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1. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that their asset recovery offices provide, upon request from an asset recovery office in another Member State, any information that those asset recovery offices have access to, and that is necessary for the performance of the tasks pursuant to Article 5, of the asset recovery office requesting that information (the ‘requesting asset recovery office’). It shall only be possible to provide those categories of personal data listed in Section B, point 2, of Annex II to Regulation (EU) 2016/794, with the exception of forensic identification information listed in Section B, point 2(c)(v), of that Annex. Any personal data to be provided shall be determined on a case-by-case basis, in light of what is necessary for the performance of the tasks pursuant to Article 5, and in accordance with Directive (EU) 2016/680.

2. When making a request pursuant to paragraph 1, the requesting asset recovery office shall specify as precisely as possible the following:

(a) the object of the request;

(b) the reasons for the request, including the relevance of the information requested for the tracing and identification of the relevant property;

(c) the nature of the proceedings;

(d) the type of criminal offence to which the request relates;

(e) the link between the proceedings and the Member State in which the asset recovery office receiving the request is located;

(f) details on the property targeted or sought, such as bank accounts, real estate, vehicles, vessels, aircraft, companies and other high-value items;

(g) where necessary for the identification of the natural or legal persons presumed to be involved, any identification documents if available, details such as name, nationality, place of residence, national identification numbers or social security numbers, addresses, date and place of birth, date of registration, country of establishment, shareholders, headquarters and subsidiaries, as appropriate;

(h) where applicable, reasons for the urgency of the request.

3. Member States shall take the necessary measures to enable their asset recovery offices to provide information to an asset recovery office in another Member State, without a request to that effect, where those offices are aware of information on instrumentalities, proceeds or property that they consider necessary, for the performance of the tasks pursuant to Article 5, of the asset recovery offices of that other Member State. When providing such information, asset recovery offices shall set out the reasons why the information provided is considered necessary.

4. Unless otherwise indicated by the asset recovery office providing information pursuant to paragraph 1 or 3, the information provided may be presented as evidence before a national court or competent authority of the Member State in which the asset recovery office receiving that information is located, in accordance with procedures under national law, including procedural rules on the admissibility of evidence in proceedings in criminal matters in line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and with obligations of Member States as set out in Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union.

5. Member States shall ensure that asset recovery offices have direct access to the Secure Information Exchange Network Application (SIENA) and use the specific fields designed for the asset recovery offices in SIENA that correspond to the information required under paragraph 2 or, where necessary on an exceptional basis, other secure channels for exchanging information pursuant to this Article.

6. Asset recovery offices may refuse to provide information to a requesting asset recovery office if there are factual reasons to assume that the provision of information would:

(a) harm the fundamental national security interests of the Member State in which the asset recovery office receiving the request is located;

(b) jeopardise an ongoing investigation or criminal intelligence operation, or pose an imminent threat to the life or physical integrity of a person; or (c) be clearly disproportionate or irrelevant with regard to the purposes for which it has been requested.

7. Where an asset recovery office refuses, pursuant to paragraph 6, to provide information to a requesting asset recovery office, the Member State where the asset recovery office receiving the request is located shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the reasons for refusal are given and that the requesting asset recovery office is consulted in advance. Refusals shall affect only the part of the requested information to which the reasons set out in paragraph 6 relate and shall not affect the obligation to provide other parts of that information, where applicable, in accordance with this Directive.