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.
Structural Statistics and Statistical Business Register
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
SURS, Litostrojska 54, 1000 Ljubljana
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
8 May 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
8 May 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
8 May 2025
3.1. Data description
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:
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.
Activity of unit
A statistical unit is considered to have been active during the reference period, if in observed 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. A legal unit is also active, if it controls other legal units.
Number of employees and self-employed persons
Number of persons employed is defined as the total number of persons who work in the unit, including wage-earners and self-employed persons (i.e., working proprietors, partners working regularly in the unit and unpaid family workers) as well as persons who work outside the unit but who belong to it and are paid by it (e.g., sales representatives, delivery personnel, repair and maintenance teams).
Net turnover
Net turnover comprises the totals invoiced by the observation unit during the reference period, and this corresponds to market sales of goods or services supplied to third parties. Turnover also includes all other charges (transport, packaging, etc.) passed on to the customer, even if these charges are listed separately in the invoice. Net turnover excludes VAT and other similar deductible taxes directly linked to turnover as well as all duties and taxes on the goods or services invoiced by the unit. Income classified as other operating income, financial income and extraordinary income in company accounts is excluded from turnover.
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.
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 full population of resident legal units is sent to EGR for identification.
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 full 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 full parent/subsidiary 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 full 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 parent/subsidiary 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 full groups data is sent to the EGR for processing.
3.7. Reference area
Data sent to EGR covers global data of all enterprise groups having at least one enterprise and/or legal unit in Slovenia.
3.8. Coverage - Time
The EGR frames are available from reference year 2014 onwards. NSI transmits data for the EGR production cycle since 2009 year.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable
The economic variables on employment are recorded in absolute figures.
The net turnover for enterprises is recorded in EUR currency.
The net turnover and net total asset for enterprise groups is recorded in millions in EUR 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 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).
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.
SURS exchanges information on multinational enterprise groups with:
Other Member States to update group structures in EGR and for purposes of European profiling in IPT.
National Central Bank (NCB) for FATS purposes and improving quality of EGR data.
Public available information on the EGR, its data, methodology, quality management is available on the Eurostat website.
Information on ESS Data Quality Programme for statistical business registers is available on CIRCABC.
EGR producers in the NSIs and statistical users in the NSIs and NCBs find more detailed information on EGR process, methodology, quality indicators can consult on EGR wiki (restricted access).
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:
We follow methodological standards and guidelines assuring the quality of the production process and the output (Manual for business registers (Eurostat) and Methodological explanations for enterprises and enterprise groups).
We consider quality assurance legislation in the National Statistics Act (Official Journal RS, num. 9/01) and participation in working group for Business registers.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
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.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The EGR provides harmonised information on multinational enterprise groups and their enterprises in the EU and EFTA countries. The statistical users can use EGR coordinated frame populations to derive consistent statistical output with an improved quality in measuring global activities of European enterprises that are part of multinational enterprise groups.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
In 2017, Eurostat conducted first SBR user consultation survey addressing users and potential users of the national statistical business registers (NSBR) and the EuroGroups Register (EGR). The second SBR user survey was opened for contributions by statistical users between November 2019 and March 2020. 2020 SBR survey results show that the EGR is widely used and users consider that its quality had been significantly improved in the recent years. The EGR data are used mostly in Economic globalisation domain (35%) and Economy and finance (25%). Most of the respondents (71%) stated that they currently use EGR data for the production of official statistics at national level.
12.3. Completeness
All information sent by Member States are consolidated in EGR and available in the final frames.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The Accuracy of the data transmitted to the EGR
Units
Assessment
Legal units
Very good
Relationships between legal units
Very good
Enterprises characteristics
Very good
Enterprises perimeters
Very good
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
Very good
Data on legal units is derived from SBR which is based on administrative sources with full coverage of the population of units.
