(1)

It follows from Article 3(2) of Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 that Member States should transmit to the Commission the data and metadata required by the Regulation in accordance with a specified interchange standard and other practical arrangements which should be specified by the Commission.

(2)

Applying a single standard for the exchange and transmission of data for the statistics covered by Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 would make a considerable contribution to business process integration in this statistical area.

(3)

The Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) initiative on statistical and technical standards for the exchange and sharing of data and metadata was launched by the Bank of International Settlements, the European Central Bank, the Commission (Eurostat), the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations and the World Bank. For the exchange of official statistics, SDMX provides statistical and technical standards, including the SDMX Markup Language, using XML syntax (‘SDMX-ML format’). A new data format and data structure definition designed in accordance with this standard should therefore be introduced. In order to facilitate the transition to the new format, the Commission should, for the first two years after the entry into force of the Regulation, provide Member States with templates, which can be used as inputs to SDMX conversion tools.

(4)

The Commission should make available detailed documentation in relation to the SDMX data structure definitions and supply guidelines on their implementation.

(5)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the European Statistical System Committee,