19.4.2006 Official Journal of the European Union L 106/7 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 601/2006 of 18 April 2006 implementing Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 of the Furopean Parliament and of the Council as regards the format and the procedure for the transmission of data THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 January 2005 on Community statistics concerning balance of payments, interna- tional trade in services and foreign direct investment ('), and in particular Article 7 thereof, Whereas: (1) Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 establishes a common framework  for the systematic production of Community statistics concerning balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment. (2) It is necessary to specify the format and the procedure for the transmission of the required data in order to produce comparable and harmonised data between Member States, to reduce the risk of errors in the trans- mission of data and to increase the speed with which the data collected can be processed and made available to users. Implementing rules should therefore be laid down to supplement the instructions contained in the Eurostat Balance of Payments Vademecum, as revised yearly. (3)  The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Balance of Payments Committee set up by Regulation (EC) No 184/2005, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: Article 1 Data transmission Member States shall transmit to the Commission (Eurostat) data in electronic form, through the Single Entry Point for data, maintained by the Commission (Eurostat). The Commission (Eurostat) shall make available detailed docu- mentation in relation to this Single Entry Point and shall supply guidelines on how to implement data transmission approaches compatible with it. Article 2 Data format Member States shall use the data format ‘Gesmes’, in conformity with the interchange standards specified by the Commission (Eurostat). The Commission (Eurostat) shall make available detailed documentation in relation to these standards and shall supply guidelines on how to implement these standards in accordance with the requirements of this Regulation. No proprietary data format shall be used. Atticle 3 Technical specifications of data format The technical specifications of the data structure shall be as given in the Annex to this Regulation. Atticle 4 Entry into force This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Done at Brussels, 18 April 2006. () O] L 35, 8.2.2005, p. 23. For the Commission Joaquin ALMUNIA Member of the Commission