Federal Planning Bureau

Sectoral and environmental accounts and analyses

Belliardstraat 14-18

1040 Brussel

Belgium

Economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) provide an aggregate overview, in thousand tonnes per year, of the material flows into and out of an economy. EW-MFA cover solid, gaseous, and liquid materials, except for bulk flows of water and air. Like the system of national accounts, EW-MFA constitute a multi-purpose information system. The detailed material flows provide a rich empirical database for numerous analytical purposes. Further, EW-MFA are used to derive various material flow indicators.

The National Statistical Institute (NSI) sent to Eurostat on yearly basis the EW-MFA. The accounts comprise the following reporting tables:

• Table A - Domestic extraction (DE): records material flows from the environment into the economy in a detailed breakdown by type of material
• Table B - Imports - total imports (intra- and extra-EU) and Table D - Exports – total exports (intra- and extra-EU): These physical trade tables record the imports and exports of products in thousand tonnes and grouped by materials.
• Table F - Domestic processed output (DPO): records material flows from the economy to the domestic environment (e.g. emissions to air, water and soil)
• Table G - Balancing items: reports some memorandum items which are necessary to have the full material balance related to a national economy
• Table H - Indicators: presents the EW-MFA derived indicators which are automatically calculated from Table A to G
• Table I - Material flow accounts in raw material equivalents (RME): records material flow accounts in raw material equivalents (MFA-RME). Some items are calculated automatically based on data reported in Table A and Table I.

EW-MFA record physical flows of materials broken down by type of flow and by type of material.

The type of flow dimension corresponds to the EW-MFA questionnaire reporting tables and derived indicators, namely:

• domestic extraction (Table A)
• physical imports (Table B)
• physical exports (Table D)
• domestic processed output (Table F)
• balancing items (Table G)
• direct material input (indicator)
• domestic material consumption (indicator)
• physical trade balance (indicator)

The breakdown by type of material employs a classification of materials. This EW-MFA classification of materials is hierarchical with main material flow categories (1-digit level). Each main category is further broken down, maximal down to 4-digit-level:

    1-digit: material category;

    2-digit: material class;

    3-digit: material group;

    4-digit: material sub-group.

The data refer to national economies as defined in the system of national accounts.

Conceptually economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) belong to the international System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA). Furthermore, EW-MFA is one of several physical modules of Eurostat's programme on European environmental economic accounts. It is covered by Regulation (EU) No. 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts.

EW-MFA are closely related to concepts and definitions of national accounts. Most notably they follow the residence principle, i.e. they record material flows related to resident unit's activities, regardless where those occur geographically.

Further methodological guidelines are provided in various publications by Eurostat (see Eurostat website > Environment > Methodology, heading: 'Material flows and resource productivity').

For more detailed information please see also 3.1.

Statistical units change according to the different data sources (e.g. agriculture, forestry and fishery statistics, production statistics, geological surveys, energy statistics, foreign trade statistics etc.) which EW-MFA are based on.

EW-MFA refer to the entire national economy of the reporting country (see also 3.3 'Coverage - sector')).

EW-MFA include all materials (excluding water and air) crossing the system boundary (between the environment and the economy) on the input side or on the output side. The economy is demarcated by the conventions of the national accounting system (resident units).

Material inputs to the economy cover extractions of natural resources (excluding water and air) from the natural environment and imports of material products (goods) from the rest of the world economy (ROW).

Material outputs are disposals of materials to the natural environment and exports of material products and waste to the ROW. Information on natural resources extracted and traded products is provided by different statistical units.

Belgium

Please see the table in 3.8.1.

Not applicable because EW-MFA are not reported as indices.

The unit of measure is thousand tonnes.

The data refer to the calendar years.

Economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) are legally covered by Regulation (EU) 691/2011 on European Environmental Economic Accounts.

The Federal Planning Bureau of Belgium has been entrusted with the analysis of sustainable development policies and the construction of satellite accounts to the national accounts by the Belgian government, by means of the law of 21 December 1994 on social and diverse provisions.

