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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
