5.—(1) Without prejudice to its other powers and functions, a competent authority has the function of receiving and considering applications by applicants and taking the actions and decisions referred to in these Regulations.
(2) A competent authority must, using the IMI procedure—
(a)work in close collaboration with competent authorities of other relevant European States;
(b)provide assistance to competent authorities of other relevant European States in order to facilitate application of these Regulations; and
(c)ensure the confidentiality of the information which they exchange.
(3) If the holder of a qualification awarded by a competent authority requests, either in writing or by electronic means, that authority to provide the holder with any information or evidence as listed in Annex VII of the Directive in support of the holder’s application to practise a profession in another relevant European State which regulates that profession, the competent authority must produce that information or evidence to the holder within the time limits set down in that Annex or, if there are no time limits, as soon as is reasonably practicable following the request of the holder.
(4) A competent authority must also act as a point of single contact for their regulated professions.
(5) A competent authority must fully cooperate with the assistance centre in the home or host state and provide all relevant information about individual cases to such assistance centres on request and subject to data protection rules in accordance with Directives 95/46/EC and 2002/58/EC.
(6) A competent authority must enable all requirements, procedures and formalities relating to matters covered by these Regulations to be easily completed, remotely and by electronic means but they may request certified copies at a later stage in the event of justified doubts and where strictly necessary.
(7) Paragraph (6) does not apply to the carrying out of an adaptation period or an aptitude test.
(8) Where a competent authority asks for advance electronic signatures under Article 2.2 of Directive 1999/93/EC on a Community framework for electronic signatures(1) for the completion of procedures referred to in paragraph (6), it must accept electronic signatures in compliance with Commission Decision 2009/76/EC setting out measures facilitating the use of procedures by electronic means through the points of single contact under Directive 2006/123/EC, and provide for technical means to process documents with advanced electronic signature in formats defined by Commission Decision 2011/130/EU establishing minimum requirements for the cross-border processing of documents signed electronically by competent authorities under Directive 2006/123/EC(2).
(9) Procedures must be carried out in accordance with Article 8 of Directive 2006/123/EC relating to the point of single contact.
(10) The procedural time limits set out in regulations 21 and 42 commence at the point when an application or any missing documents have been submitted by an applicant to a point of single contact or directly to the competent authority.
(11) Any request for certified copies under paragraph (6) is not considered as a request for missing documents.
OJ No L 13, 9.1.2000, p.12.
OJ No L 53, 26.2.2011, p.66.