Luxembourg – Statistical services – Statistical services in relation to Government Finance Statistics and Excessive Deficit Procedure

Government Finance Statistics (GFS) and Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) statistics play a key role in EU economic monitoring. They include in particular the data on government debt and deficit. On behalf of the Commission, Eurostat is responsible for assessing the quality of the EDP statistics transmitted by Member States and for providing the statistics to be used for EDP. Eurostat has the sole competence for the methodology underlying GFS/ EDP statistics. The methodology is based on the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010), which has the status of an EU Regulation, which is complemented by Eurostat's Manual of Government Deficit and Debt (MGDD), as well as Eurostat's decisions, guidance notes, clarifications, etc. This methodology has been elaborated on a basis of a broad consensus of the EU statistical community.