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.
Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union
1.2. Contact organisation unit
B3: Enlargement, neighbourhood and development cooperation
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
L-2721 Luxembourg
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
9 April 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
9 April 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
9 April 2025
3.1. Data description
The focus of this domain is on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) countries in Eastern Europe, namely:
Armenia (AM),
Azerbaijan (AZ),
Belarus (BY),
Georgia (GE),
Moldova (MD) and
Ukraine (UA).
An extensive range of indicators is presented in this domain, including indicators from almost every theme covered by European statistics. Only annual data are published in this domain.
Data are supplied by and are under the responsibility of the national statistical authorities of each of the countries or territories.
Data on Ukraine for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023 are limited due to exemption under the martial law from mandatory data submission to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, effective as of 3 March 2022.
Statistical cooperation with Belarus has been suspended as of March 2022. The data on Belarus was collected prior to the suspension and has not been updated since.
3.2. Classification system
The vast majority of the indicators that have been collected for ENP-East countries are the same that are also collected for EU Member States. As such, the definitions that countries have been asked to follow are based on international and EU standards, for example the SNA (or ESA) or the IMF manual on balance of payments.
3.3. Coverage - sector
This domain covers a wide range of subject areas, including:
Economy and finance
Population and social conditions
Industry, trade and services
Agriculture and fisheries
International trade
Transport
Environment and energy
Research and development, digital society
The sectoral coverage varies according to subject.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Data are provided through an annual data collection exercise.
The definitions of the indicators that countries have been requested to follow can be found (in English and French) in the annex Definitions at the bottom of this page.
3.5. Statistical unit
See definitions and footnotes (at the bottom of the page) for each indicator.
3.6. Statistical population
See definitions and footnotes (at the bottom of the page) for each indicator.
3.7. Reference area
The ENP countries in eastern Europe:
Armenia (AM),
Azerbaijan (AZ),
Belarus (BY),
Georgia (GE),
Moldova (MD) and
Ukraine (UA).
Data for Georgia exclude the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia over which the government of Georgia does not exercise control.
Data for Moldova exclude areas over which the government of the Republic of Moldova does not exercise control. Exceptions — where Transnistria is included — are listed in the footnotes (at the bottom of the page).
The data for Ukraine for the most recent years generally exclude the illegally annexed Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol and the territories which are not under control of the Ukrainian government. The footnotes (at the bottom of the page) specify in which years these areas are excluded.
Statistical cooperation with Belarus has been suspended as of March 2022. The data on Belarus was collected prior to the suspension and has not been updated since.
3.8. Coverage - Time
The time-series start from 2005. For some older datasets that are no longer updated the time series might start in 2000.
3.9. Base period
See definitions and footnotes (at the bottom of the page) for each indicator where applicable.
See definitions and footnotes (at the bottom of the page) for each indicator.
All data are annual, referring either to the year as a period, or to a representative date in the year, typically the first or last day of the year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
The European Neighbourhood Policy, abbreviated as ENP, was developed in 2004, with the objective of avoiding the emergence of new dividing lines between the enlarged European Union and its neighbours to the South and East. Through the ENP, the EU offers its neighbours a privileged relationship, building upon a mutual commitment to common values (democracy and human rights, rule of law, good governance, market economy principles and sustainable development). The central element of the European Neighbourhood Policy is the bilateral ENP Action Plans agreed between the EU and each partner. These plans set out an agenda of political and economic reforms with short and medium-term priorities.
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics(recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Countries only provide non-confidential data.
8.1. Release calendar
No formal calendar: data are disseminated on Eurobase once a year, generally during the first quarter of the year.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable.
8.3. Release policy - user access
In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 — 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.
Data for the ENP countries (both those in eastern Europe and those on the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean) were published in a biennial book (starting from 2015). The last Statistical Book with data for ENP East was published in 2018.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
Data are provided (at Eurostat’s request) directly by the national statistical authorities of the ENP-East countries. Little or no information is available on the primary sources of these indicators.
