Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (SORS)

Environmental statistics and accounts division

5 Milana Rakica st. Belgrade, Serbia

The environmental goods and services sector (EGSS) accounts report on an economic sector that generates goods and services produced for environmental protection or the management of natural resources.

Products for environmental protection prevent, reduce and eliminate pollution or any other degradation of the environment. Examples are electric vehicles, catalysts and filters to decrease pollutant emissions, wastewater and waste treatment services, noise insulation works or restoration of degraded habitats.

Products for resource management safeguard the stock of natural resources against depletion. Examples are renewable energy production, energy-efficient and passive buildings, seawater desalinization or rainwater recovery, and materials recovery.

EGSS accounts provide data on output and export of environmental goods and services and on the value added of and employment in the environmental goods and services sector.

EGSS data are compiled following the statistical concepts and definitions set out in the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting 2012 – Central Framework.

Data are reported cross-classified by 1) the type of environmental protection or resource management activity and 2) economic activity. Environmental protection activities are classified by environmental domain as set out in the Classification of Environmental Protection Activities - CEPA. Resource management activities are classified as set out in the Classification of Resource Management Activities - CReMA. see the revised CEPA and CReMA explanatory notes for detail. Economic activity is classified according to the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Rev. 2 (2008).

EGSS comprises a sector of the economy that produces goods and services aimed at environmental protection and resource management (see SEEA CF 2012 chapter 4). Environmental goods and services either reduce environmental pressures or help maintaining the stock of natural resources or they are designed to be cleaner and more resource efficient than conventional products. Environmental goods and services can be produced by corporations, households, governments and non-profit institutions. The list of environmental activities and products has been set out in the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2174 ('the indicative compendium of environmental goods and services').

EGSS has the same system boundaries as the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) and consists of all environmental products within this production boundary. ESA defines production as the activity carried out under the control and responsibility of an institutional unit that uses input of labour, capital, goods and services to produce output of goods and services.

Only goods and services produced for environmental purposes are included in the scope of the environmental goods and services sector.

'Environmental purpose' means that a good or service helps either 1) preventing, reducing and eliminating pollution and any other degradation of the environment or 2) preserving and maintaining the stock of natural resources and hence safeguarding against depletion.

The EGSS statistics aim at compiling data for the following economic variables:

Output: consists of products that become available for use outside of the producer unit, any goods and services produced for own final use and goods that remain in the inventories at the end of the period in which they are produced. Apart from market output, output for own final use and non-market output, EGSS statistics also include ancillary output, comprising output intended for use within an enterprise.

Market output is to be valued at basic prices, that is, the prices receivable by the producer from the purchaser minus taxes and plus subsidies on products.
Output for own final use is to be valued at basic prices of similar products sold on the market or by the total costs of production.
Non-market output is to be estimated by the total costs of production.
Ancillary output is measured as a total of recurrent production costs (such as intermediate consumption, compensation of employees and consumption of fixed capital) incurred by enterprises to: 1) reduce environmental pressures arising from their production process or 2) produce environmental goods or services not intended for use outside the enterprise, but instead supporting other (non-environmental) activities undertaken within the enterprise (e.g. waste management services carried out in-house). For market producers, a mark-up for net operating surplus is added to the value of the EGSS ancillary output.
Gross Value Added: represents the contribution made by the production of environmental goods and services to GDP. It is the difference between the value of the output and intermediate consumption.

Employment: is measured in full-time equivalent jobs engaged in the production of output of environmental goods and services. Full-time equivalent is defined as total hours worked divided by the average annual working hours in a full-time job.

Exports: consist of sales, barter, gifts, or grants, of environmental goods and services from residents to non-residents.

Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 of 15 March 1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community describes the different statistical units of the production system.

The recommended statistical unit for the collection and compilation of EGSS statistics (excluding general government) is the establishment. For general government, the recommendation is to use institutional units and groupings of units as defined in the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010).

The statistical population is the national economy as defined in SEEA CF 2012 and the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010). It includes all economic activities undertaken by resident units.

The Republic of Serbia

2015-2021

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Output, gross value added, and exports are measured in million units of national currency. Employment is measured in full time equivalents (i.e., full time equivalent jobs).

The reference period for EGSS data is the calendar year.

EGSS accounts are compiled and reported in accordance with Regulation (EU) No. 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts (EEEA).

The EEEA follow internationally agreed concepts and definitions set out in the SEEA Central Framework (2012), the international statistical standard adopted by the UN Statistical Commission. They present data in a way that is compatible with National Accounts (ESA, 2010).

Not applicable.

Data confidentiality is stipulated by:

- Official Statistics Law (Official Gazette of RS, number 104/2009), Articles 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49.

