EBML was designed to be a simplified binary extension of XML for the purpose of storing and manipulating data in a hierarchical form with variable field lengths.

It uses the same paradigms as XML files, ie syntax and semantic are separated. So a generic EBML library could read any format based on it. The interpretation of data is up to a specific application that knows how each elements (equivalent of XML tag) has to be handled. (Quelle: http://ebml.sourceforge.net/)