Report on the quality of fiscal data reported by Member States in 2017

Background and further information:

Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure (EDP) requires the Commission (Eurostat) to report regularly to the European Parliament and the Council on the quality of the actual data reported by Member States. This annual report provides an overall assessment of the timeliness, reliability, completeness and consistency of the data and their compliance with accounting rules. The Commission adopted the previous report (on 2016 data) on 9 March 2017.

Eurostat regularly assesses the quality of the actual data reported by Member States and of the underlying general government sector accounts in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts. That assessment concentrates on the factors that explain the general government deficit/surplus and changes in general government debt. Member States send that information to Eurostat twice per year. Eurostat also maintains contact with Member States through regular EDP dialogue visits.

This report is based on the main findings and results of the EDP data reported by Member States in 2017. It focuses on the latest reports, submitted in October 2017, comparing them where appropriate with the data sent in April 2017 and in 2016.