As the Advocate General has noted in point 42 of his Opinion, an efficient procedure presupposes that the information to be provided by an applicant for aid under Article 6 of the regulation is complete and accurate from the outset and that consequently the applicant is in a position to obtain the information necessary to ensure that the applications which he must submit to the competent authority are valid.28 It must be observed, furthermore, that an applicant for aid has, in the context of the application of Regulation No 3508/92, an essential and legitimate interest in being able to procure the information necessary to make a proper application for the grant of compensatory payments and to avoid the imposition of penalties.29 The measures taken by Member States for the protection of data collected cannot therefore leave that interest out of account.30 Contrary to the argument submitted by the United Kingdom Government, that requirement is not satisfied by a general rule under which the data collected can be disclosed to a third party only with the agreement of the person who provided the information in question and only if, and to the extent to which, a mandatory interest so requires, in so far as that rule excludes account being taken of the legitimate interest which an applicant for aid may have in accessing certain of those data.31 In order to answer the question whether certain information contained in the database may be disclosed, the competent authority must balance, on the one hand, the interest of the person who provided the information and, on the other, the interest of the person who has need of that information in order to meet a legitimate objective.32 However, the respective interests of the persons concerned in regard to data of a personal nature must be assessed in a manner which ensures protection of fundamental freedoms and rights.33 In that connection, the provisions of Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (OJ 1995 L 281 p. 31) (the Directive) provide criteria that are suitable for application by the competent authority in making that assessment.34 Even though the Directive had not yet entered into force at the material time in the case in the main proceedings, it is clear from the 10th and 11th recitals in its preamble that it adopts, at Community level, the general principles which already formed part of the law of the Member States in the area in question.35 With regard, in particular, to the disclosure of data, Article 7(f) of the Directive authorises such disclosure if it is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by a third party to whom personal data are disclosed, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection.36 So far as concerns the application of such criteria to the case in the main proceedings, there is nothing in the documents before the Court to justify the conclusion that Fisher was pursuing any interest other than the essential and legitimate one of being able to procure the data which it needed in order to discharge its obligations under Regulation No 3508/92 and which it could not otherwise obtain.37 Nor does it appear from the documents before the Court that disclosure to Fisher of the data requested was liable to affect adversely any interest whatever of the owner of those data or his fundamental rights and freedoms.38 It is, however, for the national court, which alone is familiar with all of the relevant facts of the dispute in the main proceedings, to assess the interests of the persons concerned in order to be able to determine whether the data requested could be disclosed to Fisher.39 The answer to Question 1 must therefore be that Articles 3(1) and 9 of Regulation No 3508/92, coupled with the general principles of Community law, allow the competent authority, after balancing the respective interests of the persons concerned, to disclose data relating to crops sown during the preceding years, and which have been supplied by or on behalf of a former claimant for payment under the arable area payment scheme, to a new farmer who has need of those data in order to be able to apply for such payments in respect of the same fields and who is unable otherwise to obtain them.Questions 2 and 340 By Questions 2 and 3, which it is appropriate to consider together, the national court is asking, essentially, whether, in the event of a refusal to disclose the requested information, the competent authority is entitled, or even required, to impose penalties on the applicant pursuant to Article 9 of Regulation No 3887/92, and whether, in so doing, it may rely on information which it did not supply to that person when he made his request.41 According to the United Kingdom Government, the competent authority was required to impose the penalties set out in Article 9 of Regulation No 3887/92 in the event of false declarations, since Fisher could not rely on the single exception provided for in the fourth subparagraph of Article 9(2) of that regulation, that is to say, the case in which the farmer can show that his determination of the area was accurately based on information recognised by the competent authority.42 It must first be observed in this regard that, in the case in the main proceedings, the national court has found that the imposition of the penalties was unquestionably attributable to the refusal to disclose the information requested from the competent authority.43 Next, it is important to note that penalties cannot be imposed where the declaration is false as a result of inaccurate information emanating from the competent authority.