Reference: / Writing date: / Page:
Eurostat:
X-DIS/XBRLpilot project / 13-09-2006 / 1
Software AG:
PHC6CE1/C6A-0006-Belgium
Project / date / Hour / Meeting Place
X-DIS/XBRL Pilot Project / 12/07/2006 11:00 / StatBel site at Brussels
Writing Person / Issue / Goal
Pedro Jiménez / X-DIS/XBRL Pilot Project visit to StatBel , to share experiences regarding XBRL Statistical developments

Note: In case some of the attendeesare not in agreement with part or the totality of these minutes, it has a term of fifteen working days to notify it to the writing person in charge that will come to its revision and rectification if therefore it is decided. If not claims, esteem that all the assistants give their conformity to this minutes.

Attendees

StatBel

Anne Van De Voorde: director of business statistics

Olivier Pieret: statistician

Beatrix Van Brusselen: statistician

Elly Steenbrugghe: statistician

Sylvain Steyaert: informatician

Olivier Goddeeris: statistician, project leader of xbrl

Eurostat

Mrs. Claudia Junker

Mr. Giuseppe Sindoni

Software AG

Mr. Pedro Jiménez

Not Attendees

Treated Subjects

The meeting started at planned time in the StatBel site of Brussels.

Mr. Giuseppe Sindoni introduces the X-DIS/XBRL pilot project belonging to the X-DIS (XML for Data Interoperability in Statistics) statistical projectwithin the IDABC[1] programme. He located the project inside of the Accounting and Statistics Task Force, explaining in summary the tasks performed, meetings heldwith Spanish National Statistical Institute (named INE in Spanish), and which intermediate products had been obtained or are expected to be obtained as a result of the project, indicating that theycan be accessedon CIRCA project web site[2],at CoRD[3]Folder.

Mr. Jiménez explains in detail the works done by project team in the development of the Spanish NSI Statistical Taxonomy and introduces the task that must to be developed in future with INE. A special remark was done by Mr. Jiménez in the project delay as consequence of the difficulty to fit the Test Phase of the X-DIS/XBRL pilot project with the timelines of Spanish project. This delay is based on the complex business structure of Spanish Economy and the importance that have for INE the use of XBRL in Small and Medium enterprises and the difficulty to find Spanish enterprises willingto collaborate with the Test Phase.

Mr. Goddeeris introduces the works performed by StatBel in the Belgian GAAP taxonomy published in the National Bank of Belgium Site.During this presentation several issues were treated. The most relevant were:

  • In relation with the Structural Business Statistics Framework, Mr Goddeeris, commentsthat current works on SBS comprises 4 sectors on the regulation (Annex 1 to 4) and this involves around 44.000 enterprises each year in the collection of data for this Business Statistics.
  • The taxonomy is based on Belgian GAAP and imports elements of the National Bank Taxonomy, use of GCD and value list elements but include more concepts needed for the statistical purposes of the framework. A study of mappings between SBS characteristics and Belgian GAAP taxonomy was done in the past, the result could be shared with Eurostat project team. This documentation will be delivered after meetings to project team.
  • The SBS taxonomy follows the questionnaires approach(requests the same variables) and allowscollection of reports in abbreviated form or full form, according with the size of enterprises and others factors.
  • StatBel is thinking in a non-intrusive approach which will allow to the enterprises fill the reports in two forms, paper based form and electronic form. This is in line with the strategy of collection data from NBB.
  • The next works that need to be executed are:
  • Finish the SBS XBRL Taxonomy and publishit at the Statbel during the month of September.
  • StatBel had started the contact with Accountancy Software Firms in order to include the StatBel taxonomies in their accounting software. Not enough feedback had been obtained and further action will be done in the future in this line.
  • StatBel had planned the development of software based on XBRL for collect the data. This application runs as its described in the image below:

  • Mr. Goddeerisexplains also problems found to reuse data because of the difference in concepts on e.g. Turnover for Tax purposes and Statistics. These problems wereidentified and described too in a study conducted by Mr. George Pappas[4]
  • A test phase is planned to run from October 2006 to February 2007.A possible support for this task is well aligned with both projects. This support is offered by Mr. Sindoni inside of the tasks than could be developed by X-DIS/XBRL pilot project.

The meeting was finished at 12:30 and after a lunch was offered by StatBel to the attendees.

further Actions

TASKID / Action / Responsible / Date
M006B-001 / Share the documentation of mappings done by StatBel / StatBel / ASAP
M006B-002 / Study of possibilities of Collaboration between StatBel and X-DIS/XBRL pilot project / Mr. Sindoni and Mr. Goddeeris / ASAP
M006B-003 / Shared the SBS Belgian Taxonomy / StatBel / In September
/ Confidential Document property of Eurostat /

[1]Decision 2004/387/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 21 April 2004 on interoperable delivery of pan-European eGovernment services to public administrations, businesses and citizens (IDABC) For more information, see the IDA web-site at

[2]The URL didn’t be explicit in the meeting, the documents can be founded at the next web-site: to access to this folder, a CIRCA account for login is necessary.

[3]CoRD: Coordination Of Raw Data, a Task Force promoted by Eurostat.

[4]See