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Document 52014DC0122
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the quality of fiscal data reported by Member States in 2013
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the quality of fiscal data reported by Member States in 2013
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the quality of fiscal data reported by Member States in 2013
/* COM/2014/0122 final */
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the quality of fiscal data reported by Member States in 2013 /* COM/2014/0122 final */
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the quality of fiscal data reported by
Member States in 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1............ Background. 3 2............ Main findings on the 2013 reporting of
government deficit and debt levels. 3 2.1......... Timeliness, reliability and completeness. 3 2.1.1...... Timeliness. 3 2.1.2...... Reliability. 4 2.1.3...... Completeness of tables and supporting
information. 4 2.1.4...... Supplementary tables relating to the
financial crisis. 5 2.1.5...... Questionnaire on intergovernmental lending. 6 2.2......... Compliance with accounting rules and
consistency of statistical data. 6 2.2.1...... Exchange of information and clarifications. 6 2.2.2...... Dialogue and methodological visits. 7 2.2.3...... Specific advice by Eurostat 7 2.2.4...... Recent methodological issues. 8 2.2.5...... Consistency with underlying government
accounts. 9 2.3......... Publication. 9 2.3.1...... Publication of headline figures and detailed
reporting tables. 9 2.3.2...... Reservations on the quality of data. 10 2.3.3...... Amendments to the reported data. 10 2.3.4...... Publication of metadata (inventories) 11 3............ Conclusions. 11 1. Background Article 8(3) of Council Regulation (EC) No
479/2009 (as amended by Regulation (EC) No 679/2010), on the application of the
Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure (EDP) annexed to the Treaty establishing
the European Community[1]
requires the Commission (Eurostat) (hereinafter referred to as “Eurostat”) to
report regularly to the European Parliament and to the Council on the quality
of the actual data reported by Member States. This annual report provides an
overall assessment of timeliness, reliability, completeness, compliance with
accounting rules and consistency of the data. The previous report (on the 2012
notifications) was adopted by the Commission on 20 February 2013[2]. Eurostat regularly assesses the quality of the
actual data reported by Member States and of the underlying general government
sector accounts compiled in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96
of 25 June 1996 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the
Community (ESA95)[3].
This work concentrates on the factors that explain the general government
deficit/surplus and the change in the general government debt. Member States
send this information to Eurostat twice per year. This also includes supplementary
information such as the “Questionnaire related to the EDP notification tables”,
the “Supplementary table for the financial crisis” and bilateral clarifications
by Member States. Eurostat also maintains a permanent dialogue with Member
States by undertaking regular EDP dialogue visits. This report is based on the main findings and
results of the EDP reporting in 2013, focusing on the latest exercise of
October 2013. Where appropriate, comparisons are made with the April 2013
reporting, as well as with the reporting in 2012. 2. Main findings on the 2013 reporting of government
deficit and debt levels 2.1. Timeliness, reliability and completeness 2.1.1. Timeliness Member States are required to report their
actual and planned EDP data to Eurostat twice per year, before 1 April and 1
October[4].
