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.
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.
Liechtenstein currently contributes microdata to EGR, but does not have a fully compliant national infrastructure. Since Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 has not yet been incorporated into the EEA Agreement, Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 still applies to Liechtenstein.
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 (and often is) 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 the 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.
An ISRLE file including the entire population of resident legal units is sent to EGR for identification. The population includes legal units registered with the administrative commercial register.
The data set with information on foreign legal units for the EGR Identification Service.
An ISNORLE file including a partial population of foreign legal unit recorded in national statistical business register is sent to EGR for identification. The population includes legal units with relations to resident legal units.
The data set with information on legal units.
A LEU file including a partial population of resident legal units belonging to a global enterprise group is sent to EGR for processing.
The data set with information on relationships of ownership and control.
A REL file including a partial set of relationships (i.e. 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%)
Since there is no information on the level of ownership/control is available, all relationships are considered controlling ones.
The data set with information on enterprises.
An ENT file including enterprises made of legal unit sent in LEU files is sent to EGR for processing. Currently all ENT sent to EGR only consist of one LEU.
The Data set with information on links between enterprises and legal units.
A LEL file including links between enterprise (ENT) and legal units (LEU) is sent to EGR for processing. Currently, only 1:1-relations are present (see above).
The Data set with information on enterprise groups of which country is the GDC country for the EuroGroups Register.
A GEG file including group data is currently not sent to the EGR for processing.
The groups’ variables are updated after receiving the preliminary frame:
currently not applicable
3.7. Reference area
The reference area for resident legal units is the territory of the country. For foreign legal units within an enterprise group, any country outside the national territory may be relevant.
3.8. Coverage - Time
The EGR frames are available from reference year 2008 onwards. NSI transmits data on resident legal units for the EGR production cycle since 2016 (reference year). Incomplete data for EGR core has been sent since 2018 (reference year).
3.9. Base period
Not applicable
The economic variables on employment are recorded in absolute figures.
Turnover and net total assets (in CHF currency) are not available in Liechtenstein's NSBR.
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 reference year 2023. The identification, economic variables (number of employees, turnover and economic activity) refer to the reference 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.
Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 has not yet been incorporated into the EEA Agreement applicable to Liechtenstein.
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).
Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 has not yet been incorporated into the EEA Agreement applicable to Liechtenstein.
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.
Liechtenstein's NSI exchanges information on multinational enterprise groups with:
Quality management for the NSBR is documented in the respective metadata set. Currently no documentation on quality management for additional EGR-relevant data exists.
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:
Quality in the NSBR is assured by a defined annual protocol/cycle with quality checks and corrections
Quality of additional EGR-relevant data is assured via ad-hoc plausibility checks
11.2. Quality management - assessment
The quality assessment procedure includes:
validation procedures to check coherence between statistical units and their variables,
data format and logical content of data,
crosschecks data from previous years.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Not applicable.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not applicable.
12.3. Completeness
Limitations regarding the completeness arise from an incomplete NSBR and missing additional information relevant for EGR.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The accuracy of basic variables of legal units - which are taken from a live adminstrative register - is considered good. The actions taken to monitor and to improve accuracy of the data sent to EGR are the following:
ad-hoc plausibility checks
removal of implausible data
The overall accuracy of the data transmitted to the EGR is - based on in-depth information on data sources - assessed as follows:
Type of unit
Assessment
Legal units
Very good - data directly sourced from administrative register
Relationships between legal units
Not satisfactory - insufficient data sources
Enterprise characteristics
Satisfactory - missing variables
Enterprise perimeters
Satisfactory - manual ad-hoc delineation of enterprises, in the context of EGR, a 1:1 LEU-ENT relation is used
Multinational enterprise groups
Not satisfactory - insufficient data sources and insufficient register infrastructure
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
EGR IS files and EGR core (LEU, REL, ENT, LEL) files were delivered on time for the EGR 2023 cycle.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Data are comparable within the national territory. Comparability with data from other EU/EFTA countries is hampered by missing information and incompleteness of the data.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Data are comparable since the first data deliveries for the 2018 cycle (reference year).
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Coherence of data sent to Eurostat with other data sources and statistical domains:
NSBR: not fully coherent
15.4. Coherence - internal
Data sent to EGR should be internally consistent.
Not available.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Not applicable
17.2. Data revision - practice
Not applicable
18.1. Source data
Source data for EGR are primarily administrative (commercial register) data, as well as publicly available and/or commercial data.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
National data sent to EGR annually
18.3. Data collection
Data sent to EGR are collected from:
National administrative register
Public and/or commercial data sources
18.4. Data validation
Completeness (mandatory fields), contents and structure of data is checked using a set of defined rules prior to transmission.
18.5. Data compilation
No imputations are 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 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.
Liechtenstein currently contributes microdata to EGR, but does not have a fully compliant national infrastructure. Since Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 has not yet been incorporated into the EEA Agreement, Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 still applies to Liechtenstein.
13 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.
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 (and often is) 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 the 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.
An ISRLE file including the entire population of resident legal units is sent to EGR for identification. The population includes legal units registered with the administrative commercial register.
The data set with information on foreign legal units for the EGR Identification Service.
An ISNORLE file including a partial population of foreign legal unit recorded in national statistical business register is sent to EGR for identification. The population includes legal units with relations to resident legal units.
The data set with information on legal units.
A LEU file including a partial population of resident legal units belonging to a global enterprise group is sent to EGR for processing.
The data set with information on relationships of ownership and control.
A REL file including a partial set of relationships (i.e. 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%)
Since there is no information on the level of ownership/control is available, all relationships are considered controlling ones.
The data set with information on enterprises.
An ENT file including enterprises made of legal unit sent in LEU files is sent to EGR for processing. Currently all ENT sent to EGR only consist of one LEU.
The Data set with information on links between enterprises and legal units.
A LEL file including links between enterprise (ENT) and legal units (LEU) is sent to EGR for processing. Currently, only 1:1-relations are present (see above).
The Data set with information on enterprise groups of which country is the GDC country for the EuroGroups Register.
A GEG file including group data is currently not sent to the EGR for processing.
The groups’ variables are updated after receiving the preliminary frame:
currently not applicable
The reference area for resident legal units is the territory of the country. For foreign legal units within an enterprise group, any country outside the national territory may be relevant.
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 reference year 2023. The identification, economic variables (number of employees, turnover and economic activity) refer to the reference year 2023.
The accuracy of basic variables of legal units - which are taken from a live adminstrative register - is considered good. The actions taken to monitor and to improve accuracy of the data sent to EGR are the following:
ad-hoc plausibility checks
removal of implausible data
The overall accuracy of the data transmitted to the EGR is - based on in-depth information on data sources - assessed as follows:
Type of unit
Assessment
Legal units
Very good - data directly sourced from administrative register
Relationships between legal units
Not satisfactory - insufficient data sources
Enterprise characteristics
Satisfactory - missing variables
Enterprise perimeters
Satisfactory - manual ad-hoc delineation of enterprises, in the context of EGR, a 1:1 LEU-ENT relation is used
Multinational enterprise groups
Not satisfactory - insufficient data sources and insufficient register infrastructure
The economic variables on employment are recorded in absolute figures.
Turnover and net total assets (in CHF currency) are not available in Liechtenstein's NSBR.
No imputations are performed.
Source data for EGR are primarily administrative (commercial register) data, as well as publicly available and/or commercial 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.
Data are comparable within the national territory. Comparability with data from other EU/EFTA countries is hampered by missing information and incompleteness of the data.
Data are comparable since the first data deliveries for the 2018 cycle (reference year).
