Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Antonio Fiordaliso, Rue du Progrès 50 – 1210 Bruxelles, Belgium
Nicolas De Cock, Rue du Progrès 50 – 1210 Bruxelles, Belgium
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
7 April 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
7 April 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
7 April 2025
3.1. Data description
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.
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);
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.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
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.
3.5. Statistical 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.
3.6. Statistical population
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 full population of resident legal units is sent to EGR for identification.
The data set with information on foreign legal units for the EGR Identification Service.
ISNORLE file including 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 full population of 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 known relationships between legal units is sent to EGR for processing:
two resident legal units
one resident and one foreign legal unit
two foreign legal units from non EU+EFTA countries.
Relationships in the REL are:
control relationships (>50%)
minority relationships (<50%)
The data set with information on enterprises.
ENT file including full population 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 largest national groups data is sent to the EGR for processing.
The groups’ variables are updated after receiving the preliminary frame:
Employement
Turnover
Total assets
3.7. Reference area
Belgium
3.8. Coverage - Time
The EGR frames are available from reference year 2008 onwards. NSI transmits data for the EGR production cycle since 2008.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable
The economic variables on employment are recorded in absolute figures.
The net turnover for enterprises is recorded in Euro.
The net turnover and net total asset of global enterprise group is recorded in millions in Euro.
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 31 December 2023. The identification, economic variables (number of employees, turnover and economic activity) refer to the year 2023.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
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.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
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).
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:
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).
8.1. Release calendar
Not applicable.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable.
8.3. Release policy - user access
Not applicable.
Not applicable.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Not applicable.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Not applicable.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Not applicable.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
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.
There is not yet documentation on procedures applied for quality management and quality assessment. However, the check and controls realized are detailed on the section 11. Quality Management.
11.1. Quality assurance
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 continous control of the quality of administrative sources used for the creation of EGR data;
Monitoring and optimization of human ressource (ranking of raw data to be treated, set up of a global planning in order to assure work continuity)
11.2. Quality management - assessment
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
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Structual Business Statistics: group perimeter
FATS: group perimeter, group head
Large Case Units: group perimeter
Global value chain: group perimeter
Profiling: group perimeter
Trade by Enterprise Characteristics: group perimeter, group type
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
EGR users satisfaction is assessed by surveys conducted ESTAT.
12.3. Completeness
All statistics that are needed are available
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The accuracy of the data transmitted to the EGR is:
Units
Assessment
Legal units
Very good
Relationships between legal units
Good
Enterprises characteristics
Good
Enterprises perimeters
Good
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
Satisfactory
Because of scheduling constraints, certain variables may occasionally be unavailable when the EGR’s definitive reference frame is compiled.
This accuracy assessment is based on:
A side-by-side comparison between the EGR’s definitive frame and the final Statistical Business Register (SBR) frame in the same reference year;
Quality assessement on the relationship between legal units.
The main issues regarding accuracy of the data and issue importance are as follows:
Units
Issue
Assessment
Legal units
/
/
Relationships between legal units
Some foreign unit are difficult to identify, especially outsite EU+EFTA.
Administrative data are incorrectly filled by legal units
Without correct identification a full link can not be defined which may distort group perimeter.
Units may be linked despite having not real control link which distort group perimeter
Enterprises characteristics
/
/
Enterprise perimeter
/
/
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
There are no currently available structured data sources to retrieve the GEG figures.
Currently, the geg figures are retrieved manually and then it is only done for few important groups limiting overall coverage
The actions taken to reduce bias and to improve accuracy of the data are as follows:
The use of new data sources is assessed, in particular to improve the MNE data coverage.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
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.
14.2. Punctuality
The data have been sent on time.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The data are constructed using the national business register which cover all Belgium and there is no differences in term business register between the different belgian areas.
