Multinational enterprise groups in EuroGroups Register (EGR) - experimental statistics (egr)

1.1. Contact organisation

Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union

1.2. Contact organisation unit

Eurostat unit G.1: Infrastructures; Short-term business indicators

1.3. Contact name

Confidential because of GDPR

1.4. Contact person function

Confidential because of GDPR

1.5. Contact mail address

European Commission

DG Eurostat, Unit G.1

L- 2920 Luxembourg

1.6. Contact email address

Confidential because of GDPR

1.7. Contact phone number

Confidential because of GDPR

1.8. Contact fax number

Confidential because of GDPR

2.1. Metadata last certified

20 April 2026

2.2. Metadata last posted

20 April 2026

2.3. Metadata last update

20 April 2026

3.1. Data description

Eurostat together with the National Statistical Institutes of European Union (EU) Member States and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries has set up and maintains a unique statistical business register called the EuroGroups Register (EGR) gathering information on multinational enterprise groups operating in EU Member States and EFTA countries  The EGR covers multinational enterprise groups having at least one Legal unit located in the EU Member States or EFTA countries. It includes micro data about the control structures of multinational enterprise groups, their constituent Legal units and corresponding Enterprises. The EGR is a statistical business register accessible by the National Statistical Institutes, National Central Banks and the European Central Bank for statistical purpose only.

As statistical business register, the EGR records the following units’ main characteristics:

• identification variables,
• demographic events,
• control and ownership,
• stratification parameters, and
• economic variables (e.g., employment, turnover, economic activity code, etc.).

 

Based on the annual EGR final frame, Eurostat releases aggregated data on multinational enterprise groups as experimental statistics in Eurostat online database in the following datasets:

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

The controlling country is defined by the location of the Ultimate controlling institutional unit (UCI).

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

The percentage of total employment refers to the Structural business statistical figures.

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

Share of total employment in EU of the largest multinational enterprise groups by NACE activity of the enterprises belonging to the groups. The total employment refers to the Structural business statistical figures.

• Multinational enterprise groups in EU-EFTA countries by controlling country, size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity (egr_mne_n2sc).
• Multinational enterprise groups employment by controlling country group size class NACE Rev. 2 and country of work (egr_mne_empw).

3.2. Classification system

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)
• Institutional sector classification as defined in the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010)
• Currency codes (ISO 4217)
• The multinational enterprise group size class is based on the multinational enterprise groups worldwide employment and includes 5 items:[0-49], [50-249], [250-999], [250-999], [1000 +]

3.3. Coverage - sector

The EGR units cover:

• 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.

3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions

EGR final frame

The EGR final frame is the annual output that reflects the state of the EGR at the end of the yearly cycle. It includes all the active units at the end of the reference year. The units with an end date prior to the end of the reference year are discarded from the EGR final frame.

Frame reference year

The frame reference year T means that all unit’s variables refer to the 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

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 an enterprise group is the institutional unit that is not controlled by another institutional unit.

Active statistical unit

The EGR includes 2 statistical units, the enterprise and the enterprise group

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. The ‘production of output’ includes any offer of goods and services on a given market even if this has not resulted in turnover, as well as any non-market services contributing to the GDP. The ‘performance of investments’ includes direct and indirect holdings of active legal units and may include holding assets and/or liabilities.

Number of employees and self-employed persons

 

Net Turnover

 

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 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.

3.5. Statistical unit

Incorporated legal units

Incorporated legal units are limited liability companies with capital divided into shares or quotas owned by shareholders. Shareholders appoint directors for management. The incorporated legal units can potentially be a parent or a subsidiary.

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.

Enterprise group

An enterprise group is a statistical unit made of a set of a least two legal units or enterprises bound by legal and/or financial links. An enterprise group is empowered to make choice concerning the units it comprises. It may centralize certain aspects of financial management and taxation.

Multinational enterprise group

'Multinational enterprise group' means an enterprise group with at least two enterprises or legal units each of which is in a different country. In business statistics also term ‘global enterprise group’ is used.

3.6. Statistical population

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 incorporated Legal units, and Enterprises.

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

3.7. Reference area

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

3.8. Coverage - Time

The EGR frames are available since 2008 reference year.

3.9. Base period

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.

6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements

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.

6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing

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

7.1. Confidentiality - policy

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.

