Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union
1.2. Contact organisation unit
B3. Enlargement, neighbourhood and development cooperation
1.3. Contact name
Restricted from publication
1.4. Contact person function
Restricted from publication
1.5. Contact mail address
2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG
1.6. Contact email address
Restricted from publication
1.7. Contact phone number
Restricted from publication
1.8. Contact fax number
Restricted from publication
2.1. Metadata last certified
26 February 2024
2.2. Metadata last posted
26 February 2024
2.3. Metadata last update
26 February 2024
3.1. Data description
The focus of this domain is on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) countries on the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean (ENP-South), namely:
Algeria (DZ),
Egypt (EG),
Israel (IL),
Jordan (JO),
Lebanon (LB),
Libya (LY),
Morocco (MA),
Palestine (PS) (1),
Syria (SY) and
Tunisia (TN).
An extensive range of indicators is presented in this domain, including indicators from almost every theme covered by European statistics. Only annual data are published in this domain.
The data and their denomination in no way constitute the expression of an opinion by the European Commission on the legal status of a country or territory or on the delimitation of its borders.
Data supplied by and under the responsibility of the national statistical authorities of each of the countries or territories.
(1) This designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine and is without prejudice to the individual positions of the Member States on this issue.
3.2. Classification system
The vast majority of the indicators that have been collected for the ENP-South countries are ones that are also collected for EU Member States. As such, the definitions that countries have been asked to follow are based on international and EU standards, for example the SNA (or ESA) or the IMF manual on balance of payments.
3.3. Coverage - sector
This domain covers a wide range of subject areas, including:
Economy and finance
Population and social conditions
Tourism
Agriculture and fisheries
International trade in goods
Transport
Environment and energy
The sectoral coverage varies according to subject.
Cooperation with Syria is suspended since May 2011.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Data are provided through an annual data collection exercise.
The definitions of the indicators that countries have been requested to follow can be found (in English and French) in annex Definitions at the bottom of this page.
3.5. Statistical unit
Where appropriate: see definitions and footnotes (at the bottom of the page) for each indicator.
3.6. Statistical population
Where appropriate: see definitions and footnotes (at the bottom of the page) for each indicator.
3.7. Reference area
The ENP countries on the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean:
Algeria (DZ),
Egypt (EG),
Israel (IL),
Jordan (JO),
Lebanon (LB),
Libya (LY),
Morocco (MA),
Palestine (PS) (1),
Syria (SY) and
Tunisia (TN).
The data and their denomination in no way constitute the expression of an opinion by the European Commission on the legal status of a country or territory or on the delimitation of its borders.
Cooperation with Syria is suspended since May 2011.
(1) This designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine and is without prejudice to the individual positions of the Member States on this issue.
3.8. Coverage - Time
The time-series start from 2005. For some older datasets that are no longer updated the time series might start in 2000.
3.9. Base period
Where appropriate: see definitions and footnotes (at the bottom of the page) for each indicator.
Where appropriate: see definitions and footnotes (at the bottom of the page) for each indicator.
All data are annual, referring either to the year as a period, or to a representative date in the year, typically the first or last day of the year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
The European Neighbourhood Policy, abbreviated as ENP, was developed in 2004, with the objective of avoiding the emergence of new dividing lines between the enlarged European Union and its neighbours to the South and East. Through the ENP, the EU offers its neighbours a privileged relationship, building upon a mutual commitment to common values (democracy and human rights, rule of law, good governance, market economy principles and sustainable development). The central element of the European Neighbourhood Policy is the bilateral ENP Action Plans agreed between the EU and each partner. These plans set out an agenda of political and economic reforms with short and medium-term priorities.
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Countries only provide non-confidential data.
8.1. Release calendar
No formal calendar: data are disseminated on Eurobase once a year generally in February.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable.
8.3. Release policy - user access
In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 — 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.
Data for the ENP countries (both those in eastern Europe and those on the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean) were published in a biennial book (starting from 2015). The last Statistical Book with data for ENP South was published in 2020.
