1.Under the conditions laid down by national law, each Member State shall authorise assurance undertakings with head offices within its territory to transfer all or part of their portfolios of contracts, concluded under either the right of establishment or the freedom to provide services, to an accepting office established within the Community, if the competent authorities of the home Member State of the accepting office certify that after taking the transfer into account, the latter possesses the necessary solvency margin.
2.Where a branch proposes to transfer all or part of its portfolio of contracts, concluded under either the right of establishment or the freedom to provide services, the Member State of the branch shall be consulted.
3.In the circumstances referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, the authorities of the home Member State of the transferring assurance undertaking shall authorise the transfer after obtaining the agreement of the competent authorities of the Member States of the commitment.
4.The competent authorities of the Member States consulted shall give their opinion or consent to the competent authorities of the home Member State of the transferring assurance undertaking within three months of receiving a request; the absence of any response within that period from the authorities consulted shall be considered equivalent to a favourable opinion or tacit consent.
5.A transfer authorised in accordance with this Article shall be published as laid down by national law in the Member State of the commitment. Such transfers shall automatically be valid against policy holders, the assured persons and any other person having rights or obligations arising out of the contracts transferred. This provision shall not affect the Member States' rights to give policy holders the option of cancelling contracts within a fixed period after a transfer.