National Statistical Institute

Macrostatistics Directorate

Environmental and Energy Accounts Department

irangelov@nsi.bg

Economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) provide an aggregate overview, in thousand tonnes per year, of the material flows into and out of an economy. EW-MFA cover solid, gaseous, and liquid materials, except for bulk flows of water and air. Like the system of national accounts, EW-MFA constitute a multi-purpose information system. The detailed material flows provide a rich empirical database for numerous analytical purposes. Further, EW-MFA are used to derive various material flow indicators.

The National Statistical Institute (NSI) sent to Eurostat on yearly basis the EW-MFA. The accounts comprise the following reporting tables:

• Table A 'Domestic extraction (DE)': records material flows from the environment into the economy in a detailed breakdown by type of material
• Table B 'Imports - total imports (intra- and extra-EU) and Table D 'Exports – total exports (intra- and extra-EU)': These physical trade tables record the imports and exports of products in thousand tonnes and grouped by materials.
• Table F 'Domestic processed output (DPO)': records material flows from the economy to the domestic environment (e.g. emissions to air, water and soil)
• Table G 'Balancing items': reports some memorandum items which are necessary to have the full material balance related to a national economy
• Table H 'Indicators': presents the EW-MFA derived indicators which are automatically calculated from Table A to G

Table I 'Material flow accounts in raw material equivalents (RME)': records material flow accounts in raw material equivalents (MFA-RME). Some items are calculated automatically based on data reported in Table A and Table I

EW-MFA record physical flows of materials broken down by type of flow and by type of material.

The type of flow dimension corresponds to the EW-MFA questionnaire reporting tables and derived indicators, namely:

• domestic extraction (Table A)
• physical imports (Table B)
• physical exports (Table D)
• domestic processed output (Table F)
• balancing items (Table G)
• direct material input (indicator)
• domestic material consumption (indicator)
• physical trade balance (indicator)

The breakdown by type of material employs a classification of materials. This EW-MFA classification of materials is hierarchical with main material flow categories (1-digit level). Each main category is further broken down, maximal down to 4-digit-level:

    1-digit: material category;

    2-digit: material class;

    3-digit: material group;

    4-digit: material sub-group.

The data refer to national economies as defined in the system of national accounts.

Conceptually economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) belong to the international system of environmental economic accounting (SEEA-Central Framework). Furthermore, EW-MFA is one of several physical modules of Eurostat's programme on European environmental economic accounts. It is covered by Regulation (EU) No. 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts.

EW-MFA are closely related to concepts and definitions of national accounts. Most notably they follow the residence principle, i.e. they record material flows related to resident unit's activities, regardless where those occur geographically.

Further methodological guidelines are provided in various publications by Eurostat (see Eurostat website > Environment > Methodology, heading: 'Material flows and resource productivity').

For more detailed information please see also 3.1.

Statistical units change according to the different data sources (e.g. agriculture, forestry and fishery statistics, production statistics, geological surveys, energy statistics, foreign trade statistics etc.) which EW-MFA are based on.

EW-MFA refer to the entire national economy of the reporting country (see also 3.3 'Coverage - sector')).

EW-MFA include all materials (excluding water and air) crossing the system boundary (between the environment and the economy) on the input side or on the output side. The economy is demarcated by the conventions of the national accounting system (resident units).

Material inputs to the economy cover extractions of natural resources (excluding water and air) from the natural environment and imports of material products (goods) from the rest of the world economy (ROW).

Material outputs are disposals of materials to the natural environment and exports of material products and waste to the ROW. Information on natural resources extracted and traded products is provided by different statistical units.

Bulgaria

Please see the table in 3.8.1.

Not applicable because EW-MFA are not reported as indices.

The unit of measure is thousand tonnes.

The data refer to the calendar years.

Economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) are legally covered by Regulation (EU) 691/2011 on European Environmental Economic Accounts.

Not applicable in national level this information is required at European level only.

Confidential data are protected under the Law on Statistics in the Bulgaria.

The national rules define as confidential the information which aggregates the data on less than three enterprises or population, in which the relative share of studied parameter of one enterprise is over 85% of the total value of this parameter for all population units.

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society:

(http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:087:0164:0173:bg:PDF)

The Law on Staistics also guarantees the protection of statistical confidentiality and the use of individual data by enterprises for statistical purposes only.

(http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/553)

According to the Law on Statistics and the European legislation the individual (primary) data of the enterprises is confidential. In order to ensure their protection and the impossibility of being identified, aggregated indicators are also defined as confidential when:

• Criterion A - an indicator is formed by one or two enterprises;

• Criterion B - one enterprise dominates the value of the indicator with a share equal to or greater than 85%.

Individual data are not published in accordance with article 25 of the Law on Statistics.

General rules for non confidential data: an aggregation of 3 or more entities, the share of the highest value does not exceed 85% of the total.

