Yesterday in Luxembourg, Mr Jesús Casado, European Family Businesses’ Secretary General met with Mr Athanasios Thanopoulos, Deputy Director-General of Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

During the meeting, they explored the feasibility of developing EU-level statistics on family businesses, identifying a pragmatic, low-burden methodology leveraging existing data sources and aligning any proposal with the European Commission’s simplification agenda and avoid additional administrative burden.

Mr Casado emphasised that family businesses are strategically relevant to EU priorities as they contribute to:

• Competitiveness
• Scaling up capacity
• Strategic autonomy

The long-term orientation, prudent financial structure (balanced debt/equity), resilience in crises, employment stability, commitment to local communities, employment continuity and intergenerational sustainability mean that family businesses are policy-relevant and thus justify their own statistical viability.

Mr Casado summarised the meeting by saying that “the meeting provided EFB with positive next steps to develop EU-level statistics on family businesses by prioritising some of the essential elements of the family business definition that have already been collected by Eurostat. We will follow Eurostat’s direction while calling for further recognition of family businesses.”