Not applicable in national level this information is required at European level only.

Law of 4 July 1962 on public statistics.

There are no dataset specific rules.

A cell is considered non confidential if its value is based on at least 3 entities, and none of these 3 entities counts for 80% or more of the value.

There is no publicly available release calendar. EW-MFA data are released each year at the end of April after their approval by the scientific committee of the Institute for National Accounts and their ensuing delivery to Eurostat.

non-existent

EW-MFA data are publicly available on the website of the Federal Planning Bureau. There is no specific information to the public (e.g. press release) about the publication of the data.

yearly

non-existent

Federal Planning Bureau, Institute for National Accounts, Economy-Wide Material Accounts 2008-2022, April 2024 (available in French and Dutch).

EW-MFA database 1995-2022

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

no microdata available

The EW-MFA data are also disseminated by Eurostat by means of the Eurobase website.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

The 2020 methodology for the Belgian EW-MFA has been devised in the context of grant agreement 881528 — 2019-BE-ENVECO.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

There is no document describing the measures to assure the quality of EW-MFA data apart from the Eurostat quality report, the contents of which are included in this Metadata file.

The EW-MFA standard tables contain in-built plausibility checks, while Eurostat provides a validation procedure.

The data are also validated by the scientific committee of the Institute for National Accounts.

The following weaknesses have been identified:

It is impossible to calculate the adjustment for the residence principle for air transport in the trade tables for years prior to 2014. This is only of minor importance, though. The adjustments are really small related to the total trade in materials.

Data quality is lower for:

• MF.1.2.2.1 Fodder crops (including biomass harvest from grassland): The part on biomass harvest from grassland has to be estimated for the largest part due to a lack of data. In order to obtain estimates for biomass harvested from grassland, we combined STATBEL crop production data with STATBEL farm survey data on the area of different types of grassland. For the period 1990-2011 the latter contain information on temporary and permanent grassland for biomass harvesting. We were able to calculate biomass harvested from grassland in tons per are for the period 2007-2011. The average value over this period was then applied to the area of temporary and permanent grassland for biomass harvesting during the period 1990-2006 in order to obtain values for biomass harvested from grassland. In order to obtain an estimate for biomass harvested from grassland for 2014-2019, we calculated a 2007-2013 average biomass harvested from grassland/other fodder crops ratio, which is quite stable around 20%, and applied this to the production of the other fodder crops.
   
• MF.1.3.1 and MF.1.3.2 Timber and fuel wood: consists of 2 regional parts. As of 2010, the Flemish part is an extrapolation based on a ratio with respect to the Walloon values. Only the Walloon part is data-based. And because the Walloon data are updated irregularly, the 2019 to 2021 values for Wallonia are also an extrapolation. This total for wood is split into the two required components, timber and fuelwood, on the basis of Eurobase database for_remov, which shows this distinction for the period 1999-2011 and 2017-2019, albeit expressed in cubic metres. We thus assume that the weight per cubic metre is equal for all types of wood extraction. For the periods which are not covered by for_remov, we used average shares to split the value for wood extraction in Belgium. The average over 1999-2003 was used to calculate the split during 1990-1998 and the 2007-2011 average to calculate the split during the period 2012-2016. From 2020 onwards, forecasting techniques were applied to predict the values for roundwood and fuelwood.

The data are used as part of the sustainable development indicators, published by the Federal Planning Bureau.

No measurement

It is impossible to calculate the adjustment for the residence principle for air transport in the trade tables for years prior to 2014. This is only of minor importance, though. The adjustments are really small related to the total trade in materials.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Please use Annex 3 for providing an assessment of the overall quality of the reported data. 

Not applicable because data are not based on a sample survey.

