Guidance
Eurostat provides additional methodological guidance documentation on the accounting rules for the EDP statistics and the GFS complementing or interpreting the general rules of ESA 2010.
Guidance notes issued under ESA 2010
Guidance notes are released under the responsibility of Eurostat, after the consultations with EU countries. They explain the accounting rules for some specific issues.
- Guidance note on the recording of Member States' interventions to alleviate high energy prices via revenue measures (30 March 2023)
- Guidance note on the recording of reversible caps on energy prices with final compensation (30 March 2023)
- Guidance note on the recording of government expenditure measures on high energy prices (30 March 2023)
Clarifications issued under ESA 2010
- Recording of the EU own resource based on non-recycled plastic packaging waste (24 June 2022)
- Clarification on the time of recording of ANFA and SMP transfers to Greece (5 March 2021)
- Treatment of guarantees provided by Member States under the SURE instrument (11 September 2020)
Guidance notes issued under ESA 1995
GFS interpretations
GFS interpretations are clarifications of ESA methodology released by Eurostat that concern GFS, while generally not impacting the measurement of government deficit and debt (for example only impacting total expenditure together with total revenue, or the composition of expenditure and revenue, financial instruments, etc.). These GFS interpretations are consulted with the GFS Task Force and agreed by the EDPS Working Group.
- Payments for obtaining citizenship (25 September 2024)
- Aid for refugees and (military) aid in kind (25 September 2024)
- Borderline between transfers and purchases of goods/services for transactions between government units (9 February 2024)
COFOG cases: addenda to the COFOG manual
Classification of the functions of government (COFOG) cases are additions to the 2019 edition of the COFOG manual. They aim to provide clarification on the appropriate functional allocation of general government expenditure in cases where the COFOG classification is not straightforward. The COFOG Task Force is consulted on these cases and they agreed by the EDPS Working Group.
- COFOG case 54 - Aid for refugees and (military) aid in kind (25 September 2024)
- COFOG case 53 - Expenditure related to tax cancellations and payable tax credits (25 September 2024)
- COFOG case 52 - Expenditure on personal protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 tests (25 September 2024)
Consultation draft
A number of EU governments introduced major policy measures to mitigate the economic and social impact of the shutdown of businesses enforced across the EU due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This note is a consultation draft that aimed to examine the arguments for and against potential recordings and to ensure a harmonised recording of similar policy measures across EU countries, to the extent possible. The draft note served to launch a consultation within the GFS and EDP compiler community. To a large extent, the topics raised in the note have been integrated into the 2022 edition of the manual on government deficit and debt.