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.
Business Statistics, Energy, Environment, Agriculture, Science and Technology, Information Society, International Cooperation and Programming
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
Statistical Service of Cyprus
CY-1444
Nicosia
Cyprus
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
9 May 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
9 May 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
9 May 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 8 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 in 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:
Institutional Sector classification as defined in the 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).
3.3. Coverage - sector
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.
Active enterprise (consolidated definition within the EBS framework)
The number of active enterprises is the number of all statistical units which at any time during the reference period were enterprises and active during the same reference period. 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
The number of employees represents the average number of persons who were, at some time during the reference period, employees of the statistical unit
Number of employees and self-employed persons
The number of employees and self-employed persons is the sum of the Number of employees and Number of self- employed persons. The number of self-employed persons is the average number of persons who were at some time during the reference period the sole owners or joint owners of the statistical unit in which they work. Family workers and outworkers whose income is a function of the value of the outputs of the statistical unit are also included.
Net turnover
For all activities except for NACE 64, 65 and some activities of NACE 66 net turnover consists of all income arising during the reference period in the course of ordinary activities of the statistical unit, and is presented net of all price reductions, discounts and rebates granted by it. Income is defined as increases in economic benefits during the reference period in the form of inflows or enhancements of assets or decreases of liabilities that result in increases in equity, other than those relating to contributions from equity participants.
The inflows referred to are arising from contracts with customers and are realized through the satisfaction by the statistical unit of performance obligations as foreseen in said contracts. Usually, a performance obligation is represented by the sale (transfer) of goods or the rendering of services, however, the gross inflows can also contain revenues obtained as a yield on the use by others of the statistical unit’s assets.
Excluded from net turnover are:
all taxes, duties or levies linked directly to revenue;
any amounts collected on behalf of any principal, if the statistical unit is acting as an agent in its relationship with said principal;
all income not arising in the course of ordinary activities of the statistical unit. Usually, these types of income are classified as ‘Other (operating) income’, ‘Financial income’, ‘Extra ordinary income’ or under a similar heading, depending on the respective set of generally accepted accounting standards used to prepare the financial statements.
Infra-annual statistics may not be able to take into account aspects such as annual price reductions, subsidies, rebates and discounts.
For the activities of NACE K6411, K6419 and K649 net turnover is defined as the value of output minus subsidies or government grants.
For the activities of NACE K642 and K643 net turnover can be approximated by the total operating costs, if net turnover is not available in the financial statements.
For the activities of NACE K6511, K6512 and K652 net turnover is defined as Gross premiums earned.
For the activities of NACE K653 the net turnover is defined as total pension contributions. For activities of NACE K66 for which net turnover is not available in the financial statements, net turnover is defined as the value of output minus subsidies or government grants.
For activities of NACE K66 for which net turnover is available in the financial statements, the standard definition of net turnover applies.
Principal activity
The principal (or main) activity is the activity that contributes most to the total value added of a unit under consideration. Ideally, the principal activity of the unit should be determined with reference to the value added to the goods and services produced, by applying the top-down method. The top-down method follows a hierarchical principle: the classification of the unit at the lowest level of the classification must be consistent with the classification of the unit at higher levels. The principal activity so identified does not necessarily account for 50 % or more of the unit’s total value added.
In the European Union the classification of principal activity is determined by reference to NACE Rev. 2, first at the highest level of classification and then at more detailed levels (top-down method).
Total assets
Total assets refer to the sum of the balance sheet items at the end of the accounting period. It covers economic assets, which are divided into financial and non-financial assets. In the case of a multinational group, the data on total assets are to be taken from the EGR.
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
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 (EGR IS). It includes all active, inactive and liquidated resident legal units during the reference year 2023. It also includes all de-registered/dissolved legal units from previous years. The status of the de-registered/dissolved legal units was changed to liquidated, in order to be removed from the EGR IS tool.
ISRLE file includes 435483 population of resident legal units is sent to EGR for identification.
The data set with information on non resident legal units for the EGR Identification Service. It is a full set of all non resident legal units related to resident legal units.
ISNORLE file including 49981 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. It includes all active, inactive and liquidated resident legal units during the reference year 2023.
LEU file including 208855 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. Is is a full dataset of the relationships between legal units identified in the EGR IS.
