Countries with registered fishing vessels that employ VMS generally agree to set up a Fisheries Monitoring Center (FMC), which has a data network connection to the FMCs of other states as well as other maritime stakeholders within the country. This flag state principle requires all vessels, registered in a given state to transmit their positions automatically to that state's FMC. When the vessel enters the waters of a different state, the home FMC must forward the report of the vessel's entry into those waters to the foreign state FMC. Until the vessel leaves the foreign state's coastal area, the home FMC must forward to the foreign state FMC the position, speed, and course reports at least every two hours. Exchange of data between VMS servers within the EU is regulated by the European Commission to be formatted according to the NAF FORMAT,