Article 13 — Supporting actions

1. Supporting actions shall consist of: (a) activities to increase interoperability and interchangeability, including the cross-certification of defence products and activities leading to mutual recognition of certification, or to facilitate the implementation of military standards, in particular NATO standards and other relevant standards, thus reducing any excessive differentiation of defence products across the Union; (b) activities to facilitate access to the defence market for SMEs, mid-caps and start-ups and support to obtain the necessary quality and production certifications; (c) the capacity-building, training, reskilling or upskilling of personnel in relation to the activities referred to in Article 10(1); (d) the procurement of physical and cyber protection systems in relation to the activities referred to in Article 12; (e) coordination and technical support actions, in particular addressing identified bottlenecks in production capacities and supply chains with a view to securing and accelerating the production of crisis-relevant products in order to ensure their effective supply and timely availability; (f) the establishment of a European Military Sales Catalogue as referred to in Chapter V; (g) support for the establishment and functioning of SEAPs, including for the purpose of establishing, managing and maintaining defence industrial readiness pools; (h) activities with the aim of the rapid adaptation and modification of civilian products for defence applications; (i) defence innovation actions, including emergency defence innovation actions where the measure referred to in Article 68 is activated. 2. For activities referred to in paragraph 1, point (a), the action shall be carried out by legal entities cooperating within a consortium of at least three eligible legal entities, of which at least two shall be established in at least two different Member States. At least three of those eligible legal entities shall not, during the entire period in which the action is carried out, be controlled, directly or indirectly, by the same legal entity and shall not control each other. 3. Notwithstanding paragraph 2, the activities referred to in paragraph 1 may be carried out by a SEAP.