15.2. Comparability - over time
The EGR data cover for legal units located oustide EU+EFTA may fluctuate from one year to an other then it can induces change on group structure/characteristics over time.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Coherence of data sent to Eurostat with other data sources and statistical domains:
TEC, JVC are build using EGR data therefore, there is coherence between these statistics and EGR
Integration of EGR data in the FATS process is an on going process
15.4. Coherence - internal
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:
automatic validation procedures to check consistent of statistical units and their variables
Not available.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Not applicable
17.2. Data revision - practice
Not applicable
18.1. Source data
The raw data sources are:
Annual accounts (administrative data)
Central bank: FDI, ownership, financial flows (Survey)
Annual reports
National business register (BCE/KBO) (administrative data)
VAT declaration (administrative data)
Social security data (administrative data)
18.2. Frequency of data collection
The raw data sources are:
Annual accounts (Daily)
Central bank (FDI, ownership, financial flows) (Annual)
Annual reports (Annual)
National business register (BCE/KBO) (Daily)
VAT declaration (Weekly)
Social security data (Quaterly)
18.3. Data collection
Data sent to EGR are collected from:
National Statistical business registers;
Administrative data sources;
National group registers.
18.4. Data validation
During the data compilation there are several checks on the data quality:
Check that the struval/conval rules are respected;
Detection of cycle (n>1) in the group structure;
Check of ownership links coherence (multiple parents);
Comparison of group structure from T to T-1.
18.5. Data compilation
Not applicable
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable.
No comment
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.
7 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.
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 full population of resident legal units is sent to EGR for identification.
The data set with information on foreign legal units for the EGR Identification Service.
ISNORLE file including 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 full population of 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 known relationships between legal units is sent to EGR for processing:
two resident legal units
one resident and one foreign legal unit
two foreign legal units from non EU+EFTA countries.
Relationships in the REL are:
control relationships (>50%)
minority relationships (<50%)
The data set with information on enterprises.
ENT file including full population 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 largest national groups data is sent to the EGR for processing.
The groups’ variables are updated after receiving the preliminary frame:
Employement
Turnover
Total assets
Belgium
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 31 December 2023. The identification, economic variables (number of employees, turnover and economic activity) refer to the year 2023.
The accuracy of the data transmitted to the EGR is:
Units
Assessment
Legal units
Very good
Relationships between legal units
Good
Enterprises characteristics
Good
Enterprises perimeters
Good
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
Satisfactory
Because of scheduling constraints, certain variables may occasionally be unavailable when the EGR’s definitive reference frame is compiled.
This accuracy assessment is based on:
A side-by-side comparison between the EGR’s definitive frame and the final Statistical Business Register (SBR) frame in the same reference year;
Quality assessement on the relationship between legal units.
The main issues regarding accuracy of the data and issue importance are as follows:
Units
Issue
Assessment
Legal units
/
/
Relationships between legal units
Some foreign unit are difficult to identify, especially outsite EU+EFTA.
Administrative data are incorrectly filled by legal units
Without correct identification a full link can not be defined which may distort group perimeter.
Units may be linked despite having not real control link which distort group perimeter
Enterprises characteristics
/
/
Enterprise perimeter
/
/
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
There are no currently available structured data sources to retrieve the GEG figures.
Currently, the geg figures are retrieved manually and then it is only done for few important groups limiting overall coverage
The actions taken to reduce bias and to improve accuracy of the data are as follows:
The use of new data sources is assessed, in particular to improve the MNE data coverage.
The economic variables on employment are recorded in absolute figures.
The net turnover for enterprises is recorded in Euro.
The net turnover and net total asset of global enterprise group is recorded in millions in Euro.
Not applicable
The raw data sources are:
Annual accounts (administrative data)
Central bank: FDI, ownership, financial flows (Survey)
Annual reports
National business register (BCE/KBO) (administrative data)
VAT declaration (administrative data)
Social security data (administrative data)
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 data are constructed using the national business register which cover all Belgium and there is no differences in term business register between the different belgian areas.
The EGR data cover for legal units located oustide EU+EFTA may fluctuate from one year to an other then it can induces change on group structure/characteristics over time.