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 and to the members of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), data concerning Multinational enterprise group (s) and their constituent units, when at least one legal unit of the group is in the territory of that Member State or, if no legal unit in the territory, when the ultimate controlling unit of the group is in the territory of that Member State (e.g. the controlling unit is natural person) provided that an authorization from the national statistical institutes whose units are in the group concerned is given.

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

7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment

EGR data are stored by the Commission (Eurostat) , by the national statistical authorities in the EU Member States and EFTA countries and by central banks in the EU Member States 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.

8.1. Release calendar

For the reference year T the EGR frames are released according to the following table:

 

EGR frames	Released dates
Final frame	T+15 months
Preliminary frame	T+13 months
Initial frame	T+12 months
Early initial frame	T+4 months

The Eurobase tables and Statistics Explained articles are published following the release of the EGR final frame on the Eurostat website as Experimental Statistics.

 

8.2. Release calendar access

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

8.3. Release policy - user access

EGR data are available to the national statistical authorities 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 in Europe, provided that an authorization from the respective national statistical institute is given, according to Art. 10 of the EBS Regulation.

For national statistical institutes and national central banks, the access to the EGR data is restricted to information on those enterprise groups, when at least one legal unit of a specific enterprise group is located at the territory of the country of that national statistical institute or national central bank or, if no legal unit in the territory, when the ultimate controlling unit of the enterprise group is located in the territory of that national statistical institute or national central bank (e.g. the controlling unit is natural person) provided that an authorization from the national statistical institutes whose units are in the group concerned is given.

The EGR final frame is released annually, and it is transmitted to the national statistical institutes and to the national central banks and the European Central Bank (ECB).

Access to micro data via on-line interface is open to National Statistical Institutes (NSIs), authorized National Central Banks (NCBs) and ECB on a continuous basis (except for some periods during which maintenance operations occur).

10.1. Dissemination format - News release

Not applicable.

10.2. Dissemination format - Publications

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.
• Economic indicators of enterprises belonging to multinational enterprise groups. This article has been drafted as a result of the second round of a micro data linking (MDL) exercise between EuroGroups Register (EGR) and Structural Business Statistics.
• SMEs - independent and in enterprise groups This article compares the data on SMEs and large enterprises that are independent and the ones that are part of enterprise groups.
• Employment in foreign-controlled multinational enterprise transport groups. This article examines the share of employment in the transport and storage sector enterprises belonging to foreign-controlled MNE groups.

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.

10.3. Dissemination format - online database

Eurostat releases, on its website, aggregated data on multinational enterprise groups as experimental statistics, please see Database - Eurostat (europa.eu).

The following 5 tables displayed multinational enterprise groups aggregates.

• Multinational enterprise groups in EU-EFTA countries by controlling country (egr_mne).
• Persons employed in multinational enterprise groups by size class (egr_emp).
• Concentration of multinational enterprise groups by NACE Rev.2 activity (egr_conc).
• Multinational enterprise groups in EU-EFTA countries by controlling country, size class and NACE Rev.2 activity (egr_mne_n2sc).
• Multinational enterprise groups employment by controlling country group size class NACE Rev 2 and country of work (egr_mne_empw).

 

National statistical institutes can access to EGR micro data using restricted Eurostat platforms.

10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access

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 national statistical authorities of the EU Member States and EFTA countries and the European Commission (Eurostat).

10.5. Dissemination format - other

Not applicable.

10.6. Documentation on methodology

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 compliers' manual for EuroGroups register 2025 edition - Eurostat (europa.eu) outlines the process and the methodology for the EGR.

The Quality report on European statistical business registers – 2026 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).

10.7. Quality management - documentation

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

11.1. Quality assurance

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 is handled by the platform EDAMIS used by the national statistical institutes 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, resulting in a set of validation reports that are transmitted to national statistical institutes. These reports enable national statistical institutes to further verify, correct and validate their data.

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 for European statistical business registers. Moreover, to ensure a frequent treatment, and improve the quality and the coverage, the profiling data of several multinational enterprise groups with potential sizable effect on the economy (Top-Tier groups) have been integrated in the EGR final frame.

11.2. Quality management - assessment

The assessment of the quality of the data transmitted to EGR by the national statistical institutes is done using a set of 4 quality indicators monitoring the punctuality, the completeness, the accuracy and reliability and the coherence and comparability.

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 by taking the appropriate actions.

