Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union

Unit G1: Coordination and infrastructure development

European Commission

DG Eurostat, Unit G.1

L- 2920 Luxembourg

Eurostat together with the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) of EU Member States and EFTA countries has set up and maintains a unique statistical business register called the EuroGroups Register (EGR) gathering information on Multinational enterprise group operating in Europe.

The EGR contains information about the control structures of Multinational enterprise group (s), their constituent Legal unit (s) and corresponding Enterprise (s), having at least one Legal unit located in the EU Member States or EFTA countries.

 The EGR provides to NSIs, National Central Banks (NCBs) and the European Central Bank (ECB) in the EU Member States and EFTA countries a statistical frame containing information on core variables for multinational enterprise (MNE) groups, enterprises and legal units, as:

• Identification variables,
• Demographic events,
• Control and ownership,
• Stratification Parameters, and
• Economic variables (e.g., employment, turnover, economic activity code, etc.).

The EGR statistical frame has the purpose to improve the consistency of national statistics on cross border phenomena and thus better measure the economic globalization in the European Union. The EGR offers to the statistical users a tool for coordinating their frame population, for deriving consistent statistical output with improved quality, for creating new statistical output and breakdowns. This is achieved by allowing microdata linking to many business statistics and provide insights in measuring global activities of European enterprises part of multinational enterprise groups.

The EGR is a statistical business register and can be used for statistical use only to users of the National statistical institutes, National central banks and the European Central Bank.

Classification systems and main code lists used in the EGR are as follows:

• Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE rev.2);
• European System of Accounts (ESA 2010);
• List of 2-digit country codes (ISO 3166-1);
• List of legal forms for legal units;
• Currency codes (ISO 4217).

The EGR frames cover units, which wholly or partially, exercise an economic activity comprising the offer of goods and services on a given market and contributing to the gross domestic product (GDP).

In addition, non-market services contributing to the GDP, as well as direct and indirect holdings of active legal units shall be regarded as economic activities for the purposes of business registers.

Economically inactive legal units are part of an enterprise only in combination with economically active legal units.

The main statistical concepts and definitions used for the final EGR frame are as follows:

EGR final frame

The EGR final frame is the annual output that reflects the state of the EuroGroups Register at the end of the yearly EGR cycle. It includes all the active units at the end of the reference year. Eurostat keeps that frame for at least 30 years for the purpose of analysis.

Active statistical unit, i.e., enterprises and enterprise groups

A statistical unit is considered to have been active during the reference period, if in said period it either realized positive net turnover or produced outputs or had employees or performed investments. (EBS GIA 2020/1197 – Annex IV. Enterprises with an end date prior to the 31/12/T are discarded from the EGR final frame.

Frame reference year

Reference dates of all variables in the final frame refers to the reference year t, reflecting the final picture of the EGR of the reference year t

Global group head

The global group head (GGH) of an enterprise group is the parent legal unit that is not controlled either directly or indirectly by any other legal unit. The subsidiary legal units of a subsidiary legal unit are considered to be subsidiaries of the parent legal unit.

Global decision centre

The global decision centre (GDC) of an enterprise group is the unit where the enterprise group level’s strategic decisions are taken. A group may have several decision-making centres, or several units dedicated to a particular internal function, for example accounting or human resources. However, the decisions about the group are made only in the GDC. The GDC may be the GGH or another legal unit under the GGH.

Ultimate Controlling Institutional unit

The ultimate controlling institutional unit (UCI) of a foreign affiliate means the institutional unit higher up a foreign affiliate’s chain of control that is not controlled by another institutional unit.

Number of employees and self-employed persons

The number of employees and self-employed persons is the sum of the Number of employees and Number of self-employed persons. 

The Number of employees is the average number of persons who were, at some time during the reference period, employees of the statistical unit.

The number of self-employed persons is the average number of persons who were at some time during the reference period the sole owners or joint owners of the statistical unit in which they work. Family workers and outworkers whose income is a function of the value of the outputs of the statistical unit are also included.

Please see Glossary:Number of employees and self-employed persons - EBS - Statistics Explained (europa.eu).

