58 448 29 636 675 41 066 - 1 030 2 207 17 753 77 8 - - 2 826 241 861 2 642 243 301 804 861 259 600 218 405 34 643 380 856 - 33 517 90 705 125 569 - - 672 472 10 165 3 115 271 839 5 648 324 918 669 291 227 540 107 802 63 795 1 654 909 55 214 60 340 390 583 424 866 - 446 422 302 2 088 000 463 606 2 438 786 4 942 943 B DK D EL E F IRL 87 974 538 599 78 617 336 108 491 291 264 84 507 31 582 10 083 149 905 670 5 789 17 952 74 646 3 107 248 946 308 87 656 3 461 340 30 631 5 104 29 352 80 504 14 188 18 733 6 238 89 535 172 5 186 18 472 31 053 181 43 - - 2 000 288 000 5 000 387 000 724 000 223 000 - - 19 000 - - - 57 000 - - - - 806 67 714 359 39 887 210 781 56 563 30 192 1 061 38 885 - 1 772 1 242 17 135 80 - - - 2 830 243 526 2 589 234 926 800 635 256 094 207 492 33 302 361 714 - 31 812 86 858 122 876 - - 556 586 9 136 3 364 291 701 6 013 343 060 721 807 244 214 110 900 63 327 1 356 788 54 834 58 915 375 958 390588 - 457 420 849 1 705 000 466 477 2 384 654 4 587 648 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 40 - - 4 483 542 303 2 470 430 778 1 239 210 212 424 154 951 67 719 640 925 - 12 288 212 853 209 744 - - - - 8 928 47 1 595 6 537 2 306 1 039 878 4 514 - 105 107 961 - 340 3 730 148 19 365 40 728 936 654 67 337 325 71 807 249 571 48 641 36 501 42 033 202 828 1 222 17 280 42 457 83 650 23 81 906 074 - - 4 968 601 737 2 234 467 629 1 267 190 225 838 183 640 70 103 600 296 - 11 336 191 500 232 075 - - - - 6 901 45 1 539 6 540 2 475 990 842 4 411 - 108 100 960 - 340 3 858 546 19 257 38 080 796 619 59 501 265 63 153 229 097 46 591 33 222 46 622 186 458 1 228 16 977 41 069 79 575 26 77 843 356 1 816 - 321 27 408 696 17 689 70 936 40 605 12 305 3 545 36 190 - 482 16 336 16 660 - - 128 095 9 807 2 501 135 690 452 208 789 466 592 107 118 28 278 40 823 153 102 6 996 8 576 11 467 76 153 2 111 11 318 1 970 1 636 34 212 1 238 33 121 65 204 11 772 25 318 5 908 66 106 1 582 2 513 19 510 34 298 46 4 160 625 1 027 625 49 134 1 160 50 195 119 828 20 095 32 067 4 612 150 021 867 6 692 14 828 51 066 4 45 183 604 4 689 2 426 186 885 402 196 343 454 674 129 893 83 747 32 463 433 450 2 683 16 526 64 014 181 518 - - 88 188 10 571 1 189 28 599 984 45 705 84 742 13 806 31 045 2 058 80 310 4 414 4 538 18 868 28 442 3 222 14 244 989 1 384 552 315 756 662 891 1 973 317 446 695 21 018 384 1 894 - 380 34 749 782 20 434 92 849 46 746 15 102 3 850 43 853 - 483 19 848 18 880 - - 63 599 8 620 3 042 146 768 466 195 161 467 886 101 196 28 732 39 804 135 252 7 010 7 926 9 455 74 822 - 119 11 003 2 461 1 636 36 478 1 260 36 323 70 854 12 183 25 521 10 131 82 272 1 977 2 111 16 359 26 902 28 3 179 425 906 619 47 426 1 165 49 292 117 040 19 360 31 770 4 546 141 535 731 5 805 13 944 48 074 28 61 155 827 4 851 2 463 188 255 331 201 818 457 976 129 042 83 518 32 778 430 887 2 703 14 779 64 978 182 142 - - 84 266 10 058 1 054 26 762 916 43 194 78 244 12 128 27 324 1 485 65 253 3 864 2 439 12 980 23 565 230 - 299 850 1 289 858 337 502 661 727 1 952 348 393 762 20 268 797 1998 TOTAL EU + NO 1 449 957 42 749 23 41 2 005 406 26 919 2 111 390 5 886 13 1 506 869 810 42 348 876 4 123 304 83 087 175 464 973 435 1 442 670 6 246 2 03 1997 TOTAL EU + NO 1 266 310 40 827 24 804 2 150 552 26 884 2 230 109 5 648 43 1 491 886 833 235 325 490 3 721 302 73 189 165 98 874 339 1 389 96 3 680 1 81 I L NL A P FIN S UK NO LEGAL UNIT – Coverage by section of NACE Rev. 1 (%) MS + NO Nace Rev. 1 B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO A (opt) B (opt) C D E F G H I J K L (opt) M N O P Q Total of Sections A (optional) B (optional) C D E F G H I J K L (optional) M N O P Q 88,42 69,52 67,78 71,70 77,68 77,34 77,78 75,53 79,04 417,92 96,85 583,88 92,71 359,82 94,08 74,64 128,63 91,78 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 97,34 92,75 93,53 95,38 102,23 103,32 98,71 101,08 99,49 97,85 102,88 114,53 108,16 109,23 101,27 305,52 106,98 100,35 - - 100,00 90,28 100,00 83,46 152,90 124,66 - - 131,58 - - - 140,35 - - - - 100,74 95,86 99,44 98,06 98,45 103,33 98,16 63,62 105,61 - 58,13 177,70 103,61 96,25 - - - 99,86 99,32 102,05 103,56 100,53 101,37 105,26 104,03 105,29 - 105,36 104,43 102,19 - - 122,46 99,38 102,27 120,82 111,26 92,60 93,19 93,93 94,71 92,72 93,17 97,21 100,74 121,97 100,69 102,42 103,89 108,78 - 97,59 107,74 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 90,24 90,12 110,56 92,12 97,79 94,06 84,38 96,60 106,77 - 108,40 111,15 90,38 - - 96,67 - - 133,33 103,00 104,44 103,64 99,95 93,17 104,95 104,28 102,34 - 97,22 107,00 100,10 - 100,00 100,56 106,95 117,59 105,65 113,17 122,64 113,70 108,94 104,40 109,87 90,16 108,78 99,51 101,78 103,38 105,12 88,46 105,19 107,44 95,88 - 84,47 78,87 89,00 86,57 76,40 86,86 81,48 92,08 82,53 - 99,79 82,31 88,24 - - 81,70 201,41 113,77 82,22 92,45 97,00 106,98 99,72 105,85 98,42 102,56 113,20 99,80 108,20 121,28 101,78 - 93,28 107,34 102,86 80,05 