1. Upon request of the AI Board, the Commission shall, by means of an implementing act, make provisions on the creation, maintenance and financing of a central pool of independent experts to support the enforcement activities under this Regulation.

2. Experts shall be selected by the Commission and included in the central pool on the basis of up-to-date scientific or technical expertise in the field of artificial intelligence, having due regard to the technical areas covered by the requirements and obligations in this Regulation and the activities of market surveillance authorities pursuant to Article 11 of Regulation (EU) 1020/2019. The Commission shall determine the number of experts in the pool in accordance with the required needs.

3. Experts may have the following tasks:

1. provide advice to and support the work of market surveillance authorities, at their request;

2. support cross-border market surveillance investigations as referred to in Article 58(h), without prejudice of the powers of market surveillance authorities;

3. advise and support the Commission when carrying out its duties in the context of the safeguard clause pursuant to Article 66.

4. The experts shall perform their tasks with impartiality, objectivity and ensure the confidentiality of information and data obtained in carrying out their tasks and activities. Each expert shall draw up a declaration of interests, which shall be made publicly available. The Commission shall establish systems and procedures to actively manage and prevent potential conflicts of interest.

5. The Member States may be required to pay fees for the advice and support by the experts. The structure and the level of fees as well as the scale and structure of recoverable costs shall be adopted by the Commission by means of the implementing act referred to in paragraph 1, taking into account the objectives of the adequate implementation of this Regulation, cost-effectiveness and the necessity to ensure an effective access to experts by all Member States.  

6. The Commission shall facilitate timely access to the experts by the Member States, as needed, and ensure that the combination of support activities carried out by Union testing facilities pursuant to Article 68a and experts pursuant to this Article is efficiently organised and provides the best possible added value.