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This Regulation shall not affect the application in the Member States of the rules on mutual assistance in criminal matters. It shall also be without prejudice to the fulfilment of any obligation in relation to mutual assistance ensuing from other legal instruments, including bilateral or multilateral agreements.

‘competent authority’ means the authority designated in accordance with Article 3(1);

‘requesting authority’ means the central liaison office of a Member State or any liaison department or competent official of that Member State requesting assistance on behalf of the competent authority;

‘requested authority’ means the central liaison office of a Member State or any liaison department or competent official of that Member State who receives the request for assistance on behalf of the competent authority;

‘central liaison office’ means the office which has been designated under Article 3(3) with principal responsibility for contacts with other Member States in the field of administrative cooperation;

‘liaison department’ means any office other than the central liaison office with a specific territorial competence or a specialised operational responsibility which has been designated by the competent authority pursuant to Article 3(4) to exchange directly information on the basis of this Regulation;

‘competent official’ means any official who can directly exchange information on the basis of this Regulation, for which he has been authorised pursuant to Article 3(5);

‘excise office’ means any office at which some of the formalities laid down by excise rules may be completed;

‘occasional automatic exchange’ means the systematic communication of predefined information, without prior request, to another Member State as and when that information becomes available;

‘regular automatic exchange’ means the systematic communication of predefined information, without prior request, to another Member State at pre-established regular intervals;

‘spontaneous exchange’ means the occasional communication without prior request of information to another Member State;

‘computerised system’ means the computerised system for monitoring the movement of excisable products set up by Decision No 1152/2003/EC ( 9 ) ;

‘person’ means:

a natural person;

a legal person; or

where the legislation in force so provides, an association of persons recognised as having the capacity to perform legal acts but lacking the legal status of a legal person;

‘by electronic means’ means using electronic equipment for the processing (including digital compression) and storage of data, and employing wires, radio transmission, optical technologies or other electromagnetic means;

‘identification number’ means the number provided for in Article 22(2)(a) of this Regulation;

‘VAT identification number’ means the number provided for in Article 22(1)(c), (d) and (e) of Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes - Common system of value-added tax: uniform basis of assessment ( 10 ) ;

‘intra-Community movement of excisable products’ means the movement between two or more Member States of excisable products under the suspension arrangements for excise duties within the meaning of Title III of Directive 92/12/EEC or of excisable products released for consumption within the meaning of Articles 7 to 10 of Directive 92/12/EEC;

‘administrative enquiry’ means all the controls, checks and other action taken by officials or the competent authorities in the performance of their duties with a view to ensuring the proper application of excise legislation;

‘CCN/CSI network’ means the common platform based on the common communication network (CCN) and common system interface (CSI), developed by the Community to ensure all transmissions by electronic means between the competent authorities in the area of customs and taxation;

‘excise duties’ means the taxes which are subject to the Community legislation in the field of excise, and includes the taxes on energy products and electricity under Council Directive 2003/96 ( 11 ) ;

‘AAD’ means the document referred to in Article 18(1) of Directive 92/12/EEC;

‘SAAD’ means the document referred to in Article 7(4) of Directive 92/12/EEC.

Each Member State shall designate a central liaison office to which principal responsibility shall be delegated for contacts with other Member States in the field of administrative cooperation. It shall inform the Commission and the competent authorities of the other Member States thereof.

The central liaison office shall have principal responsibility for exchanges of information on movements of excisable products and in particular, it shall have principal responsibility for;

the exchange of data stored in the electronic register provided for in Article 22;

the early warning system provided for in Article 23;

verification requests to or from other Member States provided for in Article 24.

The competent authority of each Member State may also designate liaison departments other than the central liaison office to directly exchange information under this Regulation. The competent authorities shall ensure that the list of these departments is kept up to date and made available to central liaison offices of the other Member States concerned.

The competent authority of each Member State may also designate, under the conditions laid down by it, competent officials who can directly exchange information under this Regulation. When it does so it may limit the scope of such delegation. The central liaison office shall be responsible for keeping the list of those officials up to date and making it available to the central liaison offices of the other Member States concerned.

