Collegiality
1. The Commission shall act as a College, pursuant to these Rules of Procedure. The College is composed of the President and the other Members of the Commission.
2. The Members of the Commission shall refrain from any behaviour likely to jeopardise, to any extent, the principle of collegiality.
3. All Members of the Commission shall participate on an equal footing in the decision-making process and bear collective responsibility for the decisions taken.
4. Each Member of the Commission shall respect, promote and support the positions adopted by the Commission, in particular throughout the different stages of the legislative procedure.
5. Any position diverging from the position originally adopted by the Commission shall be collegially approved before being presented by representatives of the Commission to the other institutions or bodies of the European Union as well as to Member States, third countries, international or regional organisations and other third parties.
President
1. The President shall lay down the political guidelines within which the Commission is to work. The President shall steer the work of the Commission and represent it.
2. The President shall decide on the internal organisation of the Commission, ensuring that it acts consistently, efficiently and as a collegiate body ( 6 ) .
3. The President shall structure and allocate responsibilities among the Members of the Commission without prejudice to Article 18(4) of the Treaty on European Union. The President may reshuffle the allocation of those responsibilities during the Commission’s term of office ( 7 ) .
At the beginning of the term of office, the President shall send the Members of the Commission mission letters setting out their duties and the conditions for carrying them out in the fields of activity assigned to them.
4. The President shall appoint Vice-Presidents, other than the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, from among the Members of the Commission ( 8 ) .
5. The President shall adopt a decision on the order of precedence of all the Members of the Commission. As regards the Members of the Commission other than the Vice-Presidents, that order shall be based on their seniority in the Commission or, in the event of equal seniority, on their age.
6. The President may decide at any time to set up groups of Members of the Commission. The decision of the President shall determine the mandate, the composition, the duration and the working methods of the group, and shall appoint the Member(s) to lead the work of the group.
7. If Members of the Commission are prevented from carrying out their duties, the President shall appoint replacements from among the other Members of the Commission and adopt the provisions implementing that decision.
8. A Member of the Commission shall resign if the President so requests ( 9 ) .
9. The President shall ensure the proper application of the Code of Conduct for the Members of the Commission ( 10 ) .
Members of the Commission
1. The Members of the Commission shall perform their duties in complete independence, under the authority of the President. They shall neither seek nor take instructions from any government or other institution, body, office or entity ( 11 ) . They shall devote themselves fully to the performance of their duties in the Union interest.
2. Each Member of the Commission shall take responsibility for action in the field of activity assigned to them, without prejudice to the principle of collegiality.
3. The Members of the Commission shall act in accordance with the highest professional and ethical standards and in particular with the Code of Conduct for the Members of the Commission.
4. The Members of the Commission shall have a cabinet, which shall assist them in carrying out their duties. The rules governing the composition and operation of the cabinets shall be laid down by a decision of the President.
Priorities, work programme and budget
1. The Commission shall establish its priorities in line with the political guidelines laid down by the President. It shall reflect these priorities in its work programme and the draft general budget of the European Union, which it adopts each year.
2. Each year the President shall take stock of the current year and set out the Commission’s priorities for the future in the State of the Union address in the European Parliament ( 12 ) .
3. In order to clarify and organise the implementation of the priorities, the Commission shall attach to its work programme a list of the main initiatives it is planning to adopt during the year in question. The Commission may update its work programme during the course of the year.
4. At the President’s initiative, the Commission shall hold orientation debates to clarify its policy lines as well as to discuss any politically sensitive and/or important subjects or general political developments.
5. The arrangements for validating the programming of Commission initiatives shall be set out by the President.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
