1. The Commission may entrust, in full or in part, by means of contribution agreements, the implementation of the following tasks to entities other than those referred to in Articles 29 and 30:
(a)
the upgrading, operations preparation and operation of the Copernicus space infrastructure or parts thereof and, where appropriate, management of access to contributing mission data, which may be entrusted to EUMETSAT;
(b)
the implementation of the Copernicus Services or parts thereof to relevant agencies, bodies or organisations, such as the European Environment Agency, Frontex, the European Maritime Safety Agency, the SATCEN and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts; the tasks entrusted to those agencies, bodies or organisations shall be performed in sites located in the Union; an agency, body or organisation, already in the process of relocating its entrusted tasks to the Union, may continue to perform those tasks in a location outside the Union for a limited period, ending at the latest by 31 December 2023.
2. The criteria for the selection of such entrusted entities shall, in particular, reflect their ability to ensure the continuity and, where appropriate, the security of the operations with no disruption of the Programme’s activities.
3. Whenever possible, the conditions of the contribution agreements referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be coherent with the conditions of the FFPA referred to in Article 31(1).
4. The Programme committee shall be consulted on the contribution decision regarding the contribution agreement referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article in accordance with the advisory procedure referred to in Article 107(2). The Programme committee shall be informed in advance of the contribution agreements to be concluded by the Union, represented by the Commission and the entities referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.