Not applicable because data are not based on a sample survey.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The data set with reference year 2022 was ready by the first half of April 2024. This does not imply that at that moment the data were available to the public, though. This is the case only after approval by both the Scientific Committee and the Direction Committee of the Institute for the National Accounts. As a consequence, the Belgian EW-MFA are publicly available only by the end of April. The EW-MFA 2024 were made public on 30-04-2024.

The production and publication of the EW-MFA take about 1.57 months on average on the condition that no methodological changes are necessary.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

All data were delivered on time.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Data on EW-MFA are compiled according to harmonised guidelines provided by Eurostat and hence comparable across European countries reporting EW-MFA data to Eurostat.

Not applicable because physical imports and exports as recorded in EW-MFA are not specified by origin and/or destination.

Please see the table in 15.2.1.1.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Please use below table for explaining b)-flags (breaks in time series):

no cross domain checking

Not applicable; reported EW-MFA data are only annual.

It is impossible to calculate the adjustment for the residence principle for air transport in the trade tables for years prior to 2014.

Data are internally consistent

production cost = 1.57 months (in case no methodological changes are necessary)

When data are revised, the entire series is recalculated according to the new methodology.

- MF.1.2.2.1. - Table A (Domestic extraction of fodder crops (incl biomass harvest from grassland))

1995-2006:
For the years prior to 2007, we had to calculate fodder crops excluding biomass harvested from grassland and biomass harvested from grassland separately.

In order to obtain estimates for fodder crops excluding biomass harvested from grassland, we had to look for data on fodder crops in apro_cpnh1_h (1990-1999) and apro_cpnh1 (2000-2006). The only fodder crop in those databases that corresponds to the fodder crops data found in the STATBEL data as of 2007 is green maize. This is by far the most important fodder crop in Belgium (on average 95% of the fodder crops excluding biomass harvested from grassland in the period 2007-2018). We calculated values for total fodder crops excluding biomass harvest from grassland for the period 1990-2006 by multiplying the production of green maize during that period with the 2007-2022 average fodder crops excluding biomass harvested from grassland/green maize ratio. In the previous EW-MFA data collection, we used to 2007-2018 average ratio.
In order to obtain estimates for biomass harvested from grassland, we combined STATBEL crop production data with STATBEL farm survey data on the area of different types of grassland. For the period 1990-2011, the latter contain information on the area of temporary and permanent grassland used for biomass harvesting. We calculated biomass harvested from grassland in tonnes per are for the period 2007-2011. The average value (2007-2011) over this period was then applied to the area of temporary and permanent grassland for biomass harvesting during the period 1990-2006 in order to obtain values for biomass harvested from grassland. This average value (2007-2011) of biomass harvested from grassland in tonnes per are is slightly different compared to the previous EW-MFA data collection due to an update of this data, having an impact on the figures of the time series prior to 2007.

2018: update and revision of the database 'estimates of the production of agricultural crops' from Statbel (Statistics Belgium).

- Figures for MF.8.1.4, MF.8.2.1.2 and MF.8.2.3 in Table G were revised for the period 1990-2018. This is a consequence of 1) revised import & export flows of fruit and vegetable juices (20.09) and beverages (22) in the Table G Estimation Tool, 2) a revision of table C of the PEFA in the estimation tool of table G and 3) due to changes mentioned in the previous 2 bullet points (revisions of MF.1.3.1 & MF.1.3.2 in Table A and MF.4.1.2 in Table A).


- Figures for Domestic extraction of MF.1.3.1 and MF.1.3.2 in 2020-2021 have been revised due to an update of the distribution key used to split total wood in the rough in fuelwood and industrial roundwood.

- MF.7.1.1 and MF.7.1.1.2: the entire time series has been revised to correct a formula error.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Data sources used to produce economy-wide material flow accounts are described in the sub-concepts 18.1.1 (and Annex) and 18.1.2.

Please use Annex 1 to report the detailed data sources for questionnaire tables A, B, D, F and G.

Table I was produced by means of the Eurostat country RME tool. In this section we present the data that have to be filled out in each of the individual sheets of this tool.

