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1. Communication between the competent national authorities and Eurojust under this Regulation shall be carried out through the decentralised IT system. The case management system referred to in Article 23 shall be connected with a network of IT systems and interoperable e-CODEX access points, which operate under the individual responsibility and management of each Member State and Eurojust, enabling the secure and reliable cross-border exchange of information (‘the decentralised IT system’).

2. Where exchange of information in accordance with paragraph 1 is not possible due to the unavailability of the decentralised IT system or due to exceptional circumstances, it shall be carried out by the swiftest, most appropriate alternative means. Member States and Eurojust shall ensure that the alternative means of communication are reliable and provide an equivalent level of security and data protection.

3. The competent national authorities shall transmit the information referred to in Articles 21 and 21a of this Regulation to Eurojust in a semi-automated and structured manner from national registers. The arrangements for such transmission shall be determined by the Commission, in consultation with Eurojust, in an implementing act, in accordance with Article 22b of this Regulation. In particular, that implementing act shall determine the format of the data transmitted pursuant to Annex III, point (d), to this Regulation and the necessary technical standards with regard to the transmission of such data, and shall set out the digital procedural standards as defined in Article 3, point 9, of Regulation (EU) 2022/850 of the European Parliament and of the Council ().

4. The Commission shall be responsible for the creation, maintenance and development of reference implementation software which Member States and Eurojust may choose to apply as their back-end system. That reference implementation software shall be based on a modular setup, meaning that the software is packaged and delivered separately from the e-CODEX components needed to connect it to the decentralised IT system. That setup shall enable Member States to reuse or enhance their existing national judicial communication infrastructures for the purpose of cross-border use and Eurojust to connect its case management system to the decentralised IT system.

5. The Commission shall provide, maintain and support the reference implementation software free of charge. The creation, maintenance and development of the reference implementation software shall be financed from the general budget of the Union.

6. Member States and Eurojust shall bear their respective costs for establishing and operating an authorised e-CODEX access point as defined in Article 3, point 3, of Regulation (EU) 2022/850, and for establishing and adjusting their relevant IT systems to make them interoperable with the access points.