Member States shall establish maritime information management systems, at national or local level, to process the information referred to in this Directive.

The systems set up pursuant to paragraph 1 shall allow the information gathered to be used operationally and shall satisfy, in particular, the conditions laid down in Article 14.

To guarantee an effective exchange of the information referred to in this Directive, Member States shall ensure that national or local systems set up to gather, process and preserve that information can be interconnected with SafeSeaNet. The Commission shall ensure that SafeSeaNet is operational on a 24 hour-a-day basis. The description and principles of SafeSeaNet are laid down in Annex III.

Without prejudice to paragraph 3, where operating under intra-Community agreements or in the framework of cross-border interregional or transnational projects within the Community, Member States shall ensure that information systems or networks comply with the requirements of this Directive and are compatible with and connected to SafeSeaNet.