Article 18 — Derogations

1. Where the application of this Regulation, or the delegated or implementing acts adopted pursuant thereto, requires major adaptations to be made to a Member State’s national statistical system, the Commission may, by means of implementing acts, grant derogations to the Member States concerned, for a maximum of three years in accordance with the procedure set out in paragraphs 4 and 5. 2. Where there is sufficient evidence at the end of the period for which it was granted that a derogation as referred to in paragraph 1 remains justified, the Commission may, by means of an implementing act, grant a subsequent derogation for a maximum of three years in accordance with paragraphs 4 and 5. 3. When granting derogations pursuant to paragraph 1 or 2 of this Article, the Commission shall take into account the comparability of Member States’ statistics and the need for a timely calculation of the required representative and reliable statistical aggregates at European level. When granting such derogations, the Commission shall also ensure that the requirements related to statistics, metadata and quality covered by this Regulation, and covered, before the date of application of this Regulation, by Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 or by Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007, are continued without interruption. 4. Member States requesting a derogation under paragraph 1 shall submit a duly justified request to the Commission within three months of the date of the entry into force of the act concerned, or, in the case of a request for an extension pursuant to paragraph 2, six months before the end of the period for which the existing derogation has been granted. 5. The implementing acts referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 17(2).