Article 7
1. The Commission shall be assisted by a programme committee (hereinafter referred to as 'the committee`) composed of representatives of the Member States and chaired by the representative of the Commission. 2. In the cases referred to in Article 6(2), the representative of the Commission shall submit to the committee a draft of measures to be taken. The committee shall deliver its opinion on the draft measures referred to above within a time limit which the Chairman may lay down according to the urgency of the matter. The opinion shall be delivered by the majority laid down in Article 148(2) of the Treaty in the case of decisions which the Council is required to adopt on a proposal from the Commission. The votes of the representatives of the Member States within the committee shall be weighted in the manner set out in that Article. The Chairman shall not vote. 3 (a) The Commission shall adopt the measures envisaged if they are in accordance with the opinion of the committee. (b) If the measures envisaged are not in accordance with the opinion of the committee, or if no opinion is delivered, the Commission shall, without delay, submit to the Council a proposal relating to the measures to be taken. The Council shall act by a qualified majority. If, on expiry of a period of nine weeks from the referral of the matter to the Council, the Council has not acted, the proposed measures shall be adopted by the Commission. 4. The Commission shall regularly inform the committee of the overall progress of the implementation of the specific programme, and shall in particular provide it with information about the progress of all RTD actions funded under this programme. 5. The committee will be supported by a subcommittee composed of representatives from Member States. Its task will be to provide expert advice both on the implementation of socioeconomic research in this programme as well as to provide an overview of socioeconomic research across the whole of the framework programme.