Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the quality of fiscal data reported by Member States in 2015

Article 8(3) of Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure (EDP) annexed to the Treaty establishing the European Community requires the Commission (Eurostat) to report regularly to the European Parliament and to the Council on the quality of the actual data reported by Member States. The current annual report provides an overall assessment of the timeliness, reliability, completeness, compliance with accounting rules and consistency of the data.

Eurostat regularly assesses the quality of the actual data reported by Member States and of the underlying general government sector accounts. October 2014 was the first time these accounts were compiled in accordance with 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 (ESA 2010). This assessment concentrates on the factors that explain the general government deficit/surplus and changes in general government debt.

Member States send this information to Eurostat twice per year as part of the ‘EDP notification tables’ and the supplementary information included in the ‘Questionnaire related to the EDP notification tables’, the ‘Supplementary table for the financial crisis’ and also via bilateral clarifications. Eurostat also maintains contact with Member States by making regular EDP dialogue visits.

This report is based on the main findings and results of the EDP data reported by Member States in 2015. It focuses on the latest reports submitted in October 2015. Where appropriate, comparisons are made with the data sent in April 2015, as well as with those sent in 2014.