Net Turnover

For all activities except for NACE 64, 65 and some activities of NACE 66 net turnover consists of all income arising during the reference period in the course of ordinary activities of the statistical unit, and is presented net of all price reductions, discounts and rebates granted by it.

Income is defined as increases in economic benefits during the reference period in the form of inflows or enhancements of assets or decreases of liabilities that result in increases in equity, other than those relating to contributions from equity participants.

The inflows referred to are arising from contracts with customers and are realised through the satisfaction by the statistical unit of performance obligations as foreseen in said contracts. Usually, a performance obligation is represented by the sale (transfer) of goods or the rendering of services, however, the gross inflows can also contain revenues obtained as a yield on the use by others of the statistical unit’s assets.

Excluded from net turnover are:

• all taxes, duties or levies linked directly to revenue;
• any amounts collected on behalf of any principal, if the statistical unit is acting as an agent in its relationship with said principal;
• all income not arising in the course of ordinary activities of the statistical unit. Usually, these types of income are classified as “Other (operating) income”, “Financial income”, “Extra-ordinary income” or under a similar heading, depending on the respective set of generally accepted accounting standards used to prepare the financial statements.

Infra-annual statistics may not be able to take into account aspects such as annual price reductions, subsidies, rebates and discounts.

For the activities of NACE K6411, K6419 and K649 net turnover is defined as the value of output minus subsidies or government grants.

For the activities of NACE K642 and K643 net turnover can be approximated by the total operating costs if net turnover is not available in the financial statements.

For the activities of NACE K6511, K6512 and K652 net turnover is defined as Gross premiums earned.

For the activities of NACE K653 the net turnover is defined as total pension contributions.

For activities of NACE K66 for which net turnover is not available in the financial statements, net turnover is defined as the value of output minus subsidies or government grants. For activities of NACE K66 for which net turnover is available in the financial statements, the standard definition of net turnover applies.

Please see Glossary:Net turnover - EBS - Statistics Explained (europa.eu)

Total assets

The total assets refers to the sum of the balance sheet items at the end of the accounting period. They cover economic assets, which are divided into financial and non-financial assets.

Principal activity

The principal (or main) activity is the activity that contributes most to the total value added of a unit under consideration. Ideally, the principal activity of the unit should be determined with reference to the value added to the goods and services produced, by applying the top-down method. The top-down method follows a hierarchical principle: the classification of the unit at the lowest level of the classification must be consistent with the classification of the unit at higher levels. The principal activity so identified does not necessarily account for 50 % or more of the unit’s total value added.

In the European Union the classification of principal activity is determined by reference to NACE Rev. 2, first at the highest level of classification and then at more detailed levels (top-down method).

More information on statistical concepts and definitions relevant to the statistical business registers could be found in the EBS methodological manual for Statistical Business Registers (2021 edition).

The statistical units maintained in the EGR are defined in accordance with Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community.

The EGR frame contains the following units:

Legal units

Legal units include:

•  legal persons whose existence is recognized by law independently of the individuals or institutions that may own them or are members of them;
•  natural persons who are engaged in an economic activity in their own right.

Enterprise

The enterprise is the smallest combination of legal units that is an organizational unit producing goods or services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making, especially for the allocation of its current resources. An enterprise carries out one or more activities at one or more locations. An enterprise may be a sole legal unit.

Multinational enterprise group

'Multinational enterprise group' means an enterprise group within the meaning of Section III C. of the Annex to Regulation (EEC) No 696/93, with at least two enterprises or legal units each of which is located in a different country. In business statistics also term ‘global enterprise group’ is used.

The EGR target population is the Multinational enterprise groups having at least two legal units out of which at least one is located in EU Member States or EFTA countries, their Legal units, and Enterprises.

The EGR is the authoritative source for the ESS as a register population for business statistics requiring the coordination of cross-border information related to multinational enterprise groups. EBS (Art 3) 'authoritative source' means the sole provider of data records containing national statistical business register and EuroGroups register data in accordance with quality standards

The reference area of the EGR is the world, although the main interest is the area of EU and EFTA countries. Multinational enterprise groups active exclusively outside the EU and EFTA are not of interest to the EGR.

The EGR frames are available from the reference years 2008 - 2022

Not applicable. 

The economic variables on employment are recorded in absolute figures.

