EUID (English)

The EUID can be used to uniquely identify all organisations (companies, associations, etc.) within the European Union. For a few days now, it has also been possible to enter the EUID in Wikidata. So let’s take a look at this (probably little-known) identifier.

The European Unique Identifier) (EUID) is defined in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1042 in section 9. The structure complies with the requirements of ISO 6523. It consists of:

1. country code
2. register identifier
3. registration number
4. an optional verification digit

The exact appearance of an EUID varies from country to country. Here are a few examples to give you an idea of what an EUID might look like:

Organization	Country	EU-ID
Kieler Männer-Turnverein von 1844 e. V.	Germany	DEX1517R.VR1503KI
Stadtwerke Kiel	Germany	DEX1517R.HRB395KI
Frobenius Orgelbyggeri	Danmark	DKCVR.11845118
Bluebird Airways	Greece	ELGEMI.077700527000
MaltaPost	Malta	MTROC.C22796
PrimeTel	Cyprus	CYDRCOR.HE139104

Structure in Germany

In Germany, the EUID is structured as follows:

An up-to-date list of all registry courts in Germany can be found at https://www.xrepository.de/details/urn:xoev-de:xunternehmen:codeliste:registergerichte.

There are four courts in Schleswig-Holstein that maintain registers:

1. X1112R = Amtsgericht Flensburg
2. X1517R = Amtsgericht Kiel
3. X1721R = Amtsgericht Lübeck
4. X1321R = Amtsgericht Pinneberg

Where to find the EUID?

The EUID is listed in the German commercial register. Once you have found a company in the commercial register, you will see seven links:

Chose the link labeld SI. Then you get an XML document. In it, it is the element called euid.

Unfortunately, however, only four federal states provide the EU ID so far. Hamburg does not provide any machine-readable data at all. 🙁

The view ahead

I hope that the EU ID will be used even more in future to clearly identify companies and associations. This would make it so much easier to link different databases. Until now, the spelling of associations, sometimes with e. V. (=eingetragener Verein, association listed in an official register) with or without spaces or with abbreviations, has often made them difficult to find.

The EU ID is supposedly already included in the German register of grant recipients, which is a directory of all non-profit organisations in Germany. However, it is not yet possible to search for it, nor is it included in exports.