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1.Member States shall endeavour to cooperate with an external service provider together with one or more Member States, without prejudice to public procurement and competition rules.
2.Cooperation with an external service provider shall be based on a legal instrument that shall comply with the requirements set out in Annex X.
3.Member States shall, within the framework of local Schengen cooperation, exchange information about the selection of external service providers and the establishment of the terms and conditions of their respective legal instruments.
4.The examination of applications, interviews (where appropriate), the decision on applications and the printing and affixing of visa stickers shall be carried out only by the consulate.
5.External service providers shall not have access to the VIS under any circumstances. Access to the VIS shall be reserved exclusively to duly authorised staff of consulates.
6.An external service provider may be entrusted with the performance of one or more of the following tasks:
(a)providing general information on visa requirements and application forms;
(b)informing the applicant of the required supporting documents, on the basis of a checklist;
(c)collecting data and applications (including collection of biometric identifiers) and transmitting the application to the consulate;
(d)collecting the visa fee;
(e)managing the appointments for appearance in person at the consulate or at the external service provider;
(f)collecting the travel documents, including a refusal notification if applicable, from the consulate and returning them to the applicant.
7.When selecting an external service provider, the Member State(s) concerned shall scrutinise the solvency and reliability of the company, including the necessary licences, commercial registration, company statutes, bank contracts, and ensure that there is no conflict of interests.
8.The Member State(s) concerned shall ensure that the external service provider selected complies with the terms and conditions assigned to it in the legal instrument referred to in paragraph 2.
9.The Member State(s) concerned shall remain responsible for compliance with data protection rules for the processing of data and shall be supervised in accordance with Article 28 of Directive 95/46/EC.
Cooperation with an external service provider shall not limit or exclude any liability arising under the national law of the Member State(s) concerned for breaches of obligations with regard to the personal data of applicants or the performance of one or more of the tasks referred to in paragraph 6. This provision is without prejudice to any action which may be taken directly against the external service provider under the national law of the third country concerned.
10.The Member State(s) concerned shall provide training to the external service provider, corresponding to the knowledge needed to offer an appropriate service and sufficient information to applicants.
11.The Member State(s) concerned shall closely monitor the implementation of the legal instrument referred to in paragraph 2, including:
(a)the general information on visa requirements and application forms provided by the external service provider to applicants;
(b)all the technical and organisational security measures required to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction or accidental loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access, in particular where the cooperation involves the transmission of files and data to the consulate of the Member State(s) concerned, and all other unlawful forms of processing personal data;
(c)the collection and transmission of biometric identifiers;
(d)the measures taken to ensure compliance with data protection provisions.
To this end, the consulate(s) of the Member State(s) concerned shall, on a regular basis, carry out spot checks on the premises of the external service provider.
12.In the event of termination of cooperation with an external service provider, Member States shall ensure the continuity of full service.
13.Member States shall provide the Commission with a copy of the legal instrument referred to in paragraph 2.