The European Commission is considering a major overhaul of how it measures economic activity in its member states and has issued a new communication on gross domestic product.

GDP, which is a figure combining the value of all money-related activities in a particular economy (private and public consumption, investment, exports and imports), has been used since the 1930s to measure global wealth and is key in formulating government policy. However, the EU executive says that GDP data are limited by the fact that they do not measure social or environmental progress.

The Commission's communication, which has already been adopted by written procedure, is expected to be published next week ahead of a conference on GDP organised by Eurostat - the EU's statistics arm.

In the short term, the Commission wants to make five main changes to how wealth is calculated in the EU.

According to the Communication seen by The Times, the new calculations should start using environmental and social data to complement GDP. On this aspect the Commission states that it intends to release a pilot index of environmental pressure in 2010.

Secondly, it will use Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and the new Shared Environmental Information System to upload, compile and disseminate data more quickly.

Another innovation being suggested is that economic data must not merely be aggregate, but must take into account disparities within countries, such as a widening gap between rich and poor.

The communication says that a Sustainable Development Scoreboard will also be prepared before the end of the year.

The idea is to work with national authorities and researchers to highlight environmental "danger zones" - thresholds to keep "green" policies in line with the latest scientific estimates.

The EU said that it also wants to make changes to national accounts to ensure environmental information is included.