REL file including 78343 relationships between legal units is sent to EGR for processing:
66178 two resident legal units
12165 one resident and one foreign legal unit
0 two foreign legal units from non-EU+EFTA countries.
Relationships in the REL are:
52689 control relationships (>50%)
25654 minority relationships (<50%)
The data set with information on enterprises. This is a full dataset of the enterprises related to the incorporated legal units sent to EGR CORE.
ENT file including 51799 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. It includes all the links between the resident legal units and the enterprises.
LEL file including 73307 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 5057 groups data is sent to the EGR for processing.
The groups’ variables are updated after receiving the preliminary frame.
GEG_NAME
GEG_TURNOV
GEG_T_ASSET
GEG_UCI_RCC
GEG_WEB
GEG_DESCR
3.7. Reference area
For the Statistical Business Register, the reference area, are the Government controlled areas of the Republic of Cyprus.
For the EGR, the Reference area is the world, although the main interest is the area 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 from reference year 2008 onwards. The Statistical Service of Cyprus, transmits data for the EGR production cycle since reference year 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 EUR currency.
The net turnover and net total asset for enterprise groups are recorded in millions in EUR currency.
The reference period for data sent to the EGR reflects the picture of 31 December of the given reference year.
The latest EGR final frame, released in March 2025, consists of the final annual master frame for the 2023 reference year. The identification, economic variables (number of employees and self-employed persons, net turnover and economic activity) refer to the 2023 reference year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
The content of the national data sent to EGR is defined according the:
Article 3 of the national Official Statistics Law, No. 25(I) of 2021 defines the functions of the Statistical Service of Cyprus regarding the production and dissemination of official statistics. Moreover, Article 13, explicitly stipulates the mandate for data collection and introduces a mandatory response to statistical enquiries by stipulating the obligation of respondents to reply to surveys and provide the data required. This relates not only to national but also to European statistics which, by virtue of Article 8 of the said Law, are incorporated in the annual and multiannual programmes of work without any further procedure.
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 Art. 10 of the EBS Regulation (EU) 2019/2152.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Official statisticss are released in accordance to all confidentiality provisions of the following:
National Official Statistics Law No. 25(I) of 2021 (especially Article 16 on statistical confidentiality).
Regulation - 2019/2152 on European Business Statistics (Art. 10).
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics and its later amendments (especially Chapter 5 on statistical confidentiality).
European Statistics Code of Practice (especially Principle 5 on statistical confidentiality).
Guidelines for the Protection of Confidential Data.
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 (europa.eu).
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).
The treatment of confidential data is regulated by Guidelines for the Protection of Confidential Data.
The data transmitted to the EGR by the national institutes are micro data and are not disseminated. Only aggregates are disseminated in Eurobase every year.
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 shall take 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 information.
National Central Bank (NCB) for purpose to ensure quality of the MNE information, exclusively for statistical purposes.
Furthermore, under the provisions of the Official Statistics Law, CYSTAT may release microdata for the sole use of scientific research. Applicants have to submit the request form "APPLICATION FOR DATA FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES" giving thorough information on the project for which micro-data are needed.
The application is evaluated by CYSTAT’s Confidentiality Committee and if the application is approved, a charge is fixed according to the volume and time consumed for preparation of the data. Micro-data may then be released after an anonymization process which ensures no direct identification of the statistical units but, at the same time, ensures usability of the data. The link for the application is attached below.
Publicly available information on the EGR, its data, methodology and quality management can be found on the Overview - Eurostat (europa.eu)
Information on the data quality programme for European statistical business registers is available in a domain-specific CIRCABC folder (restricted access).
EGR producers in the NSIs and statistical users in the NSIs and NCBs find more detailed information on EGR process, methodology, quality indicators on EGR wiki (restricted access).
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:
The quality of statistics in CYSTAT is managed in the framework of the European Statistics Code of Practice which sets the standards for developing, producing and disseminating European Statistics as well as the ESS Quality Assurance Framework (QAF). CYSTAT endorses the Quality Declaration of the European Statistical System. In addition, CYSTAT is guided by the requirements provided for in Article 11 of the Official Statistics Law No. 25(I) of 2021 as well as Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics, which sets out the quality criteria to be applied in the development, production and dissemination of European statistics.