During 2013, the EDP reporting covered the years 2009 to 2013. The figures for
2013 are those planned by the national authorities, while the 2009 to 2012
figures are actual data (this means final, semi-finalised, provisional or
estimated figures). In accordance with Article 8(1) of Regulation (EC) No
479/2009, Eurostat assesses the actual data reported by Member States, but not planned data. . Compliance with the reporting deadlines is
usually very good. In 2013, all Member States reported their actual data before
the legal deadline in both EDP notifications. Croatia reported for the first
time in October 2013. As concerns planned data, in the October 2013 reporting
exercise, some countries delivered planned data for the year 2013 later. 2.1.2. Reliability Revisions between the April 2013 and the
October 2013 notifications were mainly due to source data updates and
methodological changes, such as re-classification of some transactions. As
usual, debt was revised less than deficit between April and October. The largest revisions in the deficit took place
in Greece and Ireland. In Greece, the deficit was revised downwards between the
April and October 2013 EDP notifications for the year 2012 due to the
availability of audited data on the amounts recoverable by the Hellenic
Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) in bank resolution cases. In Ireland, the decrease in the deficit for the year 2009 was mainly due to the inclusion of
more detailed balance-sheet data relating to revenue/expenditure of government
departments. The increase in the Irish deficit for the year 2012 was due to the
changed time of recording of a UMTS licence sale and due to sources data
updates for taxes, revenue/expenditure of government departments and the national
healthcare provider. As for the debt, the largest revisions between
April and October were observed in the Czech Republic, Denmark and Portugal. In the Czech Republic, the reported debt for the years 2009-2012 increased due
to a correction in the valuation of hedged debt instruments denominated in
foreign currency. In Denmark, the debt was revised downwards for the year 2012
due to updated source data for central and local government units and social
security funds. In Portugal, the increase in the debt was due to the
reclassification of one unit in the general government sector in the region of Madeira and due to the reclassification as loans of some advance payments made by a public
corporation to the State. Between April and October, there were noticeable
revisions in GDP for Estonia for the years 2009, 2011 and 2012 and for Luxembourg for the years 2009-2012. As regards revisions undertaken within the
notification period, most Member States revised their reporting after the first
submission in October 2013. 30 revised submissions were sent by 18 countries,
while in April 2013, 46 revised submissions were sent by 24 countries. Member
States sent most of the revised submissions in response to comments, technical
questions or remarks by Eurostat, and they concerned completeness of missing
data, corrections of technical errors, internal inconsistencies, adjustments
provided in the notification tables or the related questionnaire or
inappropriate recording within tables. In 2013, revised submissions within the
notification period did not change substantially the deficit and debt levels
originally reported by Member States, except in the October reporting, where
the deficit figures were revised by more than +0.2 percentage points (pp) of
GDP during the notification period for Croatia and Ireland. 2.1.3. Completeness of tables and supporting information Completion of the reporting tables is a legal
obligation and is essential for a proper assessment by Eurostat of the quality
of the data. Article 8(2) of Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 as amended,
specifies that Member States must provide Eurostat with the relevant
statistical information, which“(…) in particular (…) means: (a) data from national accounts; (b) inventories; (c) EDP notification tables; (d) additional questionnaires and
clarification related to the notifications.” There are four main EDP notification tables.
The completion of EDP tables 1 to 3 is a legal obligation, whereas the
reporting of EDP Table 4 was agreed by Member States[5]. tables 1 and 2A (central
government) cover the years 2009 to 2013, whilst the other tables cover the
years 2009 to 2012[6]. Most Member States completed all EDP
notification tables[7].
In the October 2013 reporting, for EDP tables 2, all Member States provided
details on the link between the working balance and the EDP surplus/deficit for
all the sub-sectors. In the United Kingdom, the working balance is deemed to be
on an ESA95 basis. Accordingly, very few adjustments to transform the working
balance into the deficit/surplus according to the ESA are reported. Some other
countries also report only a limited number of transition items. For EDP Table 3, not all Member States provided
all the breakdowns. In particular, the details requested for the items 'loans'
and 'equity' were not always reported. In addition, a few countries have a
practice of reporting zero statistical discrepancy, which would normally imply
that the discrepancy is incorrectly included under 'other accounts receivable
/payable'. Despite improvements achieved in some Member
States, the overall coverage of the EDP Table 4 remains inadequate in many
cases. In particular, several countries are not providing complete data for the
stock of liabilities of trade credits and advances. The completeness of EDP tables can still be
improved. However, the remaining issues are expected to have little impact on
data quality. All Member States submitted replies to the
“Questionnaire relating to the notification tables”[8]. Although the coverage
and quality of answers continued to improve compared to past years, progress is
still necessary, as some countries did not report all the details requested in
the questionnaire. This applies notably to data on central government claims
and debt cancellations, the breakdown of other accounts receivable/payable, the
recording of government guarantees (mainly the coverage of the local government
subsector) and the data on capital injections. 2.1.4. Supplementary tables relating to the financial crisis Eurostat has been collecting a set of data on
the financial crisis in a supplementary table since 15 July 2009. Part 1
of the supplementary table relates to data on transactions which are recorded
in the revenue/expenditure account of government and have an actual impact on
the EDP deficit/surplus. Part 2 of the supplementary table relates to data
on stocks of financial assets and liabilities arising from the support for
financial institutions. It distinguishes between activities which have actually
contributed to government liabilities (included in government debt) and
activities which may potentially contribute to government liabilities in the
future, but are for now considered as contingent on future events (not included
in government debt). These tables show government interventions directly related
to the support of financial institutions. Support measures for non-financial
institutions or general economic support measures are not included. The data collected in 2013 referred to the
period 2007 to 2012. All but eight Member States (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) reported various
interventions undertaken by government in the context of the financial crisis
during the 2007-2012 period. Eurostat published a note alongside its EDP Press
Releases analysing these data[9].