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

No definition available for this concept

12.1. Relevance - User Needs

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

 

To respond to the needs of users from macroeconomics and business statistics, 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 multinational enterprise groups, through profiling, and the second tier consists of a coordinated cross-country information on the full population of the multinational enterprise groups operating in the EU Member States and EFTA countries.

12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction

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.

The latest 2023 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.

Overall, the users assessed the EGR quality with favorable 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.

12.3. Completeness

The completeness rates are released under of are provided in the Quality report on European statistical business register publication .

Additional information in the sections 13.1 Accuracy overall and 18.1 Source data

13.1. Accuracy - overall

The overall accuracy of the EGR final frame is presented in the following table by type of unit and geographical area.

For the EU-EFTA units the accuracy is a summary of the EU-EFTA national statistical institutes assessments and for the units outside the EU-EFTA the accuracy is evaluated by Eurostat.

Units	EU-EFTA	Outside EU-EFTA
Legal units	Very good	Good
Enterprises	Good	Satisfactory
Multinational enterprise groups*	Satisfactory	Satisfactory

 

* The nationality of a multinational enterprise group is the country of the group global decision center

The accuracy of the EU-EFTA units is based on:

• the comprehensive administrative data sources and cross-checking with national statistical
• the integration of survey feedback, profiling activity and data validation at enterprise level
• the availability of global data for multinational enterprise groups

The accuracy of the units outside EU-EFTA is based on:

• the share of missing units' characteristics
• the evaluation of potential inconsistencies at group level
• the share of the multinational enterprise groups with global employment equal to zero
• the share of multinational enterprise groups with global employment lower than the sum of their EU-EFTA enterprises employment

 

	EU-EFTA		Outside EU-EFTA
Units	Issue	Importance	Issue	Importance
Legal units	Difficulties to identify foreign units Over-coverage Misclassification	Mostly for Extra EU units Very few duplicates Few wrong NACE code	Missing information	Only the VAT-ID do not get a good coverage
Enterprises	Misclassification Late data availability	Few wrong NACE code Some delay on the availability of economic variable	Missing information	Net turnover and employment do not have a good coverage
Multinational enterprise groups	Missing information	Mostly impacting small multinational enterprise groups	Missing information	Net turnover and assets do not have a good coverage

* The nationality of a multinational enterprise group is the country of the group global decision center (c.f. section 3.4)

The following actions to improve the quality of EU-EFTA units were taken:

• Implemented automated validation procedures
• Conducted cross-referencing with multiple data sources
• IT procedures to ensure data consistency and correct classifications
• Closer collaboration between domains for accurate data profiling

The following actions to improve the quality of units outside the EU-EFTA were taken:

• Use of the Companies House data and throughout analisis of commercial data
• Use of additional data sources for global values (Wikipedia, EDGAR)

Additional information is available under the Quality - Statistical business registers - Eurostat webpage

13.2. Sampling error

Not applicable.

13.3. Non-sampling error

Not applicable.

14.1. Timeliness

EGR frames	Timeliness
Final frame	15 monts after the end of the reference year
Preliminary frame	13 months after the end of the reference year
Initial frame	12 months after the end of the reference year
Early initial frame	4 months after the end of the reference year

14.2. Punctuality

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

15.1. Comparability - geographical

The EGR frame allows geographical comparability of information on multinational enterprise groups provided by countries.

15.2. Comparability - over time

Considering the used EGR process versions, the data source and UK status, the comparability over the time is as follow:

Comparable reference years	EGR system version	Data sources
2008-2011	EGR 1.0	Mainly commercial data
2012-2013	EGR 1.0 and EGR 2.0	Mainly NSIs data completed by commercial data
2014-2019	EGR 2.0	Mainly NSIs data completed by commercial data
2019- 2021	EGR 2.0	Mainly NSIs data completed by commercial data especially for UK data.
2022- Onwards	EGR 2.0	Mainly NSIs data (including data of MNE groups profiled in the interactive profiling tool, which are then automatically integrated in EGR), completed by commercial data. In addition, since 2022 data from Companies House for the UK and from 2023 data from EDGAR (SEC's register of traded companies) and Wikipedia are included.