1.1.   Sheet I-1 COMEXT 182

This sheet is accompanied by data from the COMEXT database on external trade, expressed in millions of euros as well as in tonnes, with a distinction between intra- and extra-EU trade. These data have been compiled according to the community principle. For most EU-countries, the difference with trade according to the national principle, which should be adhered to for the environmental economic accounts, is negligible. However, for countries with harbours serving a vast foreign hinterland, such as Belgium, the difference is known to be substantial. The trade data in this sheet were therefore not based on the accompanying input file, as rather filled with data according to the national principle. In order to do so, we had to convert the standard international trade CN8 codes to RME182-codes. For this purpose, we made use of conversion tables provided by Eurostat.

1.2.   Sheet I-2 Tot IMP EXP Nat Acc

This sheet contains trade data from the national accounts in millions of euros: total exports (P6), total exports of goods (P61), total exports of services (P62), total imports (P7), total imports of goods (P71) and total imports of services (P72). No adjustments were necessary to the data from the accompanying input data file.

1.3.   Sheet I-3 IMP SUPPLY 64

This sheet is accompanied by data on 2010-2019 imports and supply at basic prices in millions of euros for 65 CPA product codes. However, there was a mistake in the tables due to a difference in the number of products in the Belgian supply tables. The Belgian supply tables published on the website of the NBB, and copied into the Eurostat RME-tool, only contain 63 CPA product codes, but they also contain 65 lines due to the inclusion of trade margins and transport margins. Furthermore, in sheet I-3, CPA 68 is split into “Real estate services excluding imputed rents” and “Imputed rents of owner-occupied dwellings”. This is not the case in the Belgian supply tables published on the NBB website. Another difference consists in the fact that sheet I-3 contains a line for CPA U “Services provided by extraterritorial organisations and bodies”. This is not the case in the Belgian supply tables. As a consequence, we had to shift some of the lines in sheet I-3 for the years 2010-2019 in order to put all the data in the correct lines.

After these changes, the values for 2010-2014 corresponded exactly to the supply tables published on the NBB website. However, the values for 2015 did not. So, we replaced them by the values found on the NBB website. We also added data for 2008-2009 from the supply tables published by the NBB. The 2020 data were gap filled by the RME tool.

1.4.   Sheet I-4 EXP 64

This sheet is accompanied by data on exports in millions of euros for 65 CPA product codes for the years 2010, 2014-16 and 2019. The data were slightly different from the data found in the use tables published on the NBB website. We therefore used the latter for the entire 2008-2019 time series. The 2020 values were gap filled by the RME tool.

The same problems following from the difference in the number of products between the official tables and the ones in the RME tool had to be dealt with.

1.5.   Sheet I-5 IMP Services

This sheet is accompanied by data on 2010-2019 total and extra-EU imports in millions of euros for 43 CPA product codes (CPA 33 to CPA U). As far as total imports are concerned everything is of course identical to sheet I-3. This also implies that 2020 is gap filled by the RME tool. Values for extra-EU imports were taken from sheet I-1 for 2008-2019.

1.6.   Sheet I-6 Energy balance IMP-EXP

This sheet is accompanied by data on exports, imports, marine bunkers and aviation bunkers for different types of fuels, expressed in tonnes of oil equivalents, for the period 2008-2021. The data source is the Eurostat database on energy balances. No adjustments were made to the data in the input data file.

1.7.   Sheet I-7 Energy balance Nuclear heat

This sheet is accompanied by data on the primary production of nuclear heat, expressed in tonnes of oil equivalents, for the period 2008-2021. The data source is the Eurostat database on energy balances. No adjustments were made to the data in the input data file.

1.8.   Sheet I-8 Bunker fuels IOT concept

This sheet has to be filled with 2008-2021 data on imports and exports of bunker fuels, expressed in tonnes. Imports correspond to bunkering by resident units abroad, exports to bunkering by non-resident units on the Belgian territory. Imports and exports of bunker fuels are calculated for the PEFA. The energy data in TJ are transformed into tonnes for the EW-MFA.

