For the purposes of Article 10(5) and (6) of this Directive, the Agency and the national safety authorities shall conclude cooperation agreements in accordance with Article 76 of Regulation (EU) 2016/796. The cooperation agreements shall be specific or framework agreements, and shall involve one or more national safety authorities. The cooperation agreements shall contain a detailed description of tasks and conditions for deliverables, the time limits applying to their delivery and an apportionment of the fees payable by the applicant.

The cooperation agreements may also include specific cooperation arrangements in the case of networks requiring specific expertise for geographical or historical reasons, with a view to reducing administrative burdens and costs to the applicant. Where such networks are isolated from the rest of the Union rail system, such specific cooperation arrangements may include the possibility of contracting tasks to the relevant national safety authorities when this is necessary in order to ensure efficient and proportionate allocation of resources for certification. Those cooperation agreements shall be in place before the Agency carries out the certification tasks in accordance with Article 31(3).

In the case of those Member States whose rail networks have a track gauge that is different from that of the main rail network within the Union and share identical technical and operational requirements with neighbouring third countries, in addition to the cooperation agreements referred to in paragraph 2 all the national safety authorities concerned in those Member States shall conclude with the Agency a multilateral agreement which shall include the conditions to facilitate the extension of the area of operation of safety certificates in the Member States concerned, where relevant.