25.3.2008 Official Journal of the European Union L 82/1 (Acts adopted under the EC Treaty/Euratom Treaty whose publication is obligatory) REGULATIONS COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 271/2008 of 30 January 2008 amending Regulation (EC) No 794/2004 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 93 of the EC Treaty THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 of 22 March 1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 93 of the EC Treaty (1), and in particular Article 27 thereof, After consulting the Advisory Committee on State Aid, Whereas: In order to facilitate and accelerate the submission of State aid notifications by Member States, and their assessment by the Commission, it is desirable to generalise the use of the already established electronic systems. Since 1 January 2006 Member States have been required to transmit State aid notifications electronically. The web application State Aid Notification Interactive (SANI) (2) has become fully functional and has increased the efficiency of procedures. For these reasons, from 1 July 2008, its use should be rendered obligatory for Member States for the submission of State aid notifications to the Commission. () OJL 83,27.3.1999, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Council Regu- lation (EC) No 1791/2006 (O] L 363, 20.12.2006, p. 1). (?) Details on the established web application are published in Commis- sion notice ‘D including addresses together with the arrangements for the protection of confidential information’ (O] C 237, 27.9.2005, p- 3). 6) ©) Since 1 January 2006, Member States have also been required to transmit all correspondence in connection with notifications electronically. The secured e-mail system Pub- lic Key Infrastructure (PKI) (%) tested by the Commission has become fully functional. Its use should therefore be rendered obligatory, from 1 July 2008, for all correspon- dence from Member States to the Commission in connec- tion with a notification. In exceptional cases, upon the agreement of the Commis- sion and the Member State concerned, it should be possible to use a communication channel other than the established web application or secured e-mail system. Member States should be invited to submit a separate non- confidential version of the notification, on a voluntary basis, or any correspondence in connection with a notifi- cation where these documents contain confidential infor- mation. This should lead to shortening of procedures and should enable the Commission to decide more easily on requests for access to documents. The classification of the information as confidential should be justified by the Member State concerned. The submission of a separate non-confidential copy of the notification or any corre- spondence in connection with a notification is without prejudice to the assessment by the Commission of the con- fidential character of the information submitted. (*) Details are published in Commission notice ‘D including addresses together with the arrangements for the protection of confidential information’.