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.
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 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.
ISRLE file includes all incorperated legal units that can be included in a multinational enterprise group. We don't include governmental institutes or sole proprioriship which are legal units registered with personal data.
The data set with information on foreign legal units for the EGR Identification Service.
ISNORLE file including full 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.
LEU file including all 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.
REL file including full population of relationships between legal units belonging to multinational enterprise groups 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 full population of 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 all 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 the 100-150 largest groups and groups that we've made changes to.
The groups’ variables are updated after receiving the preliminary frame:
NACE
Employees
Turnover
Total assets
GDC
3.7. Reference area
The data regarding the relationships between legal units are global.
Data regarding legal units and enterprises are national.
3.8. Coverage - Time
The EGR frames are available from reference year 2008 onwards. NSI transmits data for the EGR production cycle since 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 SEK.
The net turnover and net total asset for enterprises is recorded in nominal values in SEK.
The net turnover and net total asset for enterprise groups is recorded in millions in SEK.
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 2023 reference year. The identification, economic variables (number of employees, 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 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.
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).
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.
NSI exchanges information on multinational enterprise groups with:
Other Member States for purpose to ensure quality of the MNE relations and GDC information.
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:
A number of data validation procedures are in place in the production of the EGR preliminary frame and final frame.
We collaborate with FATS surveys and national/international profiling team.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
The quality is assured by applying the following quality management and assurance procedures:
Legislation concerning quality assurance, Task Forces or Working Groups, etc.
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
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The data is used in the following surveys/areas:
FATS
Profiling
SBS
BD
Comment for user needs BR & EGR User Questionaire (March 2023) (still relevant):
"While doing harmonisation of EGR, SBR, FATS, BD and SBS, Eurostat has set timelines for EGR that are too early. Basically we are still working on the population and getting new information on enterprises and enterprise groups after we need to deliver EGR to Eurostat. In order for SBS to be consistent with EGR, we cannot change anything in our population about 6 months before our actual deadline of SBS. This is very unfortunate. Eurostat seems to prioritise the register over the quality of the statistics. We find this very unfortunate and no in the best interest of our users. EGR should be updated way later and have the deadline maybe in april or may, instead of january like it is now"
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
We 've recieved answers from the "SBR user survey 2023" regarding the quality of the EGR.
The answers are mostly positive where the users are satisfied with the content.
There are some issues regarding the harmonization of the timeline for different surveys (EGR, SBR, FATS, BD and SBS).
This still applies for the reference year 2023.
12.3. Completeness
No specific data is demanded at the moment from users.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Assess the overall accuracy of the data transmitted to the EGR by type of unit
For your assessment you can use the following scale: Very good / Good / Satisfactory / Not satisfactory.
The accuracy of the data transmitted to the EGR is:
Units
Assessment
Legal units
Very good
Relationships between legal units
Good
Enterprises characteristics
Good
Enterprises perimeters
Very good
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
Satisfactory
Provide the reasons of your assessment
This accuracy assessment is based on:
Lack of data sources in national business register available
The number of invalid relationships due to not updated legal unit identifier are limited
Describe the main sources of errors, by type of units, and provide a summary assessment of all errors with special focus on the impact.
The main issues regarding accuracy of the data and issue importance are as follows:
Units
Issue
Assessment
Legal units
Missing adresses for some legal units in our NBR due to incomplete data soruce. Duplcates of foreign legal units due to different commercial data providers for foreign legal units with different identifiers.
The missing adresses are not as large of an issue as the duplicates are.
Relationships between legal units
1. The number of invalid relationships due to not updated legal unit identifier are limited.
2. Relationships between legal units are not up-to-date from our main data source.No access to the latest annual reports.
3. Necessary information in the annual reports are not available due to current legislation.
1. Small impact
2. Moderate impact
3.
Small enterprise groups: Critical impact.
Large enterprise groups: Moderate impact
Enterprises characteristics
Employment and turnover estimations due to lack of data sources.
Small impact on small enterprises only.
Enterprise perimeter
Enterprises belonging to wrong enterpise groups in some (very few) cases - due to lag in information on ownership changes during the reference year.
Small impact due to profiling on large enterprise groups.
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
Information on MNE's are not up-to-date from our main data source.No access to the latest annual reports.
Moderate impact on the relationship between MNE's.
Describe the actions taken to improve the accuracy.
The actions taken to reduce bias (if any) and to improve accuracy of the data are as follows:
All the inconsistency spotted by Eurostat were investigated and corrected if needed
Improved our point in time annual master frame and volume master frame.
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 runs yearly over a period of 11 months, between May T+1 and March T+2.
14.2. Punctuality
SE has kept the deadline accordingly to EGR process timetable during production cycle for 2023 reference year.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The geographical comparability of national statistical business registers is ensured by the application of common definitions of the statistical units laid down in the Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics.
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 statistical business registers are given in the EBS methodological manual for Statistical Business Registers (2021 edition).
