Article 9

1. The requested authority shall at the request of the applicant authority carry out, or arrange to have carried out, the appropriate administrative enquiries concerning operations which constitute, or appear to the applicant authority to constitute, breaches of customs or agricultural legislation. The requested authority or the administrative authority to which it has recourse shall conduct administrative enquiries as though acting on its own account or at the request of another authority in its own country. The requested authority shall communicate the results of such administrative enquiries to the applicant authority. 2. By agreement between the applicant authority and the requested authority, officials appointed by the applicant authority may be present at the administrative enquiries referred to in paragraph 1. Administrative enquiries shall at all times be carried out by staff of the requested authority. The applicant authority's staff may not, of their own initiative, assume powers of inspection conferred on officials of the requested authority. They shall, however, have access to the same premises and the same documents as the latter, through their intermediary and for the sole purpose of the administrative enquiry being carried out. In so far as national provisions on criminal proceedings reserve certain acts to officials specifically designated by national law, the applicant authority's staff shall not take part in such acts. In any event, they shall not participate in particular in searches of premises or the formal questioning of persons under criminal law. They shall, however, have access to the information thus obtained subject to the conditions laid down in Article 3.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-06 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.