Structure and role of services
1. The Commission shall establish an organisational structure composed of a number of Directorates-General and other Commission services, as well as offices whose mandate is to perform administrative and support tasks (equivalent services). They form together a single administrative service and share collective responsibility for the coherence of all policies. In principle, Directorates-General, other services and equivalent services shall be divided into directorates, and directorates into units.
2. The mission of all services shall be to assist the Commission in the preparation and performance of its tasks, and in the achievement of its priorities.
Ethics and good administrative behaviour
The staff of the Commission shall comply with the highest professional and ethical rules. They shall act in accordance with the rules laid down in the Staff Regulations ( 19 ) and the Code of Good Administrative Behaviour.
Creation of specific functions and structures
1. In order to carry out particular tasks and to meet specific needs which cannot be handled in an optimal manner by a service established by the Commission, the President may set up specific functions or structures, such as task forces that pool expertise from various services.
2. The President shall determine their mandate, composition, duration, the Member of the Commission responsible, the level at which the function of head of the structure concerned is established and the administrative attachment of the function or specific structure.
A Commission decision may lay down the terms of implementation, in particular with respect to the resources and functioning of the specific function or structure concerned.
Business continuity and standby duty
1. The Members of the Commission and the services of the Commission shall ensure that they take all appropriate measures to ensure continuity of service, in compliance with the provisions adopted for that purpose by the Commission or the President.
2. In the event of a general disruption affecting the services of the Commission, the President may activate the Commission’s business continuity plan.
3. In the event of a disruption limited to certain services, the Directors-General or Heads of Service concerned may activate the business continuity plans established for that purpose.
4. The Members of the Commission shall assure permanence at certain times of year so that essential functions of the Commission such as internal coordination, decision-making, representation and communication are fulfilled.
5. Commission staff shall likewise support corporate standby arrangements throughout the year in order to ensure continuity of service and provide uninterrupted assistance to the Commission in the preparation and performance of its tasks.
Crisis management
On the basis of the rules regarding the Commission’s system for the management of cross-border crises ( 20 ) , the services shall coordinate and rapidly exchange information in the event of a crisis, or an exceptional or unforeseeable event affecting several policy areas, having a cross-border impact or affecting the functioning of the Union institutions.
Secretary-General
1. The Secretary-General shall assist the President so that, in the context of the political guidelines laid down by the President, the Commission achieves the priorities that it has set. The Secretary-General shall ensure that draft acts are consistent with these priorities. The Secretary-General shall inform the President in in a timely manner of any draft acts which, because of their importance or content, warrant the President’s particular attention.
2. The Secretary-General shall assist the President in preparing the proceedings and conducting the meetings of the Commission. The Secretary-General shall also assist the Members of the Commission who direct the work of groups of Members, as referred to in Article 3(6), in preparing and conducting their meetings. The Secretary-General shall provide the secretariat of these groups.
3. The Secretary-General shall contribute to ensuring overall policy coherence. To this end, the Secretary-General shall carry out planning and coordination tasks both before and after Commission decisions, in particular by means of interservice meetings and meetings between the cabinets and the services concerned.
4. The Secretary-General shall ensure the smooth running of the decision-making process. In particular, the Secretary-General shall take the necessary steps to ensure that Commission acts are notified to those concerned and/or published in the Official Journal of the European Union . The Secretary-General shall also ensure that acts are transmitted to other European Union institutions and bodies, and to the national parliaments.
5. The Secretary-General shall ensure that the coordination instruments within the Commission function properly, and comment where necessary on any matter relating to interservice coordination.
6. Under the authority of the President, the Secretary-General may take mediation or arbitration measures in the event of disagreement between services.
7. The Secretary-General shall help to ensure the Commission’s compliance with the provisions on better regulation, relying in particular on the work of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board.
8. The Secretary-General shall help to ensure that the Commission works collegially. The Secretary-General shall ensure compliance with procedures and monitor the quality of the draft acts submitted to the Commission.
9. The Secretary-General shall also help to ensure that draft acts comply with the Commission’s external obligations and interinstitutional commitments.
10. Under the authority of the President, the Secretary-General shall ensure that information notes meet the requirements set out in Article 9(4), point (b) before making them available to the Commission, regardless of whether they have been placed on the agenda.
11. The Secretary-General shall coordinate and ensure the overall coherence of official relations with the other European Union institutions and bodies, and with the national parliaments.
12. The Secretary-General shall inform the Commission of the state of play in internal and interinstitutional procedures.
Directors-General and Heads of Service
1. The Directors-General and Heads of Service shall assist the President and the other Members of the Commission under whose authority they are placed to achieve the priorities set by the Commission, develop the policies which have been entrusted to them and implement these policies effectively.