100,00 93,79 98,25 91,18 92,03 96,63 99,20 58,32 80,35 80,02 119,04 119,26 127,49 164,29 133,33 93,56 89,52 113,36 100,97 103,60 99,57 101,83 102,38 103,80 100,93 101,45 106,00 118,60 115,28 106,34 106,22 14,29 73,77 100,18 117,83 96,66 98,50 99,27 121,45 97,29 99,28 100,66 100,27 99,04 100,59 99,26 111,82 98,52 99,66 104,65 105,10 112,81 106,86 107,42 105,81 108,30 113,84 113,62 138,59 123,07 114,23 186,06 145,36 120,70 - - 1400,87 - 101,07 113,44 Agriculture, hunting and forestry Fishing Mining and quarrying Manufacturing Electricity, gas and water supply Construction Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and personal and household goods Hotels and restaurants Transport, storage and communication Financial intermediation Real estate, renting and business activities Public administration and Defence; compulsory social security Education Health and social work Other community, social and personal service activities Private households with employed persons Extra-territorial organizations and bodies 41 1998/1997 TOTAL EU + NO 114,50 104,71 94,39 93,25 100,13 94,68 104,21 101,00 97,26 107,18 110,80 113,52 105,71 111,33 103,79 169,73 112,41 103,70 MS + NO Nace Rev. 1 A (opt) B (opt) C D E F G H I J K L (opt) M N O P Q Total of Sections MS + NO Nace Rev. 1 A (opt) B (opt) C D E F G H I J K L (opt) M N O P Q Total of Sections ENTERPRISE – Coverage by section of NACE Rev. 1 B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO 77 740 374 405 56 290 261 83 837 226 436 63 810 24 931 42 111 145 090 3 905 5 341 64 553 70 186 2 319 319 867 908 85 321 3 210 318 29 217 5 218 30 326 79 466 14 341 18 637 6 104 92 116 197 5 609 20 177 31 446 553 46 - - 2 000 260 000 5 000 323 000 1 107 000 278 000 1 000 - 25 000 6 000 - 1 000 80 000 - - - - 812 64 913 357 39 112 207 512 58 448 29 636 675 41 066 - 1 030 2 207 17 753 77 8 - - 2 812 241 550 2 624 243 252 804 675 259 574 218 359 34 604 380 748 - 33 512 90 695 125 539 - - 653 514 9 461 2 921 263 046 5 544 312 578 641 235 217 384 100 600 53 903 464 938 55 079 59 121 309 586 390 378 - 398 - - 93 8 708 19 10 800 34 162 18 450 4 731 1 481 16 729 - 601 3 728 10 316 - 624 - - 4 483 542 303 2 470 430 778 1 239 210 212 424 154 951 67 719 640 925 - 12 288 212 853 209 744 - - - - 7 903 47 1 558 6 462 2 293 1 025 875 4 499 - 105 105 957 - 340 422 302 2 088 000 463 606 2 437 944 3 539 686 110 442 3 730 148 19 176 38 452 737 451 56 899 250 64 693 220 984 46 338 32 311 34 936 179 807 1 211 17 003 41 121 81 440 23 81 816 737 1 814 - 317 27 233 695 17 552 70 644 40 533 12 238 3 520 36 004 - 482 16 333 16 646 - - 128 095 9 807 2 501 135 690 452 208 789 466 592 107 118 28 278 40 823 153 102 6 996 8 576 11 467 76 153 2 111 11 318 1 970 1 636 34 212 1 238 33 121 65 204 11 772 25 318 5 908 66 106 1 582 2 513 19 510 34 298 46 4 160 623 1 027 625 49 025 1 160 50 164 119 689 20 092 32 044 4 608 149 930 867 6 691 14 828 51 063 4 45 183 562 4 687 2 377 185 567 351 195 714 453 220 129 636 83 380 31 492 431 850 2 673 16 450 63 937 181 220 - - 88 188 10 571 1 189 28 599 984 45 705 84 742 13 806 31 045 2 058 80 310 4 414 4 538 18 868 28 442 3 222 14 244 011 1 384 552 315 756 662 485 1 966 116 446 695 19 515 564 B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO 80 137 380 385 55 347 277 80 702 221001 62 744 23 333 9 020 128 105 661 5 492 17 374 63 183 3 007 236 751 384 87 656 3 461 340 30 631 5 104 29 352 80 504 14 188 18 733 6 238 89 535 172 5 186 18 472 31 053 181 43 - - 2 000 288 000 5 000 387 000 724 000 223 000 - - 19 000 - - - 57 000 - - - - 806 67 714 359 39 887 210 781 56 563 30 192 1 061 38 885 - 1 772 1 242 17 135 80 - - - 2 830 243 526 2 589 234 926 800 635 256 094 207 492 33 302 361 714 - 31 812 86 858 122 876 - - 538 421 8 336 2 943 264 676 5 686 313 852 644 328 209 140 97 373 49 618 435 783 54 622 49 497 290 425 248244 - 395 - - 78 7 786 19 8 850 31 766 17 761 4 517 1 318 15 258 - 545 3 624 9 668 - 465 - - 4 968 601 737 2 234 467 629 1 267 190 225 838 183 640 70 103 600 296 - 11 336 191 500 232 075 - - - - 6 901 45 1 539 6 540 2 475 990 842 4 411 - 108 100 960 - 340 420 849 1 705 000 466 477 2 384 654 3 213 339 101 655 3 858 546 19 257 38 058 775 527 57 453 217 62 224 225 298 46 311 32 147 45 281 183 341 1 219 17 133 41 067 79 292 26 77 830 446 42 1 894 - 378 34 662 781 20 351 92 705 46 701 15 067 3 841 43 814 - 483 19 847 18 877 - - 63 599 8 620 3 042 146 768 466 195 161 467 886 101 196 28 732 39 804 135 252 7 010 7 926 9 455 74 822 - 119 11 003 2 461 1 636 36 478 1 260 36 323 70 854 12 183 25 521 10 131 82 272 1 977 2 111 16 359 26 902 28 3 179 423 906 619 47 317 1 165 49 261 116 901 19 357 31 747 4 542 141 444 731 5 804 13 944 48 071 28 61 155 801 4 850 2 438 187 176 310 201 249 456 712 128 760 83 247 32 676 430 067 2 701 14 716 64 931 181 951 - - - - 1 352 30 862 1 400 50 392 91 639 14 794 35 054 3 466 65 888 4 340 3 528 