- Regarding health expenditure, Member States are more evenly distributed around the EU25
average (6.5%). Ireland ranks in the first position in health expenditure, while a group of countries
formed by Cyprus, the Baltic States, the Netherlands, Poland and Greece spend on public health
between 2 and 3.5 percentage points of GDP less than the EU25 average.
3.2. Demand for more detailed information - Availability of COFOG second level
Although the first level of COFOG data provides an overall picture of the composition of public
expenditures and the possibility for cross-country comparisons, there is clearly a need for more detailed
data. For example, while a better knowledge of R&D expenditures is particular relevant in the context of
the Lisbon Strategy, it is not possible to isolate these expenditures, except on the basis of COFOG second
level data.
Longer time series and disaggregated data also allow the explanation of trends in some categories. For
example, the overall growth in general government expenditure as a percentage of GDP between 2000
and 2005 has been concentrated in health (from 5.9% of GDP to 6.4%) and social protection (from
19.0% of GDP to 19.4%).
- Concerning health expenditures, a more disaggregated analysis shows that, in the case of
Denmark, the increase in health expenditures (1.6%) between 1990 and 2007 resulted from an
average real growth of 4.3% for medical products, compared to 1.3% for hospital services. - Concerning social protection, the support for the elderly is dominant in nearly all countries which
reported second level COFOG data for 2005, followed by expenditure on sickness and disability
(relatively significant for Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Hungary).
Following the ECOFIN request for COFOG second level data, Member States, in co-operation with
Eurostat, continued to work on the extension of the data set, on a voluntary basis, and on the
improvement of the relevant quality aspects.
Up to now there have been three voluntary transmissions of COFOG second level data to Eurostat, the
last one in December 2006. Several Member States made considerable efforts and delivered second level
COFOG statistics covering different periods. While at the end of December 2005, only 7 countries
reported data to Eurostat, the current availability of COFOG second level data is up to 16 Member States'
sets of data for the most recent years: Bulgaria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany (estimates for 2003),
Estonia, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Finland
and Sweden. In addition, Ireland and France have delivered partial II level COFOG breakdowns (Ireland
for the function environmental protection and France for sub-sector social security funds for years 1995-
2003). However, Eurostat can only disseminate these figures when Member States do not object, and
large Member States such as Germany^11 , France and the United Kingdom are still working to compile or
complete their datasets Eurostat has started to publish COFOG second level data for some Member
States on its website, and plans to enlarge the number of countries published.
In several cases data were transmitted only from 2000 or 2001 onwards, limiting the possibility to
conduct a detailed structural analysis further back in time and to produce European aggregates^12. Eurostat
plans to investigate suitable methods with Member States to extend the time series available.
Concerning methodological developments, some Member States encountered serious theoretical and
practical difficulties for the compilation of these figures, notably the lack of detailed source data for back
years (especially the new Member States, and local government data) and scarcity of resources in some
National Statistical Offices. The collection of second level COFOG statistics is not an easy task, partly
(^11) Preliminary data for 2003 are expected by the end of May.
(^12) Some countries only provided one year of data.