European Union experience
15.120. The legal framework for the provision of FATS in the European Economic Area (EEA) is regulation No. 716/2007 of 20 June 2007. In addition, Eurostat publishes the FATS Recommendations Manual, which provides a common methodological framework for definitions and concepts for national compilers in order to produce a harmonized set of FATS data across the Member States. Having a comparable set of FATS data is a precondition for compiling meaningful, reliable and high-quality European aggregates.
15.121. Inward FATS and outward FATS data are collected from the member states of the European Union and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries on an annual basis. Data collection has been mandatory since 2007, the reference year. One of the most important concepts when looking at the European statistics is that FATS should be compiled according to the UCI concept. The UCI is the institutional unit (enterprise, branch) proceeding up a foreign affiliate’s chain of control that is not controlled by another institutional unit (enterprise, branch).