2.1.5. Questionnaire on intergovernmental lending Member States also provide data on bilateral
intergovernmental lending usually in the context of programmes. The EDP News
Release includes this information as well as information on intergovernmental
lending in the context of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF),
which allows the analysis of the loans that Member States grant for support
operations to other Member States (in 2012, mainly to Greece, Ireland and
Portugal). Such bilateral intergovernmental lending and
intergovernmental lending in the context of the EFSF increased substantially in
the context of the financial crisis. It is subtracted when calculating the EU28
and euro area aggregates for the Maastricht government debt[10], since both are shown
on a consolidated basis. Due to this consolidation, the EU28 and euro area
aggregates are not equal to the arithmetical sum of Member States’ debt (i.e.
the above mentioned intergovernmental lending between governments is not included,
to avoid double-counting). The figures reported for the years 2011 and
2012 for Member States thus include the amounts in relation to the EFSF. 2.2. Compliance with accounting rules and consistency of
statistical data 2.2.1. Exchange of information and clarifications During the notification period between the
reporting deadline of 1 October and the publication of the data on 21 October
2013, Eurostat contacted the national statistical authorities in every Member State to request further information and to clarify the application of the
accounting rules on specific transactions. This process involved several rounds
of correspondence between Eurostat and the national authorities. A first round
of requests for clarification was sent to all countries before 4 October. A
second round of requests was sent to 23 countries and a third round to eleven
countries. A fourth round of clarification was sent to four Member States. For
some countries, Eurostat asked for revised notification tables[11]. 2.2.2. Dialogue and methodological visits Regulation (EC) No 479/2009, as amended, makes
provision for dialogue and methodological visits. Dialogue visits, including
the so-called ‘upstream dialogue visits’[12],
to Member States are conducted regularly with the aim of reviewing reported
data, examining methodological issues, discussing statistical sources and
assessing compliance with the relevant accounting rules, for example on the
delimitation of general government, the time of recording and the
classification of government transactions and liabilities. In case a specific important issue is raised
with the Member State, which cannot be resolved otherwise than by a physical
meeting with the concerned authorities, an ad-hoc visit in the Member State is organized in a shortened procedure. During the year 2013, Eurostat carried out the
following EDP dialogue visits: Spain (24-25 January), the United Kingdom (24-25
January), Italy (4-5 February), Estonia (27-28 February), Poland (6-8 March,
upstream dialogue visit), Greece (20-21 March), Luxembourg (15 May), Sweden
(4-5 June), Germany (18-21 June and 22-25 October, upstream dialogue visits),
Romania (19-20 June), Poland (8-9 July), Romania (28-30 August, upstream
dialogue visit - follow up), Slovenia (12-13 September), Greece (24-25
September), Finland (18-19 November), the Netherlands (26 November), Slovenia
(27-29 November, upstream dialogue visit) and Slovakia (28-29 November).
