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National reference metadata

Greece

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.

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

National Reference Metadata in Euro SDMX Metadata Structure (ESMS)

Compiling agency: Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT)

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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.

10 May 2024

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.

Activity of unit

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. A legal unit can be legally or administratively active without any economic activity, when the inactive legal unit is part of an enterprise in combination with economically active legal units. Holding assets and/or liabilities shall also be regarded as an economic activity.

Number of employees

The number of persons who work for an employer and who have a contract of employment and receive compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, piecework pay or remuneration in kind. The worker from a temporary employment agency is considered to be an employee of the temporary employment agency and not of the unit (customer) in which he works.

Number of employees and self -employed persons

The total number of persons who work in the enterprise, inclusive of working proprietors, partners and unpaid family workers, as well as persons who work outside the enterprise but they belong to it and they are paid by it (e.g. sales representatives, delivery personnel, repair and maintenance teams). The number of persons employed excludes manpower supplied to the enterprise by other enterprises, persons carrying out repair and maintenance work in the enquiry enterprise on behalf of other enterprises, as well as those on compulsory military service

Net turnover

Turnover comprises the totals invoiced by the enterprise during the reference period, which corresponds to market sales of goods or services supplied to third parties. Turnover includes all duties and taxes on the goods or services invoiced by the unit with the exception of the value added type taxes (VAT). Turnover also includes all other charges (transport, packaging, etc) passed on to the customer. Reduction in prices, rebates and discounts, as well as the value of returned packing must be deducted.

Total assets

The total assets refers 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.

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).

More information on statistical concepts and definitions relevant to the statistical business registers could be found in the EBS methodological manual for Statistical Business Registers (2021 edition).

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.

1. The data set with information on all incorporated resident legal units for the EGR Identification Service.

ISRLE file including 284,685 population of resident legal units was sent to EGR for identification. The specific population consists of all resident legal units of the National Statistical Business Register. These legal units may be active or liquidated during the reference year.

 

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

ISNORLE file including 12,238 population of foreign legal units recorded in national statistical business register was sent to EGR for identification. The specific population consists of all non resident legal units having a relationship with a resident legal unit.

 

3. The data set with information on legal units.

LEU file including 10,122 resident legal units belonging to a global enterprise group was sent to EGR for processing. It consists of all resident legal units belonging to multinational or national enterprise groups.

 

4. The data set with information on relationships of ownership and control.

REL file including 10,664 relationships between legal units was sent to EGR for processing:

  • two resident legal units (1,288 cases)
  • one resident and one foreign legal unit (9,325 cases)
  • two foreign legal units from non EU+EFTA countries (51 cases).

Relationships in the REL are:

  • control relationships (>50%) (8,406 cases)
  • minority relationships (<50%) (2,258 cases)

 

5. The data set with information on enterprises.

ENT file including 8,671 enterprises made of legal units sent in LEU files was sent to EGR for processing. It consists of all enterprises that occur from the profiling process and are part of an enterprise group.

 

6. The data set with information on links between enterprises and legal units.

LEL file including 10,122 links between enterprise (ENT) and legal units (LEU) was sent to EGR for processing. 

 

7. The data set with information on enterprise groups of which Greece is the GDC country for the EuroGroups Register.

GEG file including 598 groups' data was sent to the EGR for processing. The data referred to the enterprise groups having Global Decision Center in Greece.

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

  • GEG_NAME
  • GEG_NACE_CODE_DIV
  • GEG_NACE_CODE_DIV STA
  • GEG_PERS_EMPL
  • GEG_PERS_EMPL_STA
  • GEG_TURNOV
  • GEG_TURNOV_STA
  • GEG_WEB
  • GEG_GDC_LEID
  • GEG_GGH_LEID

The Reference area of the EGR 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.

Data initially transmitted to EGR during the EGR 2022 cycle for resident, foreign legal units, relationships and statistical unit "enterprise" refer to 2021. The relevant data are updated during the repair phase on the basis of the profiling procedure, and refer to 2022.

The economic variables (number of employees, turnover and economic activity) refer to the 2022 reference year.

The main issues regarding accuracy of the data are as follows:

  • The non-identification via EGR-IS of foreign legal units belonging to multinational enterprise groups, whichs affects the final structure of the group.
  • Employment data available from administrative sources during the compilation of EGR cycle refence year T, refer to T-1.

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

  • Recording of the LEID number of foreing legal units identified in previous EGR cycles, so that the identification for the current year is focused in the foreign legal units not already identified. 
  • Estimation of the employment data so as to relate to the reference year. ELSTAT gained access to monthly employment data from the Social Security Fund, which allowed the incorporation to EGR of employment information for referece year 2022 and the further improvement of the accuracy of the respective data. 
  • Incorporation of information on the structure of the enterprise group and of the statistical unit enterprise from the national and european profiling.

The economic variables on employment are recorded in absolute figures.

The net turnover for enterprises is recorded in EURO currency.

The net turnover and net total asset is recorded in millions in EURO currency.

Estimation of employment at the level of Legal unit takes place, given that the respective information is not available from the data sources used. The final employment data at legal unit level are subsequently used for the calculation of employment for the statistical unit "enterprise".

Estimation of turnover at the level of the statistical unit enterprise is based on the consolidated data of the previous year (2021) and turnover data from administrative transaction files of the year 2022.

The sources used for the compilation of EGR 2021 data were the following:

  • National Statistical Business Register (NSBR)
  • Commercial Data Provider for the structure of the enterprise groups
  • Foreign Direct Investment Survey data, from the National Bank of Greece, for the structure of the enterprise groups
  • National profiling, for the structure both of enterprise groups and statistical unit "enterprise"
  • Turnover data from administrative transaction files from the Independent Authority for Public Revenues (AADE)
  • Employment data from the Social Security Fund (e-EFKA)
  • Intra-flow transactions survey, for the compilation of the consolidated turnover of the statistical unit enterprise

The EGR final frame is made available to NSIs and Members of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) on an annual basis.

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 EGR final frame is produced and released to its users at T+15 months.

EGR is compiled in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020 which 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. This ensures the comparability of the EGR data with the relevant data of other EU Member States. The common methodology applied at national level also ensures the comparability of data at regional level.

EGR data are comparable over time as they have been compiled on the basis of the same methodology and the same administrative sources and private provider.