Statistics Sweden

Register Unit

Data Department

DATA/REG/FR

Statistics Sweden

701 89 ÖREBRO

SWEDEN

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.

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 of the legal units;
• Currency codes (ISO 4217).

The coverage of the data transmitted to the EGR is defined in the Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics.

For the purposes of the European framework for statistical business registers, the following economic activities are considered:

• any activity comprising the offer of goods and services on a given market;
• non-market services contributing to the GDP;
• direct and indirect holdings of active legal units.

Holding assets and/or liabilities are also considered an economic activity.

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.

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 incorperated legal units that can be included in a multinational enterprise group. We don't include governmental institutes or sole proprioriship which are legal units registered with personal data.

The data set with information on foreign legal units for the EGR Identification Service.

ISNORLE file including full 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 units 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 full population of relationships between legal units belonging to multinational enterprise groups 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 full population of 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 the 100-150 largest groups and groups that we've made changes to.

The groups’ variables are updated after receiving the preliminary frame:

• NACE
• Employees
• Turnover
• Total assets
• GDC

• The data regarding the relationships between legal units are global. 
• Data regarding legal units and enterprises are national.

The EGR frames are available from reference year 2008 onwards. NSI transmits data for the EGR production cycle since year 2008.

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The economic variables on employment are recorded in absolute figures.

The net turnover for enterprises is recorded in SEK.

The net turnover and net total asset for enterprises is recorded in nominal values in SEK.

The net turnover and net total asset for enterprise groups is recorded in millions in EUR.

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 2022 cycle includes data for the 2022 reference year. The identification, economic variables (number of employees, turnover and economic activity) refer to the 2022 reference year.

The content of the national data sent to EGR is defined according the Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics.

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.

The legal framework setting up the procedures for EGR data exchanges and access to confidential data for the purpose of the European framework for statistical business registers are defined in the Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics (Art.10). 

European legislation:

• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics;
• Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics (Art.10).

The national legislative measures or other formal procedures which prevent unauthorised disclosure of data that identify a person or economic entity either directly or indirectly include:

• Offentlighets- och sekretesslag (2009:400)
• Lag (2001:99) om den officiella statistiken

EGR data are stored by the Commission (Eurostat) and by the national statistical authorities (NSAs) in the EU Member States 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

Rules applied for treating the data set to ensure statistical confidentiality and prevent unauthorised disclosure are defined according to the policy rules (see section 7.1).

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

Where such exchange of confidential data is carried out to ensure the quality of the multinational enterprise groups information in the Union and the exchange is explicitly authorised by the competent NSA which provides the data, national central banks may be party to the exchange of confidential data, exclusively for statistical purposes.

NSI exchanges information on multinational enterprise groups with:

• Other Member States for purpose to ensure quality of the MNE relations and GDC information.

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• EuroGroups Register communication space ( EGR wiki with restricted access)
• European business statistics methodological manual for statistical business registers – edition 2021

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Eurostat Data Quality Programme monitors the quality and compliance of the data transmitted by the countries to EGR using the instruments of the EBS quality framework.

At national level, the quality of the data sent to EGR is assured as follows: 

• A number of data validation procedures are in place in the production of the EGR preliminary frame and final frame.
• We collaborate with FATS surveys and national/international profiling team.

The quality is assured by applying the following quality management and assurance procedures: 

• Legislation concerning quality assurance, Task Forces or Working Groups, etc.
• (EG 2019/2152)
• (EEG 696/93)
• Nace rev. 2 (EG 1893/2006) .
• Lagen (2001:99) om den officiella statistiken
• Förordningen (2001:100) om den officiella statistiken.
• Methodological standards and guidelines assuring the quality of the production process and the output

EBS methodological manual for statistical business registers.

European Statistics Code of Practice

Statistics Sweden's Quality Policy

Link: https://www.scb.se/en/About-us/main-activity/quality-work/

• Data validation procedures in place

The quality assessment procedure includes:

• automatic validation procedures to check coherence between statistical units and their variables,
• data format and logical content of data
• crosschecks with other sources and data from previous years

The data is used in the following surveys/areas:

• FATS
• Profiling
• SBS
• BD

Comment for user needs:

"While doing harmonisation of EGR, SBR, FATS, BD and SBS, Eurostat has set timelines for EGR that are too early. Basically we are still working on the population and getting new information on enterprises and enterprise groups after we need to deliver EGR to Eurostat. In order for SBS to be consistent with EGR, we cannot change anything in our population about 6 months before our actual deadline of SBS. This is very unfortunate. Eurostat seems to prioritise the register over the quality of the statistics. We find this very unfortunate and no in the best interest of our users. EGR should be updated way later and have the deadline maybe in april or may, instead of january like it is now"

BR & EGR User Questionaire (March 2023)

We 've recieved answers from the "SBR user survey 2023" regarding the quality of the EGR. 

The answers are mostly positive where the users are satisfied with the content.

There are some issues regarding the harmonization of the timeline for different surveys (EGR, SBR, FATS, BD and SBS).

This still applies for the reference year 2022.

No specific data is demanded at the moment from users.

The actions taken to monitor and to improve accuracy of the data sent to EGR are the following: 

• NBR´s processes are of high quality. Validation takes place before each delivery to ensure that data in delivered files are complete 
• Our large case unit profiles both top tier and the largest swedish groups important for national statistics. We have implemented a new system that supports the maintenance of the group structure. 
• We have also initiated a closer collaboration with our colleagues in Profiling team to ensure quality within our largest MNE.

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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 Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics.

The EGR 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).

Comparability of the frames from 2013 and onwards are possible.

The NSBR frame provides information on the active population of enterprises carrying out economic activities which contribute to the gross domestic product (GDP), the legal units of which those enterprises consist of,  local units, kind of activity units and enterprise groups, incl. all-resident and multinational enterprise groups.

The national statistical business register including EGR is used by statistical users as a coordinated frame population in order to derive consistent statistical output.

The reasons for lack of coherence with other statistical domains are as follows:

• The reason for lack of coherence may be that the frames are made under different periods.

Data sent to EGR should be internally consistent. There is a set of standard quality checks that are routinely perform at national level before transmitting the data to Eurostat:

• Validation checks for coherence between REL,LEL,ENT,LEU is performed before sending the files to Eurostat (Validations checks are inspired from guidelines).
• Discussions and measures regarding harmonizations between statistical domains are an ongoing project at Statistcs Sweden.

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• Legal units from SBR
• Relationships & Enterprise group data from CDP
• Enterprises from SBR/Profiling/SBS

National data sent to EGR annually

Data sent to EGR are collected from:

• National Statistical business registers
• Administrative data sources.
• Statistical surveys

Contiously monoroting data daily.

• Validity checks are done before sending data to EGR, example: consistency between the delivry files.

Examples on validity checks:

• Duplicate check for relationships in groups
• Duplicate check for the same enterpise groups
• Duplicate check for LEID
• Duplicate check for Name
• Duplicate check for NationalID
• Checks for correct GGH & GDC
• Check for correct countrycode (checking blanks etc.)
• Implementing a new check for LEU's in different enterprise groups are included in same enterprise.

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No comment.