Institutional Procedures

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Institutions & Disputes

ANNEX INST: RULES OF PROCEDURE OF THE PARTNERSHIP COUNCIL AND COMMITTEES

Rule 1 Chair

1. The Union and the United Kingdom shall notify each other of the name, position and contact details of their respective designated co-chairs. A co-chair is deemed to have the authorisation for representing, respectively, the Union or the United Kingdom until the date a new co-chair has been notified to the other Party.

2. The decisions of the co-chairs provided for by these Rules of Procedure shall be taken by mutual consent.

3. A co-chair may be replaced for a particular meeting by a designee. The co-chair, or his or her designee, shall notify the other co-chair and the Secretariat of the Partnership Council of the designation as early as possible. Any reference in these Rules of Procedure to the co-chairs shall be understood to include a designee.

Rule 2 Secretariat

The Secretariat of the Partnership Council (the “Secretariat”) shall be composed of an official of the Union and an official of the Government of the United Kingdom. The Secretariat shall perform the tasks conferred on it by these Rules of Procedure.

The Union and the United Kingdom shall notify each other of the name, position and contact details of the official who is the member of the Secretariat of the Partnership Council for the Union and the United Kingdom respectively. This official is deemed to continue acting as member of the Secretariat for the Union or for the United Kingdom until the date either the Union or the United Kingdom has notified a new member.

Rule 3 Meetings

1. Each meeting of the Partnership Council shall be convened by the Secretariat at a date and time agreed by the co-chairs. Where the Union or the United Kingdom has transmitted a request for a meeting through the Secretariat, the Partnership Council shall endeavour to meet within 30 days of such request, or sooner in cases provided for in this Agreement.

2. The Partnership Council shall hold its meetings alternately in Brussels and London, unless the co-chairs decide otherwise.

3. By way of derogation from paragraph 2, the co-chairs may agree that a meeting of the Partnership Council be held by videoconference or teleconference.

Rule 4 Participation in meetings

1. A reasonable period of time in advance of each meeting, the Union and the United Kingdom shall inform each other through the Secretariat of the intended composition of their respective delegations and shall specify the name and function of each member of the delegation.

2. Where appropriate the co-chairs may, by mutual consent, invite experts (i.e. non-government officials) to attend meetings of the Partnership Council in order to provide information on a specific subject and only for the parts of the meeting where such specific subjects are discussed.

Rule 5 Documents

Written documents on which the deliberations of the Partnership Council are based shall be numbered and circulated to the Union and the United Kingdom by the Secretariat.

Rule 6 Correspondence

1. The Union and the United Kingdom shall send their correspondence addressed to the Partnership Council via the Secretariat. Such correspondence may be sent in any form of written communication, including by electronic mail.

2. The Secretariat shall ensure that correspondence addressed to the Partnership Council is delivered to the co-chairs and is circulated, where appropriate, in accordance with Rule 5.

3. All correspondence from, or addressed directly to, the co-chairs shall be forwarded to the Secretariat and shall be circulated, where appropriate, in accordance with Rule 5.

Rule 7

Agenda for the meetings

1. For each meeting, a draft provisional agenda shall be drawn up by the Secretariat. It shall be transmitted, together with the relevant documents, to the co-chairs no later than 10 days before the date of the meeting.

2. The provisional agenda shall include items requested by the Union or the United Kingdom. Any such request, together with any relevant document, shall be submitted to the Secretariat no later than 15 days before the beginning of the meeting.

3. No later than 5 days before the date of the meeting, the co-chairs shall decide on the provisional agenda for a meeting.

4. The agenda shall be adopted by the Partnership Council at the beginning of each meeting. On request by the Union or the United Kingdom, an item other than those included in the provisional agenda may be included in the agenda by consensus.

5. The co-chairs may, by mutual consent, reduce or increase the time periods specified in paragraphs 1 to 3 in order to take account of the requirements of a particular case.

Rule 8 Minutes

1. Draft minutes of each meeting shall be drawn up by the official acting as member of the Secretariat of the Party hosting the meeting, within 15 days from the end of the meeting, unless otherwise decided by the co-chairs. The draft minutes shall be transmitted for comments to the member of the Secretariat of the other Party. The latter may submit comments within 7 days from the date of receipt of the draft minutes.

