XBRL for Statistical Reporting

Giuseppe SindoniEurostat

Statistical Information Technologies

Eurostat and the European Statistical System

• Network of national institutions and agencies• Co-ordinated by Eurostat

– European Commission Directorate General– European Union Statistical Authority

• Tasked with providing a high quality statistical information service

• 1000 data providers to Eurostat– No data collection directly from enterprises – Coordination role in primary data collection

• More than 100 committees, working groups and expert groups

Harmonisation & Methodology• EU Regulations and Agreements• Code lists, nomenclatures• Reporting tools, services and standards

– National raw data– Aggregated European data

• Latest technologies– Internet, Web-forms– XBRL?

Co-ordination• Accounting & Statistics Task Force

– IAS/IFRS

• Collection of Raw Data Task Force (CORD)• (UNECE Task Force on Electronic Data Reporting)

– Data reporting technologies

• Projects– National – Commission funded

• XBRL

XBRL2004: preliminary analysis

• Feasibility analysis to a project: extraction of statistical data from XBRL reports– Success depends on

• Availability of GAAP taxonomies• Widespread use of the IFRS taxonomy

– Statistical extensions needed in both cases– Extensions to be coordinated within the ESS– Strong appetite among financial institutions– A pilot project feasible for extraction of raw economic data

by NSIs

Financial frameworkThe X-DIS project

• XML for Data Interoperability in Statistics• Funded by EU programme IDABC:

– Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Business and Citizens

• Total budget: – 3,75 M€ for budget years 2005->2008

• Operational timeframe: – Q4 2005 -> Q2 2009

• 675.000 € to pilots and studies on XBRL and other sectoral standards for data exchange

• Framework contract for this line of work awarded to Software AG

• First specific contract started end of March 2006

Objectives of the pilot project• Test:

– Efficient use of XBRL in the statistical reporting chain

– Chances of widespread acceptance by enterprises and institutions

• Focus on– Reporting by enterprises to NSIs

• Not on– Reporting by NSIs to Eurostat

Analysis tasks

• Mapping of existing taxonomies– Inventory of relevant ones– Mapping to statistical legislation

• Monitoring of XBRL developments– Avoid duplications of efforts– Exploring possibility for synergies

Development tasks• Creation of a statistical taxonomy

– Is it useful and desirable?– One omni-comprehensive taxonomy or one for

each domain (STS, BoP, etc.)?– Modular and extensible by member states

• Test phase– Live environment (2-3 NSIs)– Suitable enterprise samples– Pipelining with SDMX

Tasks on future implementation• Acceptance

– Define if and how to make it operational in enterprises

– Specific organisation aspects (burden, investments, etc.)

• Advanced use of XBRL in surveys by NSIs– A single-source concept for financial and statistical

data will increase the statistical quality

Current state• 2-3 institutions to be “active members” in the

Task Force– Statistical Institutes of BE, ES, NL + Bank of Spain– Focus on Structural Business Statistics (SBS)– Lack of companies already reporting in XBRL (!)

• Project just started– Inventory of relevant taxonomies– Mapping to statistical regulations– Test phase June – September 2006