16 667 26 459 232 16 299 401 1 289 858 337 502 661 321 1 947 585 346 089 18 633 363 1998 TOTAL EU + NO 1 428 627 41 844 22 947 1 984 155 26 670 2 090 979 5 827 233 1 494 019 798 484 330 817 2 908 220 82 924 173 860 890 968 1 405 581 6 246 1 990 1997 TOTAL EU + NO 1 155 992 29 789 24 348 2 101 034 26 912 2 178 698 5 508 740 1 437 105 817 785 311 243 2 775 065 73 433 157 449 791 865 1 238 568 3 582 1 755 1998/1997 TOTAL EU + NO 123,58 140,47 94,25 94,44 99,10 95,97 105,78 103,96 97,64 106,29 104,80 112,92 110,42 112,52 113,48 174,37 113,39 104,73 MS + NO Nace Rev. 1 A (opt) B (opt) C D E F G H I J K L (opt) M N O P Q Total of Sections A (optional) B (optional) C D E F G H I J K L (optional) M N O P Q ENTERPRISE – Coverage by section of NACE Rev. 1 (%) B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO 97,01 98,42 105,19 101,70 94,22 103,88 102,46 101,70 106,85 466,86 113,26 590,77 97,25 371,55 111,08 77,12 135,17 115,51 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 97,34 92,75 93,53 95,38 102,23 103,32 98,71 101,08 99,49 97,85 102,88 114,53 108,16 109,23 101,27 305,52 106,98 100,35 - - 100,00 90,28 100,00 83,46 152,90 124,66 - - 131,58 - - - 140,35 - - 122,46 - - 100,74 95,86 99,44 98,06 98,45 103,33 98,16 63,62 105,61 - 58,13 177,70 103,61 96,25 - 99,38 - - 99,36 99,19 101,35 103,54 100,50 101,36 105,24 103,91 105,26 - 105,34 104,42 102,17 - - 102,23 121,38 113,50 99,25 99,38 97,50 99,59 99,52 103,94 103,31 108,64 106,69 100,84 119,44 106,60 157,26 - 100,76 110,16 - - 119,23 111,84 100,00 122,03 107,54 103,88 104,74 112,37 109,64 - 110,28 102,87 106,70 - 134,19 108,64 - - 90,24 90,12 110,56 92,12 97,79 94,06 84,38 96,60 106,77 - 108,40 111,15 90,38 - - 96,67 - - 116,67 100,22 104,44 101,23 98,81 92,65 103,54 103,92 102,00 - 97,22 105,00 99,69 - 100,00 99,58 101,04 95,10 85,58 99,04 115,21 103,97 98,09 100,06 100,51 77,15 98,07 99,34 99,24 100,13 102,71 88,46 105,19 98,35 95,78 - 83,86 78,57 88,99 86,25 76,20 86,79 81,22 91,64 82,17 - 99,79 82,29 88,18 - - 81,50 201,41 113,77 82,22 92,45 97,00 106,98 99,72 105,85 98,42 102,56 113,20 99,80 108,20 121,28 101,78 - 93,28 107,34 102,86 80,05 100,00 93,79 98,25 91,18 92,03 96,63 99,20 58,32 80,35 80,02 119,04 119,26 127,49 164,29 133,33 93,56 89,52 113,36 100,97 103,61 99,57 101,83 102,38 103,80 100,94 101,45 106,00 118,60 115,28 106,34 106,22 14,29 73,77 100,18 117,82 96,64 97,50 99,14 113,23 97,25 99,24 100,68 100,16 96,38 100,41 98,96 111,78 98,47 99,60 - - 100,95 - - 87,94 92,67 70,29 90,70 92,47 93,32 88,56 59,38 121,89 101,71 128,63 113,21 107,49 1388,79 87,50 129,07 Agriculture, hunting and forestry Fishing Mining and quarrying Manufacturing Electricity, gas and water supply Construction Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and personal and household goods" Hotels and restaurants Transport, storage and communication Financial intermediation Real estate, renting and business activities Public administration and Defence; compulsory social security" Education Health and social work Other community, social and personal service activities Private households with employed persons Extra-territorial organizations and bodies 43 MS + NO Nace Rev. 1 A (opt) B (opt) C D E F G H I J K L (opt) M N O P Q Total of Sections MS + NO Nace Rev. 1 B A (opt) B (opt) C D E F G H I J K L (opt) M N O P Q Total of Sections - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - LOCAL UNIT - Coverage by section of NACE Rev. 1 B DK D EL S F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO 87 037 3 349 459 32 697 5 565 31 746 90 809 16 183 21 542 8 959 98 941 2 234 9 079 31 289 36 687 571 49 - - 2 000 283 000 5 000 351 000 1 207 000 303 000 1 000 - 27 000 6 000 - 1 000 88 000 - - - - 965 71 934 1 018 42 441 219 508 64 705 34 354 702 41 984 - 1 342 3 475 18 936 82 11 - - 3 637 261 508 3 803 261 368 953 185 279 979 237 387 79 785 407 172 - 40 004 97 410 139 477 - - 664 275 9 844 4 992 323 536 12 153 332 995 792 271 249 431 140 773 97 237 533 293 179 326 72 625 352 038 429 516 - 662 - - 164 9 220 115 11 007 36 677 18 848 4 826 1 661 17 423 - 625 4 200 10 848 - 624 - - 8 051 691 038 7 879 532 986 1 552 510 261 097 209 548 120 093 732 488 - 16 969 234 796 241 255 - - - - 15 1 023 70 1 600 6 760 2 374 1 118 1 234 4 505 - 111 105 977 - 340 477 196 2 274 000 501 457 2 764 715 4 194 967 116 238 4 608 710 20 232 38 588 752 543 63 095 630 67 529 255 245 49 132 37 459 41 300 187 263 1 691 17 854 41 725 83 073 23 99 886 001 1 948 - 670 33 668 1 367 19 639 93 665 45 322 18 742 10 199 39 613 - 602 16 853 19 705 - - 128 701 9 837 2 734 138 174 625 209 489 481 590 108 788 29 751 42 719 154 371 7 004 9 282 11 965 76 645 2 111 12 187 2 011 1 669 36 698 2 415 34 712 75 040 14 870 29 173 7 924 71 369 9 471 9 561 31 364 40 035 46 4 161 215 1 029 840 53 222 2 301 52 138 130 630 21 223 37 550 7 807 156 174 3 272 11 406 50 136 55 982 