The costs incurred in connection with the establishment and operation of the Central System and the Communication Infrastructure shall be borne by the general budget of the European Union.

The costs incurred by national access points and the costs for connection to the Central System shall be borne by each Member State.

Each Member State and Europol shall set up and maintain at their expense the technical infrastructure necessary to implement this Regulation, and shall be responsible for bearing its costs resulting from requests for comparison with Eurodac data for the purposes laid down in Article 1(2)

The Agency shall submit to the European Parliament, the Council, the Commission and the European Data Protection Supervisor an annual report on the activities of the Central System, including on its technical functioning and security. The annual report shall include information on the management and performance of Eurodac against pre-defined quantitative indicators for the objectives referred to in paragraph 2.

The Agency shall ensure that procedures are in place to monitor the functioning of the Central System against objectives relating to output, cost-effectiveness and quality of service.

For the purposes of technical maintenance, reporting and statistics, the Agency shall have access to the necessary information relating to the processing operations performed in the Central System.

By 20 July 2018 and every four years thereafter, the Commission shall produce an overall evaluation of Eurodac, examining the results achieved against objectives and the impact on fundamental rights, including whether law enforcement access has led to indirect discrimination against persons covered by this Regulation, and assessing the continuing validity of the underlying rationale and any implications for future operations, and shall make any necessary recommendations. The Commission shall transmit the evaluation to the European Parliament and the Council.

Member States shall provide the Agency and the Commission with the information necessary to draft the annual report referred to in paragraph 1.

The Agency, Member States and Europol shall provide the Commission with the information necessary to draft the overall evaluation provided for in paragraph 4. This information shall not jeopardise working methods or include information that reveals sources, staff members or investigations of the designated authorities.

While respecting the provisions of national law on the publication of sensitive information, each Member State and Europol shall prepare annual reports on the effectiveness of the comparison of fingerprint data with Eurodac data for law enforcement purposes, containing information and statistics on:

• the exact purpose of the comparison, including the type of terrorist offence or serious criminal offence,

• grounds given for reasonable suspicion,

• the reasonable grounds given not to conduct comparison with other Member States under Decision 2008/615/JHA, in accordance with Article 20(1) of this Regulation,

• number of requests for comparison,

• the number and type of cases which have ended in successful identifications, and

• the need and use made of the exceptional case of urgency, including those cases where that urgency was not accepted by the ex post verification carried out by the verifying authority.

Member States' and Europol annual reports shall be transmitted to the Commission by 30 June of the subsequent year.

On the basis of Member States and Europol annual reports provided for in paragraph 7 and in addition to the overall evaluation provided for in paragraph 4, the Commission shall compile an annual report on law enforcement access to Eurodac and shall transmit it to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Data Protection Supervisor.

By 20 October 2013, each Member State shall notify the Commission of its designated authorities, of the operating units referred to in Article 5(3) and of its verifying authority, and shall notify without delay any amendment thereto.

By 20 October 2013, Europol shall notify the Commission of its designated authority, of its verifying authority and of the National Access Point which it has designated, and shall notify without delay any amendment thereto.

The Commission shall publish the information referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 in the Official Journal of the European Union on an annual basis and via an electronic publication that shall be available online and updated without delay.