ENP data were also published in one or more leaflets each year, until 2020. Between 2021 and 2023, factsheets were produced for the ENP countries on a yearly basis.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
Data are provided at Eurostat’s request directly by the national statistical authorities of the ENP-South countries and under their responsibility. A standard set of definitions is provided to the countries. In some cases, countries note divergences from the standard definitions or classifications requested and these are available as footnotes file at the bottom of this page.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Data are provided at Eurostat’s request directly by the national statistical authorities of the ENP-South countries and under their responsibility.
A standard set of definitions is provided to the countries.
In some cases, countries note divergences from the standard definitions or classifications requested and these are available as footnotes file at the bottom of this page.
11.1. Quality assurance
Data are provided at Eurostat’s request directly by the national statistical authorities of the ENP-South countries and under their responsibility. Some of the ENP-South countries respect the European Quality Assurance Framework and undergo a sectorial review. More information can be found here.
Eurostat follows an encompassing quality management approach based on the Code of Practice covering all the statistical domains.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
After receipt, data are validated using a set of automatic validation procedures. In case the validation procedure reveals data exceeding the conditions/thresholds set in the validation program, countries are contacted in order to correct, confirm or explain the values in question. If necessary, data are revised. These revised data are then integrated in the final dataset. Metadata are also checked and in case they are not clear, they are sent back to the countries for clarification. Before disseminating data and metadata, they have to be confirmed by the countries in question.
All the ENP-South countries use - as far as possible - EU and international standards.
13.3. Non-sampling error
All the ENP-South countries use - as far as possible - EU and international standards.
14.1. Timeliness
A request for updated data is sent to countries once a year. The data collection exercise is normally completed around February. The freshness of the data varies somewhat between countries and between indicators, as the data comes from a wide range of sources. Generally, data are relatively complete for the calendar year two before the year of data collection. For example, data collected in 2022 will have relatively complete data for 2020, with 2021 data available for a more limited number of indicators or with partial estimates.
14.2. Punctuality
Data are delivered to Eurostat under the responsibility of the ENP-South countries as soon as they are available depending on the release calendar of each country.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
ENP-South programmes have in general brought standardisation of definitions, concepts and methodologies in line with international standards.
When countries have indicated divergences from the definitions requested, these are indicated in a list of footnotes for each domain, which can be found at the bottom of this page.
15.2. Comparability - over time
When countries have indicated breaks in series these are indicated with the ‘b’ flag in the database.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The large number of indicators collected allows many cross checks within the data set. Care should however be taken, for example when analysing per head ratios where a different employment or population measure may have been used to compile the ratio than the employment and population figures given in this data set.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Generally, only a few indicators are collected for each statistical subject area. However, in some cases the internal coherence can be verified when data for detailed indicators should sum to the data value for more aggregated indicators. Checks of such internal coherence are also included in the validation procedures that are performed.
No information available.
17.1. Data revision - policy
To further specify the general Eurostat revision policy, the following revision policy has been established for Southern European Neighbourhood Policy countries (ENP-South) (enps)
All values from the beginning of the time series are potentially subject to revision.
17.2. Data revision - practice
All reported errors (once validated) result in corrections of the disseminated data.
Reported errors that are deemed to be significant are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated. Corrections for other errors are carried out in connection with the regular scheduled data dissemination/in connection with next scheduled regular revision, which takes place once a year.
Data may be published even if they are missing for certain countries or flagged as provisional or of low reliability for certain countries. They are replaced with final data once transmitted and validated.
New data are only used to update disseminated data if provided according to the provision schedule set by Eurostat, or in the case of reported errors.
For the national data collection, the countries covered by this domain are asked to update the data set for their country. Several countries identify data that has been forecasted, and in these cases, this is indicated in the database.
From the 2017 round of data collection, data from 2005 onwards have been updated.
18.1. Source data
Most of the data are provided by the national statistical authorities of the ENP-South countries using a set of tailor-made questionnaires. The data come from a wide range of sources.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Once a year.
18.3. Data collection
Data are collected using a set of tailor-made Excel questionnaires. Questionnaires are sent to the national statistical authorities of the ENP-South countries to be filled in and returned for validation and publication.
18.4. Data validation
The data received from countries are validated. Various types of validation tests are performed.
1. Respect of the data format: are missing data correctly coded, is the distinction between data that has a value of '0' and data that is not available or confidential clear, have all footnote references got a corresponding footnote text?