4 45 184 638 4 829 4 773 217 064 3 316 205 441 571 235 164 165 103 670 55 596 491 789 28 467 96 201 97 155 203 644 - - 88 443 10 524 1 163 26 685 1 508 40 819 77 990 11 853 29 294 4 049 58 572 6 207 8 349 24 967 26 624 1 127 9 301 993 1 411 788 378 549 744 974 2 431 983 418 183 21 530 986 DK D EL S F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO 93 272 3 749 640 37 933 5 472 32 151 101 482 18 098 21 512 11 676 104 882 472 5 765 21 075 34 722 198 48 - - 3 000 300 000 9 000 391 000 863 000 237 000 - - 19 000 - - - 57 000 - - - - 937 71 753 966 40 053 217 510 57 331 33 269 2 474 39 461 - 1 842 1 274 17 390 80 - - - 4 000 263 829 4 398 273 192 945 348 275 383 226 681 77 960 390 826 - 37 852 93 260 138 887 - - 544 208 8 535 4 680 312 963 11 494 329 640 766 659 230 969 136 468 90 200 487 594 151 382 58 143 319 506 273 308 - 578 - - 113 8 205 115 8 867 35 704 18 424 4 826 1 554 16 302 - 569 4 140 10 811 - 465 - - 9 572 872 000 14 086 659 073 1 728 445 309 022 256 927 131 795 728 794 - 17 433 224 283 296 569 - - 493 147 1 879 000 484 340 2 731 616 3 726 327 110 095 5 247 999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 38 698 785 617 63 151 575 65 316 261 088 49 973 37 364 52 123 192 158 1 487 17 773 41 519 82 254 26 93 905 000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 44 64 525 8 654 3 369 153 892 1 197 196 934 487 180 102 862 30 496 42 122 137 543 7 709 8 707 10 197 74 849 - 119 11 851 2 507 1 767 38 957 2 346 37 743 80 541 15 513 29 488 12 479 87 652 10 103 9 124 28 173 32 740 28 3 180 337 923 870 51 121 2 978 51 705 128 061 20 815 36 646 7 798 148 134 5 266 12 846 38 439 57 785 28 61 156 939 4 968 4 277 216 786 3 249 213 353 569 454 158 588 103 358 59 334 482 326 25 992 92 822 96 092 207 814 - - - - 1 610 31 439 1 945 49 804 97 073 14 646 36 606 6 048 57 626 6 586 9 003 26 980 27 770 221 16 1 330 355 401 015 743 813 2 395 352 367 373 20 815 432 1998 TOTAL EU + NO 1 367 032 42 175 32 675 2 242 562 47 765 2 194 910 6 544 115 1 610 970 936 187 479 265 3 021 957 243 672 294 010 998 478 1 471 404 1 855 1 954 1997 TOTAL EU + NO 1 089 830 30 121 35 452 2 422 029 57 821 2 348 831 6 281 545 1 508 624 953 641 495 563 2 873 298 208 997 271 879 904 938 1 311 899 581 1 383 MS + NO Nace Rev. 1 A (opt) B (opt) C D E F G H I J K L (opt) M N O P Q Total of Sections A (optional) B (optional) C D E F G H I J K L (optional) M N O P Q 1998/1997 TOTAL EU + NO 125,44 140,02 92,17 92,59 82,61 93,45 104,18 106,78 98,17 96,71 104,48 116,59 108,14 110,34 112,16 319,28 141,29 103,44 LOCAL UNIT - Coverage by section of NACE Rev. 1 (%) B DK D EL S F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 93,32 89,33 71,72 86,20 101,70 98,74 89,48 89,42 100,14 76,73 94,34 473,31 157,48 148,47 105,66 288,38 102,08 96,77 - - 66,67 94,33 55,56 89,77 139,86 127,85 - - 142,11 - - - 154,39 - - 121,02 - - 102,99 100,25 105,38 105,96 100,92 112,86 103,26 28,38 106,39 - 72,86 272,76 108,89 102,50 - 103,53 - - 90,93 99,12 86,47 95,67 100,83 101,67 104,72 102,34 104,18 - 105,69 104,45 100,42 - - 101,21 122,06 115,34 106,67 103,38 105,73 101,02 103,34 107,99 103,15 107,80 109,37 118,46 124,91 110,18 157,15 - 114,53 112,58 - - 145,13 112,37 100,00 124,13 102,73 102,30 100,00 106,89 106,88 - 109,84 101,45 100,34 - 134,19 105,58 - - 84,11 79,25 55,93 80,87 89,82 84,49 81,56 91,12 100,51 - 97,34 104,69 81,35 - - 87,82 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 99,72 95,80 88,01 99,91 109,57 103,39 97,76 98,32 100,25 79,24 97,45 113,72 100,46 100,50 101,00 88,46 106,45 97,90 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 199,46 113,67 81,15 89,79 52,21 106,38 98,85 105,76 97,56 101,42 112,23 90,85 106,60 117,34 102,40 - 93,28 106,12 102,84 80,22 94,45 94,20 102,94 91,97 93,17 95,86 98,93 63,50 81,42 93,74 104,79 111,33 122,28 164,29 133,33 94,40 89,40 111,48 96,55 104,11 77,27 100,84 102,01 101,96 102,47 100,12 105,43 62,13 88,79 130,43 96,88 14,29 73,77 100,16 117,65 97,20 111,60 100,13 102,06 96,29 100,31 103,52 100,30 93,70 101,96 109,52 103,64 101,11 97,99 - - 101,53 - - 72,24 84,88 77,53 81,96 80,34 80,93 80,03 66,95 101,64 94,25 92,74 92,54 95,87 509,95 56,25 113,83 Agriculture, hunting and forestry Fishing Mining and quarrying Manufacturing Electricity, gas and water supply Construction Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and personal and household goods Hotels and restaurants Transport, storage and communication Financial intermediation Real estate, renting and business activities Public administration and Defence; compulsory social security Education Health and social work Other community, social and personal service activities Private households with employed persons Extra-territorial organizations and bodies 45 MS +NO Variable a b b (opt) c d e f g (opt) h (opt) i j k MS +NO Variable a b b (opt) c d e f g (opt) h (opt) i j k Table 3: Variables