Article 1 Scope
1. The NCBs shall use the table in part B of the Annex to Regulation (EU) No 1097/2010 when transmitting the characteristics concerning multinational enterprise groups and their constituent units to the national statistical institute and other national authorities which participate in the ESS in their Member State (hereinafter the ‘ESS member’), subject to the confidentiality regime set out in Regulation (EC) No 2533/98.
2. The NCBs shall be subject to Article 3 of this Decision, when transmitting these characteristics to the ESS member of their Member State for assessment, correction, completion and integration with the data that the ESS member transmits to the Commission (Eurostat) pursuant to Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 177/2008.

Article 2 Format and procedures for transmission
1. The format set out in the Annex shall be used when data is transmitted from the NCBs to the ESS members.
2. When data is transmitted from the NCBs to the ESS members, the data and metadata shall be transmitted in accordance with the standards of the ESS and with the structure defined in the most recent version of the Eurostat Business Registers Recommendations Manual available from the Commission (Eurostat).
3. When data is transmitted from the NCBs to the ESS members, the NCBs shall follow the same naming conventions, structures and definitions of fields as referred to in Regulation (EC) No 192/2009.
4. The data and metadata transmitted pursuant to this Decision shall be exchanged in electronic form.
5. The data and metadata transmitted pursuant to this Decision shall be transmitted via the secure medium used for the transmission of confidential data, or via secured remote access.

Article 3 Security and confidentiality measures
1. The ECB and NCBs shall store the data they receive from the Commission (Eurostat) pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 and Regulation (EU) No 1097/2010, and which have been flagged as confidential, in a secure area with restricted and controlled access.
2. Data received by the ECB and NCBs from the Commission (Eurostat) shall be used exclusively for statistical purposes.
3. The ECB and NCBs shall ensure that information on the security measures taken is included in the annual confidentiality report or that the Commission (Eurostat) and the appropriate national authorities are informed by other means.

Article 4 Final provision
This Decision shall enter into force on 1 January 2011.
Done at Frankfurt am Main, 27 December 2010.
The President of the ECB
Jean-Claude Trichet