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1. The import of cultural goods listed in Part B of the Annex other than those referred to in Article 3(4) and (5) shall require an import licence. That import licence shall be issued by the competent authority of the Member State in which the cultural goods are placed under one of the customs procedures referred to in point (3) of Article 2 for the first time.

2. Import licences issued by the competent authorities of a Member State in accordance with this Article shall be valid throughout the Union.

3. An import licence issued in accordance with this Article shall not be construed to be evidence of licit provenance or ownership of the cultural goods in question.

4. The holder of the goods shall apply for an import licence to the competent authority of the Member State referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article via the electronic system referred to in Article 8. The application shall be accompanied by any supporting documents and information providing evidence that the cultural goods in question have been exported from the country where they were created or discovered in accordance with the laws and regulations of that country or providing evidence of the absence of such laws and regulations at the time they were taken out of its territory. By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, the application may be accompanied instead by any supporting documents and information providing evidence that the cultural goods in question have been exported in accordance with the laws and regulations of the last country where they were located for a period of more than five years and for purposes other than temporary use, transit, re-export or transhipment, in the following cases:

(a) the country where the cultural goods were created or discovered cannot be reliably determined; or (b) the cultural goods were taken out of the country where they were created or discovered before 24 April 1972.

5. Evidence that the cultural goods in question have been exported in accordance with paragraph 4 shall be provided in the form of export certificates or export licences where the country in question has established such documents for the export of cultural goods at the time of the export.

6. The competent authority shall check whether the application is complete. It shall request any missing or additional information or document from the applicant within 21 days of receipt of the application.

7. Within 90 days of receipt of the complete application, the competent authority shall examine it and decide whether to issue the import licence or to reject the application. The competent authority shall reject the application where:

(a) it has information or reasonable grounds to believe that the cultural goods were removed from the territory of the country where they were created or discovered in breach of the laws and regulations of that country;

(b) the evidence required by paragraph 4 has not been provided;

(c) it has information or reasonable grounds to believe that the holder of the goods did not acquire them lawfully; or (d) it has been informed that there are pending claims for the return of the cultural goods by the authorities of the country where they were created or discovered.

8. In the event that the application is rejected, the administrative decision referred to in paragraph 7, together with a statement of reasons and information on the appeal procedure, shall be communicated to the applicant without delay.

9. Where an application is made for an import licence relating to cultural goods for which such an application has been previously rejected, the applicant shall inform the competent authority to which the application is submitted of the previous rejection.

10. Where a Member State rejects an application, that rejection, as well as the grounds on which it was based, shall be communicated to the other Member States and to the Commission via the electronic system referred to in Article 8.

11. Member States shall designate without delay the competent authorities for the issuing of import licences in accordance with this Article. The Member States shall communicate the details of the competent authorities as well as any changes in that respect to the Commission. The Commission shall publish the details of the competent authorities and any changes thereto in the ‘C’ series of the Official Journal of the European Union.

12. The Commission shall lay down, by means of implementing acts, the template for and the format of the application for the import licence and shall indicate possible supporting documents to prove licit provenance of the cultural goods in question as well as the procedural rules on the submission and processing of such an application. In establishing those elements, the Commission shall endeavour to achieve uniform application by competent authorities of the import licencing procedures. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 13(2).