Article 23 (2) and (3) of Directive 79/267/EEC shall be replaced by the following:
'2. Member States shall require assurance undertakings with head offices within their territories to render periodically the returns, together with statistical documents, which are necessary for the purposes of supervision. The competent authorities shall provide each other with any documents and information that are useful for the purposes of supervision. 3. Every Member State shall take all steps necessary to ensure that the competent authorities have the powers and means necessary for the supervision of the business of assurance undertakings with head offices within their territories, including business carried on outside those territories, in accordance with the Council directives governing those activities and for the purpose of seeing that they are implemented. These powers and means must, in particular, enable the competent authorities to: (a) make detailed enquiries regarding the undertaking's situation and the whole of its business, inter alia by: - gathering information or requiring the submission of documents concerning its assurance business, - carrying out on-the-spot investigations at the undertaking's premises; (b) take any measures, with regard to the undertaking, its directors or managers or the persons who control it, that are appropriate and necessary to ensure that the undertaking's business continues to comply with the laws, regulations and administrative provisions with which the undertaking must comply in each Member State and in particular with the scheme of operations in so far as it remains mandatory, and to prevent or remedy any irregularities prejudicial to the interests of the assured persons; (c) ensure that those measures are carried out, if need be by enforcement, where appropriate through judicial channels. Member States may also make provision for the competent authorities to obtain any information regarding contracts which are held by intermediaries.'