Additionally, CYSTAT has issued "Quality Guidelines for Statistical Processes", aiming to provide guidance on statistical production processes. The two pillars on which the guidelines are based, are the European Statistics Code of Practice which provides the basic principles for the production of high quality European statistics and the GSBPM which defines and describes the main phases of the statistical production process. This document provides a description of CYSTAT's Quality Policy, of the phases of statistical production and specific guidelines to be followed in every phase of statistical production. It is available internally to CYSTAT staff and ONAs.
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.
calculation of EGR - FATS quality indicators.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The EGR provides harmonized information on multinational enterprise groups and their enterprises in the EU and EFTA countries. The coordinated frame populations produced by the EGR are used in the production of statistics related to globalisation such as:
Foreign affiliates statistics (IFATS and OFATS)
Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and
Gross National Income (GNI)
Furthermore, the EGR data is used as a basis for European Profiling of the largest and more complex EU multinational enterprise groups.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Since 2017, the users' satisfaction on the Statistical Business Register (SBR) and Eurogroups Register (EGR) is measured by the user consultation survey, conducted by Eurostat. The user consultation survey addresses the users of the national statistical business registers (NSBR) and the EuroGroups Register (EGR). The user consultation survey measures the satisfaction of the users on the qualiy of the SBR and the EGR. The user consultation survey is also aiming at collecting information on the users' current and future needs.
12.3. Completeness
CYSTAT transmits to the EGR a complete dataset of the following:
EGR IS (for identification)
All the incorporated resident Legal Units to the EGR IS (EGR_ISRLE)
All non resident to the EGR IS for identification (EGR_ISNORLE)
EGR Core
All the resident incorporated LeUs (EGR_LEU)
All the relationships (resident and first level non-resident relationships) (EGR_RELATIO)
All the Enterprises delineated from those LeUs and their relationships (EGR_ENT)
Relationships between Enterprises and LeUs (EGR_LEL)
The completeness is annually assessed by Eurostat.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The accuracy of the data transmitted to the EGR is
Units
Assessment
Legal units
Very good
Relationships between legal units
Very good
Enterprises characteristics
Very good
Enterprises perimeters
Very good
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
Satisfactory
This accuracy assessment is based on:
Regular Business Register update survey;
Feedback from SBS surveys;
Feedback from the enterprises;
Use of administrative data sources;
Participation in the ad-hoc activity.
The main issues regarding accuracy of the data and issue importance are as follows
Units
Issue
Importance
Legal units
Relationships between legal units
Non-EU, non-EFTA RELs under coverage
Missing cross boarder relationships
Enterprises characteristics
Missing data
Missing data on turnover
Enterprises perimeters
Coding mistakes
Some NACE coding mistakes
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
Missing data
Missing data for the GEG
The actions taken to reduce bias (if any) and to improve accuracy of the data are as follows
Relationships: The majority of the foreign non-EU, non-EFTA legal units cannot be identified in EGR IS. As a result, some non resident relationships cannot be sent to EGR. The action taken is to manually identify the non-resident parent (non-EU, non-EFTA) legal unit, where the matching percentage is <100%. Furthermore, for the EU - EFTA relationships, CYSTAT voluntarily participates to the EGR ISNORLE ad-hoc activity.
Enterprises characteristics: Some data on turnover is missing. The main source for Turnover data is the VAT register. However, since not all the Legal Units are registered with the VAT, turnover missing values were observed. In order to deal with this issue, CYSTAT has developed a tool to extract data from the Legal Units' annual accounts. One of the variables extracted is turnover.
Enterprises perimeters: Some NACE coding mistakes were observed due to administrative sources wrong coding, non accurate descriptions received from the legal units and activity changes that took place during the reference year. The NACE coding is corrected using feedback from the Business Register update survey, feedback from the SBS surveys, feedback from the Legal Units' annual accounts and feedback from the enterprises. Furthermore, a dedicated online tool has been launched that allows the issuance of a certificate of the main economic activity for companies registered in the Republic of Cyprus. If an enterprise disagrees with the economic activity code assigned, either because of wrong coding or change of the economic activity of the enterprise, it can provide CYSTAT with all the documents required in order to be correctly classified. The tool is accessible on the web portal of the Statistical Service of Cyprus: Certificate of Economic Activity
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country): Data on turnover and assets was missing. However, for the reference year 2023, using the tool developed by CYSTAT, data on assets and turnover was extracted from the Legal Units' annual accounts and submitted to EGR.
