This article presents the multifaceted role of balance of payments (BOP) statistics in providing a basis for shaping European Union (EU) policies and monitoring their impact. It starts by describing the process of preparing and collecting BOP data, explaining the importance of sound methodology and the efforts taken by Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, to ensure the high quality of the data. Subsequently, the article outlines various uses of BOP statistics, from detecting macroeconomic imbalances to analyzing the potential economic impacts of specific trade and customs policies, from enhancing transparency to strengthening accountability, from monitoring and evaluating, to informing the public. The article also details the specific case of the accounts of the EU institutions in BOP.
