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.
10 April 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.
Total assets
A store of value representing the benefits accruing to the economic owner by holding or using the entity over a period of time. It is a means of carrying forward value from one accounting period to another.
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).
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 all population of resident legal units is sent to EGR for identification except natural persons and legal persons belonging to the government sector and financial funds.
The data set with information on foreign legal units for the EGR Identification Service.
ISNORLE file including all 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 all 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 all relationships between legal units is sent to EGR for processing:
- two resident legal units
- one resident and one foreign legal unit if their LEID are known for us.
Relationships in the REL are:
- control relationships (>50%)
- minority relationships (<50%)
The data set with information on enterprises.
ENT file including all enterprises made of legal unit sent in LEU files is sent to EGR for processing.
The Data set with information on links between enterprises and legal units.
LEL file including all 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 all groups data is sent to the EGR for processing.
The groups’ variables are updated after receiving the preliminary frame:
- name
- economic variables (number of persons employed, turnover, assets and economic activity).
The Czech Republic. As regards enterprise groups any country outside the national territory may be relevant.
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 levels of the data transmitted during the EGR 2023 cycle are as follow:
| Assesment | The assesment is based on | |
|---|---|---|
| Legal units (LEUs) | very good | LEUs are updated on daily basis from administrative sources. There are no thresholds on population of LEUs. |
| Relationships between LEUs | good | Availability of information on relationships between domestic LEUs, domestic LEUs and mother non-resident LEUs and domestic LEUs and daughter non-resident LEUs. |
| Enterprise (ENTs) characteristics | good | Availability of all required variables on ENTs in SBR |
| ENTs perimeters | good | Scope of EGs we are able to verify perimeter via profiling |
| Multinational enterprise group (with the GDC in the country) | good | Availability of all data on MNEs in our SBR. |
The main source of errorrs and their importance:
| Issue | Importance | |
|---|---|---|
| Relationships between LEUs | missing information on relationships | The coverage of relationships between domestic LEUs as well as between domestic LEUs and nonresident mother LEUs is very good and complete. On the other hand there are some problems with missing or non-updated information on relationships domestic LEUs and daughter non-resident units. |
| Enterprise (ENTs) characteristics | nadequate capacity to determine and verify perimeters | For some small ENTs the information on NACE, turnover or asset is not available in SBR. |
| ENTs perimeters | nadequate capacity to determine and verify perimeters | The perimeters of ENTs that are part of profiled EGs are regularly determined or verified. However we do not have the capacity to accurately determine and verify the perimeter of all ENTs, especially in small EGs. |
| Multinational enterprise group (with the GDC in the country) | some data for some EGs are not available in SBR. | The coverage of variables for profiled MNEs is very good. However, as regards the rest of population, it may happen that there are some missing variables in SBR. |
The following actions are taken to improve the accuracy of the data send to the EGR during the EGR 2023 cycle:
• All the inconsistency spotted by Eurostat were investigated and corrected if needed.
The economic variables on employment are recorded in absolute figures.
The net turnover for enterprises is recorded in CZK currency.
The net turnover and net total asset is recorded in millions in CZK currency.
In minority cases we also record net turnover and net total asset in EUR currency.
Not applicable.
The data sent to Eurostat is set up in accordance with EBS Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 using any relevant data sources while avoiding excessive burden on respondents and taking due account of the cost effectiveness of the NSAs.
The following sources are used for production of data sent to Eurostat:
- national statistical business register
- private data provider
- statistical surveys
- information from annual report (in case of significant GEGs)
- profiling.
Not applicable.
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 is ensured by the application of common definitions of the statistical units laid down in the Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93. The variables sent to Eurostat are harmonised and set up in accordance with Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020 is laying down the technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics.
Data are comparable.