registered by statistical unit (absolute and relative figures) LEGAL UNIT – Variables of the Regulation B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO 1998 868 518 868 518 - 868 518 868 518 868 518 868 518 - - 868 518 868 518 868 518 422 302 422 302 400 000 - 422 302 422 302 422 302 - 422 302 422 302 422 302 - 2 088 000 2 088 000 - - - - 2 088 000 - - - - - 463 606 463 606 382 125 463 606 463 606 463 606 462 112 - - - - - 2 438 786 2 438 786 4 942 943 4 942 943 157 058 4 942 943 2 438 786 4 942 943 2 438 786 4 942 943 - - 2 438 786 4 942 943 - - 2 438 786 2 438 786 149 620 - 4 942 943 4 942 943 2 438 786 4 942 943 B DK D EL E F IRL 946 308 946 308 - 946 308 946 308 946 308 882 383 - - 946 308 946 308 946 308 420 849 420 849 400 000 - 420 849 420 849 420 849 420 849 420 849 420 849 420 849 - 1 705 000 1 705 000 - - - - 1 705 000 - - - - - 466 477 466 477 345 000 466 477 466 477 466 477 450 685 - - - - - 2 384 654 2 384 654 4 587 648 4 587 648 415 132 4 587 648 2 384 654 4 587 648 2 384 654 4 587 648 - - 2 384 654 4 587 648 - - 2 384 654 2 384 654 138 366 - 4 587 648 4 587 648 2 384 654 4 587 648 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 46 3 730 148 3 730 148 1 979 357 - 19 365 19 365 - - 3 730 148 19 365 - - 905 215 884 592 757 460 301 443 808 639 - 244 989 244 989 74 539 1 384 552 1 384 552 - - 12 427 315 756 315 756 284 000 - 662 891 662 891 530 312 1 973 317 1 973 317 - - 1 973 317 50 005 1 155 197 315 756 - - - 3 730 148 19 365 905 111 123 099 1 384 552 315 756 - - - 3 730 148 - - - - - 135 689 - 251 - 19 365 150 742 - - 3 408 230 248 57 876 100 10 000 - - - - 315 756 662 891 7 376 - - 1 973 317 662 891 662 891 662 891 - - - 1 973 317 1 973 317 1 973 317 - 1 973 317 1 973 317 1 973 317 - - - - - - - - - - - - 1997 I L NL A P FIN S UK NO 3 858 546 3 858 546 1 867 536 - 19 257 19 257 - - 3 258 546 19 257 - - 3 858 546 19 257 - - - 3 858 546 - - - - - - 843 356 843 356 757 668 244 436 780 876 780 876 843 201 251 150 742 - 759 020 120 619 269 490 269 490 49 299 - 36 460 29 785 1 289 858 1 289 858 - 9 701 1 036 573 - 114 259 1 279 730 - - 3 520 193 549 59 032 - - - - 7 376 337 502 337 502 230 000 - 337 502 337 502 337 502 13 4 300 337 502 337 502 - 661 727 661 727 542 616 1 952 348 1 952 348 - - 1 952 348 661 727 661 727 661 727 - - - - - 1 952 348 1 952 348 1 952 348 1 952 348 1 952 348 1 952 348 1 952 348 393 762 393 762 - 104 215 393 762 99 438 393 762 - - 1 465 393 762 - LEGAL UNIT – Variables of the Regulation (%) 1998/1997 B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO 91,78 91,78 - 91,78 91,78 91,78 98,43 - - 91,78 91,78 91,78 - - - - - - - - - - - - 100,35 100,35 100,00 - 100,35 100,35 100,35 - 100,35 100,35 100,35 - 122,46 122,46 - - - - 99,38 99,38 110,76 99,38 99,38 99,38 102,27 102,27 37,83 102,27 102,27 - 122,46 102,54 102,27 - - - - - - - - - - - - 102,27 102,27 102,27 107,74 107,74 107,74 107,74 107,74 - 107,74 108,13 - 107,74 107,74 107,74 - - - - - - - - - - - - 96,67 96,67 105,99 - 114,47 - 96,67 - - - 96,67 - 100,56 100,56 - - 100,56 - 107,33 104,89 99,97 123,32 103,56 - 90,91 90,91 151,20 - 137,15 - 107,34 107,34 - 128,10 111,44 - 100,56 107,34 107,74 108,19 - - - - - - 90,01 - 0,03 124,97 - - 96,82 118,96 98,04 - - - - 100,00 93,56 93,56 123,48 - 93,56 - 93,56 - 232,56 - 93,56 - 100,18 100,18 97,73 - 100,18 100,18 100,18 - - - - - 101,07 101,07 - 101,07 101,07 101,07 101,07 - 101,07 101,07 101,07 101,07 - - - - - - - - - - - - identity number name, address including postcode telephone, electronic mail, fax numbers and telex address requirement for the legal unit to publish its annual accounts (Yes/No) date of incorporation for legal persons or date of official recognition as an economic operator for natural persons date on which the LEGAL UNIT ceases to be legally responsible for an enterprise legal form of the unit name and address of any non-resident legal unit, other than a natural person, which controls the legal unit identity number of the legal unit in the register which controls the legal unit character of 'public undertaking' of the legal unit within the meaning of Commission Directive 80/723/EEC (Yes/No) (for legal persons only) reference to other associated files, including customs files, in which the legal unit is recorded and which contain information which can be used for statistical purposes reference to the register of intra-Community operators drawn up in accordance with Council Regulation (EEC) Nº3330/91 of 7 November on the statistical relating to the trading of goods between Member States MS +NO Variable a b b (opt) c d e f g (opt) h (opt) i j k a b b (optional) c d e f g (optional) h (optional) i j k 47 ENTERPRISE – Variables of the Regulation 1998 B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO 867 908 422 302 2 088 000 463 606 2 437 944 3 539 686 110 442 3 730 148 867 908 422 302 - 463 606 2 437 944 3 539 686 110 442 3 730 148 867 908 422 302 2 088 000 382 125 2 072 252 3 539 586 110 442 3 730 148 19 176 19 176 19 176 816 773 244 011 1 384 552 315 756 662 485 1 966 116 396 294 816 773 244 011 1 384 552 - 662 485 1 966 116 - 673 942 236 998 1 384 552 315 756 662 485 1 966 116 372 048 867 908 16 000 522 000 - 246 114 - 110 442 - - 816 737 11 620 163 699 8 000 662 485 1 966 116 17 741 867 908 422 302 2 088 000 463 606 2 437 944 3 539 586 110 442 3 730 148 19 176 816 772 244 011 434 108 315 756 662 485 1 966 116 139 199 330 518 2 437 944 3 539 586 110 442 3 730 148 - 816 770 5 645 1 155 197 315 756 662 485 1 966 116 396 293 MS + NO Variable a b c d e f g h 867 908 422 302 867 908 422 302 - - 463 606 2 437 944 - 110 442 - 867 908 422 302 1 566 000 463 606 2 437 944 2 000 000 92 000 3 167 689 19 176 19 176 i (opt) - - - - - - - - MS + NO Variable B DK D EL E F IRL I L a b c d e f g h 751 384 420 849 1 705 000 466 477 2 384 654 3 213 339 101 655 3 858 546 751 384 420 849 - 466 477 2 384 654 3 213 339 101 655 3 858 546 751 384 420 849 1 705 000 422 161 1 940 820 3 213 339 101 655 3 858 546 751 384 15 896 426 250 - 210 144 - 101 655 - 751 384 420 849 1 705 000 466 477 2 384 654 3 213 339 101 655 3 858 546 751 384 420 849 751 384 420 849 - - 233 238 2 384 654 3 213 339 101 655 3 858 546 466 477 2 384 654 - 101 655 - - 420 849 1 278 750 466 477 2 384 654 2 000 000 84 132 3 140 856 i (opt) 751 384 420 849 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 48 307 973 - 537 958 315 756 662 485 1 966 116 287 100 - 219 315 78 989 - - - 315 756 205 600 - - 1 966 116 163 467 - 104 017 1997 NL A P FIN S UK NO 830 446 269 165 1 289 858 830 446 269 165 1 289 858 830 446 256 835 1 255 838 16 609 7 960 137 394 830 446 269 165 414 164 671 944 36 460 1 036 573 357 046 29 775 - 148 500 - 840 - 569 049 - - - - - - - - - - 661 321 1 947 585 346 089 661 321 1 947 585 292 512 661 321 1 947 585 292 512 - 1 947 585 - 661 321 1 947 585 158 371 661 321 1 947 585 346 089 661 321 1 947 585 53 577 - - 1 947 585 170 135 2 000 - ENTERPRISE – Variables of the Regulation (%) 1998/1997 B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO 115,51 115,51 115,51 115,51 115,51 115,51 115,51 - - 100,35 100,35 100,35 100,65 100,35 100,35 100,35 100,35 - 122,46 - 122,46 122,46 122,46 - - 122,46 - 99,38 99,38 90,52 - 99,38 141,71 99,38 99,38 - 102,23 102,23 106,77 117,12 102,23 102,23 102,23 102,23 110,16 110,16 110,15 - 110,15 110,15 - 100,00 - 108,64 108,64 108,64 108,64 108,64 108,64 108,64 109,35 - 96,67 96,67 96,67 - 96,67 96,67 - 100,85 - - - - - - - - - - 98,35 98,35 81,15 90,65 90,65 92,28 4917,44 145,98 98,35 121,55 86,26 90,65 15,48 - - - 26108,93 - 107,34 107,34 110,25 119,15 104,82 111,44 - - - - - - - - - - - - 100,18 100,18 100,18 - 100,18 100,18 100,18 - - 100,95 100,95 100,95 100,95 100,95 100,95 100,95 100,95 - 114,51 - 127,19 - 87,89 114,51 535,86 96,08 - - - - - - - - - - identity number identity number(s) of the legal unit(s) legally responsible for the enterprise activity code of the enterprise at four-digit (class) level of NACE Rev1 in which the principal activity or all the activities of the enterprise is or are included secondary activities, if any, at NACE Rev1 four-digit level, if they amount to 10% of the total of all activities size: measured by the number of persons occupied or, failing that, by allocation to one of the following classes according to the number of persons occupied date of commencement of activities of the enterprise date of final cessation of activities of the enterprise net turnover from sale of goods and services (except for financial intermediaries); falling that, allocation to a size class defined net assets (assets after allowing for depreciation less liabilities - financial intermediaries only) (optional) MS + NO Variable a b c d e f g h i (opt) a b c d e f g h i (optional) 49 LOCAL UNIT – Variables of the Regulation 1998 B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO 2 274 000 2 274 000 - 2 274 000 522 000 2 274 000 - - 2 274 000 - 484 340 484 340 362 863 440 024 - - 484 340 251 101 484 340 484 340 2 764 715 2 764 715 4 194 967 4 194 967 116 238 116 238 4 608 710 4 608 710 - 4 194 967 65 000 1 979 357 20 232 20 232 - 2 304 918 4 194 967 116 238 4 608 710 20 232 189 150 - 2 764 715 4 194 967 2 764 715 2 764 715 4 194 967 - 2 764 715 4 194 967 2 764 715 4 194 967 - 116 238 116 238 116 238 116 238 116 238 116 238 116 238 - 4 608 710 4 608 710 - 4 608 710 4 608 710 4 608 710 - 886 074 886 074 796 176 864 213 - 852 528 808 450 - - 19 365 20 232 - 20 232 886 074 20 232 886 074 - 2 274 000 - 2 764 715 4 194 967 - 484 340 2 630 000 7 600 301 993 301 993 72 873 294 866 10 793 301 993 57 286 - 301 993 191 045 301 993 2 464 1 411 788 1 411 788 - 1 411 788 210 359 - 1 155 211 - 1 411 788 378 500 378 500 290 000 378 500 - 378 500 