1.9.   Sheet I-9 EW-MFA

This sheet is filled with data from the EW-MFA on domestic extraction, imports, exports, Domestic Material Consumption (DMC) and direct material input by main raw material categories and for nuclear fuel for the period 2008-2021.

1.10.   Sheet I-10 Electricity mix

This sheet is accompanied by data from the Eurostat database on energy balances for the period 2008-2020 on the percentage shares of different inputs to produce electricity. No adjustments are necessary.

1.11.   Sheet I-11 Secondary metal ratio

This sheet has to be filled with data on the share of secondary metal production to total metal production by metals. The input data file contains percentages calculated on the basis of USGS reports (for copper, aluminium, lead), the BIR Report for steel, and the ILZSG for zinc. For Belgium all data are available except for aluminium. There is some production of aluminium alloys (CPA 24.42.11.54) in Belgium. No data could be found on the input structure of the company producing this product. As a consequence, it was impossible to determine the share of its production based on secondary raw materials.

1.12.   Sheet I-12 SBS basic metals

This sheet contains data from the Structural Business Statistics (SBS) on basic metal production in millions of euros. The source is Eurostat database sbs_na_ind_r2. Unfortunately, for Belgium the table contains confidential data. Where possible, we calculated the data by means of interpolation. The other gaps were filled assuming fixed shares of individual metals in total manufacturing of basic precious and other non-ferrous metals. The production of precious metals was calculated as a rest category.

1.13.   Sheet I-13 Monetary reference figures

This sheet contains national accounts data on total Gross Domestic Product (GDP), exports and imports in chain linked volumes, with index 2005=100. The input data file contains all these data for the period 2008-2021. No adjustments were necessary.

yearly

no surveys

Validation checks are built into the EW-MFA questionnaire. These are applied, after which explanations are added in footnotes where necessary.

Furthermore, a comparison is made with the previous year version of the EW-MFA in order to check for large differences.

If necessary and possible, source data are corrected.

no surveys

Not applicable.

See Annex 2

Eurostat's correspondence table is used.

Where necessary Annex 6 of the EW-MFA questionnaire is used to convert data into tonnes.

The Belgian environmental accounts make a residence principle adjustment for road transport, air transport (as of 2014), maritime transport and inland water transport.

ROAD TRANSPORT

The methodology to adjust fuel use for road transport consists of two steps. The first step entails the derivation of the kilometers driven by residents abroad and the kilometers driven on the Belgian territory by foreigners with the help of the balance of vehicle kilometers. This can be done for three types of vehicles: passenger cars, light duty vehicles and heavy duty vehicles. In step two the balance of vehicle kilometers is connected with data on fuel use on the Belgian territory by vehicle type.

The balance of vehicle kilometers is calculated by the Federal Public Service (FPS) Mobility. Separate data exist for passenger cars, light duty vehicles and heavy duty vehicles on the number of vehicle kilometers driven by Belgian residents irrespective of the territory where the kilometers were driven (estimated on the basis of kilometers recorded by technical vehicle control institutions), by Belgian residents and foreigners together in Belgium (estimated on the basis of traffic counting), and by Belgian residents in Belgium. On the basis of these data one can calculate the number of vehicle kilometers driven by Belgian residents abroad and by foreigners in Belgium.

Once the balance of vehicle kilometers has been established for passenger cars, heavy duty vehicles and light duty vehicles, the next step in order to be able to apply the residence principle to the EW-MFA trade tables is to calculate for each vehicle type the fuel use linked to the vehicle kilometers by Belgian residents abroad on the one hand and to the vehicle kilometers by non-residents in Belgium on the other hand.

Data on total fuel consumption expressed in tonnes by vehicle type, calculated on the basis of regional transport models, are available for the three regions in Belgium: Brussels-Capital, Flanders and Wallonia. These data are territorial, and thus reflect fuel consumption by both Belgian residents and non-residents on Belgian roads.

