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1. Member States shall endeavour to cooperate with an external service provider together with one or more Member States, without prejudice to public procurement and competition rules.

2. Cooperation with an external service provider shall be based on a legal instrument that shall comply with the requirements set out in Annex X.

————— 4. The examination of applications, interviews (where appropriate), the decision on applications and the printing and affixing of visa stickers shall be carried out only by the consulate.

5. External service providers shall not have access to the VIS under any circumstances. Access to the VIS shall be reserved exclusively to duly authorised staff of consulates or of the central authorities.

6. An external service provider may be entrusted with the performance of one or more of the following tasks:

(a) providing general information on visa requirements, in accordance with points (a) to (c) of Article 47(1), and application forms;

(b) informing the applicant of the required supporting documents, on the basis of a checklist;

(c) collecting data and applications (including collection of biometric identifiers) and transmitting the application to the consulate or the central authorities;

(d) collecting the visa fee;

(e) managing the appointments for the applicant, where applicable, at the consulate or at the premises of an external service provider;

(f) collecting the travel documents, including a refusal notification if applicable, from the consulate or the central authorities and returning them to the applicant.

7. When selecting an external service provider, the Member State concerned shall assess the reliability and solvency of the organisation or company and ensure that there is no conflict of interests. The assessment shall include, as appropriate, scrutiny of the necessary licences, commercial registration, statutes and bank contracts.

8. The Member State(s) concerned shall ensure that the external service provider selected complies with the terms and conditions assigned to it in the legal instrument referred to in paragraph 2.

9. Member States shall be responsible for compliance with the rules on the protection of personal data and ensure that the external service provider is subject to monitoring by the data protection supervisory authorities pursuant to Article 51(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council ().

10. The Member State(s) concerned shall provide training to the external service provider, corresponding to the knowledge needed to offer an appropriate service and sufficient information to applicants.

11. The Member State(s) concerned shall closely monitor the implementation of the legal instrument referred to in paragraph 2, including:

(a) the general information on the criteria, conditions and procedures for applying for a visa, as set out in points (a) to (c) of Article 47(1), and the content of the application forms provided by the external service provider to applicants;

(b) all the technical and organisational security measures required to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction or accidental loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access, in particular where the cooperation involves the transmission of files and data to the consulate or the central authorities of the Member State(s) concerned, and all other unlawful forms of processing personal data;

(c) the collection and transmission of biometric identifiers;

(d) the measures taken to ensure compliance with data protection provisions.

To this end, the consulate(s) or the central authorities of the Member State(s) concerned shall, on a regular basis and at least every nine months, carry out spot checks on the premises of the external service provider. Member States may agree to share the burden of this regular monitoring.

11a. By 1 February each year, Member States shall report to the Commission on their cooperation with, and monitoring, as referred to in point C of Annex X, of external service providers worldwide.

12. In the event of termination of cooperation with an external service provider, Member States shall ensure the continuity of full service.

13. Member States shall provide the Commission with a copy of the legal instrument referred to in paragraph 2.