Monetary variables are expressed in units for enterprises and in millions for enterprise groups. The corresponding currency code is indicated.

The reference period for the EGR final frame reflects the picture of 31 December of the given reference year.

The latest EGR final frame, released in March 2024, consists of the final annual master frame for the 2022 reference year.

The economic variables (Number of employees and self-employed persons, net turnover and economic activity) refer to the 2022 reference year.

From the reference year 2021 onwards, the content of the EGR final frame is defined according to:

• Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics – Annex IV
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 – Annex IX Part C.

The legal framework setting up the procedures for EGR data exchanges are defined in the Art. 10 of the EBS Regulation (EU) 2019/2152.

According to the Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics, confidential data transmitted to the Commission (Eurostat) by the appropriate national authorities shall be flagged as confidential in accordance with national legislation.

In order to ensure a consistent record of data, the Commission (Eurostat) shall, exclusively for Statistical purpose (s), transmit to the appropriate national authorities of Member States other than the reporting country, data concerning Multinational enterprise group (s) and their constituent units, including confidentiality flags, when at least one legal unit of the group is located in the territory of that Member State.

The same policy refers to the data exchange between the Commission (Eurostat) and the EFTA countries.

EGR data are stored by the Commission (Eurostat) and by the national statistical authorities (NSAs) in the EU MSs and EFTA countries in a secure area with restricted and controlled access.

The transmission of the EGR data is done in an encrypted form and by electronic means via the Commission (Eurostat) single entry point for exchange of confidential data EDAMIS (europa.eu).

EGR data and metadata are exchanged in electronic form between the appropriate national authorities and the Commission (Eurostat). The transmission format is conforming to international SDMX data and metadata exchange standards specified by the Commission (Eurostat).

The EGR final frame for the reference year T is released at T+15 months. An initial EGR frame is released at T+12 and a preliminary frame is released at T+13.

A Statistics Explained article is published following the release of the EGR final frame on the Eurostat website as Experimental Statistics.

 Information on release calendar is communicated to the EGR correspondents in the EU-EFTA countries before the beginning of the EGR cycle.

EGR data are available to the statistical producers in the national statistical institutes (NSIs) of the EU Member States and EFTA countries exclusively for statistical purposes only. Members of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) also have access to the EGR data explicitly for the statistical purposes to ensure the quality of the information on multinational enterprises (MNE) in Europe, provided that an authorization from the respective NSI is given, according to Article 10 of the EBS Regulation.

For NSIs and NCBs, the access to the EGR data is restricted to information on those MNE groups, when at least one legal unit of a specific MNE group is located in the territory of the country of that NSI or NCB. Therefore, the EGR users can access country specific sub-population of the total EGR population via the EGR FATS and/or EGR IM user interfaces or by downloading the EGR data via EDAMIS (europa.eu).

EGR microdata are not accessible to the general public.

The EGR final frame is released annually and it is transmitted to the NSIs and to the NCBs and the ECB.

Access to data via on-line interface is open to NSIs, authorized NCBs and ECB on a continuous basis (except of some periods during which maintenance operations occur).

Not applicable.

Eurostat publishes

Statistics Explained (europa.eu) articles

• Multinational enterprise groups and their structure. The article presents some aggregated statistics based on the EGR data;
• Employment in large-scale multinational enterprise groups. The article presents aggregated statistics of a subset of the EGR data, with a focus on large-scale multinational enterprise groups as defined in Directive - 2009/38.
• EuroGroups Register and industry concentration. The article presents a computation of concentration based on the EGR data.

Guidelines and publication on Statistical Business registers quality

• Quality report on European statistical business registers - 2024 edition
• European business statistics compliers' manual for EuroGroups register - 2024 edition

Eurostat releases aggregated data on MNE Groups as experimental statistics, please see Database - Eurostat (europa.eu).

The following 5 tables displayed MNE groups aggregates.

• Multinational enterprise groups in EU-EFTA countries by controlling country (egr_mne)

Displays the MNE groups having at least one legal unit located in the EU-EFTA by controlling country/area. The controlling area is defined by the location of the Ultimate controlling institutional unit (UCI).

• Persons employed in multinational enterprise groups by size class (egr_emp).

