Granting of a general empowerment
1. The Commission may grant a general empowerment to one or more of its Members to adopt management or administrative acts of a routine and recurring nature on its behalf and under its responsibility.
2. The empowered Member of the Commission shall be accountable to the Commission for ensuring compliance with the conditions and rules for exercising the general empowerment.
3. The President shall submit to the Commission the draft decision to grant a general empowerment. The agreement of the Member(s) of the Commission concerned shall be obtained in advance. The decision granting the general empowerment shall be adopted by oral procedure or, where appropriate, by finalisation written procedure.
4. The Commission retains the right to exercise itself the powers it has granted. It may also give instructions to the Member(s) of the Commission exercising the general empowerment.
5. Paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be without prejudice to the rules on delegation in respect of financial matters, adopted in accordance with Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council (the Financial Regulation) ( 15 ) , and to the powers conferred on the appointing authority and the authority empowered to conclude contracts of employment ( 16 ) .
Rules for the granting of a general empowerment
1. A decision to grant a general empowerment shall specify:
(a)
the Member(s) of the Commission to whom the general empowerment is granted;
(b)
the precise subject-matter and scope of the general empowerment and the conditions for exercising it;
(c)
a clear justification as to why the measures to be taken by the empowered Member(s) of the Commission can be regarded as management or administrative acts;
(d)
the rules for exercising the general empowerment, in particular as regards interservice consultation.
2. The requesting service shall send to the Secretary-General the preliminary draft decision to grant a general empowerment. The Secretary-General shall then carry out the interservice consultation and take the appropriate steps for the decision to be adopted by the Commission.
Conditions and rules for exercising a general empowerment
1. Before exercising a general empowerment, the empowered Member of the Commission shall determine, on their own initiative or on the basis of an analysis by the service responsible, whether, on grounds of a political assessment or other circumstances, the act should be adopted by oral or written procedure. If there is any doubt, the empowered Member of the Commission shall consult the President.
2. The positive opinion of the Legal Service, taking into account its comments, if any, made in virtue of its duties as described in Article 53(2), as well as the positive opinion of the other services consulted, shall be required before the adoption of acts by general empowerment. The opinions of the Legal Service and that of the other services consulted may be express or tacit.
3. The service responsible shall request, before the general empowerment is exercised, the agreement of the empowered Member(s) of the Commission and, if applicable, of any associated Members of the Commission.
4. The Secretariat-General shall verify that the required conditions of substance and form have been complied with before the draft act is submitted to the empowered Member of the Commission for adoption.
5. The empowered Member of the Commission shall adopt the act and certify that the conditions and rules governing the acts being adopted have been complied with.
6. The act shall stand adopted once the signature – handwritten or electronic – of the empowered Member of the Commission, as affixed for the purposes of adoption, has been recorded in the information technology system provided for that purpose.
7. If empowered Members of the Commission are prevented from exercising the general empowerment which has been granted to them, it may be exercised by another Member of the Commission.
Subdelegation of a general empowerment
1. The Member of the Commission who has been granted a general empowerment may subdelegate all or part of their delegated powers to a Director-General or Head of Service, unless this is expressly prohibited in the general empowerment decision. The Member of the Commission may revoke the subdelegation at any time. The service responsible shall notify the Secretariat-General of the decision to subdelegate or revoke.
2. The Director-General or Head of Service shall act under the authority of the Member of the Commission to whom the empowerment has been granted. The empowered Member of the Commission shall remain accountable to the Commission for ensuring compliance with the conditions and rules for exercising the general empowerment.
3. The decision to subdelegate shall define the subject-matter and scope of the subdelegated powers, which shall in no case exceed those specified in the general empowerment decision.
4. Subdelegated powers cannot be delegated further, except in the cases referred to in Article 33.
5. The Director-General or Head of Service shall adopt the draft act and certify that the conditions and rules governing the acts being adopted have been complied with.
6. The act shall stand adopted once the signature – handwritten or electronic – of the Director-General or Head of Service, as affixed for the purposes of adoption, has been recorded in the information technology system provided for that purpose.
Subdelegation for decisions awarding grants and contracts
1. The Director-General or Head of Service to whom powers have been granted by subdelegation under Article 32 may in turn decide to subdelegate certain decisions selecting projects and certain individual decisions awarding grants and public procurement contracts to a Deputy Director-General, a Director or, in agreement with the Member of the Commission responsible, a Head of Unit.
2. The Deputy Director-General, Director or Head of Unit shall act under the authority of the Director-General or Head of Service who has received the subdelegated powers. The empowered Member of the Commission shall remain accountable to the Commission for ensuring compliance with the conditions and rules for exercising the general empowerment.
3. Subdelegations shall apply for the adoption of certain decisions selecting projects and of individual decisions awarding grants and public procurement contracts where the basic act provides that the Commission shall adopt a decision either on its own or after consulting a committee ( 17 ) and the committee has delivered a favourable opinion. Such decisions shall not be subject to interservice consultation.
4. The Deputy Director-General, Director or Head of Unit to whom powers have been granted by subdelegation shall adopt the draft act and certify that the conditions and rules governing the acts being adopted have been complied with.
5. The act shall stand adopted once the signature – handwritten or electronic – of the person who has received the subdelegated powers, as affixed for the purposes of adoption, has been recorded in the information technology system provided for that purpose.
Register of general empowerments
The Secretariat-General shall keep a register of general empowerments, which shall be accessible on the Commission’s intranet. When a general empowerment is subdelegated, it shall be recorded in the register.
Ad hoc empowerment
1. The Commission may grant an ad hoc empowerment, limited in time, to one or more of its Members to adopt, in agreement with the President, certain one-off and specific measures, of which the Commission has determined the substance.
2. Ad hoc empowerments may be granted to formalise the results of the Commission’s deliberations at its meetings, in particular by finalising and adopting an act which has previously been approved in principle at a meeting of the Commission once all the required language versions are available, as provided for in Article 8(4), point (b).
3. Any request by a Member of the Commission for an ad hoc empowerment shall be duly justified and placed on the agenda of a Commission meeting.
4. Ad hoc empowerments shall be exercised mutatis mutandis in accordance with the procedures described in Article 31(2) to (6) and always in agreement with the President and in close cooperation with the Secretariat-General.
5. Ad hoc empowerments may not be subdelegated.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