Furthermore, the accuracy of the EGR final frame is evaluated in collaboration between NSIs and Eurostat. Moreover, the final frame is evaluated by comparing at micro-level the Ultimate Controlling Institutional Units (UCI) of the Multinational Enterprise Groups from the final EGR final frame with the data produced from FATS. Certain indicators are calculated.
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. The final frame is released in T+15 months.
14.2. Punctuality
The data is transmitted on time with no delays.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The statistics produced by EGR, are comparable among Member States and EFTA countries, since they are produced in cooperation based on harmonised statistical units as defined in the Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93.
15.2. Comparability - over time
EGR frames are comparable for the reference years from 2008 to 2011. EGR version 1.0 was based on commercial data.
EGR frames are comparable for the reference years 2012 and 2013. The input process was based on EGR version 2.0 and the output on EGR version 1.0. The basis of the data was the National Statistical Business Registers of the EU member states and the EFTA countries.
Since reference year 2014 the EGR data is produced using version 2.0.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Coherence of data sent to Eurostat with other data sources and statistical domains:
The EGR frame provides harmonised data on the multinational groups active in EU and EFTA countries. The data can be used in FATS and Business Statistics, Profiling and GNI.
EGR 2.0 allows comparability to previous years (backwards to 2014).
Continuity is applied for legal units, enterprise and multinational enterprise groups.
Comparisons at micro level are performed. For instance, the EGR final frame is compared with the data produced from FATS. Certain indicators are calculated (EGR-FATS indicators).
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:
The data sent to Eurostat is internally consistent.
NSBR data is checked and updated using feedback from the SBS surveys contacted by CYSTAT
The reference year data is always compared with the pervious year data
The continuity of the Enterprise and the Legal unit is applied in the NSBR
Since the reference year 2008, the NSBR data is comparable
Not available.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Not applicable
17.2. Data revision - practice
Not applicable
18.1. Source data
The data is based on administrative sources and surveys conducted by CYSTAT (Business Register update survey and SBS surveys).
The administrative sources used are the following:
Department of Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property
The Department of Companies and Intellectual Property register is the main source of the Legal Unit's identification and demographic characteristics and relationships. Furthermore, data on turnover, assets and economic activity is extracted from the Legal Units annual accounts.
Tax Department (VAT register)
The VAT register is a source of turnover and a source of economic activity code.
Social Insurance Services
The Social Insurance Services register is the main source of employment data and a source of economic activity code and contact details.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
National data is sent to EGR annually according to the EGR calendar.
EGR Identification Service (EGR IS): T+5 months
EGR Core: T+10 up to T+15 months
EGR Interactive Module (EGR IM): T+12 up to T+14 months
18.3. Data collection
Data sent to EGR are collected from:
National Statistical business registers
Administrative data sources.
18.4. Data validation
The validation process is continuous and takes place between the T+5 and T+15 months of the EGR cycle.
CYSTAT validates the group structures during the repair phase, by delivering relationships and data on enterprise groups to the EGR. The validated data is sent to EGR via Edamis (the data is also pre-validated through the Struval validation process and the Conval validation process) or through the interactive web interface EGR Interactive Module (EGR IM).
18.5. Data compilation
No imputation is performed.
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 8 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 in Regulation (EU) No 2152/2019, and from a commercial data source for data outside the EU and EFTA.
9 May 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.
Active enterprise (consolidated definition within the EBS framework)
The number of active enterprises is the number of all statistical units which at any time during the reference period were enterprises and active during the same reference period. 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
The number of employees represents the average number of persons who were, at some time during the reference period, employees of the statistical unit
Number of employees and self-employed persons
The number of employees and self-employed persons is the sum of the Number of employees and Number of self- employed persons. The number of self-employed persons is the average number of persons who were at some time during the reference period the sole owners or joint owners of the statistical unit in which they work. Family workers and outworkers whose income is a function of the value of the outputs of the statistical unit are also included.
Net turnover
For all activities except for NACE 64, 65 and some activities of NACE 66 net turnover consists of all income arising during the reference period in the course of ordinary activities of the statistical unit, and is presented net of all price reductions, discounts and rebates granted by it. Income is defined as increases in economic benefits during the reference period in the form of inflows or enhancements of assets or decreases of liabilities that result in increases in equity, other than those relating to contributions from equity participants.