A list of the footnotes for this domain can be found at the bottom of this page.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
All the ENP-East countries have undergone a global assessment, the reports can be found in this website.
A list of the footnotes for this domain can be found at the bottom of this page.
11.1. Quality assurance
Data are provided under the responsibility of the ENP-East countries.
A list of the footnotes for this domain can be found at the bottom of this page.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
After receipt, data are validated using a set of automatic validation procedures. In case the validation procedure discovers data exceeding the conditions/thresholds set in the validation program, countries are contacted by e-mail in order to explain the values in question. If necessary, data are revised. These revised data are then integrated in the final dataset. Metadata are also checked. In case they are not clear they are sent back to the countries for clarification. Before disseminating data and metadata, they have to be confirmed by the countries in question.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
This data collection tries to response to user needs on data from ENP East countries.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
There is no information about the level of satisfaction of the users with this data dissemination.
12.3. Completeness
Approximately two thirds of the data are available for recent reference years.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Data are provided under the responsibility of the ENP-East countries.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
A request for updated data is sent to countries once a year. The data collection exercise is normally completed around December. The freshness of the data varies somewhat between countries and between indicators, as the data comes from a wide range of sources. Generally, data are relatively complete for the calendar year two before the year of data collection (t-2). For example, data collected in 2024 will have relatively complete data for 2022, with 2023 data available for a more limited number of indicators or with partial estimates.
14.2. Punctuality
Data are delivered to Eurostat under the responsibility of the ENP East countries as soon as they are available depending on the release calendar of each country. Data are collected on an annual basis.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
When countries have indicated divergences from the definitions requested, these are indicated in a list of footnotes for each domain which can be found at the bottom of this page.
15.2. Comparability - over time
When countries have indicated breaks in series these are indicated with the ‘b’ flag in the database.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The large number of indicators collected allows many cross checks within the data set. Care should however be taken, for example when analysing per capita ratios where a different employment or population measure may have been used to compile the ratio than the employment and population figures given in this data set.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Generally, only a few indicators are collected for each statistical subject area. However, in some cases the internal coherence can be verified when data for detailed indicators should sum to the data value for more aggregated indicators. Checks of such internal coherence are also included in the validation procedures that are performed.
No information available.
17.1. Data revision - policy
To further specify the general Eurostat revision policy, the following revision policy has been established for Eastern European Neighbourhood Policy countries (ENP-East) (enpe).
All values from the beginning of the time series are potentially subject to revision.
17.2. Data revision - practice
All reported errors (once validated) result in corrections of the disseminated data.
Reported errors that are deemed to be significant are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated. Corrections for other errors are carried out in connection with the regular scheduled data dissemination/in connection with next scheduled regular revision, which takes place once a year.
Data may be published even if they are missing for certain countries or flagged as provisional or of low reliability for certain countries. They are replaced with final data once transmitted and validated.
New data are only used to update disseminated data if provided according to the provision schedule set by Eurostat, or in the case of reported errors.
For the national data collection, the countries covered by this domain are asked to update the data set for their country. Several countries identify data that has been forecasted, and in these cases, this is indicated in the database.
From the 2017 round of data collection, data from 2005 onwards have been updated.
18.1. Source data
Most of the data are provided by the national statistical authorities of the ENP-East countries on a tailor-made questionnaire. The data comes from a wide range of sources.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Once a year.
18.3. Data collection
Data are collected using tailor-made Excel questionnaires. Questionnaires are sent to the national statistical authorities of the ENP-East countries to be filled in and returned for validation and publication.
18.4. Data validation
The data received from countries are validated. Various types of validation tests are performed.
1. Respect of the data format: are missing data correctly coded, is the distinction between data that has a value of '0' and data that is not available or confidential clear, have all footnote references got a corresponding footnote text?
