Data transmission
Article 3
1. Within 70 days after the end of the reference quarter, Member States shall transmit data broken down as specified in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EC) No 453/2008, together with the corresponding metadata. Those Member States whose number of employees represents more than 3 % of the European Community total shall transmit the aggregate number of vacancies and occupied posts and the corresponding metadata within 45 days after the end of the reference quarter. Each Member State’s share of the total number of employees in the EC shall be calculated every five years on the basis of the average of the four quarters of the previous calendar year. In the event of accession of new Member States, ad hoc calculations shall be carried out. The first calculation shall refer to the calendar year previous to the year of the adoption of this Regulation. The source for the data on employees shall be the European Union Labour Force Survey provided for by Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 ( 2 ) . Data shall refer to business units covered by Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 453/2008. Any changes in the transmission deadline for countries exceeding the 3 % threshold for the first time shall be applicable from the first reference quarter of the year following the calculation. 2. Corresponding metadata shall refer specifically to information regarding methodological or technical events in the quarter that is needed to interpret the results, and information about data cells that are deemed not to be sufficiently reliable or must not be disclosed. 3. The Member States shall send the quarterly data and corresponding metadata to the Commission (Eurostat) in electronic form. Transmission shall comply with appropriate interchange standards approved by the Statistical Programme Committee. The Commission (Eurostat) shall make available detailed documentation in relation to approved standards and shall supply guidelines on how to implement these standards. 4. The first data transmission shall relate to the first quarter of the year following that of the entry into force of this Regulation. The data series shall be transmitted in the following forms: (a) unadjusted; (b) seasonally adjusted, in accordance with the Commission Regulation implementing Regulation (EC) No 453/2008 as regards seasonal adjustment procedures and quality reports; and (c) on a voluntary basis, in the form of trend-cycle series.