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1. Information communicated or acquired in any form under this Regulation shall be covered by professional secrecy and protected in the same way as similar information is protected by the national legislation of the Member State that received it and by the corresponding provisions applicable to the Community institutions. Such information may not be communicated to persons other than those within the Community institutions or in the Member States whose functions require them to know it nor may it be used by Community institutions for purposes other than to ensure effective protection of the Communities' financial interests in all Member States. Where a Member State intends to use for other purposes information obtained by officials participating under its authority as observers, in accordance with Article 6 (2), in on-the-spot checks and inspections, it shall seek the agreement of the Member State where that information was obtained.

2. The Commission shall report as soon as possible to the competent authority of the State within whose territory an on-the-spot check or inspection has been performed any fact or suspicion relating to an irregularity which has come to its notice in the course of the on-the-spot check or inspection. In any event the Commission shall be required to inform the aforementioned authority of the result of such checks and inspections.

3. Commission inspectors shall ensure that in drawing up their reports account is taken of the procedural requirements laid down in the national law of the Member State concerned. The material and supporting documents as referred to in Article 7 shall be annexed to the said reports. The reports thus prepared shall constitute admissible evidence in administrative or judicial proceedings of the Member State in which their use proves necessary, in the same way and under the same conditions as administrative reports drawn up by national administrative inspectors. They shall be subject to the same evaluation rules as those applicable to administrative reports drawn up by national administrative inspectors and shall be of identical value to such reports. Where an inspection is carried out jointly, pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 4, the national inspectors who took part in the operation shall be asked to countersign the report drawn up by the Commission inspectors.

4. The Commission shall ensure that, when implementing this Regulation, its inspectors comply with Community and national provisions on the protection of personal data, in particular those laid down in Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.

5. Where on-the-spot checks or inspections are performed outside Community territory, reports shall be prepared by Commission inspectors in conditions which would enable them to constitute admissible evidence in administrative or judicial proceedings of the Member State in which their use proves necessary.