Data on relationships between legal units is based on administrative sources of SBR (full coverage) and capital investments, collected by the Central Bank of Slovenia. Report on capital investments is obligatory for legal units that exceed the balance sheet threshold of 5 million EUR.
Data on enterprise characteristics and perimiters is derived from SBR (full coverage) and annual reports of legal units. Complex enterprises and their perimeters are formed vith the method of profiling multinational enterprise groups.
Data on multinational enterprise groups (GDC) is derived from SBR (full coverage) and consolidated annual reports.
Issues Regarding accuracy of the data and issue importance
Units
Issue
Assessment
Legal units
none
Very good
Relationships between legal units
under-coverage
Very good
Enterprises characteristics
none
Very good
Enterprise perimeter
/
Very good
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
/
Very good
Under-coverage is subject to institutional constraint.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Under-coverage present in relationships between legal units can be attributed to the balance sheet threshold of 5 million EUR for legal units obligated to report on capitals investments. The corresponding bias risk is subject to institutional contraint.
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
Data transmitted during different phases of the EGR cycle was delivered on time, without delays.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
EGR frame allows geographical comparability of information on MNE groups provided by countries.
15.2. Comparability - over time
EGR frames for reference years 2008 to 2011 are comparable as the process was based on the EGR system version 1.0 by using commercial data as basis. EGR frames for reference years 2012 and 2013 are comparable as were produced during the transition from EGR system version 1.0 to EGR system version 2.0. The input process was based on system version 2.0; the throughput and output processes are based on system version 1.0. Data basis were national statistical business registers of EU MSs and EFTA countries. The EGR frame for reference year 2014 is the first frame produced in EGR system version 2.0. From EGR frame 2015 onwards, the annual frames are comparable to the previous/following EGR frames.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The EGR frame provides harmonised information on the multinational enterprise groups active in the EU MSs and EFTA countries. Statistical users can use EGR as a coordinated frame population in order to derive consistent statistical output, with an improved quality in measuring global activities of European enterprises that are part of multinational enterprise groups. EGR 2.0 allows comparability of EGR 2023 data to previous reference years (backwards to 2014). Continuity of legal units, enterprises and multinational enterprise groups exists in the system.
15.4. Coherence - internal
The SBR data included in the final frame are internally consistent.
Not available.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Not applicable
17.2. Data revision - practice
Not applicable
18.1. Source data
Data transmitted to the EGR is derived from the following sources:
Central Register of Dematerialized Securities,
Central Court Register,
Data on capital investments, collected by the Central Bank of Slovenia (BS),
National statistical business register of Slovenia,
National profiling of enterprise groups.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
The NSIs statistical business register contribute to the production of the EGR frame by delivering data during the annual EGR cycle:
to the EGR Identification System (EGR IS). The frequency is annual and data delivery takes place in T + 5 month.
to the EGR Core application (EGR CORE). The frequency is annual and takes place from T + 10 up to T + 15 months.
to validate and repair or update the group data in the interactive web interface EGR.
Interactive Module (EGR IM) to support the repair of multinational group structures – during T+12 and T+14 months with respect to the reference year.
18.3. Data collection
Data sent to EGR are collected from:
National Statistical business registers,
Administrative data sources,
Commercial data providers.
18.4. Data validation
The EGR data validation process takes place continuously during EGR production process in between T+5 and T+15 months. The NSI contributes to the validation process at the group structures’ in repair phase by delivering relationships and data on enterprise groups to the EGR and also by pre-validate the EGR input file.
18.5. Data compilation
The EGR data compilation creates the enterprise groups structures by using the information on direct shareholdings and control between pair-wise legal units. An algorithm in the EGR CORE reconstructs the full chain of direct and indirect relationships. Truncated groups and the domestic control relationships from NSIs that are full authentic store sources are used as a basis for the consolidation of groups. Commercial data are used only for legal units outside the EU and EFTA countries and for those NSIs not being full authentic store sources for the EGR.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable.