Displays the persons employed (employees and self-employed persons) by an MNE groups in the EU-EFTA countries by country/area of work and worldwide size class of MNE groups.

The percentage of total employment refers to SBS figures. From 2018-2020 the total employment considers persons working in the non-financial business economy (B to N excluding K). From 2021 onwards, with the SBS extended scope, the total employment considers the person working in the activity B to S excluding O and S94. This change explains the break in the time series.

• Concentration of multinational enterprise groups by NACE Rev.2 activity (egr_conc).

Display the percentage of total employment in EU of the largest MNE groups by NACE activity of the enterprises belonging to the groups. The total employment used SBS figures.

• Multinational enterprise groups in EU-EFTA countries by controlling country, size class and NACE Rev.2 activity.

Displays the MNE groups having at least one legal unit located in the EU-EFTA by controlling country/area, main activity and worldwide size of the MNE groups (egr_mne_n2sc).

• Multinational enterprise groups employment by controlling country group size class NACE Rev 2 and country of work (egr_mne_empw).

Displays the persons employed (employees and self-employed persons) by an MNE groups in the EU-EFTA countries by controlling country/area, main activity and worldwide size of the MNE groups, and country/area of work.

For the calculation of the aggregates, Eurostat did not consider missing value.

The EGR FATS and EGR IM user interfaces allow NSIs’ statistical producers and statistical users to consult and to download the EGR microdata via online applications. EGR FATS and EGR IM applications are accessible to all NSIs in the EU and EFTA countries and to the ESCB members.

The microdata exchange of confidential data on multinational enterprise groups and on the statistical units belonging to those groups shall take place, exclusively for statistical purposes, between EU Member States and EFTA countries and the European Commission (Eurostat).

Not applicable.

The European business statistics methodological manual for statistical business registers – edition 2021 outlines the methodology to be used for the national statistical business registers.

The European business statistics manual - Statistics Explained (europa.eu) presents the EBS by providing an overview of business statistics while highlighting the features introduced by the new regulatory framework.

The European business statistics compilers’ manual for EuroGroups register (EGR) – 2024 edition outlines the process and the methodology for the EGR.

The Quality report on European statistical business registers – 2024 edition - Eurostat (europa.eu)  aims to provide users with relevant information on the quality of European statistical business registers (SBRs).

The European business profiling — Recommendations manual — 2020 edition provides recommendations on profiling MNE groups in the scope of European Business Profiling, and more generally guidance for business profiling.

Publicly available descriptions and references to methodological documents can be found on the Eurogroups register - Statistical business registers - Eurostat (europa.eu)  and in Statistics Explained (europa.eu).

The EGR producers and statistical users from NSIs and NCBs find more detailed information on the EGR wiki (restricted access).

Publicly available information on the EGR, its data, methodology and quality management can be found on the  Overview - Eurostat (europa.eu).

Information on the data quality programme for European statistical business registers is available in a domain-specific CIRCABC folder (restricted access).

EGR producers in the NSIs and statistical users in the NSIs and NCBs find more detailed information on EGR process, methodology, quality indicators on EGR wiki (restricted access).

The EGR quality management is based on a set of coordinated procedures between the business registers team in the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) and Eurostat.

Quality management of EGR inputs delivered by NSIs

The quality of the data files sent by NSIs is validated twice:

• Business registers team in NSIs must validate data files before sending them to Eurostat, according to the provided validation rules
• Automatic validation of the files are handled by the platform EDAMIS (europa.eu) use by the NSIs to send their files to EGR.

Quality management during the EGR production process

The quality of the EGR data during the process is checked by Eurostat and validated by NSIs under request. When errors are identified, Eurostat corrects them or if necessary notifies the respective business register team of the NSI.

Quality management of the EGR output, i.e. EGR final frame

The final EGR frame is validated by Eurostat before any dissemination. The EGR quality is part of the data quality programme (DQP) for European statistical business registers. . Moreover in order to ensure a frequent treatment, and improve the quality and the coverage, as of this reference year 2021, the profiling data of a number of MNE groups with potential sizable effect on the economy (Top Tier groups) have been integrated in the EGR final frame.