The officials exchanging information under Articles 11 and 13 shall be deemed to be competent officials for this purpose, in accordance with the conditions laid down by the competent authorities.

Where liaison departments or competent officials send or receive requests for assistance or responses to such requests for assistance, they shall inform the central liaison office of their Member State under the conditions laid down by the latter.

Where a liaison department or a competent official receives requests for assistance requiring action outside its territorial or operational area, it shall immediately forward them to the central liaison office of its Member State and inform the requesting authority thereof. In such a case, the time limits laid down in Article 8 shall begin on the day following that on which the request for assistance was forwarded to the central liaison office.

However, where a competent authority has, in accordance with national law, the powers to communicate the information referred to in paragraph 1, it may be communicated as part of the administrative cooperation provided for in this Regulation. Any such communication shall have the prior authorisation of the judicial authority if such authorisation is required under national law.

For the purposes of communicating the information referred to in paragraph 1, the requested authority shall arrange for the conduct of any administrative enquiries necessary to obtain such information.

The request referred to in paragraph 1 may include a reasoned request for a specific administrative enquiry. If the Member State decides that no administrative enquiry is necessary, it shall immediately inform the requesting authority of the reasons for its decision.

In order to obtain the information requested or to conduct the administrative enquiry requested, the requested authority or the administrative authority to which it has recourse shall proceed as though acting on its own account or at the request of another authority in its own Member State.

Original documents shall be provided only where this is not contrary to the provisions in force in the Member State in which the requested authority is established.

By agreement between the requesting authority and the requested authority and in accordance with the arrangements laid down by the latter, officials designated by the requesting authority may be present during the administrative enquiries with a view to exchanging the information provided for in Article 1. Administrative enquiries shall be carried out exclusively by the officials of the requested authority. The requesting authority’s officials shall not exercise the powers of inspection conferred on officials of the requested authority. They may, however, have access to the same premises and documents as the latter, through their intermediary and for the sole purpose of the administrative enquiry being carried out.

The officials of the requesting authority present in another Member State in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 shall at all times be able to produce a written authority indicating their identity and their official capacity.

The Member States concerned shall then decide whether they wish to participate in the simultaneous controls. On receipt of a proposal for a simultaneous control, the competent authority shall confirm its agreement or its reasoned refusal to its counterpart authority.

Each competent authority shall appoint a representative to be responsible for supervising and coordinating the control operation.

Following a simultaneous control, the competent authorities shall inform the excise liaison offices of the other Member States without delay of the fraud techniques identified during such a simultaneous control, when it is deemed that such information is of particular interest to other Member States. The competent authorities may also inform the Commission.

where an irregularity or an infringement of excise duty legislation has occurred, or is suspected to have occurred, in the other Member State;

where an irregularity or an infringement of excise duty legislation which has occurred, or is suspected to have occurred, in the territory of one Member State may have repercussions in another Member State;

where there is a risk of fraud or a loss of excise duty in the other Member State.

the exact categories of information to be exchanged;

the frequency of such exchanges;

the practical arrangements for the exchange of information.

Each Member State shall determine whether it will take part in the exchange of a particular category of information, as well as whether it will do so by means of regular automatic or occasional automatic exchange.

The register shall contain the following information made available to other Member States:

the identification number issued by the competent authority in respect of the person or premises;

the name and address of the person or premises;

the category and combined nomenclature relating to excise products of the products which may be held or received by the person or which may be held or received at these premises;

identification of the central liaison office or the excise office from which further information may be obtained;

the date of issue, amendment and where applicable, the date of cessation of validity of the authorisation as an authorised warehousekeeper or as a registered trader;

the information required to identify persons who have assumed the obligations within the meaning of Article 15(3) of Directive 92/12/EEC;

the information required to identify persons involved on an occasional basis in the movement of excisable products, where such information is available.

Each national register shall be made available, for excise duty purposes only, to the competent authorities of the other Member States.

The central liaison office or a liaison department of each Member State shall ensure that persons involved in the intra-Community movement of products subject to excise duty are allowed to obtain confirmation of the information held under this Article.

