European Union system of national and regional accounts

SUMMARY OF:

Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE REGULATION?

Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 sets up the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010), the European Union’s (EU) internationally compatible system of accounting rules that can be used to give a systematic and detailed description of an economy.
Regulation (EU) 2023/734 amends Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 and repeals 11 legal acts which related to a previous ESA (ESA 1995) and are no longer relevant since ESA 2010 has been implemented.

KEY POINTS

The conceptual basis of ESA 2010

ESA 2010 sets out a methodology (Annex A) on common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules that must be used for compiling accounts and tables in a comparable way for the EU’s purposes.
Amending Regulation (EU) 2023/734 updates Annex A to reflect changes in the ‘Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose’ (COICOP), an international classification, which ensures the comparability of data between countries.
The amending regulation also updates Annex A to correct minor textual inconsistencies that have been identified during its implementation in EU Member States.

The transmission programme of ESA 2010

Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 also set out a transmission programme (Annex B) with deadlines by which Member States have to send these accounts and tables to Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU. The ESA 2010 accounting system has been applied to data since September 2014.
These data are used for coordinating economic policymaking between Member States and coordinating fiscal policies (especially through ratios of government debt and deficit), which are part of the EU’s economic and monetary union (EMU) which, in turn, underpins the euro.
An implementing act, Implementing Decision 2014/403/EU, as amended by Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1891, granted derogations (exemptions) to Member States with respect to the transmission of statistics, based on requests justified by the need for major adaptations to national administrative and statistical systems in order to fully comply with Regulation (EU) No 549/2013; all thesederogations expired no later than 1 January 2020.
Implementing Regulation (EU) No 724/2014 sets out the interchange standard for the transmission of data.
Amending Regulation (EU) 2023/734 updates Annex B to reflect changing user needs, new policy priorities and the development of new economic activities in the EU.
The amendment also states that data on structural information to be transmitted should take into account the principles described in Recommendation (EU) 2023/397 and that new metadata transmission requirements should not impose excessive additional costs or excessive administrative burdens on Member States.
Because implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/734 will require major adaptations to national statistical systems, the European Commission can grant temporary derogations to Member States for a maximum duration of 3 years.

Quality assessment

Member States must provide the Commission (Eurostat) with a report on the quality of the data to be sent. Eurostat then assesses the quality of the data sent.
Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/2304 sets out the modalities, structure, periodicity and assessment indicators of the quality reports on data transmitted.

Repealed legislation

Amending Regulation (EU) 2023/734 repeals the following 11 acts relating to ESA 1995:

Decision 98/715/EC
Regulation (EC) No 264/2000
Decision 2002/990/EC
Regulation (EC) No 359/2002
Regulation (EC) No 1221/2002
Regulation (EC) No 1267/2003
Regulation (EC) No 501/2004
Regulation (EC) No 1222/2004
Regulation (EC) No 1161/2005
Regulation (EC) No 1392/2007
Regulation (EC) No 400/2009.

FROM WHEN DOES THE REGULATION APPLY?

Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 has applied since 16 July 2013.
Amending Regulation (EU) 2023/734 applies from 1 September 2024.

BACKGROUND

For further information, see:

About ESA 2010 – overview (Eurostat).

MAIN DOCUMENT

Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union (OJ L 174, 26.6.2013, pp. 1–727).

Successive amendments to Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 have been incorporated into the original text. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.