Hungarian Central Statistical Office

Business Statistics Department

H-1024 Budapest, Keleti K. u. 5-7.

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.

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);
• 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).

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.

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 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.

For the activities of NACE Classes 64.11, 64.19 and Group 64.9, net turnover is defined as the value of output minus subsidies or government grants.

For the activities of NACE Groups 64.2 and 64.3, net turnover can be approximated by total operating costs, if net turnover is not available in the financial statements.

For the activities of NACE Classes 65.11, 65.12 and Group 65.2, net turnover is defined as gross premiums earned.

For the activities of NACE Group 65.3, the net turnover is defined as total pension contributions.

For the activities of NACE Division 66 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 the activities of NACE Division 66 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).

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 the following legal forms

- Sole proprietor, Partnership - exclude limited liability partnerships,

- Government - local and central government - exclude public corporations,

- Non profit body or mutual association,

- Limited liability company - include limited liability partnerships and public corporations

of the population of resident legal units is sent to EGR for identification.

The dataset with information on foreign legal units for the EGR Identification Service.

ISNORLE file including the full population of foreign legal unit recorded in national statistical business register is sent to EGR for identification.

The dataset with information on legal units.

LEU file including all which resident legal unit belonging to a global enterprise group is sent to EGR for processing.

The dataset with information on relationships of ownership and control.

REL file including all 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 dataset with information on enterprises.

ENT file including all enterprises made of legal unit sent in LEU files is sent to EGR for processing.

The Dataset 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 Dataset with information on enterprise groups of which country is the GDC country for the EuroGroups Register.

GEG file including all groups data is sent to the EGR for processing.

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

• LEID number of the global decision centre of the group

• Residence country code of UCI that controls the group

The reference area for national part of the EuroGroups register is the territory of the country. Concerning enterprise groups any country outside the national territory may be relevant.

The EGR frames are available from reference year 2008 onwards. NSI transmits data for the EGR production cycle since the first reference year.

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The economic variables on employment are recorded in absolute figures.

The net turnover for enterprises is recorded in Hungarian Forint currency.

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 2022 cycle includes data for the 2022 reference year. The identification, economic variables (number of employees, turnover and economic activity) refer to the 2022 reference year.

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.

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). 

European legislation:

• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics;
• 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:

• Act CLV of 2016 On Official Statistics
• Act CXII of 2011 on the right of informational self-determination and freedom of information

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).

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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.

NSI exchanges information on multinational enterprise groups with:

• Other Member States for the purposes of the European framework for statistical business registers in order to ensure the quality of multinational enterprise group information in the European Union.
• National Central Bank (NCB) for the purposes of the European framework for statistical business registers in order to ensure the quality of multinational enterprise group information in the European Union.

The data and metadata are exchanged in electronic form and transmitted using the ESS data and metadata standards as specified by the Commission (Eurostat).

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• EuroGroups Register communication space ( EGR wiki with restricted access)
• European business statistics methodological manual for statistical business registers – edition 2021

ESS Data Quality Programme for EuroGroups register is available on

• EuroGroups Register communication space ( EGR wiki with restricted access)
• European business statistics methodological manual for statistical business registers – edition 2021

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: 

• Methodological guidelines, presentations and metadata descriptions are used from the EuroGroups Register communication space (EGR wiki with restricted access).
• Eurostat online BR Recommendations Manual are used for general EuroGroups register purposes and special implementation manuals are in place for the manual quality checks and maintenance tasks.
• Detailed and automated data validation procedures are also in place.
• Input, process and output data are assessed; micro and macro validations are carried out.

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,
• The EU standards are used as much as possible, ie: NACE, NUTS, LEID.
• Priority setting of the source data should be revised in case of changes occur in the officially available information.
• All the required information are compiled to Eurostat on the quality of EGR.

EGR is important for the compilation of consistent and comparable European business statistics related to globalization, establishing efficient statistical survey frames, providing identification numbers of all the units and for linking to many different sources, increasing statistical information and reducing the reporting burden on enterprises.

EGR is referred to as the ‘backbone’ in the production of economic statistics related to globalization because they provide the core infrastructure to ensure data consistency between various statistical outputs.

