
Article 1 
For the purposes of Articles 31 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226, the central access point(s) referred to in Article 29(3) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 shall have access to the EES to process the requests of the operating units within the designated authorities.
In accordance with Article 38(1)(a) and (c) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226, each Member State shall connect its central access point(s) to the respective national uniform interface in accordance with the technical specifications referred to in Article 37(1) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226.
Article 2 
For the purposes of Article 33 of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226, the Europol central access point referred to in Article 30(2) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 shall have access to the EES to process the requests of the Europol designated authority referred to in Article 30(1) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226.
In accordance with Article 38(7) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226, Europol shall connect its central access point to a dedicated Uniform Interface in accordance with the technical specifications referred to in Article 37(1) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226.
Article 3 
In order to facilitate the collection of the data needed to generate the statistics that Member States and Europol have to produce pursuant to Article 72(8) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226, a technical solution shall be made available by eu-LISA to the central access point(s) referred to Article 29(3) and Article 30(2) of that Regulation. The use of this solution shall be optional. If used, each Member State and Europol shall be responsible for the national deployment as well as for the technical and operational management of this solution. This solution shall allow the collection of the following statistical data for each request for access to the EES:

((a)) designated authority, central access point and operating unit initiating the request referred to in Article 29(5) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226;
((b)) flag informing if the request led to a successful match;
((c)) flag mentioning if the consultation was carried out for the purpose of identification or for entry/exit records;
((d)) flag informing if the consultation was carried out using the urgency procedures referred to in Article 31(2) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 and in the second subparagraph of Article 32(2) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 and flag informing if the urgency was not accepted by the ex post verification carried out by the central access point;
((e)) the type of terrorist offence or serious criminal offence as defined in points (24) and (25) of Article 3(1) of the Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 that led to the consultation;
((f)) the grounds given to substantiate the suspicion that the person concerned was covered by Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 by selecting a value from a code table with the possibility to select ‘other’ value complemented by a free text field;
((g)) the grounds given not to launch the search in other Member States' automated fingerprint identification systems under Decision 2008/615/JHA in accordance with point (b) of Article 32(2) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 by selecting a value from a code table with the possibility to select ‘other’ value complemented by a free text field.
This information shall be stored at local level, by the central access point(s) to support the generation of statistics referred to in Article 72(8) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226.
The data inserted in the technical solution shall be used by each Member State or by Europol to generate its statistics referred to in Article 72(8) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226.
Article 4 
This Decision shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Done at Brussels, 15 October 2018.
For the Commission
The President
Jean-Claude JUNCKER