Form of the request and the reply
Article 9
1. Requests for information and for administrative enquiries pursuant to Article 8 and replies to such requests shall be exchanged using a mutual administrative assistance document, subject to paragraph 4 of this Article. Where the computerised system is unavailable, a fall-back mutual administrative assistance document shall be used instead of the mutual administrative assistance document. 2. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts to determine: (a) the structure and content of the mutual administrative assistance documents; (b) the rules and procedures relating to the exchanges of mutual administrative assistance documents; (c) the model, form and content of the fall-back mutual administrative assistance document; (d) the rules and procedures relating to the use of the fall-back mutual administrative assistance document. The Commission may also adopt implementing acts to determine the structure and content of the feedback referred to in Article 8(5). Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 35(2). 3. Each Member State shall determine the situations in which the computerised system may be considered unavailable. 4. Where the use of the mutual administrative assistance document is impractical, the exchange of messages may, exceptionally, be carried out in whole or in part by other means. In such cases the message shall be accompanied by an explanation of why the use of the mutual administrative assistance document was impractical.