Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on administrative cooperation through the Internal Market Information System and repealing Commission Decision 2008/49/EC ( ‘the IMI Regulation’ ) Text with EEA relevance

• Coming into Force: 04 December 2012
• End of Effective Date: 31 December 9999
• ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2012/1024/oj
• Published date: 14 November 2012
• Date: 25 October 2012
• Official Gazette Publication: Gazzetta ufficiale dell’Unione europea, L 316, 14 novembre 2012,Journal officiel de l’Union européenne, L 316, 14 novembre 2012,Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea, L 316, 14 de noviembre de 2012

14.11.2012 EN Official Journal of the European Union L 316/1

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REGULATION (EU) No 1024/2012 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 25 October 2012

on administrative cooperation through the Internal Market Information System and repealing Commission Decision 2008/49/EC (‘the IMI Regulation’)

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 114 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1),

Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (2),

Whereas:

(1) The application of certain Union acts governing the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital in the internal market requires Member States to cooperate more effectively and exchange information with one another and with the Commission. As practical means to implement such information exchange are often not specified in those acts, appropriate practical arrangements need to be made.

(2) The Internal Market Information System (‘IMI’) is a software application accessible via the internet, developed by the Commission in cooperation with the Member States, in order to assist Member States with the practical implementation of information exchange requirements laid down in Union acts by providing a centralised communication mechanism to facilitate cross-border exchange of information and mutual assistance. In particular, IMI helps competent authorities to identify their counterpart in another Member State, to manage the exchange of information, including personal data, on the basis of simple and unified procedures and to overcome language barriers on the basis of pre-defined and pre-translated workflows. Where available, the Commission should provide IMI users with any existing additional translation functionality that meets their needs, is compatible with the security and confidentiality requirements for the exchange of information in IMI and can be offered at a reasonable cost.

(3) In order to overcome language barriers, IMI should in principle be available in all official Union languages.

(4) The purpose of IMI should be to improve the functioning of the internal market by providing an effective, user-friendly tool for the implementation of administrative cooperation between Member States and between Member States and the Commission, thus facilitating the application of Union acts listed in the Annex to this Regulation.

(5) The Commission Communication of 21 February 2011 entitled ‘Better governance of the Single Market through greater administrative cooperation: A strategy for expanding and developing the Internal Market Information System (“IMI”)’ sets out plans for the possible expansion of IMI to other Union acts. The Commission Communication of 13 April 2011 entitled ‘Single Market Act: Twelve Levers to boost growth and strengthen confidence — “Working together to create new growth”’ stresses the importance of IMI for strengthening cooperation among the actors involved, including at local level, thus contributing to better governance of the single market. It is therefore necessary to establish a sound legal framework for IMI and a set of common rules to ensure that IMI functions efficiently.

(6) Where the application of a provision of a Union act requires Member States to exchange personal data and provides for the purpose of this processing, such a provision should be considered an adequate legal basis for the processing of personal data, subject to the conditions set out in Articles 8 and 52 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. IMI should be seen primarily as a tool used for the exchange of information, including personal data, which would otherwise take place via other means, including regular mail, fax or electronic mail on the basis of a legal obligation imposed on Member States’ authorities and bodies in Union acts. Personal data exchanged via IMI should only be collected, processed and used for purposes in line with those for which it was originally collected and should be subject to all relevant safeguards.

(7) Following the privacy-by-design principle, IMI has been developed with the requirements of data protection legislation in mind and has been data protection-friendly from its inception, in particular because of the restrictions imposed on access to personal data exchanged in IMI. Therefore, IMI offers a considerably higher level of protection and security than other methods of information exchange such as regular mail, telephone, fax or electronic mail.

(8) Administrative cooperation by electronic means between Member States and between Member States and the Commission should comply with the rules on the protection of personal data laid down in Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (3) and in Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data (4). The definitions used in Directive 95/46/EC and Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 should also apply for the purposes of this Regulation.

(9) The Commission supplies and manages the software and IT infrastructure for IMI, ensures the security of IMI, manages the network of national IMI coordinators and is involved in the training of and technical assistance to the IMI users. To that end, the Commission should only have access to such personal data that are strictly necessary to carry out its tasks within the responsibilities set out in this Regulation, such as the registration of national IMI coordinators. The Commission should also have access to personal data when retrieving, upon a request by another IMI actor, such data that have been blocked in IMI and to which the data subject has requested access. The Commission should not have access to personal data exchanged as part of administrative cooperation within IMI, unless a Union act provides for a role for the Commission in such cooperation.

(10) In order to ensure transparency, in particular for data subjects, the provisions of Union acts for which IMI is to be used should be listed in the Annex to this Regulation.

(11) IMI may be expanded in the future to new areas, where it can help to ensure effective implementation of a Union act in a cost-efficient, user-friendly way, taking account of technical feasibility and overall impact on IMI. The Commission should conduct the necessary tests to verify the technical readiness of IMI for any envisaged expansion. Decisions to expand IMI to further Union acts should be taken by means of the ordinary legislative procedure.

(12) Pilot projects are a useful tool for testing whether the expansion of IMI is justified and for adapting technical functionality and procedural arrangements to the requirements of IMI users before a decision on the expansion of IMI is taken. Member States should be fully involved in deciding which Union acts should be subject to a pilot project and on the modalities of that pilot project, in order to ensure that the pilot project reflects the needs of IMI users and that the provisions on processing of personal data are fully complied with. Such modalities should be defined separately for each pilot project.

(13) Nothing in this Regulation should preclude Member States and the Commission from deciding to use IMI for the exchange of information which does not involve the processing of personal data.

(14) This Regulation should set out the rules for using IMI for the purposes of administrative cooperation, which may cover, inter alia, the one-to-one exchange of information, notification procedures, alert mechanisms, mutual assistance arrangements and problem-solving.

(15) The right of the Member States to decide which national authorities carry out the obligations resulting from this Regulation should remain unaffected by this Regulation. Member States should be able to adapt functions and responsibilities in relation to IMI to their internal administrative structures, as well as to implement the needs of a specific IMI workflow. Member States should be able to appoint additional IMI coordinators to carry out the tasks of national IMI coordinators, alone or jointly with others, for a particular area of the internal market, a division of the administration, a geographic region, or according to another criterion. Member States should inform the Commission of the IMI coordinators they have appointed, but they should not be obliged to indicate additional IMI coordinators in IMI, where this is not required for its proper functioning.

(16) In order to achieve efficient administrative cooperation through IMI, Member States and the Commission should ensure that their IMI actors have the necessary resources to carry out their obligations in accordance with this Regulation.

(17) While IMI is in essence a communication tool for administrative cooperation between competent authorities, which is not open to the general public, technical means may need to be developed to allow external actors such as citizens, enterprises and organisations to interact with the competent authorities in order to supply information or retrieve data, or to exercise their rights as data subjects.

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