The requested authority shall acknowledge receipt of the request for information as soon as possible and in any event within seven calendar days of such receipt.
Upon receipt of the request the requested authority shall, where appropriate, ask the applicant authority to provide any additional information necessary. The applicant authority shall provide all additional necessary information to which it normally has access.
1.The requested authority shall transmit each item of requested information to the applicant authority as and when it is obtained.
2.Where, with respect to the particularity of a case, all or some of the requested information cannot be obtained within a reasonable time the requested authority shall inform the applicant authority thereof and state the reasons.
In any event, at the end of 6 months from the date of acknowledgement of receipt of the request, the requested authority shall inform the applicant authority of the outcome of the investigations which it has conducted in order to obtain the information requested.
On the basis of the information received from the requested authority, the applicant authority may request the requested authority to continue its investigation. That request shall be made within 2 months of the receipt of the notification of the outcome of the investigations carried out by the requested authority, and shall be treated by the requested authority in accordance with the provisions applying to the initial request.
The applicant authority may, at any time, withdraw the request for information which it has sent to the requested authority. The decision to withdraw shall be transmitted to the requested authority.