1.A manufacturer shall only perform a euro secure item activity or euro item activity at a manufacturing site for which the ECB has granted it an accreditation in accordance with Article 7.
2.An accredited manufacturer may only produce or supply euro secure items or euro items if authorised to do so by the ECB or for the purpose of meeting an order placed by one of the following:
(a)another accredited manufacturer that requires the euro secure items or the euro items for its own euro secure item activity or euro item activity;
(b)a responsible NCB;
(c)subject to a decision by the Governing Council, a future Eurosystem NCB;
(d)the ECB.
3.An accredited manufacturer may perform a euro secure item activity or euro item activity at another manufacturing site subject to the ECB’s prior assessment of the accredited manufacturer’s compliance with all accreditation requirements at the other manufacturing site and the ECB’s accreditation of the manufacturer for the requested euro secure item activity or euro item activity at the other manufacturing site.
4.When assessing requests for accreditation of manufacturers or when assessing the compliance of an accredited manufacturer with the accreditation requirements, the ECB shall respect the principles of equal treatment and transparency. In particular, the ECB’s assessment shall not lead to any preferential treatment or give a competitive advantage to any manufacturer.
5.The ECB shall inform accredited manufacturers via the ECB banknotes extranet of any updates to the accreditation requirements that concern the euro secure item activity or euro item activity for which they have been granted an accreditation.
6.Accredited manufacturers shall handle ECB confidential information in accordance with the ECB’s confidentiality regime, which is available on the ECB banknotes extranet.
7.The ECB may share with the NCBs any relevant information received from accredited manufacturers.
8.Only accredited manufacturers shall be eligible to participate in tenders for euro secure items or euro items.
9.Accredited manufacturers shall not, without the ECB’s prior written consent, transfer or assign their accreditation to any of their subsidiaries, an associated company or a third party.
10.All accreditation procedures shall be conducted in English unless there are exceptional circumstances relating to the procedure or the subject matter of the contract that require the use of a different language.
11.Manufacturers shall bear any costs and associated losses incurred in connection with the application of this Decision.