2. Respect of the units and listed scales: are the data provided in the unit and scale requested?
3. Cross-check of basic data: do the basic data agree with other sources and with data published on web sites of the national statistical offices?
4. Time series: check of growth rates between reference periods for particularly high and low values — this is done in absolute terms and in percentage terms.
5. Order of magnitude: does the data seem credible in terms of scale? This can be checked by comparison to an expected range of values directly, or after dividing by another indicator (such as population or GDP).
6. Coherence between totals and components: when an aggregate is requested, as well as its elements these are checked; when an exhaustive list of elements is available in percentage terms, the total is checked to be 100%.
7. Between derived indicators and their components: a number of indicators can be compiled from other indicators in the data set, and it is reasonable to assume that they should be coherent. In fact, they may not be coherent for a number of reasons, for example the derived indicators may have been compiled using data from different sources.
8. Between indices and base year: does the value for the base year equal 100? Small divergences may be possible due, for example, to working day adjustment.
18.5. Data compilation
No geographical aggregates are compiled.
A very small number of indicators are derived from the collected data as most indicators to be published are collected directly: the derived indicators concern population data.
Most data in national currencies are converted to euro before publishing.
18.6. Adjustment
Apart from data validation (which may lead to corrections of errors), derivation of a selection of indicators and currency conversion, no adjustments are made to the data.
The focus of this domain is on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) countries on the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean (ENP-South), namely:
Algeria (DZ),
Egypt (EG),
Israel (IL),
Jordan (JO),
Lebanon (LB),
Libya (LY),
Morocco (MA),
Palestine (PS) (1),
Syria (SY) and
Tunisia (TN).
An extensive range of indicators is presented in this domain, including indicators from almost every theme covered by European statistics. Only annual data are published in this domain.
The data and their denomination in no way constitute the expression of an opinion by the European Commission on the legal status of a country or territory or on the delimitation of its borders.
Data supplied by and under the responsibility of the national statistical authorities of each of the countries or territories.
(1) This designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine and is without prejudice to the individual positions of the Member States on this issue.
26 February 2024
Data are provided through an annual data collection exercise.
The definitions of the indicators that countries have been requested to follow can be found (in English and French) in annex Definitions at the bottom of this page.
Where appropriate: see definitions and footnotes (at the bottom of the page) for each indicator.
Where appropriate: see definitions and footnotes (at the bottom of the page) for each indicator.
The ENP countries on the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean:
Algeria (DZ),
Egypt (EG),
Israel (IL),
Jordan (JO),
Lebanon (LB),
Libya (LY),
Morocco (MA),
Palestine (PS) (1),
Syria (SY) and
Tunisia (TN).
The data and their denomination in no way constitute the expression of an opinion by the European Commission on the legal status of a country or territory or on the delimitation of its borders.
Cooperation with Syria is suspended since May 2011.
(1) This designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine and is without prejudice to the individual positions of the Member States on this issue.
All data are annual, referring either to the year as a period, or to a representative date in the year, typically the first or last day of the year.
All the ENP-South countries use - as far as possible - EU and international standards.
Where appropriate: see definitions and footnotes (at the bottom of the page) for each indicator.
No geographical aggregates are compiled.
A very small number of indicators are derived from the collected data as most indicators to be published are collected directly: the derived indicators concern population data.
Most data in national currencies are converted to euro before publishing.
Most of the data are provided by the national statistical authorities of the ENP-South countries using a set of tailor-made questionnaires. The data come from a wide range of sources.
The frequency of dissemination is annual.
A request for updated data is sent to countries once a year. The data collection exercise is normally completed around February. The freshness of the data varies somewhat between countries and between indicators, as the data comes from a wide range of sources. Generally, data are relatively complete for the calendar year two before the year of data collection. For example, data collected in 2022 will have relatively complete data for 2020, with 2021 data available for a more limited number of indicators or with partial estimates.
ENP-South programmes have in general brought standardisation of definitions, concepts and methodologies in line with international standards.
When countries have indicated divergences from the definitions requested, these are indicated in a list of footnotes for each domain, which can be found at the bottom of this page.
When countries have indicated breaks in series these are indicated with the ‘b’ flag in the database.
