1.Access to, and possession of, information shall be restricted within the Europol organisation to those persons who, by reason of their duties or obligations, need to be acquainted with such information or need to handle it. Persons entrusted with the processing of information shall have obtained an appropriate security clearance and shall further receive special training.
2.All persons who may have access to information subject to a classification level processed by Europol shall undergo security clearance in accordance with Article 40(2) of the Europol Decision and the Security Manual. The Security Coordinator shall, on the basis of the result of the security clearance procedure, subject to the provisions of the Security Manual, grant authorisation to those persons cleared at the appropriate national level, who by reason of their duties or obligations, need to be acquainted with information subject to a Europol classification level. The authorisation is subject to regular review by the Security Coordinator. Authorisation may be withdrawn immediately by the Security Coordinator on justifiable grounds. The Security Coordinator shall also be responsible for ensuring the implementation of paragraph 3.
3.No person shall have access to information subject to a classification level without having been granted security clearance at the appropriate level. Exceptionally, however, the Security Coordinator may, after consultation of a Security Officer,
(a)give a specific and limited authorisation to persons cleared at ‘CONFIDENTIEL UE/EU CONFIDENTIAL’ level to have access to specific information classified up to ‘SECRET UE/EU SECRET’ level, if, by reason of their duties or obligations in a specific case, they need to be acquainted with information subject to a higher Europol classification level; or
(b)grant temporary authorisation to access classified information for a period not exceeding six months, pending the outcome of the security clearance referred to in paragraph 2, if it is in the interest of Europol, and after giving the national competent authorities notification and provided there is no reaction from them within three months; the Security Coordinator shall inform the national competent authorities concerned of the granting of such temporary authorisation. The granting of this temporary authorisation shall not give access to information classified as ‘SECRET UE/EU SECRET’ and above.
4.Such authorisation shall not be granted where a Member State, when supplying the information concerned, has specified that the discretion afforded to the Security Coordinator under paragraph 3 shall not be exercised in relation to that information.