Esta es la versión HTML de un fichero adjunto a una solicitud de acceso a la información 'Transmission of statistical data from German competent authorities to Eurostat'.



 
Ref. Ares(2015)6010866 - 22/12/2015
EUROPEAN COMMISSION 
EUROSTAT 
 
 
  The Director-General 
 
Luxembourg,  
ESTAT/DG/WR/A5/EBC/MM/MW/eb/D(2015)6561770 
 
By registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt 

 
The Honourable Member of Parliament 
Mr Sven Giegold 
European Parliament 
Rue Wiertz 60 
B - 1047 Bruxelles 
BELGIUM 
Advance copy by email: 
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx 

Subject: 
Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem 2015/6306 
 
Dear Sir, 
We refer to your e-mail of 2 December 2015 in which you make a request for access to 
documents, registered on the date of its receipt (2 December 2015) under the above mentioned 
reference number. 
Your application concerns the following documents: 
the notice or document of the German competent authority (e. g. "Statistisches Bundesamt"), 
which proofs the transmission of statistical data to Eurostat - specifically in regards to the data 
which has been used to come to the following statements. 

(1) In Eurostat's news release 26/2015 - 10 February 2015 (see: 
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/6616449/2-10022015-AP-EN.pdf/d75df6fe-
100b-4ae7-a09e-00400edb183a)
 in the table on page 2 of this document: Eurostat states that no 
numerical value is applicable to Germany's "outstanding liabilities related to off-balance PPPs"
 
  
(2) On page 2 of the further explanation of the footnotes of this abovementioned table (see: 
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1015035/6611302/Contingent-Liabilities-Footnotes.pdf)

Eurostat states: "All assets of PPP projects are recorded on the government's balance sheet in 
Germany."
’ 
Having examined your request under the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding 
public access to documents, I am pleased to inform you that all documents that we have identified 
as relevant for your application can be disclosed, in full or partly. These are the following 
documents: 
European Commission, 2920 Luxembourg, LUXEMBOURG - Tel. +352 43011 
Office: BECH A4/078 - Tel. direct line +352 4301 31748 
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat 
 

1.  Confirmation by the Federal Statistical Office of 7 January 2015 that the Supplement on 
contingent liabilities and potential obligations to the EDP related questionnaire for Germany 
had been uploaded through Eurostat’s data and metadata exchange server (so called 
‘EDAMIS’) [ref. Ares(2015)5915319; attached as Annex 1], 
 
2.  Confirmation of  7 January 2015 from the Eurostat’s EDAMIS Support Team that the data 
were received and sent on to Eurostat’s internal data processing environment [ref. 
EDAMIS-152- EDP_CONTING_A_DE_2014_0000_V0001; attached as Annex 2], 
 
3.  Table 2 of the Supplement on contingent liabilities and potential obligations to the EDP 
related questionnaire on ‘Total outstanding liabilities related to PPPs recorded off-balance 
sheet of government
’, submitted by Germany on 7 January 2015 [ref. EDAMIS-152-
EDP_CONTING_A_DE_2014_0000_V0001; attached as Annex 3], 
 
4.  Exchanges between Eurostat and the Federal Statistical Office on the data submitted in the 
Supplement on contingent liabilities and potential obligations to the EDP related 
questionnaire, including table 2 of the dataset [ref. Ares(2015)5915457; attached as Annex 
4]. 
 
As background information, we would like to recall that the data on government potential 
obligations stemming from the off-balance PPPs to which you refer are submitted by the EU 
Member States, and published by Eurostat, based on Eurostat’s decision on the ‘Supplement on 
contingent liabilities and potential obligations to the EDP related
 questionnaire’ of 22 July 
20131. The reporting obligations for the EU Member States include: 
The metadata clarifying the completeness, definitions, use of estimations or timeliness of the 
data are to be provided to Eurostat alongside the data. Furthermore, Member States are 
requested to add footnotes which should be published alongside the data
.’ [cf. section ‘Data 
transmission’ under part 3, second paragraph]. 
 
 
Eurostat, on its part, is obliged: 
‘to make sure that appropriate explanatory notes on the published data are available in order to 
eliminate possible misinterpretation of the published indicators. It will be clearly explained that 
the data on contingent liabilities and potential obligations should not be directly added to the 
Maastricht indicators. The explanatory notes will be communicated to Member States before 
Eurostat publishes them.’
 [cf. section ‘Data publication’ under part 3, second paragraph]. 
 
Please note that some parts of the documents listed above have been blanked out as their disclosure 
is prevented by exceptions to the right of access laid down in Article 4 of Regulation 1049/2001. 
The use of the exceptions is justified with respect to the redacted parts of the documents on the 
following grounds:  
i. 
To protect the privacy and integrity of the individual, personal data (names and functions of 
employees of the Commission and the Federal Statistical Office (‘Destatis’)) have been 
expunged on the basis of Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation 1049/2001.  
 
ii. 
To protect the Commission's decision making process, parts of the document attached as 
Annex 4 have been expunged on the basis of Article 4(3) of Regulation 1049/2001, since an 
                                                 

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1015035/2041337/ESTAT-decision-Suppl-on-conting-
liab-EDP-Q.pdf/0b35165a-ee53-470a-a15a-7beaa98aac8b 
 



atmosphere of mutual trust must be maintained between the Commission and the Federal 
Statistical Office with regard to consultation and clarifications on the quality of statistical 
data provided to the Commission (Eurostat) under Council Regulation 479/2009. 
 
Given that your request relates specifically to the data on government obligations stemming 
from the off balance PPPs, we have blanked out the parts of the exchanges between Eurostat 
and the Federal Statistical Office which are not relevant to your request unless the 
information had been disclosed to the public beforehand in the context of Eurostat’s 
publication of data on government contingent liabilities.    
 
In accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation 1049/2001, you are entitled to make a confirmatory 
application requesting the Commission to review this position. 
Such a confirmatory application should be addressed within 15 working days upon receipt of this 
letter to the Secretary-General of the Commission at the following address: 
European Commission 
Secretary-General 
Transparency unit SG-B-4 
BERL 5/327 
B-1049 Bruxelles 
or by email to: xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx 
 
Yours sincerely, 
(eSigned) 
Walter Radermacher 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Enclosures 
 
 
 
 

Electronically signed on 22/12/2015 14:51 (UTC+01) in accordance with article 4.2 (Validity of electronic documents) of Commission Decision 2004/563