Confidential data are not disseminated nationally, confidential data under the Regulation (EU) 691/2011 on European Environmental Economic Accounts are reported to Eurostat in the EW-MFA Questionnaire with the confidentiality flag (cells are marked as primary and secondary confidential).

The date of release of statistical information is indicated in the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the National Statistical Institute.

The calendar is available on the NSI website: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/480

On national level the use of EW-MFA and derived indicators are still relatively limited.

In accordance with the dissemination policy, all users have equal access to statistical data at the same time. Data are released on the web site at the same time for all users, which are informed with the Release Calendar.

The deadline for the annual EW-MFA questionnaire is 30 April - Annual.

No Press Release.

All publications are prepared in a timely manner, according to the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the National Statistical Institute.

Data on Material Flow Accounts - Resource Productivity is published in:

- Electronic bilingual (Bulgarian/English) publication "Environment" available on pdf on NSI website: https://www.nsi.bg/en/content/19137/%D0%BF%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%8F/environment-2019

• International Publications

- Eurostat Electronic Publication "Energy, Transport and Environment Indicators"

No online database. National reported data is available on Eurostat database:  Material flows and resource productivity (env_mrp)

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Anonymised individual data can be provided for scientific and research purposes, and upon individual request according to the Rules for the provision of anonymised individual data for scientific and research purposes.

Information service upon request.

Data can be provided to users (given the fact that statistical confidentiality is always observed) usually by fax or e-mail, by submitting a relevant data request. Users have to submit their request, describing in details the requested data, to the Division of Statistical Information and Publications. The requests must be submitted electronically , according to the Rules for the dissemination of statistical products and services in NSI. http://www.nsi.bg/bg/node/564

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Short methodological documentation is presented in the publication Environment.

Detailed information on the methodology (e.g. Economy-wide Material Flow Accounts (EW-MFA), Handbook 2018 edition, EW-MFA electronic questionnaire and annexes) is available on Eurostat's website.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

There is no document describing the measures to assure the quality of EW-MFA data apart from the Eurostat quality report, the contents of which are included in this Metadata file.

According to European Statistics Code of Practice and common framework for quality management in the National Statistical System.

The EW-MFA standard tables contain in-built plausibility checks, while Eurostat provides a validation procedureto to check the quality of data received in terms of completeness, internal consistency and plausability.

Most information used is based on national statistics ((e.g. agriculture, forestry and fishery statistics from Ministry of Agriculture, Foods and Forestry, and production statistics - prodcom, energy statistics, foreign trade statistics from National Statistical Institute).

Data accuracy is ensured by strictly following the validation rules and checks in EW-MFA Questionnaire before sending it to Eurostat.

For that reason the overall quality is considered good.

On national level the use of EW-MFA and derived indicators are still relatively limited. The interest is mainly on behalf of national ministries and governmental agencies for the purposes of policy debates and policy decisions that support a better management of national biomass, mineral and energy natural capital. There is also a growing interest on behalf of university and non-university research fellows and students at analysing the impact of environmental policies at national context.

The Statistical Information Dissemination Section of  NSI conducts a survey of user satisfaction with the offered statistical data products and services.

The survey and the results summary are available at the following link: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/16537

For MFA we do not collect user reviews on this topic.

Data are complete for mandatory tables of EW-MFA questionnaire. Data is available starting from the year 2000.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Please use Annex 3 for providing an assessment of the overall quality of the reported data. 

Not applicable because data are not based on a sample survey.

Not applicable because data are not based on a sample survey.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Table A, group MF.1.: final data – end of September of the year following the reference one. (t+9)

Table A: groups MF.2 and MF.3:  provisional data – on 31^st August; final data – on 30^th November of the year following the reference one.

Table A, group MF.4 – November of the year following the reference one.

Tables B and D   Final data are available in September of the year following the reference one.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The final data is delivered on time.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Data on EW-MFA are compiled according to harmonised guidelines provided by Eurostat and hence comparable across European countries reporting EW-MFA data to Eurostat.

Not applicable because physical imports and exports as recorded in EW-MFA are not specified by origin and/or destination.

Please see the table in 15.2.1.1.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Please use below table for explaining b)-flags (breaks in time series):

Environmental accounts are consistent with national accounts.

Also with PRODCOM, Energy Statistics and Foreign Trade.

Not applicable; reported EW-MFA data are only annual.

The data are coherent with national accounts and environmental-economic accounts.

The data reported are internally coherent (totals are equal to the sum of the breakdowns) in the mandatory tables.

No direct respondent burden, compiling MFA is based exclusively on data validation and data are taken and filled directly in the questionnaire from collegues from other statistical departments; Production statistics, Foreign Trade Statistics, Energy Statistics and Agrucultural and Forest Statistics.

Revision of the data is applied if necessary.

Annually if needed. In pursuance of the Regulation, in each data transmission to the Commission, Member States provide annual data for the years n-4, n-3, n-2, n-1 and n, where n is the reference year. 

