Statistical surveys of the European Union

(1) Subject to subsection (2), the provisions of this Act relating to federal statistics apply accordingly to surveys conducted by the Federal Statistical Office or the statistical offices of the Länder on the basis of directly applicable legal acts of the European Union, insofar as the legal acts of the European Union do not provide otherwise.
(2) Insofar as the characteristics of surveys ordered by directly applicable legal acts of the European Union do not correspond to, or are not treated as equivalent to, the characteristics of a statutory provision ordering a federal statistic, the provision of information is voluntary, unless the legal acts of the European Union expressly provide for an obligation to provide information.
(3) The Federal Statistical Office is the national statistical authority within the meaning of Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics and repealing Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1101/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities, Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 on Community Statistics, and Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom establishing a Committee on the Statistical Programmes of the European Communities (OJ L 87, 31.3.2009, p. 164), as last amended by Regulation (EU) 2015/759 (OJ L 123, 19.5.2015, p. 90), as amended from time to time.