1. Joint meeting Working Groups on Environmental Accounts & Environmental Expenditure Statistics Luxembourg, 10 March 2015 Confidential data (point 7 of the agenda) Eurostat – Unit E2 Stephan Moll Stephan.Moll@ec.europa.eu

2. Eurostat Eurostat's goal: => publish EU aggregates Bottom-up approach used for EU aggregates Country data flagged as confidential => problem => Eurostat cannot publish EU aggregates! => limited use of environmental accounts! => AEA and EW-MFA data become almost useless Confidentiality is guaranteed by Regulation (EC) 223/2009 Dilemma: Usefulness of environmental accounts  Confidentiality clause Introduction

3. Eurostat Multidimensional data cubes (AEA, EW-MFA) Hierarchically classified dimensions = most important!: AEA: NACE with three levels (A*64, A*51, A*21) EW-MFA: MATERIAL four levels (1 to 4 digits) If one cell is flagged confidential at detailed level: => next superior level also confidential (done by country) => EU aggregate cannot be shown for cell and superior levels Problem description (1)

4. Eurostat AEA: 23% / 35% confidential in 2012 / 2008 even NACE A*21 cannot be shown completely for EU ! AEA becomes useless; cannot be used for input-output modelling (e.g. to calculate carbon footprint) EW-MFA: ca. 30% confidential only MF-1-digit-level for EU Policy requests indicators broken down by most detailed materials (ca. 50) (e.g. raw materials initiative of DG GROWTH) Problem description (2)

5. Eurostat 1.Countries remove all confidentiality flags +perfect option for EU aggregates (all details can be displayed) -may allow identification of individual units at the level of single countries 2.Countries reduce number of confidentiality flags (unreliable data, check again with experts, changing method) +maybe better than present -still the full detail cannot be shown for EU Possible solutions enabling EU aggregates (1/3)

6. Eurostat 3.Countries set 'secondary' confidentiality flags at most detailed level in order to disclose superior cells. Eurostat could provide a tool +better than present – EU can be shown at least for NACE A*21 and MF level 1 -still the full detail cannot be shown for EU – more iterations needed 4.Eurostat does controlled rounding of EU aggregates (e.g. to the next thousands, PRODCOM method) +EU aggregates can be shown whilst confidential country data stay closed -the rounded values may become unrealistic or unreasonable Possible solutions enabling EU aggregates (2/3)

7. Eurostat 5.Countries do not report confidential cells at the most detailed level; instead mark those as 'not available' +Eurostat could estimate the missing/confidential cells and publish all EU aggregates at most detailed level -in certain cases it could happen that sub-totals need to be estimated too 6.Publication of EU aggregates is given priority. In case of confidential cells all 28 countries are automatically disclosed +Countries can report as usual and Eurostat can publish EU aggregates -country data may be published nationally theoretically enabling identification Possible solutions enabling EU aggregates (3/3)

8. Eurostat To ensure proper use of environmental accounts it is necessary to reduce to a minimum the number of cells that cannot be published – in particular at EU level The Working Group is invited to discuss the problem and move towards a common solution Conclusions