1.The Agency shall establish a network of the national safety authorities referred to in Article 16 of Directive (EU) 2016/798. The Agency shall provide the network with a secretariat.
2.The Agency shall support the investigating bodies in accordance with Article 22(7) of Directive (EU) 2016/798. To facilitate cooperation among the investigating bodies, the Agency shall provide a secretariat which shall be organised separately from the functions within the Agency relating to safety certification of railway undertakings and authorisations to place vehicles on the market.
3.The objectives of the cooperation between the bodies referred to in paragraph 1 and 2 shall be, in particular:
(a)exchange of information relating to railway safety and interoperability;
(b)promotion of good practices and dissemination of relevant knowledge;
(c)provision to the Agency of data on railway safety, in particular data relating to CSIs.
The Agency shall facilitate cooperation between the national safety authorities and national investigating bodies, in particular by holding joint meetings.
4.The Agency may establish a network of representative bodies from the railway sector acting at Union level. The list of those bodies shall be defined by the Commission. The Agency may provide the network with a secretariat. The tasks of the network shall be, in particular:
(a)exchange of information relating to railway safety and interoperability;
(b)promotion of good practices and dissemination of relevant knowledge;
(c)provision to the Agency of data on railway safety and interoperability.
5.The networks and bodies referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 4 of this Article may comment on the draft opinions referred to in Article 10(2).
6.The Agency may establish other networks with bodies or authorities having responsibility for a part of the Union rail system.
7.The Commission may participate in the meetings of networks referred to in this Article.