1. Eurostat – Unit E2 Maaike Bouwmeester Maaike.BOUWMEESTER@ec.europa.eu
Material flow accounts in raw material equivalents (point 3.3 of the agenda)
Eurostat – Unit E2
Maaike Bouwmeester
Working Group on Environmental Accounts
Luxembourg, April 2016

2. What are MFA-RME?
Traded products converted into amounts of material extraction: raw material equivalents (RME)
Measurement concept consistent with domestically sourced material
Eurostat estimates RME employing hybrid input-output modelling in combination with domestic extraction data from EW-MFA (EU RME model)
Estimated for the aggregated EU only

3. Eurostat's activities EU RME model
Annual publication of MFA-RME for EU aggregate
In 2016: updated to NACE Rev. 2 and EU-28, methodological improvements
Country RME tool (simplified version of the EU RME model to estimate country-level MFA-RME)
Support users of the country RME tool
In 2016: update to NACE Rev. 2, set-up of online expert forum

4. RME of traded secondary material
Guidance on conceptual approach to express secondary material in RME
Paper prepared for written consultation; shared with task force
Summary of the views communicated by task force members:
Majority of task force prefers the approach in which traded secondary material receives the amount of RME that represents the (additional) material extraction required to transform the discarded material into a secondary material that can substitute for a primary material
Next step: an updated version of the paper will be circulated in the Working Group for written comments

5. Future developments
Institutionalisation of multi-country input-output (MCIO) databases and modelling
Eurostat will produce a MCIO table for EU: FIGARO project
Cooperation with OECD to create a global MCIO database
Tentative plans for a global EW-MFA database
Further detailing (disaggregation) of mining industry and basic metal/mineral industries needed to make MCIO usable for estimating MFA-RME
For information only

6. Questions to the Working Group
Are RME indicators, for example RMC, requested by your national policy makers?
Do you (plan to) produce RME indicators?
If so, will you publish them on a regular basis?
Do you plan to use Eurostat's country RME tool?
Which additional support would you need from Eurostat?
If not, what is deterring your institute from producing RME indicators?