31.3.2009 Official Journal of the European Union L 86/1 (Acts adopted under the EC Treaty/Euratom Treaty whose publication is obligatory) REGULATIONS COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 250/2009 of 11 March 2009 implementing Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the definitions of characteristics, the technical format for the transmission of data, the double reporting requirements for NACE Rev.1.1 and NACE Rev.2 and derogations to be granted for structural business statistics (Text with EEA relevance) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning structural business statistics (1), and in particular Article 11(1)(), (¢), (d) and (e) thereof, Whereas: 1 Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 (3 established a common framework for the production of Community statistics on the structure, activity, competitiveness and performance of businesses in the Community. For reasons of clarity and rationalisation that Regulation has been recast, with substantial amendments to various provisions. Commission Regulations (EC) No 2700/98 on the defini- tions of characteristics for structural business statistics (°) and (EC) No 2702/98 on the technical format for the transmission of structural business statistics (¥) must be modified in order to take account of those amendments. For the sake of clarity they should be replaced by this Regulation. It is necessary to define the characteristics for structural business statistics in order to produce data comparable and harmonised between Member States. It is also necessary to specify the technical format and the procedure for transmission of the structural business statistics listed in Annexes I to IX to Regulation (EC) OJ L 97, 9.4.2008, p. 13-59. OJL 14,17.1.1997, p. 1. OJ L 344, 18.12.1998, p. 49. OJ L 344, 18.12.1998, p. 102. No 295/2008 in order to produce data comparable and harmonised between Member States, to reduce the risk of errors in the transmission of data and to increase the speed with which the data collected can be processed and made available to users. Moreover, it is necessary to specify the requirements for the double reporting of structural business statistics according to NACE Rev.l.1 in addition to the statistics required according to NACE Rev.2 for the reference year 2008. Article 10 of Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 provides that derogations from the provisions of the Annexes to that Regulation may be accepted during the transitional periods. Some Member States have asked for derogations for the transitional periods from certain provisions of Annexes [, II, III, VIII and IX to Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 in order to put in place the necessary data collection systems or adapt the existing ones so that by the end of the transitional period the provisions of that Regulation will have been met. It seems justified to grant those derogations, as the Member States’ requests are based on a legitimate need to further adapt their data collection systems. The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Statistical Programme Committee,