378 500 378 500 378 500 744 974 744 974 595 200 744 974 12 000 744 974 744 974 744 974 744 974 2 431 983 2 431 983 - 2 431 983 - 2 431 983 2 431 983 2 431 983 2 431 983 - - 8 000 2 431 983 442 723 442 723 418 173 19 615 - 172 204 416 022 273 230 442 652 - 1 411 788 378 500 744 974 2 431 983 441 688 - 1 900 2 500 2 431 983 5 414 1997 DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2 395 352 2 395 352 - 367 370 367 370 - 2 395 352 356 691 905 000 905 000 819 457 882 093 - 857 009 820 911 389 100 905 000 - 905 000 - 314 506 314 506 47 265 314 474 7 499 314 506 39 055 61 284 314 506 192 349 314 506 1 994 1 330 355 1 330 355 - 177 689 5 115 - 1 296 133 - 1 330 355 - 1 330 355 - 401 015 401 015 245 000 390 000 - 401 015 401 015 401 015 401 015 37 000 401 015 1 900 743 813 743 813 595 050 669 432 12 000 743 813 743 813 743 813 743 813 - 2 395 352 2 395 352 2 395 352 2 395 352 8 000 2 395 352 743 813 2 395 352 2 500 1 000 - 171 411 367 370 74 480 367 370 367 370 367 370 7 377 MS + NO Variable a b b (opt) c d (opt) e f g h i j k MS + NO Variable B a b b (opt) c d (opt) e f g h i j k - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 477 196 477 196 430 000 477 196 20 000 477 196 477 196 477 196 477 196 477 196 477 196 477 196 491 347 491 347 420 000 491 347 20 000 493 147 493 147 493 147 493 147 493 147 493 147 493 147 2 731 616 2 731 616 3 726 327 3 726 327 110 095 110 095 5 247 999 5 247 999 - 3 726 327 55 123 1 867 536 2 194 338 3 726 327 110 095 2 194 338 1 879 000 1 879 000 - 1 879 000 469 750 1 879 000 - - 1 879 000 - 484 340 484 340 362 863 440 024 - - 484 340 251 101 484 340 484 340 173 879 - 2 731 616 3 726 327 2 731 616 2 731 616 3 726 327 - 2 731 616 3 726 327 2 731 616 3 726 327 1 879 000 - 2 731 616 3 726 327 - 484 340 2 600 000 7 600 - 110 095 110 095 110 095 110 095 110 095 110 095 110 094 - 5 247 999 5 247 999 - 5 247 999 5 247 999 5 247 999 - 50 MS + NO Variable a b b (opt) c d (opt) e f g h i j k a b b (optional) c d (optional) e f g h i j k LOCAL UNIT – Variables of the Regulation (%) 1998/1997 B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO - - - - - - - - - - - - 97,12 97,12 102,38 97,12 100,00 96,77 96,77 96,77 96,77 96,77 96,77 96,77 121,02 121,02 - 121,02 111,12 121,02 - - 121,02 - 121,02 100,00 100,00 100,00 100,00 - - 100,00 100,00 100,00 100,00 - - 100,00 101,21 101,21 - 105,04 108,78 101,21 101,21 101,21 101,21 101,21 101,21 101,15 112,58 112,58 112,58 112,58 - 112,58 112,58 - 112,58 112,58 112,58 100,00 105,58 105,58 117,92 105,58 - 105,58 105,58 105,58 105,58 105,58 105,58 105,58 87,82 87,82 105,99 210,03 - 87,82 87,82 - 87,82 87,82 87,82 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 97,91 97,91 97,16 97,97 96,02 96,02 154,18 106,12 106,12 94,39 94,39 - 118,37 93,76 794,53 97,05 - 143,93 4112,59 99,48 98,48 - 97,91 - 97,91 96,02 146,68 - 96,02 99,32 96,02 - 89,13 - 106,12 - 106,12 - 94,39 94,39 94,39 94,39 - - - 123,57 - 100,00 100,16 100,16 100,03 111,28 100,00 100,16 100,16 100,16 100,16 100,00 100,16 100,00 101,53 101,53 - 101,53 - 101,53 101,53 101,53 101,53 101,53 101,53 101,53 120,51 120,51 - 5,50 - 100,46 113,24 366,85 120,49 - 120,23 73,39 - - - - - - - - - - - - identity number name, address including postcode telephone, electronic mail, fax numbers and telex address activity code at the four digit (class) level of NACE Rev1 secondary activities, if any, at the four digit level size of labour force date of commencement of the activities date of final cessation of activities geographical location code (territorial units) reference to associated registers in which the local unit appears and which contain information which can be used for statistical purposes identity number in the register of the enterprise on which the local unit is dependent activity carried out in the local unit constituting an ancillary activity of the enterprise on which it depends (Yes/No) 51 Table 4: Sources for business registers by type of statistical unit SOURCES Legal Unit MS + NO Source Tax registers Social security registers Trade registers Exclusive registers surveys Feedback from other surveys Other sources Other sources: B Y Y N Y N Y DK Y N N N N Y D N N N N N N EL Y N N Y Y N E Y Y N Y Y N F - - Y Y Y Y IRL N N N N N N I Y Y Y N N Y L Y N N Y N Y NL N Y Y Y N N A N N Y Y Y Y English translation P Y N Y Y Y Y FIN Y Y Y Y N N S Y N N Y Y Y 1998 UK NO Tot " Y " Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y 11 7 7 12 8 10 - Fichier "comptes annuels" de la Centrale des Bilans de la BNB B DK - Feed-back from customers and sections in Statistics Denmark producing business statistics D - Gewerbeanzeigen bei der Gemeindeverwaltung - les CFE( Centre de Formalités des Entreprises) F - Répertoire des unités contrôlés majoritairement par l'Etat, F - Enquêtes annuelles d'entreprises, F - Istituto Nazionale sulla assicurazione