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1. Member States shall transmit to the Commission (Eurostat) the accounts defined in the data tables in this Annex. Each separate data table specifies the compulsory and voluntary variables that are to be transmitted, the reference periods required as well as the deadlines for transmission.

2. Member States shall transmit all compulsory data for publication by the Commission (Eurostat) by the planned release dates of the European aggregates. Where the data transmitted cannot be disseminated due to statistical confidentiality considerations, the true value shall be sent with the flags agreed for statistical primary or secondary confidentiality. With the exception of embargo dates, the application of other flags restricting the publication shall be justified and explained with metadata.

3. Member States shall transmit all data in accordance with the concepts and definitions specified in Annex A to this Regulation. When the data transmitted deviate from the concepts and definitions, the observations affected shall be sent with a flag indicating that the definition differs.

4. Member States shall transmit all data in accordance with the quality criteria specified in Article 4(1) of this Regulation.

5. Member States and the Commission (Eurostat) shall coordinate the release dates of the accounts. Where national publication dates are subsequent to the deadlines for transmission of data to the Commission (Eurostat), the data shall be transmitted with a flag indicating the temporary embargo on publication as well as the embargo date and time for publication.

6. The specification of embargo dates that are subsequent to the publication date for European aggregates shall be avoided to the extent possible. Reference periods 7. Member States shall transmit the entire compulsory time series to the Commission (Eurostat) at each deadline, including data that have not been revised unless stated otherwise in specific individual tables. Where the data transmitted have breaks in the time series, the value of the reference period concerned shall be sent with a flag indicating this break.

8. If Member States have time series longer than the compulsory reference periods specified in the data tables, they may transmit the entire series on a voluntary basis.

Metadata 9. Metadata shall consist of structural information as referred to in paragraph 10 and of specific information concerning the data transmitted in accordance with paragraph 11. Member States shall transmit the metadata to the Commission (Eurostat) to allow the Commission (Eurostat) to assess the quality of the data transmitted. Metadata transmission – within the context of the transmission programme – shall avoid the duplication of requests of the same information collected in other processes and tables. Where the metadata include confidential information, Member States shall inform the Commission (Eurostat) that the relevant text in the metadata cannot be disseminated.

10. Metadata on structural information to be transmitted by the Member States to the Commission (Eurostat) shall include information on the production process, as well as sources and methods used, if not available from other sources, and, where applicable, major methodological or other changes that affect the data transmitted, allowing the Commission (Eurostat) to assess the changes and inform users of such changes.

Such metadata on structural information shall, where the concepts and definitions specified in Annex A are not implemented, provide short explanations of the concepts and definitions actually applied in the transmitted data and the reasons why the concepts and definitions specified in Annex A are not implemented or not applicable. After their initial transmission, metadata on structural information shall be transmitted each time that a significant change in the production process has been implemented.

11. Metadata on specific information concerning the data transmitted by the Member States shall inform the Commission (Eurostat) about major events such as major data revisions, data inconsistencies of significant size, outliers, breaks in time series, updates on seasonal adjustment, as well as unusual zero and negative values. For data transmitted on an annual basis, this information shall be sent at t+3 days at the latest, except with regard to tables 1, 6 and 7, for which the metadata shall be transmitted together with the data. For quarterly data, metadata shall be transmitted together with the data. This information shall be sent only when such events are reflected in the transmitted data, and it shall provide short explanations of the reasons why the event is observed in the transmitted data and which variables and reference periods are affected. Member States shall provide specific information on revisions which do not derive from routine operations. Transmission deadlines 12. The data tables accompanied by metadata shall be transmitted by the specific deadlines for each table.

13. Data shall be transmitted to the Commission (Eurostat) every time they are published by the national authority and no later than the day they are published.

14. If Member States become aware of errors in the transmitted data, they shall inform the Commission (Eurostat) immediately and transmit the corrected data as soon as the error can be corrected.

15. If a Member State transmits complete datasets in line with the quality criteria referred to in Article 4(1) of this Regulation ahead of the deadline, no retransmission of data is required at the deadline unless stated otherwise in specific individual tables. Consistency 16. The data transmitted in a table shall be internally consistent. The values that are transmitted for the same variable in different data tables are to be numerically consistent when they have the same deadline or when they are to be retransmitted at the same deadline as other tables.

17. The sum of the quarterly values of a variable not adjusted by seasonal and calendar effects in a table with quarterly data shall be numerically consistent for any reference year with the same variable in a corresponding table with annual data, when the corresponding tables have the same deadline. Population and employment Compulsory units (x): persons (PS) for population and all employment variables and hours worked (HW) for employment in resident production units. Jobs (JB) and full time equivalents (FTE) optional (o) for employment in resident production units. Geographical breakdowns of exports and imports – according to the actual composition at the end of the last reference period (‘fixed composition’) Employment in resident production (domestic concept DC): Data shall be reported in persons (PS) and hours worked (HW) starting from 1995. At t+9 months data are compulsory (x) for NACE breakdowns up to A*21 (including total economy and A*10) and at t+21 months for A*64 for PS and A*38 for HW; A*88 breakdowns and data for jobs (JB) and full-time equivalents (FTE) are optional (o).