The body and the staff responsible for the checks must carry out the checks with the greatest possible professional integrity and the greatest possible technical competence and must be free of any pressure and incentive, in particular of a financial type, which could affect their judgement or the results of their inspection, in particular from persons or groups of persons affected by the results of the checks. In particular, the body and the staff responsible for the checks must be functionally independent of the authorities designated to issue authorisations for placing in service in the framework of the High-Speed Directive or the Conventional Directive, licences in the framework of Council Directive 95/18/EC of 19th June 1995 on the licensing of railway undertakings25 and safety certificates in the framework of Directive 2004/49/EC26, and of the bodies in charge of investigations in the event of accidents.