Foreign-controlled firms employed 16% of workers in Eurostat’s EU figures

Eurostat’s figures for 2024 show that foreign-controlled enterprises accounted for 1% of EU market-producer businesses, yet employed 16% of the people working in the businesses covered. They also generated 24% of total value added in those statistics. The figures cover enterprises whose output is mostly or entirely sold, not every business in the economy. [1]

Foreign control does not necessarily mean ownership from outside the EU. Of the enterprises classified as foreign-controlled, 59% were controlled from another EU country and 41% from outside the bloc.

The national differences were marked. In Ireland, foreign-controlled enterprises generated 72% of value added, compared with 15% in France. They accounted for 45% of jobs in Luxembourg and 28% in each of Ireland, Slovakia and Romania; in Greece, the share was 8%. Luxembourg also had the highest proportion of enterprises under foreign control, at 28%, followed by Estonia at 12%. Those national percentages measure different things — businesses, jobs or value added — and should not be compared as though they were the same share. [1]