The fuel consumption by vehicle type was subsequently divided by the total number of vehicle kilometers driven on Belgian roads by both residents and non-residents in order to obtain fuel consumption in tonne per kilometer. For each vehicle type it is thus assumed that the average Belgian vehicle has the same fuel consumption per kilometer as the average foreign vehicle.

Fuel consumption per kilometer was finally applied to the number of vehicle kilometers driven by Belgians abroad as well as to the number of vehicle kilometers driven by non-residents in Belgium. This gives an estimate of fuel consumption in tonnes by Belgians abroad and by non-residents in Belgium. And this is exactly what is needed to adjust the EW-MFA to the residence principle. Fuel consumption by Belgians abroad has been added to the imports table of the EW-MFA, while fuel consumption by non-residents in Belgium has been added to the exports table.

This method allows us to calculate the road transport adjustments until 2017 only, however. The calculation of the vehicle kilometer balance was discontinued as of 2018. The 2017 adjustments are extrapolated on the basis of the evolution of P33 (expenditure by Belgian residents abroad) and P34 (expenditure by non-residents in Belgium) in the national accounts for the years 2018-2020. For 2021 these data were not available yet. The extrapolation for the final year was done on the basis of the evolution of the total use of motor gasoline  and gas-diesel oil (both for road transport) in the oil questionnaire. The latter of course makes no distinction between residents and non-residents.

AIR TRANSPORT

Resident adjustment for air transport are based on the OECD data for CO2 emissions. These emissions were translated into TeraJoules for the PEFA and into tonnes for the EW-MFA. They are only available as of 2014. No extrapolation into the past was undertaken.

INLAND WATERWAYS TRANSPORT

Energy use for inland waterways transport is taken from the regional energy balances, which show the use of energy for inland waterways transport on the respective regional territories. Adding these together we obtain the use of energy for inland waterways transport on the Belgian territory, expressed in TeraJoules. The TeraJoules were converted into kilo-tonnes on the basis of the conversion factor for the gross calorific value of diesel found in Appendix A3.8 of the Energy Statistics Manual of the International Energy Agency.

The Eurostat database on the measurement of inland waterways transport of goods (iww_go_anave) contains data on the tonne-kilometers of all inland waterways ships in Belgium by nationality. Assuming there to be no difference in the energy use per tonne-kilometer between a Belgian and a foreign inland water ship, this enables the split of the territorial value for energy use in a part attributable to residents and a part attributable to non-residents. The latter is to be considered as exports of fuel.

The Eurostat database iww_go_anave also contains information on the tonne-kilometers by Belgian inland water ships abroad. Assuming Belgian inland water ships abroad to use the same amount of energy per tonne-kilometer as Belgian ships in Belgium, this information enables the calculation of fuel use for inland waterways transport by Belgian residents abroad. The latter is to be considered as imports of fuel.

MARITIME TRANSPORT

The adjustment for maritime transport starts from the data on international marine bunkers of diesel and heavy fuel found in the oil questionnaire and the calculation of the share of foreign ships in the gross weight of goods transported to and from main ports. This calculation is based on data found in Eurostat database mar_go_am. The percentage obtained is applied to the data on international marine bunkers. This results in an estimate of the diesel and heavy fuel purchased in Belgium by non-residents (to be added to exports in the EW-MFA) and residents. The amount of diesel and heavy fuel purchased by Belgian resident ships abroad is calculated by deducting the estimated part bought in Belgium from total use found in the monetary use tables (transformed into tonnes on the basis of an average price). This part is added to imports. 

Missing data problems:

Data on biomass harvested from grassland only available for 2007-2013.

Data on the production of straw is available only for 2007-2013.

Data on excavated earth is only available for the Flemish region.

Not applicable; i.e. in EW-MFA no time series adjustment necessary.

Not applicable.