1.Requests shall only be sent by the single authority of the applicant Member State or by the Commission to the single authority of the requested Member State. All replies to a request shall be communicated in the same way.
2.Requests for mutual assistance and the respective replies shall be made in writing.
3.The languages used for requests and for the communication of information shall be agreed by the single authorities concerned before requests are made. If no agreement can be reached, requests shall be communicated in the official language(s) of the applicant Member State and replies in the official language(s) of the requested Member State.