Furthermore, ad-hoc visits were undertaken in 2013 to Croatia on 14-15 March and to Spain on 20-21 March and on 26-27 September. In 2013, Eurostat carried
out a pre-euro accession visit to Latvia on 8-9 April and a pre-accession visit
to Croatia on 26-27 June. Recurring issues discussed during the visits
included the classification of units within or outside the general government
sector (e.g. concerning public transport, public corporations, television and
radio, hospitals and universities), capital injections, Public-Private
Partnerships, grants from the EU budget, the recording of guarantees, and
overall quality management of upstream data flows. The final findings of each
dialogue visit, including a description of the action points agreed, and its
state of play, are sent to the Economic and Financial Committee and published
on the website of Eurostat. The implementation of these action points leads to
improvements in data quality over time. Methodological visits are undertaken only where
Eurostat has identified significant risks or problems with respect to the
quality of the data, especially relating to the methods, concepts or
classifications used. No such methodological visits were carried out during
2013. 2.2.3. Specific advice by Eurostat Member States regularly consult Eurostat to
clarify various national accounting issues in relation to future or past
operations. Eurostat provides advice in accordance with the existing
guidelines. To comply with the transparency provision in Regulation (EC) No
479/2009, as amended, Eurostat publishes its advice[13], unless the Member State concerned raises an objection. Eurostat published the following advice in
2013: the accounting treatment of the Bank of England Asset Purchase Facility
Fund (BEAPFF) and flows between the Bank of England and HM Treasury in the
United Kingdom, the statistical treatment of a concession sale before
privatisation in Portugal, the recapitalisation of the Dexia Group in Belgium,
the classification of the Sociedad de activos de Restructuracion (SAREB) in
Spain, the recording of financial corrections related to EU funds in accordance
with Regulation 1083/2006 art 100(1) in Romania, the statistical treatment of
the mobile phone spectrum 15 years concession in Hungary, the treatment of the
LAK Invest Real estate transaction in the Flemish Region in Belgium, the
recording of IABF Guarantee Fee in the Netherlands, the treatment of tax
refunds, penalty payments and interim payments in the Her Majesty's Revenue and
Customs (HMRC) tax case in the United Kingdom, the recording of cancellation of
payables related to penalties and fines to be paid by CFR Cai Ferate to private
energy suppliers in Romania and the statistical classification of MyCSP Ltd. in
the United Kingdom. 2.2.4. Recent methodological issues As usual, Eurostat assessed the proper application
of the ESA95 rules, in particular in view of its latest decisions in accordance
with Article 10(2) of Regulation (EC) No 479/2009. These decisions are included
in the Manual on Government Deficit and Debt (MGDD), the latest version of
which was published in February 2013[14].
The new version includes three new chapters, which were the subject of
consultations of the Committee of Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payment
Statistics (CMFB): European entities related to the Euro Area sovereign debt
crisis (EFSF and ESM), low interest loans and sale of government low interest
loans to third parties and emission trading permits. Minor clarifications were
also added in other chapters of the MGDD. After the last (fourth) meeting in July 2013 of
the Task Force devoted to the “adaptation” of the current MGDD to the new ESA
2010, a draft MGDD adapted to ESA 2010 methodology, was finalised and provided
to Member States in August 2013. In January 2013, Eurostat published its
decision on “The statistical recording of low interest rate loans”[15] and also the decision
on the “Statistical classification of the European Stability Mechanism”[16], after the final
features of the ESM were known. In March 2013, Eurostat published its decision
on the “Clarification of the criteria for the recording of government
capital injections into banks”[17],
following a need for a further clarification on the criteria related to the
classification of capital injections into banks, notably in the case of
entities exiting the market. In July 2013, Eurostat published its decision
on the introduction of the “Supplement on contingent liabilities and
potential obligations to the EDP related questionnaire”[18]. The new questionnaire
includes tables on guarantees, off-balance sheet Public Private Partnerships
(PPPs) and non-performing loans and was introduced in the context of Council
Directive 2011/85/EU of 8 November 2011 on requirements for budgetary
frameworks of the Member States[19].