15.2. Comparability - over time
Comparability of the frames from 2013 and onwards are possible.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The NSBR frame provides information on the active population of enterprises carrying out economic activities which contribute to the gross domestic product (GDP), the legal units of which those enterprises consist of, local units, kind of activity units and enterprise groups, incl. all-resident and multinational enterprise groups.
The national statistical business register including EGR is used by statistical users as a coordinated frame population in order to derive consistent statistical output.
The reasons for lack of coherence with other statistical domains are as follows:
The reason for lack of coherence may be that the frames are made under different periods.
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:
Validation checks for coherence between REL,LEL,ENT,LEU is performed before sending the files to Eurostat (Validations checks are inspired from guidelines).
Harmonizations between statistical domains are an ongoing process at Statistcs Sweden.
Not available.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Not applicable
17.2. Data revision - practice
Not applicable
18.1. Source data
Legal units from SBR
Relationships & Enterprise group data from CDP
Enterprises from SBR/Profiling/SBS
18.2. Frequency of data collection
National data sent to EGR annually
18.3. Data collection
Data sent to EGR are collected from:
National Statistical business registers
Administrative data sources.
Statistical surveys
18.4. Data validation
Contiously monoroting data daily.
Validity checks are done before sending data to EGR, example: consistency between the delivry files.
Examples on validity checks:
Duplicate check for relationships in groups
Duplicate check for the same enterpise groups
Duplicate check for LEID
Duplicate check for Name
Duplicate check for NationalID
Checks for correct GGH & GDC
Check for correct countrycode (checking blanks etc.)
Check for LEU's in different enterprise groups are included in same enterprise.
Continuity rules on enterprises
18.5. Data compilation
Not applicable.
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.
31 January 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 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 all incorperated legal units that can be included in a multinational enterprise group. We don't include governmental institutes or sole proprioriship which are legal units registered with personal data.
The data set with information on foreign legal units for the EGR Identification Service.
ISNORLE file including full 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.
LEU file including all 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.
REL file including full population of relationships between legal units belonging to multinational enterprise groups 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 full population of 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 all 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 the 100-150 largest groups and groups that we've made changes to.
The groups’ variables are updated after receiving the preliminary frame:
NACE
Employees
Turnover
Total assets
GDC
The data regarding the relationships between legal units are global.
Data regarding legal units and enterprises are national.
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 2023 reference year. The identification, economic variables (number of employees, turnover and economic activity) refer to the 2023 reference year.
Assess the overall accuracy of the data transmitted to the EGR by type of unit
For your assessment you can use the following scale: Very good / Good / Satisfactory / Not satisfactory.
The accuracy of the data transmitted to the EGR is:
Units
Assessment
Legal units
Very good
Relationships between legal units
Good
Enterprises characteristics
Good
Enterprises perimeters
Very good
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
Satisfactory
Provide the reasons of your assessment
This accuracy assessment is based on:
Lack of data sources in national business register available
The number of invalid relationships due to not updated legal unit identifier are limited
Describe the main sources of errors, by type of units, and provide a summary assessment of all errors with special focus on the impact.
The main issues regarding accuracy of the data and issue importance are as follows:
Units
Issue
Assessment
Legal units
Missing adresses for some legal units in our NBR due to incomplete data soruce. Duplcates of foreign legal units due to different commercial data providers for foreign legal units with different identifiers.
The missing adresses are not as large of an issue as the duplicates are.
Relationships between legal units
1. The number of invalid relationships due to not updated legal unit identifier are limited.
2. Relationships between legal units are not up-to-date from our main data source.No access to the latest annual reports.
3. Necessary information in the annual reports are not available due to current legislation.
1. Small impact
2. Moderate impact
3.
Small enterprise groups: Critical impact.
Large enterprise groups: Moderate impact
Enterprises characteristics
Employment and turnover estimations due to lack of data sources.
Small impact on small enterprises only.
Enterprise perimeter
Enterprises belonging to wrong enterpise groups in some (very few) cases - due to lag in information on ownership changes during the reference year.
Small impact due to profiling on large enterprise groups.
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
Information on MNE's are not up-to-date from our main data source.No access to the latest annual reports.
Moderate impact on the relationship between MNE's.
Describe the actions taken to improve the accuracy.
The actions taken to reduce bias (if any) and to improve accuracy of the data are as follows:
All the inconsistency spotted by Eurostat were investigated and corrected if needed
Improved our point in time annual master frame and volume master frame.
The economic variables on employment are recorded in absolute figures.
The net turnover for enterprises is recorded in SEK.
The net turnover and net total asset for enterprises is recorded in nominal values in SEK.
The net turnover and net total asset for enterprise groups is recorded in millions in SEK.
Not applicable.
Legal units from SBR
Relationships & Enterprise group data from CDP
Enterprises from SBR/Profiling/SBS
Not applicable.
The EGR process refers to a reference year T and runs yearly over a period of 11 months, between May T+1 and March T+2.
The geographical comparability of national statistical business registers is ensured by the application of common definitions of the statistical units laid down in the Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics.
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 statistical business registers are given in the EBS methodological manual for Statistical Business Registers (2021 edition).
Comparability of the frames from 2013 and onwards are possible.
