The EuroGroups register (EGR) is the statistical business register of Eurostat and the EU Member States and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries for multinational enterprise groups. The purpose of the EGR is to offer to statistical users a tool for coordinating frame population, to derive consistent statistical output with an improved quality in measuring global activities of European enterprises part of multinational enterprise groups.
The EGR produces data in yearly cycles and covers microdata on the groups and their enterprises and legal units. The EGR aims to register all multinational enterprise groups that have enterprises in EU Member States or EFTA countries, including European and non-European groups.
The Member States, EFTA countries and Eurostat exchange data on multinational enterprise groups and on the units belonging to those groups for the purposes of the European framework for statistical business registers to ensure the quality of the multinational enterprise group’s information in the Union.
The EGR brings together microdata on multinational enterprise groups from the EU and the EFTA countries' national statistical institutes, in line with the requirements of the Regulation (EU) No 2152/2019, and from a commercial data source for data outside the EU and EFTA.
8 May 2025
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.
Activity of unit
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.
A legal unit can be legally or administratively active without any economic activity, when the inactive legal unit is part of an enterprise in combination with economically active legal units. Holding assets and/or liabilities shall also be regarded as an economic activity.
Number of employees
The number of employees represents the average number of persons who were, at some time during the reference period, employees of the statistical 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 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.
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 realized 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.
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).
Secondary activity
A secondary activity is each separate activity that produces products eventually for third parties and that is not the principal activity. The outputs of secondary activities are secondary products.
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 the 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, Enterprises and Multinational enterprise groups.
Legal units include:
- legal persons whose existence is recognized by law independently of the individuals or institutions which may own them or are members of them,
- natural persons who are engaged in an economic activity in their own right.
The legal unit always forms, either by itself or sometimes in combination with other legal units, the legal basis for the statistical unit known as the 'enterprise'.
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
A multinational enterprise group is an enterprise group that has at least two enterprises or legal units located in different countries. In business statistics also term ‘global enterprise group’ is used.
The data transmitted to the EGR during the cycle is made of the following datasets.
The data set with information on all incorporated resident legal units for the EGR Identification Service.
ISRLE file includes 333019 population of resident legal units is sent to EGR for identification.
The data set with information on foreign legal units for the EGR Identification Service.
ISNORLE file including 8466 population of foreign legal unit recorded in national statistical business register is sent to EGR for identification.
The data set with information on legal units.
LEU file including 35926 resident legal unit belonging to a global enterprise group is sent to EGR for processing.
The data set with information on relationships of ownership and control.
REL file including 31748 relationships between legal units is sent to EGR for processing:
- two resident legal units
- one resident and one foreign legal unit
- two foreign legal units from non EU+EFTA countries.
Relationships in the REL are:
- control relationships (>50%)
- minority relationships (<50%)
The data set with information on enterprises.
ENT file including 17104 enterprises made of legal unit sent in LEU files is sent to EGR for processing.
The file consists of ENTs which are economically active which means it consists of at least one employee or a yearly VAT of at least 500€ or an average advance turnover tax return of 150€ per quarter or an average advance turnover tax return of 50€ per month.
The Data set with information on links between enterprises and legal units.
LEL file including 31311 links between enterprise (ENT) and legal units (LEU) is sent to EGR for processing.
The Data set with information on enterprise groups of which country is the GDC country for the EuroGroups Register.
GEG file including 172 groups data is sent to the EGR for processing.
The groups’ variables are updated after receiving the preliminary frame:
via GEG file:
- GEG_UCI_RCC.
via EGR IM:
- GEG_NAME.
- GEG_GDC_LEID.
- GEG_NACE_CODE_DIV.
Austria
The reference period for data sent to the EGR reflects the picture of 31 December of the given reference year.
Data transmitted to EGR during the EGR 2023 cycle includes data for the 2023 reference year. The identification, economic variables (number of employees, turnover and economic activity) refer to the 2023 reference year.