sugli infortuni sul lavoro I - Banca d'Italia I L - Service Répertoire national des personnes physiques et morales A - Mitgliederdatei der wirtschafstkammer Osterreich P P FIN - files from National Board of Customs S S S UK - Companies House Register UK - Dun and Bradstreet (World-dbase) - also used for enterprise group N - Business licences files N - Register of legal units - Statistics Sweden. - PRV, direct information from Swedish Patent and Registration office and annual accounts - SVAAB (subsidiary to the Swedish Post) which handles change in mailing addresses. - Quadros de Pessoal - Ministério do Trabalho e Solidariedade - Banco de Portugal "Current accounts" file of the BNB financial reporting centre Job announcements at the Council administration The CFEs (Centres for Company Compliance) Register of units under majority State control INAIL (National Insurance Institute against Accidents at work) Bank of Italy National Registry of Persons and Companies Austrian Chamber of Commerce membership file Personnel Registry - Ministry of Labour and Solidarity Bank of Portugal Files from National Board of Customs Enterprise MS + NO Source Tax registers Social security registers Trade registers Exclusive registers surveys Feedback from other surveys Other sources B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO Tot " Y " Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y N N N N Y Y Y N Y Y Y N Y Y N Y Y N Y Y Y Y N Y Y N Y Y Y Y N N N Y Y N N N N N Y N N Y Y Y Y N N N Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y Y N N N N N N N N N N N Y Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y N Y Y Y 9 7 7 12 13 9 1998 - Enquêtes annuelles d'entreprises, - Fichier "comptes annuels" de la Centrale des Bilans de la BNB Other sources: B DK - Feed-back from customers and sections in Statistics Denmark producing business statistics D - Gewerbeanzeigen bei der Gemeindeverwaltung F IRL - Public utility listing IRL - Local Authority and Governemt listings (1997 onwards) L A - Mitgliederdatei der wirtschafstkammer Osterreich P P S N - Business licences files N - Register of legal units - Quadros de Pessoal - Ministério do Trabalho e Solidariedade - Banco de Portugal - PRV, direct information from Swedish Patent and Registration office and annual accounts. - Enquêtes structure et activité Local Unit MS + NO Source Tax registers Social security registers Trade registers Exclusive registers surveys Feedback from other surveys Other sources B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK NO Tot " Y " N N N N N N Y N N Y Y Y N N N N Y Y Y N N Y Y N Y Y N Y Y N Y Y N Y N Y N N Y Y Y Y N N Y Y Y Y N N N N Y N N Y Y N N N N N N Y N N N N N Y Y Y N N N Y N N Y N N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y N Y Y Y 7 5 4 12 11 8 1998 Other sources: DK - Feed-back from customers and sections in Statistics Denmark producing business statistics D - Gewerbeanzeigen bei der Gemeindeverwaltung - les CFE( Centre de Formalités des Entreprises) F F - Enquêtes annuelles d'entreprises, IRL - Public utility listing IRL - Local Authority and Governemt listings (1997 onwards) I L P S S N - Business licences files N - Register of legal units - Ente Nazionale per l'energia elettrica - Enquêtes structure et activité - Quadros de Pessoal - Ministério do Trabalho e Solidariedade - Statistics Sweden. - SVAAB (subsidiary to the Swedish Post) which handles change in mailing addresses. 52 ANNEX 2 Overview of financial support to Member States, 1993-1997 Country Austria Belgium Germany Greece Spain Ireland Italy Luxembourg Netherlands Portugal Finland United Kingdom EU total Year 1997 1993 1994 total 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 total 1995 total 1993 1994 1995 total 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 total 1993 1994 1995 1996 total 1996 total 1997 total 1996 1997 total 1996 1997 total 1996 1997 total 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 Total Amount (ECU) Main area of support coverage and quality (matching of sources) coverage and quality (matching of sources) classifications; quality (variables) coverage coverage system development and coverage coverage coverage coverage coverage coverage system development system development system development system development system development 31,531 30,000 30,000 60,000 90,000 100,000 150,000 150,000 75,000 565,000 188,172 188,172 260,000 240,000 100,000 600,000 100,000 100,000 150,000 65,400 23,400 438,800 120,000 130,000 238,000 150,000 methods and analysis 638,000 25,000 25,000 30,000 30,000 75,000 30. 000 105,000 34,600 31,800 66,400 50,000 40,000 90,000 600,000 600,000 826,172 550,000 261,731 2,837,903 coverage quality survey coverage coverage coverage quality (source analysis) coverage quality (large enterprises) coverage coverage standards and system development 53