Article 57 — Monitoring

1. Member States and the Commission, in cooperation with the Board, shall carry out regular monitoring of the Union’s manufacturing capacities necessary for the supply of crisis-relevant products, identified in accordance with Article 56(9), with a view to identifying possible risks to the supply of those products. In carrying out that monitoring: (a) the Commission, in cooperation with the Board, shall monitor early-warning indicators identified pursuant to Article 56(11), including by aggregating any input received from Member States on the basis of information collected at national level; (b) Member States shall monitor, in light of the early-warning indicators, the ability of the main suppliers of crisis-relevant products referred to in Article 56(12) to carry out their activities and report to the Board on any events that could have negative and lasting consequences on the timely availability and supply of those products; (c) where main suppliers of crisis-relevant products detect disruptions of supply which could significantly affect their activities related to the production of those products, they shall report on such disruptions to the Member State on the territory of which they are established, and the Member State concerned shall communicate that information to the Commission without undue delay; (d) the Commission, after consulting the Board, shall identify best practices for preventive risk mitigation and increased transparency of the Union’s manufacturing capacities necessary for the supply of crisis-relevant products. The Commission, after consulting the Board, shall establish the frequency of the monitoring referred to in the first subparagraph. 2. The Commission and the Member States shall pay particular attention to SMEs in order to minimise the administrative burden resulting from the monitoring referred to in paragraph 1 and may, where necessary, provide dedicated assistance. 3. The Commission may invite, after consulting the Board, the main suppliers of crisis-relevant products referred to in Article 56(12), Member States, national defence industry associations and other relevant stakeholders to provide information, on a voluntary basis, for the purpose of carrying out monitoring activities in accordance with paragraph 1, first subparagraph, point (a), of this Article. 4. For the purposes of paragraph 1, first subparagraph, point (b), of this Article, Member States may request information, on a voluntary basis, from the main suppliers of crisis-relevant products referred to in Article 56(12) where necessary and proportionate. 5. For the purposes of paragraph 3, competent authorities of Member States shall establish and maintain a list of contacts of the main suppliers of crisis-relevant products which are established on their territory. That list shall be transmitted to the Commission. Within the Board, the Commission shall provide for a standardised format for that list of contacts. 6. Without prejudice to the protection of commercially confidential information, Member States shall provide the Board with additional relevant information, in particular information on the identification of issues related to the supply of crisis-relevant products throughout the Union and on relevant future national level measures for the procurement, purchase or manufacturing of crisis-relevant products. 7. On the basis of the information collected through the monitoring activities conducted pursuant to this Article, the Commission shall regularly provide a report of the aggregated findings to the Board. That report shall constitute classified information. The Board shall meet to assess the results of that report and to identify, where appropriate, potential solutions to issues of common interest. Where relevant, the Commission, after consulting the Board, may invite national defence industry associations, main suppliers of crisis-relevant products referred to in Article 56(12), and experts from academia and civil society to such meetings. 8. This Article is without prejudice to the right of each Member State to protect the essential interests of its security in accordance with Article 346(1), point (a), TFEU.