ERETES is an information system used for the elaboration of National Accounts according to the SNA. Eurostat and French Ministry of Foreign Affairs are the co-owners of its copyright. The monitoring is ensured by a Directors' Committee (Eurostat, The French MAE, INSEE) which decides on the main orientations.
Concerning the functionalities, ERETES allows to store the basic economic data, to organise the accountants' team work (Workflow) and to reconciliate the data. It is possible to calculate the GDP according to the 3 traditional approaches (production, expenditures, income).
ERETES is used in around 30 countries all over the world. Main programs concerning the implementation are carried out in Africa and in Latin America. These programmes are funded by different partners, including France, UNDP, etc. ERETES is also used in the French overseas Departments. Eurostat is engaged in the transfer of knowledge to the community of users. In particular, 4 regular regional workshops are organised, and the ERETES users group is established in order to define mid-term orientations.
In addition, Eurostat decided in May 2009 to continue with its support to the maintenance and the development of the application by running the following tasks:
Upgrading of ERETES to SNA2008 including the balance sheet and the production of long time series (by the end of 2010)
Upgrading of ERETES for additional methodological issues (by the end of 2012): Informal sector and Quarterly National Accounts
Every year: 4 one-week regional or national workshops (1 in Europe, 1 in Africa, 1 in Latin America and 1 in ACP/ALA).