No further comments.
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.
8 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 observed 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. A legal unit is also active, if it controls other legal units.
Number of employees and self-employed persons
Number of persons employed is defined as the total number of persons who work in the unit, including wage-earners and self-employed persons (i.e., working proprietors, partners working regularly in the unit and unpaid family workers) as well as persons who work outside the unit but who belong to it and are paid by it (e.g., sales representatives, delivery personnel, repair and maintenance teams).
Net turnover
Net turnover comprises the totals invoiced by the observation unit during the reference period, and this corresponds to market sales of goods or services supplied to third parties. Turnover also includes all other charges (transport, packaging, etc.) passed on to the customer, even if these charges are listed separately in the invoice. Net turnover excludes VAT and other similar deductible taxes directly linked to turnover as well as all duties and taxes on the goods or services invoiced by the unit. Income classified as other operating income, financial income and extraordinary income in company accounts is excluded from turnover.
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.
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 full population of resident legal units is sent to EGR for identification.
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 full 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 full parent/subsidiary 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 full 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 parent/subsidiary 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 full groups data is sent to the EGR for processing.
Data sent to EGR covers global data of all enterprise groups having at least one enterprise and/or legal unit in Slovenia.
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.
The Accuracy of the data transmitted to the EGR
Units
Assessment
Legal units
Very good
Relationships between legal units
Very good
Enterprises characteristics
Very good
Enterprises perimeters
Very good
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
Very good
Data on legal units is derived from SBR which is based on administrative sources with full coverage of the population of units.
Data on relationships between legal units is based on administrative sources of SBR (full coverage) and capital investments, collected by the Central Bank of Slovenia. Report on capital investments is obligatory for legal units that exceed the balance sheet threshold of 5 million EUR.
Data on enterprise characteristics and perimiters is derived from SBR (full coverage) and annual reports of legal units. Complex enterprises and their perimeters are formed vith the method of profiling multinational enterprise groups.
Data on multinational enterprise groups (GDC) is derived from SBR (full coverage) and consolidated annual reports.
Issues Regarding accuracy of the data and issue importance
Units
Issue
Assessment
Legal units
none
Very good
Relationships between legal units
under-coverage
Very good
Enterprises characteristics
none
Very good
Enterprise perimeter
/
Very good
Multinational enterprise group (with Global decision centre in my country)
/
Very good
Under-coverage is subject to institutional constraint.
The economic variables on employment are recorded in absolute figures.
The net turnover for enterprises is recorded in EUR currency.
The net turnover and net total asset for enterprise groups is recorded in millions in EUR currency.
The EGR data compilation creates the enterprise groups structures by using the information on direct shareholdings and control between pair-wise legal units. An algorithm in the EGR CORE reconstructs the full chain of direct and indirect relationships. Truncated groups and the domestic control relationships from NSIs that are full authentic store sources are used as a basis for the consolidation of groups. Commercial data are used only for legal units outside the EU and EFTA countries and for those NSIs not being full authentic store sources for the EGR.
Data transmitted to the EGR is derived from the following sources:
Central Register of Dematerialized Securities,
Central Court Register,
Data on capital investments, collected by the Central Bank of Slovenia (BS),
National statistical business register of Slovenia,
National profiling of enterprise groups.
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.
EGR frame allows geographical comparability of information on MNE groups provided by countries.
EGR frames for reference years 2008 to 2011 are comparable as the process was based on the EGR system version 1.0 by using commercial data as basis. EGR frames for reference years 2012 and 2013 are comparable as were produced during the transition from EGR system version 1.0 to EGR system version 2.0. The input process was based on system version 2.0; the throughput and output processes are based on system version 1.0. Data basis were national statistical business registers of EU MSs and EFTA countries. The EGR frame for reference year 2014 is the first frame produced in EGR system version 2.0. From EGR frame 2015 onwards, the annual frames are comparable to the previous/following EGR frames.
