Directive 2014/17/EU of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

Article 5 Competent authorities

1. Member States shall designate the national competent authorities empowered to ensure the application and enforcement of this Directive and shall ensure that they are granted investigating and enforcement powers and adequate resources necessary for the efficient and effective performance of their duties.

The authorities referred to in the first subparagraph shall be either public authorities or bodies recognised by national law or by public authorities expressly empowered for that purpose by national law. They shall not be creditors, credit intermediaries or appointed representatives.

2. Member States shall ensure that competent authorities, all persons who work or who have worked for the competent authorities, as well as auditors and experts instructed by the competent authorities, are bound by the obligation of professional secrecy. No confidential information which they may receive in the course of their duties may be divulged to any person or authority whatsoever, save in summary or aggregate form, without prejudice to cases covered by criminal law or by this Directive. This shall not, however, prevent the competent authorities from exchanging or transmitting confidential information in accordance with national and Union law.

3. Member States shall ensure that the authorities designated as competent for ensuring the application and enforcement of Articles 9, 29, 32, 33, 34 and 35 of this Directive are either or both of the following:

(a) competent authorities as defined in Article 4(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010;

(b) authorities other than the competent authorities referred to in point (a) provided that national laws, regulations or administrative provisions require those authorities to cooperate with the competent authorities referred to in point (a) whenever necessary in order to carry out their duties under this Directive, including for the purposes of cooperating with the European Supervisory Authority (European Banking Authority) (EBA) as required under this Directive.

4. Member States shall inform the Commission and EBA of the designation of the competent authorities and any changes thereto, indicating any division of the respective duties between different competent authorities. The first such notification shall be made as soon as possible and at the latest on 21 March 2016.

5. The competent authorities shall exercise their powers in conformity with national law either:

(a) directly under their own authority or under the supervision of the judicial authorities; or

(b) by application to courts which are competent to grant the necessary decision, including, where appropriate, by appeal, if the application to grant the necessary decision is not successful, except for Articles 9, 29, 32, 33, 34 and 35.

6. Where there is more than one competent authority on their territory, Member States shall ensure that their respective duties are clearly defined and that those authorities collaborate closely so that they can discharge their respective duties effectively.

7. The Commission shall publish a list of the competent authorities in the Official Journal of the European Union at least once a year, and update it continuously on its website.