1. The national authorities shall be authorised to transmit confidential statistical data to Eurostat.
2. National rules on statistical confidentiality may not be invoked to prevent the transmission of confidential statistical data to Eurostat where an act of Community law governing a Community statistic provides for the transmission of such data.
3. Transmission to Eurostat of confidential statistical data, within the meaning of paragraph 2, shall be carried out in such a way that statistical units cannot be directly identified. This does not preclude the admissibility of more far-reaching transmission rules in accordance with the legislation of the Member States.
4. National authorities shall not be obliged to transmit information on the private lives of natural persons to Eurostat if the information transmitted could enable those persons to be identified either directly or indirectly.