For the reference years 2015-2018 we have revised the data for item MF.1.1.4 (Pulses) in Table A. According to Annex 1 the P000 (Dry pulses and protein crops for the production of grain including seed and mixtures of cereals and pulses) are sum of P1110 (Field peas), P1200_1 (Broad beans) and P1200_2 (Field beans), P1300 (Sweet lupins) and P9000 (other dry pulses). The revisions were made due to changes in figures for P1110 (Field peas) for 2017 and 2018. 

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Data sources used to produce economy-wide material flow accounts are described in the sub-concepts 18.1.1 (and Annex) and 18.1.2.

Table A 

MF.1 ‘Biomass’ – The main sources of data for this group are the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, NSI statistical surveys and Executive Forestry Agency.  

MF.1.3 ‘Wood’ - Source of data for the whole item is the Executive Forestry Agency at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry in which they are collected in cubic metres (m3).

M.1.3 ‘Net increment of timber stock’: Surveys on net increment of timber stock are carried out every five years.

MF.1.4.1 ‘Wild fish catch’ - Source of data is Eurostat’s statistical data base.

MF.1.4.2 ‘All other aquatic animals and plants’ - Source of data is Eurostat’s statistical data base.

MF.2   Metal ores (gross ores) and group MF.3 Non metallic minerals - Source of data for all categories included in the group is the National sample-based PRODCOM survey included in the annual National Statistical Programme. In cases of missing data Eurostat’s estimates are included.

MF.4 ‘Fossil energy materials/carriers’ - Source of data for all categories included in this group are the National energy balances compiled on national level - a component of the annual National Statistical Programme.

Tables B and D  Foreign Trade Statistics

Sources of the data for the aggregates MF.4.2.3 for fuel purchases by residents abroad and non-residents on the territory are the National energy balances and other energy surveys complemented by administrative data.

Table F

For item MF 7.1 Emissions to air the data  for 2008-2021 year is  taken from the latest version of AEA Questionnaire (BG_AEA_Change_1_16Oct2023.xlsm) sent to Eurostat. The data for 2000-2007 year are Eurostat estimates taken from the latest validated version of MFA Questionnaire (BG_MFA_Final_29Jun2023.xlsm).

For MF 7.2 Waste disposal to control landfills (Memo item) is estimated using Eurostat's 'waste treatment' dataset (env_wastrt): waste operation 'DSP_D - Deposit onto or into land'; waste category 'total waste', excluding W126 (Soils) and W127 (Dredging spoils).

For MF 7.3 Emissions to water (MF.7.3) are estimated based on latest submitted data set WISE SoE – Emissions (WISE-1) on the emissions to water from point sources (municipal waste water treatment plants and industrial direct discharge) and diffuse sources. Item MF.7.3.4 Other substances and (organic) materials is calculated as suggested in MFA manual: 5 % of the item MF.7.4.1 Organic fertilisers.

For MF 7.4 Dissipative use of products (MF.7.4) are estimated based on the data sources presented in MFA manual. They are listed in Annex 1.

Table G is estimated using Table G estimating tool.

The external data sources for Table G are:

- FAOSTAT and National Inventory Report (Population of horses, 1000 cap for years 1988-2021)

- USGS (Production of nitrogen [1000 t])

Annex 1 contains detailed data sources used for questionnaire tables A, B, D, F and G.

Table I is not filled and calculated.

Data collection frequency is annual.

EW-MFA data collection is regulated by Regulation (EU) No. 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts.

Validation checks are built into the EW-MFA questionnaire. These are applied, after which explanations are added in footnotes where necessary.

No specific observation for compilation of MFA, data comes from official statistics (see point 18.1.1)

Not applicable.

Please use Annex 2 to describe estimation approaches for specific items.

Bulgaria employs Eurostat’s correspondence table, provided with the EW-MFA questionnaire, to assign traded goods to material categories.

Bulgaria does not use conversion factors to convert traded goods into tonnes.

For item MF. 4.2.2 ’Natural gas’- in Tables B and D for years 2008-2013. For conversions into metric tons were used the corresponding conversion factors published in the Annexes to the Eurostat’s EW-MFA Questionnaire. For 2014 and 2015 primary data on natural gas are available already in kg, so specific conversion was not necessary from 2015. 

Resident adjustment is compiled in compliance with physical energy flow accounts.

Adjustments are made for fuel purchases in Table B and Table D. Sources of the data for the aggregates MF.4.2.3 for fuel purchases by residents abroad and non-residents on the territory are the National energy balances complemented by administrative data.

Up to reference 2012 year we disposed only with information about the fuel purchases of resident units operating outside of the National territory concerning air and water transport. In 2014, for first time data were collected on purposes of item MF.4.2.3.1 ‘Fuel for land transport.’ Collected data covered fuel purchase of the resident units in the road transport operating outside of the National territory and referred to the reference 2013.

No significant problems.

Not applicable; i.e. in EW-MFA no time series adjustment necessary.

Not applicable.