Regarding the aggregates on multinational enterprise groups released in Eurostat online database:

Reference year	Datasets
2018-2020	Persons employed in multinational enterprise groups by size class (egr_emp). Multinational enterprise groups in EU-EFTA countries by controlling country (egr_mne). Multinational enterprise groups in EU-EFTA countries by controlling country, size class and NACE Rev.2 activity (egr_mne_n2sc). Multinational enterprise groups employment by controlling country group size class NACE Rev 2 and country of work (egr_mne_empw). Concentration of multinational enterprise groups by NACE Rev.2 activity (egr_conc). From 2018-2020 the total employment using the Structural business statistical figures considers persons working in the non-financial business economy (B to N excluding K).
2021-Onwards	Persons employed in multinational enterprise groups by size class (egr_emp). Multinational enterprise groups in EU-EFTA countries by controlling country (egr_mne). Multinational enterprise groups in EU-EFTA countries by controlling country, size class and NACE Rev.2 activity (egr_mne_n2sc). Multinational enterprise groups employment by controlling country group size class NACE Rev 2 and country of work (egr_mne_empw). Concentration of multinational enterprise groups by NACE Rev.2 activity (egr_conc). From 2021 onwards, with the Structural business statistical 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.

 

15.3. Coherence - cross domain

National statistical institutes 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.

15.4. Coherence - internal

The internal coherence within the EGR frame is based on process checking, 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 priority rules with the national statistical institutes give priority first to the profiling data, then to the business registers data and last to the commercial data source.

Potential shortcomings are addressed by a data quality program for European statistical business registers aiming at:

• 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 statistical institutes and the acquisition of commercial data is focused mainly on the non-EU and non-EFTA units.

17.1. Data revision - policy

As the aggregates figures on multinational enterprise groups, derived from the EGR and, released by Eurostat constitute experimental statistics, there is no specific revision policy for them.

The revision practices applied for these experimental statistics are described under sub-concept 17.2 (data revision - practice).

17.2. Data revision - practice

Once experimental statistics data are disseminated for a time period, they are never corrected or otherwise revised for that time period.

18.1. Source data

The sources used by EU-EFTA national statistical institutes are detailed under their national metadata.

The sources for legal units and enterprises outside EU-EFTA are:

Units variables	Source type and origin	completeness
Legal unit: Name, address,legal form, legal activity status, demographic events. Enterprise: NACE code, employment, turnover	Commercial data source Companies House, the official UK agency	Partial
Legal units VAT ID	Commercial data source	Partial
Enterprise institutional sector	None	None
Relationaships between legal units	Commercial data source	Partial
Enterprise delineation	Rule: 1 enterprise= 1 legal unit	Exhaustive

For MNE groups

Units variables	Source type and origin	Completeness
MNE group: name, globel decision center, UCI	Statistical algorythm National statistical institutes	Exhaustive
MNE groups: NACE code, employment	Statistical algorythm National statistical institutes	Partial
MNE groups turnover	National statistical institutes Commercial data source SEC’s electronic data gathering, analysis, and retrieval (EDGAR) system for multinational enterprise groups traded in the US stock market Wikipedia as a complementary source for multinational enterprise group data.	Partial

 

18.2. Frequency of data collection

The national statistical institutes statistical business registers contribute to the production of the EGR frame by delivering data during an annual EGR cycle.

18.3. Data collection

During the EGR cycle, Eurostat collects data from the EU-EFTA national statistical institutes, one commercial data provider and open data sources.

The Commercial data provider and open data sources provide Eurostat with data mainly on Extra-EU and EFTA statistical units. The data on Extra-EU statistical units is injected into the EGR during the production cycle and all the data are made available to the Member States for consultation, check, and challenge.

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

18.4. Data validation

The EGR data validation process takes place continuously during the EGR production process in between T+5 and T+15 months. The national statistical institutes contribute to the validation process of the multinational enterprise group structures during the repair phase by delivering relationships and data on enterprise groups to the EGR and 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, 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.

18.5. Data compilation

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 reconstructs the full chain of direct and indirect relationships.

18.6. Adjustment

Not applicable.

All modules of the EGR system version 2.0 have been in production since 2015. There is continuous improvement of the EGR production process and the EGR system aiming at improving efficiency and ensuring the output quality.

