National accounts are compiled in accordance with the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) which was published in the Official Journal as Annex A of Regulation (EU) No 549/2013. The ESA 2010 transmission programme is covered in Annex B

The ESA 2010 has the form of a Regulation and it provides for :

• a methodology (Annex A) on common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules that shall be used for compiling accounts and tables on comparable bases ;

• a programme of data transmission (Annex B) setting out the time limits by which Member States shall transmit to Eurostat the accounts and tables.

Temporary derogations to the data transmission requirements have been granted to Member States, up to 2020, by the Commission Implementing Decision 2014/403/EU of 26 June 2014 thus allowing national data to deviate temporarily from the ESA 2010 transmission requirements.

Some other legal acts with relevance for national accounts concern :

• Commission Decision 98/715 of 30 November 1998 and Commission Decision 2002/990 of 17 December 2002 on measurement of price and volumes in national accounts.

• Legal act on the excessive deficit procedure

Several separate acts, often regarding classifications such as : NACE Rev.2, CPA 2014, COFOG, COICOP, NUTS 2013.

On the Eurostat website, sections 'National accounts' and 'Government finance and EDP', more legal acts relevant for national accounts can be found.

Reference to main country specific legal acts and other legal agreements.

Legislative framework for INSEE and official statistics

• Order NOR EFIS 1311311A of 2 May 2013 on the organisational procedures of the Committee for the National Statistical Quality Label (unofficial translation).

• Decree no. 2009-250 of 3 March 2009 concerning the Official Statistics Authority (unofficial translation).

• Decree no. 2009-318 of 20 March 2009 on the National Council for Statistical Information and the Committee for Statistical Confidentiality (unofficial translation).

• Act no. 51-711 of 7 June 1951 (amended) on legal obligation, coordination and confidentiality in the field of statistics. This law forms the basis for official statistics in France (unofficial translation).

• Act no. 78-17 of 6 January 1978 (amended) on information technology, files and civil liberties.