The inflows referred to are arising from contracts with customers and are realized through the satisfaction by the statistical unit of performance obligations as foreseen in said contracts. Usually, a performance obligation is represented by the sale (transfer) of goods or the rendering of services, however, the gross inflows can also contain revenues obtained as a yield on the use by others of the statistical unit’s assets.
Excluded from net turnover are:
all taxes, duties or levies linked directly to revenue;
any amounts collected on behalf of any principal, if the statistical unit is acting as an agent in its relationship with said principal;
all income not arising in the course of ordinary activities of the statistical unit. Usually, these types of income are classified as ‘Other (operating) income’, ‘Financial income’, ‘Extra ordinary income’ or under a similar heading, depending on the respective set of generally accepted accounting standards used to prepare the financial statements.
Infra-annual statistics may not be able to take into account aspects such as annual price reductions, subsidies, rebates and discounts.
For the activities of NACE K6411, K6419 and K649 net turnover is defined as the value of output minus subsidies or government grants.
For the activities of NACE K642 and K643 net turnover can be approximated by the total operating costs, if net turnover is not available in the financial statements.
For the activities of NACE K6511, K6512 and K652 net turnover is defined as Gross premiums earned.
For the activities of NACE K653 the net turnover is defined as total pension contributions. For activities of NACE K66 for which net turnover is not available in the financial statements, net turnover is defined as the value of output minus subsidies or government grants.
For activities of NACE K66 for which net turnover is available in the financial statements, the standard definition of net turnover applies.
Principal activity
The principal (or main) activity is the activity that contributes most to the total value added of a unit under consideration. Ideally, the principal activity of the unit should be determined with reference to the value added to the goods and services produced, by applying the top-down method. The top-down method follows a hierarchical principle: the classification of the unit at the lowest level of the classification must be consistent with the classification of the unit at higher levels. The principal activity so identified does not necessarily account for 50 % or more of the unit’s total value added.
In the European Union the classification of principal activity is determined by reference to NACE Rev. 2, first at the highest level of classification and then at more detailed levels (top-down method).
Total assets
Total assets refer to the sum of the balance sheet items at the end of the accounting period. It covers economic assets, which are divided into financial and non-financial assets. In the case of a multinational group, the data on total assets are to be taken from the EGR.
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
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 (EGR IS). It includes all active, inactive and liquidated resident legal units during the reference year 2023. It also includes all de-registered/dissolved legal units from previous years. The status of the de-registered/dissolved legal units was changed to liquidated, in order to be removed from the EGR IS tool.
ISRLE file includes 435483 population of resident legal units is sent to EGR for identification.
The data set with information on non resident legal units for the EGR Identification Service. It is a full set of all non resident legal units related to resident legal units.
ISNORLE file including 49981 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. It includes all active, inactive and liquidated resident legal units during the reference year 2023.
LEU file including 208855 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. Is is a full dataset of the relationships between legal units identified in the EGR IS.
REL file including 78343 relationships between legal units is sent to EGR for processing:
66178 two resident legal units
12165 one resident and one foreign legal unit
0 two foreign legal units from non-EU+EFTA countries.
Relationships in the REL are:
52689 control relationships (>50%)
25654 minority relationships (<50%)
The data set with information on enterprises. This is a full dataset of the enterprises related to the incorporated legal units sent to EGR CORE.
ENT file including 51799 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. It includes all the links between the resident legal units and the enterprises.
LEL file including 73307 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 5057 groups data is sent to the EGR for processing.
The groups’ variables are updated after receiving the preliminary frame.
GEG_NAME
GEG_TURNOV
GEG_T_ASSET
GEG_UCI_RCC
GEG_WEB
GEG_DESCR
For the Statistical Business Register, the reference area, are the Government controlled areas of the Republic of Cyprus.
For the EGR, the Reference area is the world, although the main interest is the area 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 data sent to the EGR reflects the picture of 31 December of the given reference year.
The latest EGR final frame, released in March 2025, consists of the final annual master frame for the 2023 reference year. The identification, economic variables (number of employees and self-employed persons, net turnover and economic activity) refer to the 2023 reference year.