The accuracy of the data transmitted to the EGR is:
| Units |
Assessment |
|---|---|
| Legal units |
Very good |
| Relationships between legal units |
Very good |
| Enterprises characteristics |
Very good |
| Enterprises perimeters |
Very good |
| Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country) |
Very good |
This accuracy assessment is based on:
- Data is based on daily updated qualitative data sources such as
- Austrian business register for administrative purposes
- company register
- associations register
- tax information system
- social security register
- statistical surveys
- manual profiling
- Administrative data sources are exhaustive
- Continuous conceptual improvements of the production cycle to be in line with the requirements
- Automatic and manual plausibility and consistency checks throughout the entire production cycle
The main issues regarding accuracy of the data and issue importance are as follows:
| Units |
Issue |
Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Legal units |
Individual cases of unidentified or incorrectly identified LEUs may result in duplicate entries or missing information |
Ongoing improvements in their detection to enable manual correction |
| Relationships between legal units |
Not all data sources provide accurate percentages of ownership, but only information on control or minor control |
No impact on the group structure |
| Enterprises characteristics |
As economic data are partially reported to the NSBR with a delay, the information may be incomplete at the time of delivery to the EGR | An estimation concept is applied to replace the delayed data |
| Enterprise perimeter |
Due to small conceptual differences in the definition of economic activity between the NSBR and the EGR, not all entities classified as economically active for the EGR are recorded in the register. As a result, they are not included in the delivery to the EGR |
As a result, LEUs without ENTs exist. We are aware of this situation working on a solution that harmonizes the differences but goes align with the needs of our national users |
| Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country) |
Relationships involving natural persons are also considered in the calculation of group structures within the NSBR, which, in certain instances, may give rise to inconsistencies with the EGR |
Differences in the number of MNE groups domestically controlled between EGR and NSBR |
The actions taken to reduce bias (if any) and to improve accuracy of the data are as follows:
- The classification notification system allows companies to report directly to Statistics Austria if they feel that the classificatory assignment is inappropriate.
- Continous exchange of information with the administrative data sources is a key part to improve data quality
- Results of the analysis of the DataQualityProgram are used to improve data accuracy
- A ticket system is used to coordinate upcoming work with IT on a weekly basis and, above all, to document it.
- An internal monitoring process has been implemented to ensure an overview of changes in the register and ongoing control of the register masses. This is achieved in particular by means of regular register-internal special evaluations and reports.
- There is a regular exchange with IT and other departments or users in the form of a Jour Fixe.
- Employees in the area of the EGR regularly take part in training courses and the working documents are constantly updated.
- There is a close exchange with the classification department in order to keep the quality of different classification features in the register high.
- EGR staff are part of the in-house MNE Board, which aims to improve the consistency and coherence of multinational enterprise data.
- Further development of the UCI concept to include LEUs with natural persons as parents who are based abroad
The economic variables on employment are recorded in absolute figures.
The net turnover for enterprises is recorded in absolute numbers in EURO.
The procedures used to combine data from different sources:
- The austrian Administrative Business Register is used as the main data source
- Additional information and data from other sources is processed via certain priority rules
We use the following data sources, including a combination thereof for the transmitted data:
- Austrian business register for administrative purposes
- Company register
- Aassociations register
- Tax information System
- Social security register
- Economic Chamber
- Statistical Surveys
The final frame for a reference year T is available on annual bases in T+ 15 months. The annual copy is kept for 30 years for the purpose of analysis.
The EGR process refers to a reference year T and is run yearly over a period of 11 months, between May T+1 and March T+2.
The geographical comparability of national statistical business registers is ensured by the application of common definitions of the statistical units laid down in the Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93.
The SBR variables are harmonised and set up in accordance with the Annex VIII to the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics.
Further guidelines on the variables implementation in the national statistical business registers are given in the EBS methodological manual for Statistical Business Registers (2021 edition).
The comparability over time of the frames results from the information provided in concept 3.8.
