The persons responsible for auditing Athena's revenue and expenditure shall, before carrying out their task, have received clearance for access to classified information up to at least ‘SECRET UE/EU SECRET’ level held by the Council, or equivalent clearance from a Member State or NATO, as appropriate. Those persons shall ensure that they respect the confidentiality of the information and protect the data of which they acquire knowledge during their audit task, in accordance with the rules applicable to that information and those data.

The persons responsible for auditing Athena's revenue and expenditure shall have access without delay and without giving prior notice to the documents and to the contents of all data supports relating to that revenue and expenditure, and to the premises where those documents and supports are kept. They may make copies. The persons involved in implementing Athena's revenue and expenditure shall give the administrator and the persons responsible for the audit of that revenue and expenditure the necessary assistance in performing their task.