The first data will be released by Eurostat in January 2015, together with the
data on total liabilities of government controlled units classified outside
general government. Following an inconclusive CMFB consultation on
the issue, in November 2013, Eurostat published its decision on the recording
of “Unbalanced transfers of pension obligations to the government under ESA
2010”. Since January 2013, Eurostat has posted on its
website the “Inventory of EDP processes”. The aim of the document is to
describe the procedures and principles applied in the process of verification
of the EDP data by Eurostat. 2.2.5. Consistency
with underlying government accounts The notification deadlines of 1 April and 1
October set by Regulation (EC) No 479/2009, as amended, were introduced in
order to ensure consistency with the underlying annual and quarterly government
sector accounts, as reported to Eurostat in various ESA95 transmission tables.
Eurostat systematically analyses the consistency of the EDP notifications with
the underlying government sector accounts. For example, total government
expenditure and revenue should be consistent with the reported deficit figure. The overall consistency of EDP data with the
reported ESA95 government accounts has improved in recent years, though it is
still better for non-financial than for financial data. In the October 2013
reporting, consistency between EDP figures and ESA tables 2 and 25 (at both
annual and quarterly level) was complete for the non-financial data and
quarterly government debt (ESA Table 28). However, efforts by Member States are
still needed in order to ensure the consistency between EDP and ESA tables as
regards financial data. Noticeable inconsistencies between the EDP data and the
quarterly financial accounts appeared in the October 2013 reporting for six Member States, and inconsistencies between EDP data and ESA annual financial accounts in
the stock of liabilities of trade credits and advances existed for more than
one third of the Member States. 2.3. Publication 2.3.1. Publication of headline figures and detailed reporting
tables Article 14(1) of Regulation (EC)
No 479/2009 as amended, states: “The Commission (Eurostat) shall provide
the actual government deficit and debt data for the application of the Protocol
on the excessive deficit procedure, within three weeks after the reporting
deadlines […]. That provision of data shall be effected through publication.” The government deficit and debt data were
published on 22 April[20]
and 21 October[21]
2013 together with all the reporting tables, as notified by the Member States.
Since February 2012, Eurostat regularly publishes a press release on quarterly Maastricht debt, at approximately T+115 days. Since February 2012, Eurostat publishes a
‘Statistics in Focus’ on quarterly general government deficit. Eurostat also publishes on its website the
annual and quarterly government finance statistics that underpin the EDP data,
together with a note on the stock-flow adjustment[22]. Furthermore, Eurostat
publishes the information provided by Member States concerning government
interventions in the context of the financial crisis[23] and the data on
intergovernmental lending. Eurostat also publishes a note on the stock of
liabilities of trade credits and advances[24]. In accordance with Regulation (EC)
No 479/2009 as amended, Member States shall make public their actual data
on deficit and debt. All Member States publish deficit and debt figures at
national level. Most Member States have reported to Eurostat a practice of
publishing all their reporting tables. Five Member States publish only some of
the reporting tables and one Member State, France, does not publish EDP tables
at national level. 2.3.2. Reservations on the quality of data Eurostat expressed a reservation on the data
reported in the October 2013 EDP notification in one Member State. Austria: Eurostat is expressing a reservation on the quality of the data
reported by Austria, due to uncertainties on the statistical impact of the
conclusions of the Federal Audit Office's report on the Land Salzburg,
published on 9 October 2013. The report revealed deficiencies with regard to
financial management and to completeness of the public accounts of the Land
Salzburg. The statistical implications of the audit for EDP data are being
investigated by Statistics Austria in collaboration with Eurostat, in order to
clarify the precise impacts on 2012 and also on preceding years. It is possible
that this will lead to an upward revision of government debt of up to half a per
cent of GDP, with more minor revisions to the government deficit, based on the
information available at this point. 2.3.3. Amendments to the reported data Eurostat did not amend the data reported by
Member States in the April and October 2013 EDP notifications. 2.3.4. Publication of metadata (inventories[25]) Regulation (EC) No 479/2009, as amended,
specifies that the EDP inventories are among the statistical information to be
provided by Member States to allow Eurostat to check compliance with ESA95
rules. Furthermore, it stipulates that national publication of these
inventories is mandatory. Eurostat has published the inventories of all Member
States, with the exception of Croatia which joined the EU on 1 July 2013.
