EN Official Journal of the European Union L 67/14

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 192/2009

of 11 March 2009

implementing Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a common framework for business registers for statistical purposes, as regards the exchange of confidential data between the Commission (Eurostat) and Member States

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 February 2008 establishing a common framework for business registers for statistical purposes and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 2186/93 (1), and in particular Article 11(3) thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 establishes a new common framework for business registers exclusively for statistical purposes in order to maintain the development of business registers in a harmonised framework.

(2) In accordance with Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 177/2008, it is necessary to establish the format, the security and confidentiality measures, and the procedure for the transmission of data on individual units to the Commission (Eurostat) and for the transmission of data on the multinational enterprise groups to the appropriate national authorities.

(3) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Statistical Programme Committee, established by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (2),

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Format

The Commission (Eurostat) and the appropriate national authorities shall transmit the data referred to in Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 in the format set out in the Annex, Part A, to this Regulation.

The Commission (Eurostat) and the appropriate national authorities shall provide for each data delivery the necessary metadata information in electronic form in accordance with the standards of the European Statistical System and in the structure defined in the most recent version of the Eurostat Business Registers Recommendations Manual available from the Commission (Eurostat).

Article 2

Confidentiality measures

1. Data transmitted to the Commission (Eurostat) by the appropriate national authorities, or received by the Commission (Eurostat) from other sources, shall be stored in a Community register of multinational enterprise groups and their constituent units (hereinafter referred to as EuroGroups register).

2. When transmitting data to the Commission (Eurostat) in accordance with Article 11(1) of Regulation (EC) No 177/2008, the appropriate national authorities shall flag data which are confidential in accordance with national legislation.

3. In order to ensure a consistent record of data, the Commission (Eurostat) shall, exclusively for statistical purposes, transmit to the appropriate national authorities of Member States other than the reporting country, the characteristics specified in Part B of the Annex, including confidentiality flags, concerning multinational enterprise groups and their constituent units, when at least one unit of the group is located in the territory of that Member State.

Article 3

Security measures

The Commission (Eurostat) and the appropriate national authorities shall store the data that have been flagged as confidential by the national authorities in accordance with Article 2(2) in a secure area with restricted and controlled access. The appropriate national authorities shall on request provide information for the Commission (Eurostat) on the security measures applied in the Member State concerned. The Commission (Eurostat) shall pass on this information to the other Member States. The Commission (Eurostat) shall similarly provide information on its security measures to the national authorities.

The transmission of the data shall be done in an encrypted form via the secure medium used by the Commission (Eurostat) for the exchange of confidential data.

Article 4

Procedure for transmission

1. The data and metadata transmitted pursuant to this Regulation shall be exchanged in electronic form between the appropriate national authorities and the Commission (Eurostat). The transmission format shall conform to appropriate exchange standards specified by the Commission (Eurostat). Data shall be transmitted by electronic means and uploaded at the Commission (Eurostat) through its single entry point for data.

2. Member States shall implement the exchange standards and guidelines supplied by the Commission (Eurostat) according to the requirements of this Regulation.

Article 5

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Done at Brussels, 11 March 2009. For the Commission Joaquín ALMUNIA Member of the Commission

(1) OJ L 61, 5.3.2008, p. 6.

(2) OJ L 181, 28.6.1989, p. 47.