2. The Directors-General and Heads of Service shall advise the President and the other Members of the Commission on the matters for which they are responsible and shall be entrusted with the sound management and organisation of the work of the services under their authority, in accordance with the rules and standards laid down by the Commission with a view to ensuring inter alia that it can comply with its legal and financial obligations.
3. The Directors-General and Heads of Service shall shape the organisational structures of their services on the basis of the organisation charts adopted by the Commission. They shall be responsible for allocating human and financial resources within their services.
4. The Directors-General and Heads of Service shall be responsible for implementing the part of the general budget of the European Union allocated to them in accordance with the financial rules in force.
5. The Directors-General and Heads of Service shall draw up annual management plans setting out the results to be obtained each year and identifying the means of doing so in order to contribute to achieving the objectives laid down in the multiannual strategic plan, in line with the Commission’s priorities.
The Directors-General and Heads of Service shall also produce annual activity reports that describe the progress made each year in delivering on the strategic objectives, and that certify the legality and regularity of the financial transactions carried out under their responsibility.
The Directors-General and Heads of Service shall identify and assess the risks relating to the achievement of their objectives. If necessary, they shall put in place appropriate measures to limit these risks.
6. The Directors-General and Heads of Service shall also carry out any other support, management or administrative task not falling within the responsibility of the College with the purpose of managing or administering the services on a day-to-day basis in order to assist the Commission in the preparation and execution of its mission as well as in the implementation of its priorities.
Deputising for hierarchical superiors
1. When a post holder is prevented from exercising their functions, or when the post is vacant:
(a)
the functions of the Secretary-General, the Director-General or Head of Service shall be exercised by the official designated by the Commission;
(b)
the functions of any other hierarchical superior shall be exercised by the official designated by the Director-General or Head of Service.
2. If no replacement has been designated, those functions shall be exercised:
(a)
when the hierarchical position in question is provided by a deputy, by that deputy;
(b)
when the hierarchical position in question has several deputies, by the deputy present with the highest grade and, in the event of equal grade, the deputy with the greatest seniority in the grade and, in the event of equal seniority, the one who is the eldest;
(c)
when there is no post of deputy, when it is not occupied or when the deputy is prevented from exercising their duties, by the subordinate official present in the highest function group with the highest grade and, in the event of equal grade, the subordinate official with the greatest seniority in the grade and, in the event of equal seniority, the one who is eldest.
Legal Service
1. The Legal Service shall provide legal advice to the Commission.
2. The Legal Service shall ensure independent and objective review of legality, checking compatibility with European Union law, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and international law, of all draft proposals for legal acts, all draft acts to be adopted by the Commission and any other document that may have legal implications. It shall oversee the form of acts and provide legal-linguistic revision where applicable.
3. The Legal Service shall have exclusive competence to represent the Commission before all courts and arbitration bodies.
Section 2 — Interservice cooperation
Coordination and informal consultation between services
1. Interservice coordination shall reflect the principle of collegiality governing the Commission’s decision-making process. It shall contribute to compliance with the political guidelines laid down by the President and the priorities set by the Commission and shall ensure the consistency of acts and the effectiveness of the Commission’s action, in accordance with the better regulation policy.
2. The service responsible shall liaise with the services concerned by the field of activity or nature of the draft act. They shall, from the outset, work in close cooperation and in a coordinated fashion in the preparation of that draft.
3. The services shall also cooperate within interservice coordination groups or other appropriate structures that may prepare important, complex or cross-cutting proposals, including to carry out the related evaluations, fitness checks, public consultations and impact assessments.
4. Interservice coordination shall be carried out before and after the formal interservice consultation referred to in Article 55. It shall continue after the adoption of the acts by the Commission, in particular during the interinstitutional process, and when implementing Union legislation.
5. The service responsible shall ensure the quality of the drafting and form of draft acts or positions examined in the Interinstitutional Relations Group and the Group for External Coordination.
6. Without prejudice to Article 2(4), the services shall obtain the agreement of the Legal Service, the Secretariat-General, and any other concerned services before representatives of the Commission present a position of the Commission, as well as ‘non-papers’ and any other form of contribution prepared by one or more Commission services, vis-à-vis national authorities, Union institutions, international organisations or third countries.
Formal interservice consultation
1. When a draft act is at a sufficiently advanced stage of preparation, the service responsible shall formally consult the services with a legitimate interest on account of the nature, subject-matter or impact of the draft act.
2. The formal interservice consultation procedure shall also apply to Commission staff working documents.
3. Notwithstanding the procedures laid down by the President, all politically sensitive and/or important draft acts shall be agreed by the Member(s) of the Commission responsible before the launch of the formal interservice consultation.