The quality of the data of the most relevant MNE groups profiled during the profiling cycle, which are integrated to the initial frame of the EGR, is assessed through a manual validation of the exported profiling data, and by integrating first in an acceptance environment of the EGR, where the structure of the profiled groups is being checked before the integration takes place in the production environment.

The assessment of the quality of the files transmitted to EGR by NSIs is done using a set of 4 quality indicators monitoring the punctuality, the completeness, the accuracy and reliability and the coherence and comparability. Moreover, since the EGR 2021 cycle, NSIs sent to Eurostat metadata about their inputs.

The throughput indicators or key process indicators (KPIs) monitor data on legal units, relationships, enterprises and enterprise groups and measure the changes of these source data during the EGR data processing. When these KPIs are not met,  Eurostat reacts taking the appropriate actions..

Before release, Eurostat asses the quality of the final frame especially the completeness of the mandatory variables. Later he coverage is assessed using cross-domain comparison, such as EGR-FATS comparison

No definition available for this concept

The EGR provides harmonized information on multinational enterprise groups and their enterprises in the EU and EFTA countries. The statistical users can use EGR coordinated frame populations to derive consistent statistical output with an improved quality in measuring global activities of European enterprises that are part of multinational enterprise groups. Multinational enterprise groups' information is used for statistics related to globalization, such as Statistics on foreign affiliates (FATS), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Gross National Income (GNI), etc.

Aiming to respond to the needs of users from macroeconomics and business statistics for a more systematic approach to the MNE groups, a two-tier approach has been implemented in the EGR, where the first tier consists of a coordinated cross-country thorough treatment of the largest and most complex MNE groups, through profiling, and the second tier consists of a coordinated cross-country information on the full population of the MNE groups operating in the EU Member States and EFTA countries. This tier needs an automated process for the production of annual frames sufficiently timely to allow the EGR serving as supplementary frame for national surveys.

The EGR country specific frames are used as a basis for European profiling of the largest and most complex multinational enterprise groups in the EU.

EGR information may also be used for quality checks, as a secondary source or for deriving statistics on multinational enterprise groups, etc

To meet user needs, Eurostat runs a regular SBR user survey including EGR and national statistical business registers. The SBR user survey questionnaire targets collecting information on current and future needs regarding the EGR and statistical business registers in general.

In 2017, Eurostat conducted the first SBR user survey addressing the satisfaction of users and potential users with the quality of the national statistical business registers (NSBR) and the EuroGroups Register (EGR). The second round of the SBR user survey was carried out by statistical users between November 2019 and March 2020.

The third round of the SBR user survey was carried out by statistical users between March and April 2023.

The2023 SBR user survey results show that the EGR is used as an authoritative source for the ESS by 66% of the users. However, this share is 100% for the users in international trade, 71% for economy and finance, 57% for industry trade and services.

Regarding the type of unit used from EGR the most common information used is the one on the Legal Unit (86%), followed by Multinational Enterprise Group (66%) and statistical unit Enterprise (62%). The frequently used information for those units is: Identification Variables, Stratification Parameters and Demographic Events.

Overall, the users assessed the EGR quality with favourable answers. The EGR respondents rated quality aspects with the following ranking: Coverage (the most fulfilled quality aspect), Coherence and comparability, Completeness, Accuracy and reliability, Timeliness.

The results of the SBR User Survey 2023 are available on CIRCABC

The completeness of the EGR final frame is annually assessed by Eurostat. The EGR assessment results are provided to EU Member States and EFTA countries and are presented at the Statistical Business Registers Working Group (SBR WG).

Additional information are available in the Quality report on European statistical business registers - 2024 edition

The accuracy of the EGR frame is evaluated in collaboration between NSIs and Eurostat. Eurostat performs crosscutting checks on the initial and the preliminary frame and produces reports to assess the data quality and ensure the accuracy. In the event that potential misclassification or duplicates has been spotted, as an example, Eurostat contacts the involved NSI(s) for checking and potential correction during the repair phases to insure EGR final frame accuracy.

Additional information are available in the Quality report on European statistical business registers - 2024 edition

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The EGR 2022 initial was released was produced and released to its users at T+12: in December 2023

The EGR 2022 preliminary frame was released was produced and released to its users at T+13: in January 2024

The EGR 2022 final frame was produced and released to its users at T+15 months: in March 2023.