Multinational enterprise groups in EuroGroups Register (EGR) - experimental statistics [ESTAT+EGR_EMP+6.0]

Eurostat together with the National Statistical Institutes of European Union (EU) Member States and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries has set up and maintains a unique statistical business register called the EuroGroups Register (EGR) gathering information on multinational enterprise groups operating in EU Member States and EFTA countries  The EGR covers multinational enterprise groups having at least one Legal unit located in the EU Member States or EFTA countries. It includes micro data about the control structures of multinational enterprise groups, their constituent Legal units and corresponding Enterprises. The EGR is a statistical business register accessible by the National Statistical Institutes, National Central Banks and the European Central Bank for statistical purpose only.

As statistical business register, the EGR records the following units’ main characteristics:

• identification variables,
• demographic events,
• control and ownership,
• stratification parameters, and
• economic variables (e.g., employment, turnover, economic activity code, etc.).

 

Based on the annual EGR final frame, Eurostat releases aggregated data on multinational enterprise groups as experimental statistics in Eurostat online database in the following datasets:

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

The controlling country is defined by the location of the Ultimate controlling institutional unit (UCI).

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

The percentage of total employment refers to the Structural business statistical figures.

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

Share of total employment in EU of the largest multinational enterprise groups by NACE activity of the enterprises belonging to the groups. The total employment refers to the Structural business statistical figures.

• Multinational enterprise groups in EU-EFTA countries by controlling country, size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity (egr_mne_n2sc).
• Multinational enterprise groups employment by controlling country group size class NACE Rev. 2 and country of work (egr_mne_empw).

20 April 2026

EGR final frame

The EGR final frame is the annual output that reflects the state of the EGR at the end of the yearly cycle. It includes all the active units at the end of the reference year. The units with an end date prior to the end of the reference year are discarded from the EGR final frame.

Frame reference year

The frame reference year T means that all unit’s variables refer to the 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

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 an enterprise group is the institutional unit that is not controlled by another institutional unit.

Active statistical unit

The EGR includes 2 statistical units, the enterprise and the enterprise group

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. The ‘production of output’ includes any offer of goods and services on a given market even if this has not resulted in turnover, as well as any non-market services contributing to the GDP. The ‘performance of investments’ includes direct and indirect holdings of active legal units and may include holding assets and/or liabilities.

Number of employees and self-employed persons

 

Net Turnover

 

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 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.

Incorporated legal units

Incorporated legal units are limited liability companies with capital divided into shares or quotas owned by shareholders. Shareholders appoint directors for management. The incorporated legal units can potentially be a parent or a subsidiary.

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.

Enterprise group

An enterprise group is a statistical unit made of a set of a least two legal units or enterprises bound by legal and/or financial links. An enterprise group is empowered to make choice concerning the units it comprises. It may centralize certain aspects of financial management and taxation.

Multinational enterprise group

'Multinational enterprise group' means an enterprise group with at least two enterprises or legal units each of which is 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 incorporated Legal units, and Enterprises.

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

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

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

The overall accuracy of the EGR final frame is presented in the following table by type of unit and geographical area.

For the EU-EFTA units the accuracy is a summary of the EU-EFTA national statistical institutes assessments and for the units outside the EU-EFTA the accuracy is evaluated by Eurostat.

Units	EU-EFTA	Outside EU-EFTA
Legal units	Very good	Good
Enterprises	Good	Satisfactory
Multinational enterprise groups*	Satisfactory	Satisfactory

 

* The nationality of a multinational enterprise group is the country of the group global decision center

The accuracy of the EU-EFTA units is based on:

• the comprehensive administrative data sources and cross-checking with national statistical
• the integration of survey feedback, profiling activity and data validation at enterprise level
• the availability of global data for multinational enterprise groups

The accuracy of the units outside EU-EFTA is based on:

• the share of missing units' characteristics
• the evaluation of potential inconsistencies at group level
• the share of the multinational enterprise groups with global employment equal to zero
• the share of multinational enterprise groups with global employment lower than the sum of their EU-EFTA enterprises employment

 

	EU-EFTA		Outside EU-EFTA
Units	Issue	Importance	Issue	Importance
Legal units	Difficulties to identify foreign units Over-coverage Misclassification	Mostly for Extra EU units Very few duplicates Few wrong NACE code	Missing information	Only the VAT-ID do not get a good coverage
Enterprises	Misclassification Late data availability	Few wrong NACE code Some delay on the availability of economic variable	Missing information	Net turnover and employment do not have a good coverage
Multinational enterprise groups	Missing information	Mostly impacting small multinational enterprise groups	Missing information	Net turnover and assets do not have a good coverage

