In accordance with Article 40(8) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1624 of the European Parliament and of the Council21, the members of the teams referred to in points (8) and (9) of Article 2 of that Regulation shall, within their mandate and provided that they are authorised to carry out checks in accordance with Article 27(1) of this Regulation and have received the required training in accordance with Article 14 of this Regulation, have the right to access and search data in SIS II insofar it is necessary for the performance of their task and as required by the operational plan for a specific operation. Access to data in SIS II shall not be extended to any other team members.

Members of the teams referred to in paragraph 1 shall exercise the right to access and search data in SIS II in accordance with paragraph 1 through a technical interface. The technical interface shall be set up and maintained by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency and shall allow direct connection to Central SIS II.

Where a search by a member of the teams referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article reveals the existence of an alert in SIS II, the issuing Member State shall be informed thereof. In accordance with Article 40 of Regulation (EU) 2016/1624, members of the teams shall only act in response to an alert in SIS II under instructions from and, as a general rule, in the presence of border guards or staff involved in return-related tasks of the host Member State in which they are operating. The host Member State may authorise members of the teams to act on its behalf.

For the purpose of verifying the lawfulness of data processing, self-monitoring and ensuring proper data security and integrity, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency shall keep logs of every access to and search in SIS II in accordance with the provisions of Article 12.

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency shall adopt and apply measures to ensure security, confidentiality and self-monitoring in accordance with Articles 10, 11 and 13 and shall ensure that the teams referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article apply those measures.

Nothing in this Article shall be interpreted as affecting the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2016/1624 concerning data protection or the European Border and Coast Guard Agency's liability for any unauthorised or incorrect processing of data by it.

Without prejudice to paragraph 2, no parts of SIS II shall be connected to any system for data collection and processing operated by the teams referred to in paragraph 1 or by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, nor shall the data in SIS II to which those teams have access be transferred to such a system. No part of SIS II shall be downloaded or copied. The logging of access and searches shall not be considered to be unlawful downloading or copying of SIS II data.

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency shall allow the European Data Protection Supervisor to monitor and review the activities of the teams referred to in this Article in the exercise of their right to access and search data in SIS II. This shall be without prejudice to the further provisions of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council22.