Access by Member States and Europol's staff to information stored by Europol

1.   Member States shall, in accordance with their national law and Article 7(5), have access to, and be able to search, all information which has been provided for the purposes of points (a) and (b) of Article 18(2). This shall be without prejudice to the right of Member States, Union bodies, third countries and international organisations to indicate any restrictions in accordance with Article 19(2).
2.   Member States shall, in accordance with their national law and Article 7(5), have indirect access on the basis of a hit/no hit system to information provided for the purposes of point (c) of Article 18(2). This shall be without prejudice to any restrictions indicated by the Member States, Union bodies and third countries or international organisations providing the information, in accordance with Article 19(2).
In the case of a hit, Europol shall initiate the procedure by which the information that generated the hit may be shared, in accordance with the decision of the provider of the information to Europol.
3.   In accordance with national law, the information referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be accessed and further processed by Member States only for the purpose of preventing and combating:
(a)
forms of crime in respect of which Europol is competent; and
(b)
other forms of serious crime, as set out in Council Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA
(
22
)
.
4.   Europol staff duly empowered by the Executive Director shall have access to information processed by Europol to the extent required for the performance of their duties and without prejudice to Article 67.