* The nationality of a multinational enterprise group is the country of the group global decision center (c.f. section 3.4)

The following actions to improve the quality of EU-EFTA units were taken:

• Implemented automated validation procedures
• Conducted cross-referencing with multiple data sources
• IT procedures to ensure data consistency and correct classifications
• Closer collaboration between domains for accurate data profiling

The following actions to improve the quality of units outside the EU-EFTA were taken:

• Use of the Companies House data and throughout analisis of commercial data
• Use of additional data sources for global values (Wikipedia, EDGAR)

Additional information is available under the Quality - Statistical business registers - Eurostat webpage

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

The sources used by EU-EFTA national statistical institutes are detailed under their national metadata.

The sources for legal units and enterprises outside EU-EFTA are:

Units variables	Source type and origin	completeness
Legal unit: Name, address,legal form, legal activity status, demographic events. Enterprise: NACE code, employment, turnover	Commercial data source Companies House, the official UK agency	Partial
Legal units VAT ID	Commercial data source	Partial
Enterprise institutional sector	None	None
Relationaships between legal units	Commercial data source	Partial
Enterprise delineation	Rule: 1 enterprise= 1 legal unit	Exhaustive

For MNE groups

Units variables	Source type and origin	Completeness
MNE group: name, globel decision center, UCI	Statistical algorythm National statistical institutes	Exhaustive
MNE groups: NACE code, employment	Statistical algorythm National statistical institutes	Partial
MNE groups turnover	National statistical institutes Commercial data source SEC’s electronic data gathering, analysis, and retrieval (EDGAR) system for multinational enterprise groups traded in the US stock market Wikipedia as a complementary source for multinational enterprise group data.	Partial

 

The EGR final frame is released annually, and it is transmitted to the national statistical institutes and to the national central banks and the European Central Bank (ECB).

Access to micro data via on-line interface is open to National Statistical Institutes (NSIs), authorized National Central Banks (NCBs) and ECB on a continuous basis (except for some periods during which maintenance operations occur).

EGR frames	Timeliness
Final frame	15 monts after the end of the reference year
Preliminary frame	13 months after the end of the reference year
Initial frame	12 months after the end of the reference year
Early initial frame	4 months after the end of the reference year

The EGR frame allows geographical comparability of information on multinational enterprise groups provided by countries.

Considering the used EGR process versions, the data source and UK status, the comparability over the time is as follow:

Comparable reference years	EGR system version	Data sources
2008-2011	EGR 1.0	Mainly commercial data
2012-2013	EGR 1.0 and EGR 2.0	Mainly NSIs data completed by commercial data
2014-2019	EGR 2.0	Mainly NSIs data completed by commercial data
2019- 2021	EGR 2.0	Mainly NSIs data completed by commercial data especially for UK data.
2022- Onwards	EGR 2.0	Mainly NSIs data (including data of MNE groups profiled in the interactive profiling tool, which are then automatically integrated in EGR), completed by commercial data. In addition, since 2022 data from Companies House for the UK and from 2023 data from EDGAR (SEC's register of traded companies) and Wikipedia are included.

Regarding the aggregates on multinational enterprise groups released in Eurostat online database:

Reference year	Datasets
2018-2020	Persons employed in multinational enterprise groups by size class (egr_emp). Multinational enterprise groups in EU-EFTA countries by controlling country (egr_mne). Multinational enterprise groups in EU-EFTA countries by controlling country, size class and NACE Rev.2 activity (egr_mne_n2sc). Multinational enterprise groups employment by controlling country group size class NACE Rev 2 and country of work (egr_mne_empw). Concentration of multinational enterprise groups by NACE Rev.2 activity (egr_conc). From 2018-2020 the total employment using the Structural business statistical figures considers persons working in the non-financial business economy (B to N excluding K).
2021-Onwards	Persons employed in multinational enterprise groups by size class (egr_emp). Multinational enterprise groups in EU-EFTA countries by controlling country (egr_mne). Multinational enterprise groups in EU-EFTA countries by controlling country, size class and NACE Rev.2 activity (egr_mne_n2sc). Multinational enterprise groups employment by controlling country group size class NACE Rev 2 and country of work (egr_mne_empw). Concentration of multinational enterprise groups by NACE Rev.2 activity (egr_conc). From 2021 onwards, with the Structural business statistical 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.