1.When providing information to the Commission in accordance with Article 3(1) to (6), a Member State may indicate whether any part of the information, be it commercial or other information the disclosure of which could harm the activities of the parties involved, is to be regarded as confidential and whether the information provided can be shared with other Member States. The Commission shall respect those indications.
2.Requests for confidentiality under this Article shall not restrict access of the Commission itself to confidential information. The Commission shall ensure that access to the confidential information is strictly limited to the Commission services for which it is absolutely necessary to have the information available.