Except for Luxembourg and the Netherlands, all Member States reported that they
have published their EDP inventories nationally. In 2012, Eurostat introduced a new EDP
inventory format which involved structural changes and required more detailed
information (for example, with respect to compilation procedures, delimitation
of the general government sector, specific transactions, quality management,
and upstream data sources etc.). The new EDP inventories will be published by
Eurostat by the end of 2013. 3. Conclusions Eurostat acknowledges overall improvements in
the consistency and completeness of the reported data. Nevertheless, some
issues persist, and Member States should step up efforts in order to improve
the coverage and quality of the trade credits reported and the completeness of
data on the sub-national government levels. In particular, this is the case of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Greece, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria and the United Kingdom. In 2013, Eurostat expressed a reservation on
the data reported in the October 2013 EDP notification for Austria. Overall, Eurostat concludes that the progress
on the quality of the reporting of fiscal data continued in 2013. In general,
Member States have provided better information, both in EDP notification tables
and in other relevant statistical returns. [1] OJ
L 145, 10.6.2009, p. 1. [2] COM(2013) 88 final. [3] OJ
L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1. [4] Article
3 (1) and (3) of Regulation (EC) No 479/2009, as amended. [5] See
the statements to the Council minutes of 22 November 1993: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/gfs/images/e/e7/Statements_9817.en93.pdf
[6] Provision
of planned data in EDP tables other than tables 1 and 2A is not explicitly
requested in Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2009, as amended. [7] The
EDP notification tables reported by Member States can be found on Eurostat’s
website. See: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_statistics/excessive_deficit/edp_notification_tables
[8] This
questionnaire comprises thirteen sections requesting quantitative and sometimes
qualitative information in several areas, such as transactions in taxes and
social contributions and with the EU, acquisition of military equipment,
government guarantees, debt cancellations, capital injections made by
government into public corporations, Public-Private Partnerships, etc. [9] See:
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_statistics/documents/Background_note_fin_crisis_Oct_2013_final.pdf
[10] According to the Protocol on the excessive deficit
procedure annexed to the EC Treaty, government debt is the consolidated gross
debt of the whole general government sector outstanding at the end of the year
(at nominal value). According to Regulation 479/2009, as amended, it includes
the following categories: currency and deposits (AF.2), securities other than
shares (AF.3) excluding financial derivatives (AF.34), and loans (AF.4). [11] See section 2.1. [12] While the standard dialogue visits are designed to
review actual data and sources, to examine methodological issues and to assess
compliance with the accounting rules, the aim of upstream visits is to review
the quality of primary public accounting data sources and the reporting
processes. [13] See: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_statistics/methodology/advice_member_states [14] See: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/product_details/publication?p_product_code=KS-RA-13-001
[15] See: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_statistics/documents/ESTAT-decision-low_inter_rate_loans-annex_2013-01-16.pdf
[16] See: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_statistics/documents/Eurostat_Decision_on_ESM.pdf
[17] See: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_statistics/documents/ESTAT-decision-Criteria_for_classif_of_gov_capital_injec.pdf
[18] See: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_statistics/documents/ESTAT_decision-Suppl_on_conting_liab_EDP_Q.pdf
[19] OJ L 306, 23.11.2011, p. 41. [20] See:http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/2-22042013-AP/EN/2-22042013-AP-EN.PDF
[21] See:http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/2-21102013-AP/EN/2-21102013-AP-EN.PDF
[22] See: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/product_details/publication?p_product_code=STOCK_FLOW_2013_OCT
[23] See: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_statistics/documents/Background_note_fin_crisis_Oct_2013_final.pdf
[24] See: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_statistics/documents/Note_on_AF.71L-Oct_2013.pdf
[25] Inventories of the methods, procedures and sources used
to compile actual deficit and debt data and the underlying government accounts.