The accuracy of the data transmitted to the EGR is
Units
Assessment
Legal units
Very good
Relationships between legal units
Very good
Enterprises characteristics
Very good
Enterprises perimeters
Very good
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
Satisfactory
This accuracy assessment is based on:
Regular Business Register update survey;
Feedback from SBS surveys;
Feedback from the enterprises;
Use of administrative data sources;
Participation in the ad-hoc activity.
The main issues regarding accuracy of the data and issue importance are as follows
Units
Issue
Importance
Legal units
Relationships between legal units
Non-EU, non-EFTA RELs under coverage
Missing cross boarder relationships
Enterprises characteristics
Missing data
Missing data on turnover
Enterprises perimeters
Coding mistakes
Some NACE coding mistakes
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
Missing data
Missing data for the GEG
The actions taken to reduce bias (if any) and to improve accuracy of the data are as follows
Relationships: The majority of the foreign non-EU, non-EFTA legal units cannot be identified in EGR IS. As a result, some non resident relationships cannot be sent to EGR. The action taken is to manually identify the non-resident parent (non-EU, non-EFTA) legal unit, where the matching percentage is <100%. Furthermore, for the EU - EFTA relationships, CYSTAT voluntarily participates to the EGR ISNORLE ad-hoc activity.
Enterprises characteristics: Some data on turnover is missing. The main source for Turnover data is the VAT register. However, since not all the Legal Units are registered with the VAT, turnover missing values were observed. In order to deal with this issue, CYSTAT has developed a tool to extract data from the Legal Units' annual accounts. One of the variables extracted is turnover.
Enterprises perimeters: Some NACE coding mistakes were observed due to administrative sources wrong coding, non accurate descriptions received from the legal units and activity changes that took place during the reference year. The NACE coding is corrected using feedback from the Business Register update survey, feedback from the SBS surveys, feedback from the Legal Units' annual accounts and feedback from the enterprises. Furthermore, a dedicated online tool has been launched that allows the issuance of a certificate of the main economic activity for companies registered in the Republic of Cyprus. If an enterprise disagrees with the economic activity code assigned, either because of wrong coding or change of the economic activity of the enterprise, it can provide CYSTAT with all the documents required in order to be correctly classified. The tool is accessible on the web portal of the Statistical Service of Cyprus: Certificate of Economic Activity
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country): Data on turnover and assets was missing. However, for the reference year 2023, using the tool developed by CYSTAT, data on assets and turnover was extracted from the Legal Units' annual accounts and submitted to EGR.
Furthermore, the accuracy of the EGR final frame is evaluated in collaboration between NSIs and Eurostat. Moreover, the final frame is evaluated by comparing at micro-level the Ultimate Controlling Institutional Units (UCI) of the Multinational Enterprise Groups from the final EGR final frame with the data produced from FATS. Certain indicators are calculated.
The economic variables on employment are recorded in absolute figures.
The net turnover for enterprises is recorded in EUR currency.
The net turnover and net total asset for enterprise groups are recorded in millions in EUR currency.
No imputation is performed.
The data is based on administrative sources and surveys conducted by CYSTAT (Business Register update survey and SBS surveys).
The administrative sources used are the following:
Department of Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property
The Department of Companies and Intellectual Property register is the main source of the Legal Unit's identification and demographic characteristics and relationships. Furthermore, data on turnover, assets and economic activity is extracted from the Legal Units annual accounts.
Tax Department (VAT register)
The VAT register is a source of turnover and a source of economic activity code.
Social Insurance Services
The Social Insurance Services register is the main source of employment data and a source of economic activity code and contact details.
The data transmitted to the EGR by the national institutes are micro data and are not disseminated. Only aggregates are disseminated in Eurobase every year.
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 final frame is released in T+15 months.
The statistics produced by EGR, are comparable among Member States and EFTA countries, since they are produced in cooperation based on harmonised statistical units as defined in the Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93.
EGR frames are comparable for the reference years from 2008 to 2011. EGR version 1.0 was based on commercial data.
EGR frames are comparable for the reference years 2012 and 2013. The input process was based on EGR version 2.0 and the output on EGR version 1.0. The basis of the data was the National Statistical Business Registers of the EU member states and the EFTA countries.
Since reference year 2014 the EGR data is produced using version 2.0.
