1. Quality project regional GVA and employment
Results so far
19 October 2005
Bas de Vet
Consultant

2. Contents of the presentation
Introduction
Results for regional GVA
Results for regional employment
Conclusions
Recommendations
Working party regional indicators October 2005

3. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005
Introduction
Quality project covered the period
Total quality project included:
Regional GVA
Regional GFCF
Regional employment
Regional population
Regional unemployment
CEIES-indicators
Presentation is limited to the quality review of regional GVA and employment
Working party regional indicators October 2005

4. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005
Availability of quality reports and methodologies concerning GVA of the old EU
Countries
Quality report
Metho-dology
Remark
Austria (AT)
April 2002
Joint report together with GFCF and employment.
Belgium (BE)
Feb. 2002
June 2002
Methodological information is only available in Dutch.
Denmark (DK)
Dec. 2001
Finland (FI)
Joint report together with GFCF.
France (FR)
Oct. 2002
Methodology is only in French.
Germany (DE)
Jan. 2002
Greece (GR)
July 2002
Dec. 2002
Working party regional indicators October 2005

5. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005
Availability of quality reports and methodologies concerning GVA of the old EU
Countries
Quality report
Metho-dology
Remark
Ireland (IE)
Not available.
Italy (IT)
Netherlands (NL)
Dec. 2001
May 2001
Portugal (PT)
Feb. 2002
Methodology is not available.
Spain (ES)
May 2002
June 2002
Sweden (SE)
Joint report together with GFCF and employment.
United Kingdom (UK)
March 2001
Methodology is an update of the screening report. The quality report has still to be revised.
Working party regional indicators October 2005

6. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005
Availability of QR and methodologies GVA of the new MS and CC
 Countries
Availability
Pages methodology 1 BG
Yes 10 2 CZ 3 EE 16 4 HU 5 LT 6 LV 48 7 PL 8 RO 9 SK SL
Working party regional indicators October 2005

7. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005
Availability of quality reports and methodologies regional employment of the EU
Countries
Quality report
Metho-dology
Remark
Austria (AT)
April 2002
Joint report together with GFCF and GVA.
Belgium (BE)
Feb. 2002
Methodology is not available.
Denmark (DK)
Dec. 2001
March 2002
Finland (FI)
France (FR)
Not available.
Germany (DE)
Jan. 2002
May 2002
Methodological note dates back to March 2001 and is in German.
Greece (GR)
July 2002
Methodology is not available
Working party regional indicators October 2005

8. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005
Availability of quality reports and methodologies regional employment of the EU
Countries
Quality report
Metho-dology
Remark
Ireland (IE)
Not available.
Italy (IT)
Netherlands (NL)
Jan. 2002
Feb. 2002
Portugal (PT)
May 2002
A short methodology is available.
Spain (ES)
June 2002
Methodological note is available.
Sweden (SE)
Joint report together with GFCF and GVA.
United Kingdom (UK)
Methodology is not available.
Working party regional indicators October 2005

9. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005
Availability of quality reports and methodologies concerning regional employment regarding the last wave of 2004 (EU-15)
Countries
Quality report
Metho-dology
Remark
Austria (AT)
No update.
Belgium (BE)
No update and no changes in the methods. Methodology is not yet available.
Denmark (DK)
Nov. 2004
No update of the methodology.
Finland (FI)
Feb. 2005
France (FR)
Methodology is not available.
Germany (DE)
Methodological note is in German.
Greece (GR)
Working party regional indicators October 2005

10. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005
Availability of quality reports and methodologies concerning regional employment regarding the last wave of 2004 (EU-15)
Countries
Quality report
Metho-dology
Remark
Ireland (IE)
Not available.
Italy (IT)
Netherlands (NL)
No update and no changes in methods.
Portugal (PT)
Dec. 2004
Methodology is not available.
Spain (ES)
Sweden (SE)
Feb. 2005
United Kingdom (UK)
Questions about the response. We still expect an answer. Methodology is not available.
Working party regional indicators October 2005

11. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005
Availability of quality reports on regional employment at 31 March 2005 (new MS and CC)
Countries
Available information / remarks
Bulgaria
Draft quality report available
Methodology description included in annex of QR
Czech Republic
Methodology description document available
Estonia
Draft quality report available.
LFS Quality Report included as methodology description
Hungary
Latvia
Lithuania
Poland
Romania
No draft quality report available
Slovak Republic
Slovenia
Working party regional indicators October 2005

