The EuroGroups register (EGR) is the statistical business register of Eurostat, the EU Member States and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries for multinational enterprise groups. The purpose of the EGR is to offer statistical users a tool for coordinating frame population, to derive consistent statistical output with an improved quality in measuring global activities of European enterprises that are part of multinational enterprise groups.
EGR produces data in annual cycles and covers micro-data on groups and their enterprises and legal units. The purpouse of the EGR is to register all multinational enterprise groups that have enterprises in EU Member States or EFTA countries, including European and non-European groups.
Member States, EFTA countries and Eurostat exchange data on multinational enterprise groups and entities belonging to these groups for the purposes of the European Statistical Business Register System, in order to ensure the quality of information on multinational enterprise groups in the Union.
EGR collects microdata on multinational enterprise groups from national statistical institutes of the EU and EFTA countries in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 2152/2019 requirements and data from a commercial source outside the EU and EFTA.
6 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.
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 represents the average number of persons who were, at some time during the reference period, employees of the statistical unit.
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).
The statistical units maintained by EGR are defined in accordance with Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community.
The EGR frame includes 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.
Enterprise group
An enterprise group is an association of enterprises bound together by legal and/or financial links. A group of enterprises can have more than one decision-making centre, especially for policy on production, sales and profit. It may centralise certain aspects of financial management and taxation. It constitutes an economic entity, which is empowered to make choices, particularly concerning the units that it comprises.
All-resident enetrprise group
All-resident enterprise group shall mean an enterprise group composed only of enterprises that are all resident in the same country.
Domestically controlled enterprise group
A domestically controlled enterprise group is a multinational group controlled by a group head that has its headquarters resident in the country compiling the business register.
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 consists of the following datasets.
Dataset with information on all incorporated resident legal units for the EGR Identification Service.
ISRLE file includes 217050 Population of resident legal units sent to EGR for identification.
The data set with information on foreign legal units for the EGR Identification Service.
ISNORLE file including 975 Population of foreign legal unit recorded in national statistical business register and sent to EGR for identification.
The data set with information on legal units.
LEU file including 10195 resident legal unit belonging to a global enterprise group is sent to EGR for processing.
The data set with information on relationships of ownership and control.
REL file including 6071 relationships between legal units is sent to EGR for processing:
- two resident legal units
- one resident and one foreign legal unit
- two foreign legal units from non EU+EFTA countries.
Relationships in the REL are:
- control relationships (>50%)
- minority relationships (<50%)
The data set with information on enterprises.
ENT file including 10070 enterprises made of legal unit sent in LEU files is sent to EGR for processing.
The Data set with information on links between enterprises and legal units.
LEL file including 10063 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 5248 groups. Data is sent to the EGR for processing.
No data updates after the receiving preliminary frame.
The reference area for the national statistical business register is the territory of the country. For enterprise groups, any country located outside the national territory may be relevant.
The reporting period of the data sent to the EGR reflects the situation as of 31 December of the given reference year.
The data transmitted to EGR during the EGR 2023 cycle includes data for the reference year 2023. Identification, economic variables (number of employees, turnover and economic activity) refer to the 2023 reference year.
The accuracy of the data transmitted to the EGR is:
- Legal units - Very good
- Relationships between legal units – Good
- Enterprises characteristics - Very good
- Enterprises perimeters - Good
- Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country) – Very good
This accuracy assessment is based on:
- crosschecks with other sources and data from previous years
- automatic validation procedures to check coherence between statistical units and their variable
The main issues regarding accuracy of the data and issue importance are as follows:
- Legal units: Duplicated LEU, especially FC. Minor impact.
- Relationships between legal units: Legal entities and corporations often fail to disclose comprehensive information about their ownership interests or affiliated shareholdings. This issue is especially pertinent in relation to privately held joint-stock companies that are not publicly traded. Minor impact.
- Enterprises characteristics: Companies often do not duly notify the relevant authorities of changes in their business operations (NACE) or registered office addresses. Minor impact
- Enterprise perimeter: No issues observed, No impact
- Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country): The FATS data refers to an earlier point in time, which may result in inconsistencies when cross-referenced with the EGR data. Minor impact.
The actions taken to reduce bias (if any) and to improve accuracy of the data are as follows
- Analysing and commenting results of Eurostat’s EGR input and output quality indicators
- Ensuring national data supplied to EGR is according to quality criteria
- Ensuring national data are delivered on schedule
- Ensuring validation of national data with available common tools for EGR data
- Ensuring that year on year data changes have been explained satisfactorily
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.
The procedures used to combine data from different sources:
- Data linking
- Data matching
The frame populations and annual copy of national statistical business register are produced.
Group register is set up in accordance with EBS Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 using any relevant data sources:
- Statistical business register;
- Administrative data sources;
- FATS;
- Register of Enterprises of Republic of Latvia;
Not applicable.
The EGR process refers to a reference year T and is run yearly over a period of 11 months, between May T+1 and March T+2.
The geographical comparability of national statistical business registers and enterprise groups is ensured by the application of common definitions of the statistical units laid down in the Council Regulation .
The comparability over time of the frames results from the information provided in concept 3.8.
- NSBR frames are comparable for reference years 2012 to 2023
- NSBR frames are comparable for reference years 2005 to 2011
There have been sufficient changes in the methodology, classification, and data sources