The detailed information referred to in paragraph 2, the detailed arrangements for introducing and updating registers, the harmonised standards for recording identification numbers and collecting the information needed to identify persons and premises referred to in paragraph 2 and the arrangements for making available the registers to all Member States, as set out in paragraph 3, shall be defined according to the procedure provided for Article 34(2).

Where a trader can be identified only by means of a VAT identification number, Article 27 of ACIFVATR shall apply for that purpose.

The information to be exchanged and the relevant arrangements shall be determined according to the procedure referred to in Article 34(2).

The exchange of information referred to in paragraph 1 shall be carried out on the basis of a standard verification document of the movements in question. The form and content of this document and the arrangements for exchange of information shall be laid down according to the procedure provided for in Article 34(2).

The relevant authorities of the Member State in which a consignor of excisable products is established may grant assistance, using the document provided for in paragraph 2, where such consignor fails to receive Copy 3 of the AAD or SAAD and where such consignor has exhausted all the means available to him to obtain proof that the movement of products has been cleared. If such assistance is granted, this in no way relieves the consignor of his tax obligations.
The relevant authorities of the Member State of destination shall make every effort to comply with any request made to them by the relevant authorities of the Member State of the consignor in the course of such assistance.

Member States shall ensure that the information stored in the system is kept up to date, and is complete and accurate.

Member States shall communicate to the Commission any available information relevant to their application of this Regulation, including any statistical data needed for the evaluation of its implementation. The relevant statistical data shall be determined in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 34(2), and shall be communicated only in so far as they are available and the communication is not likely to involve administrative burdens which would be unjustified.

Member States shall communicate to the Commission any available information on the methods or practices used or suspected of having been used to contravene excise duty legislation which have revealed shortcomings or lacunae in the operation of the administrative cooperation arrangements provided for in this Regulation where it is deemed that such information is of particular interest to other Member States.

With a view to evaluating the effectiveness of this system of administrative cooperation in combating tax evasion and tax fraud, Member States may communicate to the Commission any other available information referred to in Article 1.

The Commission shall forward the information referred to in paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 to the other Member States concerned.

Provided the third country concerned has given a legal undertaking to provide the assistance required to gather evidence of the irregular nature of transactions which appear to contravene excise duty legislation, information obtained under this Regulation may be communicated to that third country, with the consent of the competent authorities which supplied the information, in accordance with their domestic provisions applying to the communication of personal data to third countries.

Where mutual assistance involves particular problems leading to excessive costs the requesting and requested authorities may agree on special reimbursement arrangements in the cases in question.

This Regulation shall impose no obligation to have enquiries carried out or to provide information if the laws or administrative practices of the Member State which would have to provide the information do not authorise the competent authority to carry out those enquiries or to collect or use that information for that Member State’s own purposes.

The competent authority of a Member State may refuse to forward information if the requesting Member State cannot, for legal reasons, provide similar information.

The provision of information may be refused where it would lead to the disclosure of a commercial, industrial or professional secret or of a commercial process, or where its disclosure would be contrary to public policy.

The requested authority shall inform the requesting authority of the grounds for refusing a request for assistance. The Commission shall also be informed of the categories of grounds for such refusals on an annual basis for statistical purposes.

A minimum threshold triggering a request for assistance may be adopted in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 34(2).

By way of derogation from paragraph 1, the competent authority of the Member State providing the information shall permit its use for other purposes in the Member State of the requesting authority, if the legislation of the Member State of the requested authority allows the information to be used for similar purposes.

Where the requesting authority considers that information it has received from the requested authority may be useful to the competent authority of a third Member State, it may forward it to the latter authority. It shall inform the requested authority that it has done so. The requested authority may make the communication of information to a third Member State subject to its prior consent.

Member States shall restrict the scope of the obligations and rights provided for in Article 10, Article 11(1) and Articles 12 and 21 of Directive 1995/46 where that is necessary to safeguard the interests referred to in Article 13(e) of that Directive.

The Commission shall communicate without delay to the competent authority of each Member State any information which it receives and which it is able to provide.

Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply.
The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months.

The Committee shall adopt its Rules of Procedure.

Member States shall communicate to the Commission the text of the provisions of national law which they adopt in the field covered by this Regulation.