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MICREF Database

MICREF logo

Database on Microeconomic Reforms






Tracking microeconomic reforms in the EU Member States is part of the activities of the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN). The database MICREF has been developed by DG ECFIN in collaboration with

  • the Joint Research Centre in Ispra, and
  • the Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry.

And with the support of the Member States through the Lisbon Methodology Working Group (LIME) attached to the Economic Policy Committee (EPC),

Aim and scope of MICREF

MICREF is a tool for monitoring and analysing the reform process. Its aim is to improve the surveillance of micro-economic reforms in the EU Member States in the context of the Lisbon agenda. MICREF provides a systematic record of the actual implementation of microeconomic reform measures. Only reform measures that are likely to have a significant economic impact and to raise potential growth are included in the database. The database also provides information on the design and scope of reforms undertaken.

MICREF is organised around three "broad policy domains":

  • open and competitive markets;
  • business environment and entrepreneurship; and
  • knowledge-based economy.


These domains correspond to seven "broad policy fields": market integration; competition policy; sector-specific regulation; start-up conditions; business environment; R&D and innovation; and education; each policy field is subdivided into "areas of policy intervention" , leading to "reform areas" as the lowest level in the database structure.

The database also includes a set of descriptive features of these reform measures to facilitate cross-country comparisons of priorities.

MICREF is particularly suitable to:

  • conduct country-specific studies and multilateral reform surveillance exercises for thematic reviews;
  • describe ex-post implemented reforms across countries and over time, including the interlinkages across reform areas in reform packages;
  • carry out (multi-annual) analyses of reform strategies and their interlinkages.


The database is used as a tool to provide information on microeconomic reforms to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) and the EPC and its working groups. It feeds into analytical reports and country studies produced by DG ECFIN, and provides inputs to the Commission's work in general.

>> Access the MICREF database multi-criteria search tool

Information available

MICREF covers microeconomic reform measures in the 27 EU Member States, implemented between 2004 and 2006 (EU-15: 2000-2006). In co-operation with the Member States the database is regularly updated. Information on reform measures of the years 2007 and 2008 will be available soon.

User guide

Description of the coverage and structure of the web-based MICREF database  

News

After conclusion of the development phase of MICREF, an expert meeting was held on 3 July 2009 with the objective to discuss the design and the exploitation of structural reform databases, as well as reform strategies and their interactions. The meeting presented different perspectives on data collection of structural reforms and its use and provided a number of interesting recommendations. The experts provided useful suggestions for the future development of MICREF. It became evident that researchers in economics and political sciences could add a qualitative dimension to the work to better understand the reform process. It is envisaged to launch soon a call for tender for a follow-up project.

Please find attached the agenda and the presentations of the meeting:

Agenda ; Presentation of MICREF (B.Moench) Presentation of the recent developments and the use of LABREF (A.Arpaia) ;  An Overview of Microeconomic Reforms using Preliminary Quantitative Indicators based on MICREF (D.Simonis) ; Ten years of Product Market Reform in OECD Countries: Insights from a Revised PMR Indicator (A.Woelfl) ; International spillovers of domestic labour and product market reforms (A.Lejour) ; Reforms and re-elections in OECD countries (P.van den Noord) .

Papers and publications

When quoting, please include the link to MICREF and the following reference:

European Commission, MICREF database

We are pleased to establish links to published and unpublished works that make use of the MICREF database. To benefit from this service, please send your work with relevant references to the MICREF mailbox.

Invitation to researchers

DG ECFIN invites researchers to conduct and publish academic work on the MICREF database, if required on the premises of the Commission. Please contact the MICREF mailbox for further information on the conditions to a full access of the database.