Consultation of the Secretariat-General
1. The Secretariat-General shall be consulted on all draft acts to be adopted by the Commission by the oral procedure, with the exception of those presented under miscellaneous administrative and budgetary matters of individual scope, as well as on draft acts that, regardless of the type of decision-making procedure used:
(a)
are politically sensitive and/or important;
(b)
feature in the Commission’s annual work programme, including draft acts mentioned in the annexes thereto;
(c)
involve institutional aspects;
(d)
are subject to an evaluation, fitness check, public consultation or impact assessment.
2. The Secretariat-General shall be consulted on all positions that may commit the Commission vis-à-vis other Union institutions and bodies, third countries or international or regional organisations, and for all joint initiatives by the Commission and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
3. The Secretariat-General shall be consulted on Commission staff working documents.
Consultation of the Legal Service
1. The Legal Service shall be consulted on all draft acts, Commission staff working documents and all documents that may have legal implications.
2. However, draft acts of a recurrent nature shall not require consultation of the Legal Service. Such exemptions shall require the prior formal agreement of the Legal Service.
Consultation of other services
1. The consultation of any service having a legitimate interest shall be required in accordance with Article 55(1).
2. The consultation of the Directorate-General for Budget shall be required for all draft acts or documents which may have an impact on the budget and finances, including contingent liabilities, or on the interpretation and application of the general EU financial rules.
3. The consultation of the Directorate-General for Human Resources and Security shall be required for all draft acts or Commission staff working documents that may have an impact on staff and administration.
Time limits for the formal interservice consultation
1. The services consulted shall be given at least ten working days, starting from the date on which the documents are made available, in which to submit their opinions, with or without comments.
2. In exceptional cases, an additional period may be agreed between the services concerned.
3. The positive opinions of the Legal Service and of the other services consulted may be express or tacit.
If a service consulted has not reacted within the time limit, it shall be deemed to have given its positive opinion (tacit agreement).
4. The service responsible may request a shorter time limit under the conditions set out in Article 60 relating to fast-track consultations, and in Article 61 relating to specific interservice consultations.
Fast-track consultation
1. In exceptional cases, and on duly justified grounds of urgency, the service responsible may ask the Secretariat-General for a fast-track interservice consultation, allowing the consultation to be completed within a shorter time limit than the one described in Article 59(1). This fast-track consultation may take place during a meeting or in writing.
The service responsible shall send its duly substantiated request to make use of the fast-track consultation to the Secretariat-General, indicating the format – by meeting or in writing – which it considers most appropriate. Such a request shall not be aimed at making up for any administrative delay. The Secretariat-General shall decide whether the fast-track consultation is appropriate and shall inform the President. The agreement on the texts by the Member(s) responsible before the launch of the consultation, as set out in Article 55(3), shall remain applicable.
When the Secretariat-General considers that the request to use the fast-track consultation is justified, it shall determine whether it should take place in a meeting or in writing.
2. When the fast-track consultation takes place during a meeting, the documents shall be made available to the services consulted at least 48 hours before the meeting ( 21 ) except when otherwise provided for by the Secretariat-General.
The services consulted shall express their opinions during the meeting or in writing before the meeting.
The Secretariat-General shall chair the meeting and record the results and the opinions expressed by the services consulted in the minutes of the meeting.
The end of the meeting marks the end of the consultation.
3. When the fast-track consultation takes place in writing, the time limit for the services consulted to submit their opinions shall be fixed by common agreement between the Secretariat-General and the service responsible and may not be less than 48 hours, except when otherwise provided for by the Secretariat-General.
The services consulted shall express their opinion in writing within that period. Failure by a service consulted to reply within the fixed time limit shall be deemed to constitute a positive opinion (tacit agreement).
Specific interservice consultations
1. For consultations of a recurrent nature, the Secretariat-General may authorise, at the request of the service responsible, the creation of a type of interservice consultation known as ‘specific’, the rules for which shall differ, in particular in relation to the time limit and the services consulted, from those of the consultation referred to in Article 55.
2. Once a specific consultation has been authorised, it shall systematically apply to consultations on all draft acts falling within its scope.
Result of interservice consultations
1. Once the interservice consultation is over, the service responsible shall revise the draft act and/or staff working document, taking into account the comments received.
2. The service responsible shall make the revised draft act and/or staff working document available to the services consulted, in good time. It shall inform them of the reasons for any failure to take their comments into account, before initiating the adoption procedure.
3. 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 a draft implementing act is submitted for a vote to the representatives of Member States in committees established to monitor the exercise of the implementing powers conferred on the Commission.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
