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

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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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