All EGR frames (initial, preliminary and final) were delivered on time without delays.

The EGR frame allows geographical comparability of information on MNE groups provided by countries. The units provided by countries are based on harmonized statistical units defined in Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 and the MNE groups information is comparable across the countries.

Taking into account the used EGR process versions, the data source and UK status, the comparability over the time are as follow:

Information on multinational enterprise groups as provided by the EGR may be used for production of statistics related to globalization in the EU Member States and EFTA countries, for example:

• Statistics on foreign affiliates (FATS)
• Foreign direct investment statistics (FDI)
• Statistics on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
• Macroeconomics statistics.

Statistical data producers can use EGR as a coordinated frame population and to derive consistent statistical output with an improved quality in measuring global activities of European enterprises part of multinational groups.

The EGR frame provides harmonized information on the multinational enterprise groups active in the EU MSs and EFTA countries.

Statistical users can use EGR as a coordinated frame population in order to derive consistent statistical output, with an improved quality in measuring global activities of European enterprises that are part of multinational enterprise groups.

NSIs can handle comparisons at micro-level. For instance, for the EGR – FATS comparison, NSIs compare the units in the respective populations, the coverage of variables, and mainly the Ultimate Controlling Institutional unit (UCI) of the Multinational enterprise groups from the EGR final frame with their data from FATS surveys.

The internal coherence within the EGR frame is largely depending on the quality of NSBRs, as well as by the process, and the priority rules which are handling in a systematic way the conflicting data coming from different data sources. In these conflicting cases, the agreed with the NSIs priority rules give priority first to the profiling data, then to the business registers data and last to the commercial data source.

• harmonizing methodologies, statistical units, concepts and processes in the production and dissemination of NSBRs and EGR as far as necessary and possible;
• promoting the use of common tools and best practices;
• ensuring the quality by setting and monitoring a set of quality indicators.

EGR data are provided by the national statistical business registers, commercial data provider and open data sources; no burden on enterprises is created.

The cost for EGR production has been substantially reduced as the data for the EU and EFTA countries are provided by the national NSIs and the acquisition of commercial data is focused mainly on the non-EU and non-EFTA units.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The sources for the EGR 2021 frame are:

• National statistical business registers of EU Member States and EFTA countries
• Commercial data sources.
• Companies House, the official UK agency that incorporates and dissolves limited companies and registers company information
   

The NSIs statistical business registers contribute to the production of the EGR frame by delivering data during the annual EGR cycle:

• to the EGR Identification System (EGR IS). The frequency is annual and data delivery takes place at T + 5 months.
• to the EGR Core application (EGR CORE). The frequency is annual and takes place from T + 10 up to T + 15 months.
• to the interactive web interface EGR Interactive Module (EGR IM) to support the validation and repair of multinational group structures – from T+12 up to  T+14 months with respect to the reference year.

During the EGR cycle, Eurostat collects data are from the EU-EFTA NSIs and from commercial data providers. The Commercial data provider especially provides Eurostat with data on Extra-EU statistical units.

For the EGR process Eurostat collects data on legal units, enterprises and MNE groups and their characteristics, and relationships between legal units.

The EGR data validation process takes place continuously during EGR production process in between T+5 and T+15 months. The national statistical institutes contribute to the validation process of the group structures’ in repair phase by delivering relationships and data on enterprise groups to the EGR and also by pre-validation of the EGR input file. At Eurostat level, data quality checks and validation actions are carried out at all relevant stages of the EGR production cycle.  Additionally in order to improve the quality of the data, Eurostat has integrated validated profiling data of a selected number of the most important groups, the so-called Top-tier groups.

The EGR data compilation creates the enterprise groups structures by using the information on direct shareholdings and control between pair-wise legal units. An algorithm in the EGR CORE reconstructs the full chain of direct and indirect relationships.

Not applicable.

All modules of the EGR system version 2.0 are in production since 2015. There is continuous improvement of the EGR production process aiming at ensuring the output quality.

The latest release in April 2023, included the version with integration of the Interactive Profiling Tool (IPT).