2. Respect of the units and listed scales: are the data provided in the unit and scale requested?
3. Cross-check of basic data: do the basic data agree with other sources and with data published on web sites of the national statistical offices?
4. Time series: check of growth rates between reference periods for particularly high and low values — this is done in absolute terms and in percentage terms.
5. Order of magnitude: does the data seem credible in terms of scale? This can be checked by comparison to an expected range of values directly, or after dividing by another indicator (such as population or GDP).
6. Coherence between totals and components: when an aggregate is requested, as well as its elements these are checked; when an exhaustive list of elements is available in percentage terms, the total is checked to be 100%.
7. Between derived indicators and their components: a number of indicators can be compiled from other indicators in the data set, and it is reasonable to assume that they should be coherent. In fact, they may not be coherent for a number of reasons, for example the derived indicators may have been compiled using data from different sources.
8. Between indices and base year: does the value for the base year equal 100? Small divergences may be possible due, for example, to working day adjustment.
18.5. Data compilation
No geographical aggregates are compiled. A number of indicators are derived from the collected data rather than collected directly.
18.6. Adjustment
Apart from data validation (which may lead to corrections of errors) no adjustments are made to the data.
The focus of this domain is on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) countries in Eastern Europe, namely:
Armenia (AM),
Azerbaijan (AZ),
Belarus (BY),
Georgia (GE),
Moldova (MD) and
Ukraine (UA).
An extensive range of indicators is presented in this domain, including indicators from almost every theme covered by European statistics. Only annual data are published in this domain.
Data are supplied by and are under the responsibility of the national statistical authorities of each of the countries or territories.
Data on Ukraine for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023 are limited due to exemption under the martial law from mandatory data submission to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, effective as of 3 March 2022.
Statistical cooperation with Belarus has been suspended as of March 2022. The data on Belarus was collected prior to the suspension and has not been updated since.
9 April 2025
Data are provided through an annual data collection exercise.
The definitions of the indicators that countries have been requested to follow can be found (in English and French) in the annex Definitions at the bottom of this page.
See definitions and footnotes (at the bottom of the page) for each indicator.
See definitions and footnotes (at the bottom of the page) for each indicator.
The ENP countries in eastern Europe:
Armenia (AM),
Azerbaijan (AZ),
Belarus (BY),
Georgia (GE),
Moldova (MD) and
Ukraine (UA).
Data for Georgia exclude the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia over which the government of Georgia does not exercise control.
Data for Moldova exclude areas over which the government of the Republic of Moldova does not exercise control. Exceptions — where Transnistria is included — are listed in the footnotes (at the bottom of the page).
The data for Ukraine for the most recent years generally exclude the illegally annexed Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol and the territories which are not under control of the Ukrainian government. The footnotes (at the bottom of the page) specify in which years these areas are excluded.
Statistical cooperation with Belarus has been suspended as of March 2022. The data on Belarus was collected prior to the suspension and has not been updated since.
All data are annual, referring either to the year as a period, or to a representative date in the year, typically the first or last day of the year.
Data are provided under the responsibility of the ENP-East countries.
See definitions and footnotes (at the bottom of the page) for each indicator.
No geographical aggregates are compiled. A number of indicators are derived from the collected data rather than collected directly.
Most of the data are provided by the national statistical authorities of the ENP-East countries on a tailor-made questionnaire. The data comes from a wide range of sources.
The frequency of dissemination is annual.
A request for updated data is sent to countries once a year. The data collection exercise is normally completed around December. The freshness of the data varies somewhat between countries and between indicators, as the data comes from a wide range of sources. Generally, data are relatively complete for the calendar year two before the year of data collection (t-2). For example, data collected in 2024 will have relatively complete data for 2022, with 2023 data available for a more limited number of indicators or with partial estimates.
When countries have indicated divergences from the definitions requested, these are indicated in a list of footnotes for each domain which can be found at the bottom of this page.
When countries have indicated breaks in series these are indicated with the ‘b’ flag in the database.
