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Foreign AffiliaTes Statistics (FATS) Recommendations Manual
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The FATS manual is a milestone on the road to EU-wide harmonised Foreign AffiliaTes Statistics
(FATS). Its importance becomes even more apparent when we consider the political background to
this project.
All over the world, ‘globalisation’ is seen as the predominant agent of change and the main policy
challenge. At the heart of this complex and somewhat blurry concept, however, lie businesses and
their ever-increasing drive to expand their activities across national borders, most notably by
establishing foreign affiliates. Europe plays a key role in this. The EU has become a very important
destination for foreign companies and their affiliates, and European businesses are among the most
active around the world. A host of crucial policy challenges flow from this, not least the issue of
outsourcing jobs and keeping European firms competitive.
Consequently, there is a huge and ever-growing demand for data on these developments. FATS
statistics are particularly useful because they help explain how businesses are expanding
internationally and what the consequences are for the European Union. The FATS Regulation ensures
that harmonised FATS are available from 2009 onwards and the FATS Manual plays a crucial role in
compiling them. It gives national compilers the definitions and guidelines they need in order to
produce FATS that can be added together to produce meaningful EU-wide aggregates.
The manual has to comply with the rules in the FATS Regulation and must meet the practical needs of
the national compilers. The first edition was therefore thoroughly discussed at meetings of the FATS
Joint Working Group and went through many rounds of written procedure with Member States at all
stages of its production. Then, in 2008, two new Commission Regulations came into force,
implementing and amending the FATS Regulation, and this made it necessary to improve the manual.
A second edition was therefore published in 2009. However, the Member States' subsequent
experience with FATS data collection and compilation showed that some of the manual's
recommendations needed further clarifications, and that some important guidance were to be
completed. Eurostat therefore proposed an updated edition, with extended content where appropriate.
This third edition of the Manual has been restructured, making it easier to handle. Furthermore,
Chapter I now explains in greater detail how to identify the Ultimate Control Institutional Unit (UCI).
A section on the nature and treatment of Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) has also been added.
During the consultation process, Eurostat received extremely helpful comments from many delegates.
‘Harmonising’ always implies ‘compromising’. Consequently, the definitions and guidelines
contained in this manual are not always the preferred options for every Member State. However,
Eurostat has been extremely careful to ensure that the provisions in the manual are in keeping with the
concerns of the maximum number of Member States
eurostat methodologies and working papers - Personal Name
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Mathematics
English
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