1. Member States shall set up a central database for the purposes of this Regulation.
2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, a central database shall not be required in those Member States that have a single database for registered equidae and a single database for equidae for breeding and production, provided that:
both databases can effectively communicate with each other and can cooperate with central databases in accordance with Article 40 to update the identification details for equidae changing their status to either registered equidae or equidae for breeding and production;
the competent authority has direct access to any of those databases.
3. The Member States shall make the name, address and contact details of their central databases available to the other Member States and the public on the website provided for in Article 6(1).