1. The Commission may decide to subject to enhanced surveillance a Member State experiencing or threatened with serious difficulties with respect to its financial stability which are likely to have adverse spill-over effects on other Member States in the euro area.
When assessing whether a Member State is threatened with serious difficulties with respect to its financial stability, the Commission shall use, among other parameters, the alert mechanism established under Article 3(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1176/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 November 2011 on the prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances (8) or, where available, the latest in-depth review. The Commission shall also conduct a comprehensive assessment, taking into account, in particular, the borrowing conditions of that Member State, the repayment profile of its debt obligations, the robustness of its budgetary framework, the long-term sustainability of its public finances, the importance of its debt burden and the risk of contagion from severe tensions in its financial sector on its budgetary situation or on the financial sector of other Member States.
The Member State concerned shall be given the opportunity to express its views before the Commission adopts its decision to subject that Member State to enhanced surveillance. Every six months, the Commission shall decide whether to prolong the enhanced surveillance on that Member State.
2. Where the Commission decides to subject a Member State to enhanced surveillance under paragraph 1, it shall duly inform the Member State concerned of all the results of the assessment and shall notify the European Central Bank (ECB), in its supervisory capacity, the relevant ESAs and the ESRB accordingly.
3. Where a Member State is in receipt of financial assistance on a precautionary basis from one or several other Member States or third countries, the EFSM, the ESM, the EFSF, or another relevant international financial institution such as the IMF, the Commission shall subject that Member State to enhanced surveillance.
The Commission shall make public its decisions taken in accordance with paragraph 1 and with this paragraph.
4. Paragraph 3 shall not apply to a Member State receiving financial assistance on a precautionary basis in the form of a credit line, which is not conditional on that Member State adopting new policy measures, provided that the credit line is not drawn.
5. The Commission shall publish, for information purposes, a list of the instruments providing precautionary financial assistance, as referred to in paragraph 3 and shall keep it updated to take into account possible changes in the financial support policy of the ESM, the EFSF or of another relevant international financial institution.