Operation
Article 7
1. The responsible Commission department, acting in close cooperation with the EGE’s chairperson, shall be responsible for coordinating and organising the work of the EGE and for providing its secretariat. 2. Commission officials from other Commission departments with an interest in the proceedings may request to attend meetings of the EGE and its sub-groups. 3. The EGE Work Programme, including ethical analyses suggested on the own initiative of the EGE, shall be agreed by the responsible Commission department. Each request for an ethical analysis shall include the parameters of the requested analysis. The Commission shall, when seeking the advice of the EGE, set a time limit for the analysis. 4. EGE opinions shall include recommendations. They shall be based on an overview of the state of the art of the sciences and technologies concerned and a thorough analysis of the ethical issues at stake. Relevant services of the Commission shall be informed of the recommendations produced by the EGE. 5. The EGE shall operate in a collegial way. The working procedures, based on the rules of procedure, shall seek to ensure that all members may take an active role in the activities of the group. In principle, the group shall adopt its opinions and statements by consensus. In the event of a vote, the outcome of the vote shall be decided by simple majority of the members. The members who have voted against or abstained shall have the right to have a document summarising the reasons for their position (as a ‘minority opinion’) annexed to the opinion or statement together with the name(s) of the dissenting member(s). 6. Each opinion shall be transmitted to the President of the Commission or to a representative designated by the President. Each opinion shall be forthwith published and made available on the EGE website and be transmitted to the European Parliament and to the Council after its adoption by the EGE. 7. The meetings of the EGE shall, in principle, be held on Commission premises, in accordance with the modalities and the calendar fixed by the responsible Commission department. The EGE shall meet at least six times during a 12-month period, representing at least 12 working days a year. Further meetings may be organised when necessary, in agreement with the responsible Commission department. 8. For the purpose of the preparation of EGE analyses and within the limits of the available resources, the responsible Commission department may initiate studies in order to collect all necessary scientific and technical information and establish close links with representatives of the various ethics bodies in the Member States and in third countries. 9. The responsible Commission department shall organise a public round table in order to promote dialogue and improve transparency for each opinion of the EGE. The EGE shall establish close links with the Commission departments concerned by issues on which the EGE is working. 10. Where operational circumstances require that advice on a particular subject be given more quickly than the adoption of an opinion would allow, short statements or other forms of analyses can be issued, to be followed if necessary by a fuller analysis in the form of an opinion, while ensuring that transparency is respected as for any other opinion. Statements shall be published and made available on the EGE website. As part of its Work Programme, in agreement with the responsible Commission department, the EGE may update an opinion, if it considers it necessary. 11. The EGE's discussions shall be confidential. In agreement with the responsible Commission department, the EGE may, by a simple majority of its members, decide to open its deliberations to the public. 12. Minutes on the discussion on each point on the agenda and on the opinions delivered by the EGE shall be meaningful and complete. Minutes shall be drafted by the secretariat under the responsibility of the chairperson.