XBRL for Statistical Reporting Giuseppe Sindoni Eurostat Statistical Information Technologies

Eurostat and the European Statistical System Network of national institutions and agencies Co-ordinated by Eurostat –European Commission Directorate General –European Union Statistical Authority Tasked with providing a high quality statistical information service 1000 data providers to Eurostat –No data collection directly from enterprises –Coordination role in primary data collection More than 100 committees, working groups and expert groups

Harmonisation & Methodology EU Regulations and Agreements Code lists, nomenclatures Reporting tools, services and standards –National raw data –Aggregated European data Latest technologies –Internet, Web-forms –XBRL?

Co-ordination Accounting & Statistics Task Force –IAS/IFRS Collection of Raw Data Task Force (CORD) (UNECE Task Force on Electronic Data Reporting) –Data reporting technologies Projects –National –Commission funded XBRL

XBRL 2004: preliminary analysis Feasibility analysis to a project: extraction of statistical data from XBRL reports –Success depends on Availability of GAAP taxonomies Widespread use of the IFRS taxonomy –Statistical extensions needed in both cases –Extensions to be coordinated within the ESS –Strong appetite among financial institutions –A pilot project feasible for extraction of raw economic data by NSIs

Financial framework The X-DIS project XML for Data Interoperability in Statistics Funded by EU programme IDABC: –Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Business and Citizens Total budget: –3,75 M€ for budget years 2005->2008 Operational timeframe: –Q > Q € to pilots and studies on XBRL and other sectoral standards for data exchange Framework contract for this line of work awarded to Software AG First specific contract started end of March 2006

Objectives of the pilot project Test: –Efficient use of XBRL in the statistical reporting chain –Chances of widespread acceptance by enterprises and institutions Focus on –Reporting by enterprises to NSIs Not on –Reporting by NSIs to Eurostat

Analysis tasks Mapping of existing taxonomies –Inventory of relevant ones –Mapping to statistical legislation Monitoring of XBRL developments –Avoid duplications of efforts –Exploring possibility for synergies

Development tasks Creation of a statistical taxonomy –Is it useful and desirable? –One omni-comprehensive taxonomy or one for each domain (STS, BoP, etc.)? –Modular and extensible by member states Test phase –Live environment (2-3 NSIs) –Suitable enterprise samples –Pipelining with SDMX

Tasks on future implementation Acceptance –Define if and how to make it operational in enterprises –Specific organisation aspects (burden, investments, etc.) Advanced use of XBRL in surveys by NSIs –A single-source concept for financial and statistical data will increase the statistical quality

Current state 2-3 institutions to be “active members” in the Task Force –Statistical Institutes of BE, ES, NL + Bank of Spain –Focus on Structural Business Statistics (SBS) –Lack of companies already reporting in XBRL (!) Project just started –Inventory of relevant taxonomies –Mapping to statistical regulations –Test phase June – September 2006