Back to EUR-Lex homepage

EUR-Lex Access to European Union law

Back to EUR-Lex homepage

This document is an excerpt from the EUR-Lex website

Use quotation marks to search for an "exact phrase". Append an asterisk (*) to a search term to find variations of it (transp*, 32019R*). Use a question mark (?) instead of a single character in your search term to find variations of it (ca?e finds case, cane, care).
Search tips
Need more search options? Use the Advanced search
You are here

Summaries of EU Legislation

Data on quarterly government debt

 

SUMMARY OF:

Regulation (EC) No 1222/2004 concerning the compilation and transmission of data on the quarterly government debt

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE REGULATION?

It requires EU countries to compile and send to the European Commission (Eurostat) data on their quarterly government debt*. Previously, the data covered only annual government debt.

KEY POINTS

EU countries must send to the European Commission data on their quarterly government debt at the latest within 3 months of the quarter ending.

The data cover the following general government liabilities:

  • currency and deposits,
  • securities, other than shares, excluding financial derivatives and loans.

Specific rules apply to liabilities, depending on whether they are index-linked or denominated in national or foreign currency.

The deadline for transmitting the first data, including back-dated data from 1 January 2000, was 31 December 2004.

Croatia was required to send data for the first quarter of 2012 by 1 October 2013 and back-dated data for 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2011 by the end of December 2015.

The Commission may give an EU country up to a year to send the first data if major changes are necessary to its national statistical system.

EU governments also provide the Commission with quarterly data on the following:

FROM WHEN DOES THE REGULATION APPLY?

It has applied since 22 July 2004.

BACKGROUND

Up-to-date quarterly government data are essential to accurately follow and analyse economic and monetary trends. General government debt is one of the Maastricht Treaty convergence criteria used to monitor a country’s economic situation.

Under the excessive deficit procedure of the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact, euro countries must demonstrate sound public finances and meet 2 criteria. One of these is that public debt must not exceed 60% of gross domestic product.

Council Regulation (EC) No 3605/93 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure defined government debt outstanding at the end of the year. It also set out the original timetable for providing the annual data to the Commission. It was repealed and replaced by Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2009. This required EU countries to report their actual and planned government deficits and debts to the Commission twice a year (by 1 April and 1 October).

KEY TERMS

Quarterly government debt: total gross debt at nominal value outstanding at the end of each quarter. The term ‘government’ refers to central, state and local government and social security funds.
Short-term public finance statistics: short-term statistics on general government resources and uses, covering:
  • on the resource side:
    • taxes on production and imports, and
    • actual social contributions;
  • on the use side:
    • social benefits other than social transfers in kind.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Council Regulation (EC) No 1222/2004 of 28 June 2004 concerning the compilation and transmission of data on the quarterly government debt (OJ L 233, 2.7.2004, pp. 1-2)

Successive amendments to Regulation (EC) No 1222/2004 have been incorporated into the original document. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.

RELATED DOCUMENTS

Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 of 25 May 2009 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure annexed to the Treaty establishing the European Community (Codified version) (OJ L 145, 10.6.2009, pp. 1-9)

See consolidated version.

Regulation (EC) No 501/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 March 2004 on quarterly financial accounts for general government (OJ L 81, 19.3.2004, pp. 1-5)

See consolidated version.

Regulation (EC) No 1221/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 June 2002 on quarterly non-financial accounts for general government (OJ L 179, 9.7.2002, pp. 1-5)

See consolidated version.

Commission Regulation (EC) No 264/2000 of 3 February 2000 on the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 with respect to short-term public finance statistics (OJ L 29, 4.2.2000, pp. 4-6)

last update 29.06.2018

Top