1.   Member States shall ensure that where audit working papers or other documents held by statutory auditors or audit firms are exclusively held by a statutory auditor or audit firm registered in a Member State other than the Member State where the group auditor is registered and whose competent authority has received a request from any of the authorities referred to in Article 1, such papers or documents shall be transferred to the requesting competent authority only if the competent authority of the first Member State has given its express agreement to the transfer.

2.   Member States shall ensure that any joint inspections carried out in the Union by their competent authorities and the competent authorities of the United States fulfil the conditions laid down in Article 47 of Directive 2006/43/EC and that they are, as a general rule, under the leadership of the competent authority of the Member State concerned.

3.   Member States shall ensure that any bilateral working arrangements between their competent authorities and the competent authorities of the United States comply with the conditions for cooperation set out in this Article.