European business statistics

KEY POINTS

European business statistics cover:

• the structure, performance, economic research and development, innovation, and information and communication technology (ICT) activities of various statistical units, including e-commerce and global supply chains;
• the production and international trade in manufactured goods and services.

The European framework for statistical business registers is the authoritative source for deriving high-quality and harmonised statistical business register populations for the production of European business statistics. It comprises:

• national statistical business registers, covering all enterprises and their local units carrying out economic activities contributing to the gross domestic product;
• the EuroGroups Register, covering all enterprises and their legal units carrying out economic activities contributing to the gross domestic product that are part of a multinational group;
• the data exchanges between them.

National statistical authorities in EU Member States may use the following sources for producing business statistics and setting up national statistical business registers:

• surveys;
• administrative records, including information from tax and customs authorities, such as annual financial statements;
• exchanged microdata;
• other relevant data that are comparable and meet the specific quality requirements.

European business statistics cover the following areas:

• short-term data;
• country-level data;
• regional data;
• international data.

Each area must include one or more key topics, for example business population, outputs and performance, ICT usage and e-commerce, research and development inputs, global value chains and international trade in goods and services. Annex I to the regulation describes the topics in detail.

Annex II sets out the frequency (monthly, quarterly, annually or over several years), the reference period and the statistical unit for each topic.

Member States:

• establish one or more national statistical business registers, which are the basis for:
  • preparing and coordinating surveys,
  • information for the statistical analysis of the business population and its demography,
  • making use of administrative data,
  • identifying and constructing statistical units;
• ensure the quality of the European business statistics, the national statistical business registers and the EuroGroups Register;
• send data, along with quality and metadata reports, to the European Commission (Eurostat).

Specific rules apply to the exchange between Eurostat, national statistical authorities, national central banks and the European Central Bank of confidential data on multinational groups and internal EU trade in goods, provided this is exclusively for statistical purposes.

Eurostat:

• sets up the EuroGroups Register of multinational enterprise groups;
• assesses the quality of the data it receives;
• provides annual quality and metadata reports related to the EuroGroups Register;
• may launch pilot studies that national authorities carry out voluntarily, where it identifies a need for new or improved data.

The Commission may adopt delegated and implementing acts to amend or supplement the legislation, provided these do not impose significant additional costs or burdens on national authorities or respondents.

Since some statistics sets are collected annually, in particular regarding the topic ‘ICT usage and e-commerce’, certain acts are adopted on a yearly basis to specify the data requirements for those sets:

• Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/2552, laying down the technical specifications of data requirements for the topic ‘Industrial production’ statistics establishing the industrial products classification breakdown (the ‘Prodcom list’);
• Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1310, laying down the technical specifications of data requirements and the deadlines for submission of annual metadata and quality reports for the topic ICT usage and e-commerce for the reference year 2026;
• Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1092, laying down technical specifications of data requirements for the topic ‘Innovation’ pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152;
• Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/918, laying down technical specifications of data requirements for the topic ‘Global Value Chains’ pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152;
• Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1225 specifying the arrangements for the data exchanges pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152;
• Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1704 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 by further specifying the details for the statistical information to be provided by tax and customs authorities;
• Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1470 on the nomenclature of countries and territories for the European statistics on international trade in goods and on the geographical breakdown for other business statistics;
• Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 laying down specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics.

The EU may provide financial support to national statistical institutes and other authorities for various activities, such as developing methodologies of better quality or lower cost.

Repeal

The regulation repeals:

• from 1 January 2021, Regulations (EC) Nos 48/2004, 808/2004, 716/2007, 177/2008 and 295/2008 Regulation (EEC) No 3924/91, and Decision No 1608/2003/EC;
• from 1 January 2022, Regulations (EC) Nos 638/2004 and 471/2009;
• from 1 January 2024, Regulation (EC) No 1165/98.