• In general the EU requirements are considered in first place and the internal main users such as FATS.
• The internal and external user needs are directly forwarded to the EGR staff via e-mails or phone calls. In addition, the new internal user needs are discussed when it occurs and there is a possibility in a frame of written consultation with the internal users to collect the most meaningful new need annually.

Since 2017, Eurostat together with the EU Member States conducts SBR user survey addressing users and potential users of the national statistical business registers (NSBR) and the EuroGroups Register (EGR).

The latest SBR User Survey 2023 shows that the EGR is widely used at national level and users consider that its quality had been significantly improved in the recent years. Most of the EGR users had either no issue or manageable issue regarding the EGR coverage, units, variables, timeliness and frequency of frames.

The completeness of national part of EuroGroups registers is annually assessed by Eurostat. The EGR assessment results are provided to EU Member States and EFTA countries.

Mandatory characteristics are complete for the reference year 2022.

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

• EDAMIS 4 structural and content validations are implemented in our EGR data productions system

• Our Enterprise Group register is updated and the stored data is improved based on annual survey information

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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 for the EGR frame are provided annually to Eurostat according the deadline agreed by the Statistical Business Registers Working Group.

The EGR data is provided on time to statistical users with regard to their needs and the agreed time frame, as follows:

• Preliminary frame of resident legal units for EGR in T+1
• Preliminary frame of foreign legal units for EGR in T+8
• Information on MNE for EGR in T+15.

The geographical comparability of national EuroGroups registers is ensured by the application of common definitions of the statistical units laid down in the Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93.

The EGR variables are harmonised and set up in accordance with the Annex VIII to the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics. Further guidelines on the variables implementation in the national EuroGroups registers are given in the EBS methodological manual for Statistical Business Registers (2021 edition).

The comparability over time of the frames results from the information provided in concept 3.8.

There have been changes in processes in 2011, when multilateral electronic data exchange on relationships of legal units between HCSO and Court of Registration had been put into operation.

Coherence of data sent to Eurostat with other data sources and statistical domains:

• The national EGR frame provides information on the population of enterprise groups carrying out economic activities, incl. all-resident and multinational enterprise groups.

• The national statistical business register is used by statistical users - such as FATS domain - as a coordinated frame population in order to derive consistent statistical output.

Data sent to EGR should be internally consistent. There is a set of standard quality checks that are routinely performed at national level before transmitting the data to Eurostat:

• EDAMIS 4 structural and content validations are implemented in our EGR data productions system
• Formal checks are carried out by the data processing programs such as:
  • type and length of the variables
  • usage of the right nomenclatures
  • internal coherence of units between data sets like Relationship (REL) and Legal Unit (LEU)
• Our Enterprise Group register is updated and the stored data is improved based on annual survey information

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The national EGR is set up in accordance with EBS Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 using any relevant data sources while avoiding excessive burden on respondents and taking due account of the cost effectiveness of the NSAs.

HCSO uses the following data sources, including a combination thereof for the national EGR data production:

• Court of Registration data on relationships of legal units.
• Statistical surveys on relationships of legal units.

National data is sent to EGR annually

Data sent to EGR are collected from:

• National Statistical business registers
• Administrative data sources.
• Enterprise group register.
• Enterprise register.
• Register of foreign legal units.
• Register of relationships of legal units.

Statistical analysis of the national EGR data is carried out to ensure the quality of data and frame populations provided to users.

Data validation procedures include:

• Format and file structure checks
• Intra-file checks
• Intra-domain, intra-source checks (e.g time series checks)
• Intra-domain, inter-source checks (e.g. mirror checks).
• Plausibility/consistency checks between domains inside the NSI

The procedures used to combine data from different sources:

• The input data are coming either from different administrative sources or from direct statistical surveys. All input are loaded into the input area of the database.
• Various formal and content checks are carried out and the list of errors are produced.
• The errors found in the input are corrected by an algorithm or via form application manually and the corrected information are loaded into the production environment.
  
  

The  frame populations and annual copy of national EGR are produced as follows:

• At the end of a year frozen frames are produced, the minor inconsistencies in the database tables are eliminated and the final output is produced.

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