Permanent secretariat
Article 7
1. The Panel’s permanent secretariat shall be provided by officials or staff members of the Directorate-General for Budget and shall be attached administratively to that Directorate-General. 2. Under the chair’s authority, the permanent secretariat shall: (a) verify the capacity of the referring authorising officer, of his or her designated representative and of any observers; (b) verify that requests for recommendations are complete and contain all the necessary documents and information; (c) identify any other authorising officers concerned by the case who may be proposed as possible observers; (d) organise the necessary dealings and contacts with the referring authorising officer, the Commission’s Legal Service and other observers that are or may be associated with the case in question in order to supplement the file; (e) draw up drafts to be submitted to the Panel and send them to the chair, to the other members and to the observers who are to participate in the deliberations in a case; (f) propose to the chair the draft schedule of the Panel’s meetings; (g) draw up the draft agenda for the Panel’s meetings and send it to the members and participants; (h) verify the presence of the persons and documents necessary to ensure that the Panel’s deliberations are conducted properly; (i) attend the deliberations of the Panel and ensure that they are followed up; (j) draw up summary minutes of each meeting and make them available to the members; (k) transmit documents and communications on behalf of the Panel to persons or entities subject to the proceeding, including the letter containing the alleged facts and findings and the preliminary classification in law of the conduct; (l) transmit the recommendation adopted by the Panel to the referring authorising officer; (m) ensure that all correspondence addressed to the Panel or relating to its activities is followed up; (n) keep the register of the recommendations adopted by the Panel and of all the decisions taken by the authorising officers responsible; and (o) ensure the publication of the decisions on exclusion and financial penalties referred to in Article 142 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509. 3. The permanent secretariat can be reached at the following email address: Panel-secretariat-BUDG@ec.europa.eu .