92002E3637

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3637/02

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(17 December 2002)

Subject: Economic integration

Following the Commission's answer to question E-1816/02(1), will the Commission please note that the question referred to the stock (not the flow) of foreign direct investment in each Member State, and will the Commission please now answer the question posed:

Will the Commission give figures for the most recent available year, for five years previously and for ten years previously, for the stock of quoted equities held by non-residents in each Member State of the Union as a percentage of that Member State's GDP, and will it in addition break down that figure into non-resident holdings of equities held by Member State residents and by non-Member State residents?

(1) OJ C 301 E, 5.12.2002, p. 233.

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(15 January 2003)

In the International Investment Position statistics, equity stocks held by non-residents are classified as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) stocks (if the non-resident holds at least 10 % of the equity capital of the enterprise) or as portfolio investment stocks if this is not the case. Both types of stocks refer to quoted and non-quoted shares. Data for Union equity stocks held by non-residents are available only for the FDI part without distinction between quoted and non-quoted shares. They are a subset of total FDI inward stocks, which also include stocks of FDI debt liabilities vis-à-vis non-resident parties.

All data available are given in the table sent directly to the Honourable Member and to the Parliament's secretariat. They are broken down by owner as required (intra-Union/extra-Union) and cover the period from end-1994 to end-2000. The same kind of data is also given at the level of individual Member States, in nearly all cases. Main exceptions are Belgium-Luxembourg and (as concerns the split between intra-Union/extra-Union) also Spain and Ireland. For other Member States, the time series are not complete and/or part of the distinction equity/total FDI is missing. Missing Member States are however counted in the Union aggregate, either on the basis of non-publishable information sent by the Member States concerned, or on the basis of Eurostat estimates made using all available information.