12. Main conclusions availability regional GVA
There are no quality reports and methodologies regarding regional GVA available for Ireland and Italy.
There is no methodology available for Portugal.
United Kingdom still has to revise the quality report.
The new MS and CC provided as well quality reports as methodologies
Working party regional indicators October 2005

13. Main conclusions for methods used to compile regional GVA
The production method is the main method used by almost all countries.
The enterprise appears to be the most common unit in the regionalisation process.
All reporting countries use mixed methods.
That implies the use of ancillary variables for as well multi-regional, small units as for some activities. For this point the choice of indicators is a very relevant point.
Quantitative information about non response, coverage of units and the testing of assumptions is missing for a large number of countries.
Working party regional indicators October 2005

14. Recommendations for the compilation of regional GVA
The methodology and quality review in the form of process tables should become part of a Regulation, comparable to the GNI-Regulation[1].
The contents of the methodologies and quality reviews as well as the frequency of the updates should be decided on.
[1] Council Regulation (EC, EURATOM) No 1287/2003 of 15 July 2003 on the harmonisation of gross national income at market prices (GNI Regulation).
Working party regional indicators October 2005

15. Recommendations for the compilation of regional GVA
For multi-regional enterprise collecting the following data:
hours worked (because of the new ESA-regulation),
compensation of employees
and consumption of fixed capital
at NUTS-3 (or NUTS-5).
Working party regional indicators October 2005

16. Recommendations for the compilation of regional GVA
Quantitative information should become available at the regional level for non response, coverage of units and the testing of assumptions.
If possible should alternative methods be used for checking the accuracy of the currently used methods.
Process tables should become an integral part of the compilation process.
Working party regional indicators October 2005

17. Main conclusions availability regional employment
For both waves of quality reviews, Italy and Ireland did not provide a quality report on regional employment.
Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain did not provide an update of their 2002 reports.
There seems to be a certain resistance among NSIs to update the reports after a relatively short time (in this case about two years).
In due time it appears to be possible to provide regional data about hours worked.
Working party regional indicators October 2005

18. Main conclusions for methods used to compile regional employment
Total employed persons and employees are in principle the variables to be assessed.
However some countries provide information about jobs and one country about full time equivalents.
The level of detail (by branches) varies strongly between 9 branches and 233 branches.
Working party regional indicators October 2005

19. Recommendations for the compilation of regional employment
to get more coherence of the regional data about labour from different sources (employed persons, jobs, hours worked, full time equivalents, compensation of employees, mixed income, unemployment, labour force, employees and self-employed, commuting),
it is recommended to develop a system of regional labour accounts.
Working party regional indicators October 2005

20. General conclusions co-operation
The experiences with the quality projects show that these projects, though important, do not always get the desired priority.
This is due to the fact that the work to be done is considered as “ad hoc” and has to be incorporated in the current work programme. As a result, some quality reports and methodologies have not been delivered.
The results for the second quality review of regional employment show a relatively low response. The received reactions from the Member States indicate two main reasons for this.
The first reason is that the workload is too high. And the second is that there are no major changes compared to the previous assessment.
Working party regional indicators October 2005

21. Recommendation co-operation
The quality reviews should be part of a quality programme.
Because of the importance of the assessed statistics, an EU-regulation based programme is recommended.
This regulation should at least contain or refer to the topics for quality review, the detail of the quality assessment, the periodicity and the organisation of the assessments.
It is recommended to install a taskforce to prepare proposals for the periodicity of revisions of the regional accounts and other regional indicators, the periodicity and detail of the quality reviews and / or the methodologies.
For instance, the “Gross national income inventory (ESA 95)” for the Netherlands contains 428 pages.
Working party regional indicators October 2005

22. Conclusion and recommendation transparency
The process tables prove to be a very good instrument to get a better transparency of the statistical data and because of that a better awareness about the quantitative importance of the statistical problems.
Recommendation
Install a taskforce for a further development and implementation of the process tables.
Working party regional indicators October 2005

23. End of the presentation
Any questions?
Working party regional indicators October 2005