The Commission shall be assisted by a committee. That committee shall be a committee within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011.

Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 4 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply.

Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply.

The Commission shall report to the European Parliament and the Council on the functioning of IMI on a yearly basis.

By 5 December 2017 and every five years thereafter, the Commission shall report to the European Data Protection Supervisor on aspects relating to the protection of personal data in IMI, including data security.

For the purpose of producing the reports referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, Member States shall provide the Commission with any information relevant to the application of this Regulation, including on the application in practice of the data protection requirements laid down in this Regulation.

The costs incurred for the development, promotion, operation and maintenance of IMI shall be borne by the general budget of the European Union, without prejudice to arrangements under Article 22(2).

Unless otherwise stipulated in a Union act, the costs for the IMI operations at Member State level, including the human resources needed for training, promotion and technical assistance (helpdesk) activities, as well as for the administration of IMI at national level, shall be borne by each Member State.

Notwithstanding Article 4 of this Regulation, the IMI pilot project launched on 16 May 2011 to test the suitability of IMI for the implementation of Article 4 of Directive 96/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 1996 concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services12 may continue to operate on the basis of the arrangements that were made prior to the entry into force of this Regulation.

Notwithstanding Article 8(3) and points (a) and (b) of the first paragraph of Article 12 of this Regulation, for the implementation of the administrative cooperation provisions of the SOLVIT Recommendation through IMI, the involvement of the Commission in administrative cooperation procedures and the existing facility for external actors may continue on the basis of the arrangements that were made prior to the entry into force of this Regulation. The period as referred to in Article 14(1) of this Regulation shall be 18 months for personal data processed in IMI for the purposes of the SOLVIT Recommendation.

Notwithstanding Article 4(1) of this Regulation, the Commission may launch a pilot project to assess whether IMI is an efficient, cost-effective and user-friendly tool to implement Article 3(4), (5) and (6) of Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (Directive on electronic commerce)13. No later than two years after the launch of that pilot project, the Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and the Council the evaluation referred to in Article 4(2) of this Regulation, which shall also cover the interaction between administrative cooperation within the consumer protection cooperation system established in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 October 2004 on cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws (the Regulation on consumer protection cooperation)14 and within IMI.

Notwithstanding Article 14(1) of this Regulation, any periods up to a maximum of 18 months decided on the basis of Article 36 of Directive 2006/123/EC with regard to administrative cooperation pursuant to Chapter VI thereof shall continue to apply in that area.