2. The minutes shall, as a rule, summarise each item on the agenda, specifying where applicable:

(a) the documents submitted to the Partnership Council;
(b) any statement that one of the co-chairs requested to be entered in the minutes; and
(c) the decisions taken, recommendations made, statements agreed upon and conclusions adopted on specific items.
3. The minutes shall include as an annex a list of participants setting out for each of the delegations the names and functions of all individuals who attended the meeting.

4. The Secretariat shall adjust the draft minutes on the basis of comments received and the draft minutes, as revised, shall be approved by the co-chairs within 28 days of the date of the meeting, or by any other date agreed by the co-chairs. Once approved, two versions of the minutes shall be authenticated by signature of the members of the Secretariat. The Union and the United Kingdom shall each receive one of these authentic versions. The co-chairs may agree that signing and exchanging electronic copies satisfies this requirement.

Rule 9 Decisions and Recommendations

1. In the period between meetings, the Partnership Council may adopt decisions or recommendations by written procedure. The text of a draft decision or recommendation shall be presented in writing by a co-chair to the other co-chair in the working language of the Partnership Council. The other Party shall have one month, or any longer period of time specified by the proposing Party, to express its agreement to the draft decision or recommendation. If the other Party does not express its agreement, the proposed decision or recommendation shall be discussed and may be adopted at the next meeting of the Partnership Council. The draft decisions or recommendations shall be deemed to be adopted once the other Party expresses its agreement and shall be recorded in the minutes of the next meeting of the Partnership Council pursuant to Rule 8.

2. Where the Partnership Council adopts decisions or recommendations, the words “Decision” or “Recommendation”, respectively, shall be inserted in the title of such acts. The Secretariat shall record any decision or recommendation under a serial number and with a reference to the date of its adoption.

3. Decisions adopted by the Partnership Council shall specify the date on which they take effect.

4. Decisions and recommendations adopted by the Partnership Council shall be established in duplicate in the authentic languages and signed by the co-chairs and shall be sent by the Secretariat to the Union and the United Kingdom immediately after signature. The co-chairs may agree that signing and exchanging electronic copies satisfies the requirement for signature.

Rule 10 Transparency

1. The co-chairs may agree that the Partnership Council shall meet in public.

2. Each Party may decide on the publication of the decisions and recommendations of the Partnership Council in its respective official journal or online.

3. If the Union or the United Kingdom submits information that is confidential or protected from disclosure under its laws and regulations to the Partnership Council, the other party shall treat that information received as confidential.

4. Provisional agendas of the meetings shall be made public before the meeting of the Partnership Council takes place. The minutes of the meetings shall be made public following their approval in accordance with Rule 8.

5. Publication of documents referred to in paragraphs 2 to 4 shall be made in compliance with both Parties’ applicable data protection rules.

Rule 11 Languages

1. The official languages of the Partnership Council shall be the official languages of the Union and the United Kingdom.

2. The working language of the Partnership Council shall be English. Unless otherwise decided by the co-chairs, the Partnership Council shall base its deliberations on documents prepared in English.

3. The Partnership Council shall adopt decisions concerning the amendment or interpretation of the Agreement in the languages of the authentic texts of the Agreement. All other decisions of the Partnership Council, including the ones through which the present rules of procedure are amended, shall be adopted in the working language referred to in paragraph 2.

Rule 12 Expenses

1. The Union and the United Kingdom shall each meet any expenses they incur as a result of participating in the meetings of the Partnership Council.

2. Expenditure in connection with the organisation of meetings and reproduction of documents shall be borne by the party hosting the meeting.

3. Expenditure in connection with interpretation to and from the working language of the Partnership Council at meetings shall be borne by the party requesting such interpretation.

3. Each Party shall be responsible for the translation of decisions and other documents into its own official language(s), if required pursuant to Rule 11, and it shall meet expenditures associated with such translations.

Rule 13 Committees

1. Without prejudice to paragraph 2 of this Rule, Rules 1 to 12 shall apply mutatis mutandis to the Committees.

2. The Committees shall inform the Partnership Council of their meeting schedules and agenda sufficiently in advance of their meetings, and shall report to the Partnership Council on the results and conclusions of each of their meetings.