Access facilities
Article 8
1. Access to confidential data for scientific purposes may be granted via access facilities accredited by the Commission (Eurostat). 2. The access facility shall be located within national statistical authorities. By way of exception, access facilities may be located outside national statistical authorities, subject to the prior explicit approval of the national statistical authorities which provided the data concerned. 3. Accreditation of access facilities shall be based on criteria referring to the purpose of the access facility, its organisational structure and standards for data security and data management. 4. The Commission (Eurostat) shall, in cooperation with the ESS Committee, establish guidelines for the assessment of access facilities. When duly justified, the Commission (Eurostat) shall update the guidelines, in accordance with procedural arrangements approved by the ESS Committee. 5. Reports on the assessments of access facilities shall be made available to the national statistical authorities. The reports shall include a recommendation on the type of confidential data to which access can be provided by the access facility. The Commission (Eurostat) shall consult the ESS Committee before deciding on the accreditation of an access facility. 6. A contract shall be signed between the duly designated representative of the access facility or of the organisation hosting the access facility and the Commission (Eurostat) determining the obligations of the access facility with respect to the protection of confidential data and the organisational measures. The Commission (Eurostat) shall be regularly informed about the activities carried out by the access facilities. 7. The Commission (Eurostat) shall maintain and publish on its website the list of accredited access facilities.