(www.stat.gov.rs/media/2322/zakon_o_statisticie.pdf)

- Rulebook on statistical data protection in the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

(www.stat.gov.rs/media/2343/rulebook-on-statistical-data-protection-in-sors.doc ) 

- Guidelines on measures of data and information protection in the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

(www.stat.gov.rs/media/2341/guidelines-on-measures-of-data-and-information-protection-in-the-sors.doc )

Confidentiality is based on the principles according to the Official Statistics Law (“Official Gazette of RS” no. 104/09).

Confidential data are not published.

Calendar of releases is available at SORS website on the 1st day of December every year for the forthcoming year (http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/calendar).

 All SORS releases are launched at 12.00.

Any divergence from the defined time schedule are announced in advance and explained in the Calendar.

Calendar of releases is available at SORS website:

http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/calendar

The data obtained through statistical surveys are released at the internet presentation (http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/),

in statistical releases and publications (http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/publikacije/). 

 The results of official statistics are available at the same time to all users on impartial basis; any privileged access by external users before their release is not allowed.  

Annual

Not applicable.

Via statistical release Environmental goods and services sector accounts (https://publikacije.stat.gov.rs/G2023/PdfE/G20231290.pdf)

Not applicable

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Not applicable.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Not applicable.

The SORS quality management system is relied on the Serbian official statistics mission and vision, as well as on the European Statistics Code of Practice – CoP and the Total Quality Management – TQM principles, which together make the common quality framework of the European Statistical System (ESS).

 For more information, please see the documents at http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/o-nama/sistem-upravljanja-kvalitetom.

Not applicable.

The key users are the state institutions (Ministries, agencies etc), other national users (environmental analysts, non-government organizations, students, general public etc.), EU and international institutions.

On biennial basis (once in two years), by the means of web interview, implemented is the User Satisfaction Survey. The survey results are available at SORS website: http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/o-nama/sistem-upravljanja-kvalitetom.

The data are updated up to 2021.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

The quality of the accounts is only as good as the quality of the underlying basic statistics.

EGSS accounts are compiled using a range of primary statistical sources. The sampling and non-sampling errors are described in the metadata of the underlying statistical data.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

EGSS accounts are compiled using a range of primary statistical sources. The sampling and non-sampling errors are described in the metadata of the underlying statistical data.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

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Data are available with a timeliness of T+22 months after the end of the reference year.

Data are available with a timeliness of T+22 months after the end of the reference year.

Data are available with a timeliness of T+22 months after the end of the reference year.

The data were delivered to Eurostat on 31st October. The reporting deadline for EGSS to Eurostat is 31 October. 

Not applicable.

The methodology of the survey on EGSS allows reporting according to the rules of the European environmetal economic accounts Regulation No. 691/2011/ EC and geographical comparability with the data of the countries of the European Union.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

The data are comparable and available from 2015 onwards.

2015-2021

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

 Not applicable.

SORS used the same data in caulation for EGSS and EPEA.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The SORS general revision policy constitutes the global frame ensuring that each statistical domain shall define its own revision policy in compliance with its specific nature. 

 The general SORS revision policy determines:

 - general rules of revisions of the published data,

- forms of informing users as regards the possible causes of revisions,

- categories of revisions, and

- documents covering all aspects of revisions.

 The general SORS revision policy is available at http://www.stat.gov.rs/media/2332/general-revision-policy.docx.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The environmental goods and services sector accounts are based on data from administrative and statistical sources.

Annual.

Data are taken from administrative and statistical sources.

Validation of data is done during the entire data processing from input to final results.

In Output compilation SORS use same data sources and calculations method for period 2015-2021. For each NACE section calculations made separately. In compilation, instruction from EGSS Guidelines was used and following data: statistical data from industrial production, environmental expenditure, data on organic agriculture, data on the value of construction works, data on production of energy from renewable sources, data on energy prices. SORS used a list of environmental products. 

In GVA compilation SORS use same data sources and calculations method for period 2015-2021. GVA is calculated starting from output data using ratios from NA.

SORS  compiles data on exports only for EGSS products from the PRODCOM survey. In Export compilation SORS use same data sources and calculations method for period 2015-2021. For export of environmental products (for selected EGS products from the PRODCOM list) SORS obtain data from External trade statistics.  

In Employment compilation SORS use same data sources and calculations method for period 2015-2021.The employment relating to the EGSS ancillary output is calculated using a value of income on one full time employed person in specialist environmental producers. Employment from market activities is calculated based on number of employees from Registred employment and appropriate ratio for NACE Rev.2 sections.

In cases where environmental share has to be estimated (goods from PRODCOM survey), we assume that environmental share is the same as the share of environmental subsidies in our country which is 26%. We use the same share for all EGSS variables/ CEPA and CReMA categories in NACE B and C. The same share is used for the entire period reported. The SORS will monitor the share of government subsidies on environmental protection and, if necessary, update the share used in the EGSS calculation.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Not applicable.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

The revision of the EPEA is in the process, accordingly, the revision of the EGSS will be done in the following period.