Rules of Procedure for Meetings of the Steering Group /
Priority Area 8 / EU Strategy for the Danube Region
Preliminary Note
Goal and Task of the Steering Group
Implementation of the EUSDR Action Plan is the overall goal of the Steering Group.
It's task is to promote measures / projects / actions of interregional cooperationin terms of the establishment of a competitive, prosperous, ecological region and thereby support the EU integration process.
Composition and Communication
§1 Composition of the Steering Group
(1) Voting Members of the PA 8 Steering Group (SG) will be persons nominated by the National Contact Points (NCPs) of the 14 participating States and the Priority Area Coordinators (PAC) 8. In addition, each State may bring non-voting experts to the SG meetings.
(2) SG members orwill be obligated to participate in SG working meetings and to complete their tasks in a timely manner.
(3) Changes to the contact details of the NCPs or SG members will be promptly reported to the PAC 8.
§2 Composition of the Working Groups
(1) The SG will determine the composition of the Working Groups (WG).
During the decision-making process concerning the selection of members, voting procedures per §8 will apply.
(2) WG members may participate in SG meetings, however will have no voting rights.
§3 Communication
(1) Communication will be via the PA 8 website on the GroupSpaces platform. Relevant documents of the members, as well as meeting minutes will be uploaded promptly.
(2) The PAC 8 will draw attention to new developments per e-mail.
Meeting Procedures
§4 Scheduling Meetings
(1) The PAC 8 will determine meeting dates. Meeting times will be announced to SG members at least eight (8) weeks in advance.
(2) Meetings will normally take place twice per year. The PAC 8 may schedule additional meetings as it deems necessary.
(3) Irrespective of the terms in §4 (1) und (2), the PAC 8 must call a meeting when at least two thirds of SG members so desire.
§5 Agenda
(1) The PAC 8 will determine the agenda. SG members may express their desired agenda items to the PAC 8 at least three (3) weeks prior to the next meeting.
(2) The final agenda as well as relevant documents will be made available to SG members at least two (2) weeks prior to each meeting.
§6 Chairing of Meetings
The PAC 8 will open, chair, and close each meeting.
§7 Closure of Debate
Once there are no further requests for the floor, the PAC 8 will close the debate under each agenda item and a vote will be taken, if necessary.
§8 Voting Procedures
(1) Voting will be by show of hands.
(2) One vote per participating State will be cast.
(3) Decisions will be reached by a simple majority of those present. In the event of a tie, the vote of the PAC 8 will count as two votes; those of the remaining eligible voters will count as one.
Minutes
§9 Minutes
(1) Minutes will be taken of each meeting. A reporter of the minutes will be determined prior to the first agenda item.
(2) A preliminary draft of the minutes must be transmitted by the reporter to the meeting participants for review by two (2) weeks, at the latest, after each meeting.
§10 Review of the Preliminary Draft by the Participants
(1) Each participant will receive a preliminary draft of the minutes for review. These must be returned to the reporter within one week
(2) Should a participant not return his review to the reporter within the timeframe stipulated in §10 (1), the preliminary draft will be regarded as having been accepted by him.
Projects
§11 Proposal of Projects to the PA 8
(1) Project proposals will be transmitted by their proponents to the PAC 8 via email by use of the Project Data Sheets available on the PA 8 website.
(2) Project proposals received will be forwarded to the respective PA 8 WG and will be evaluated based on their relevance to the PA 8 and their consistency with the comprehensive concept.
(3) The WG, together with the PAC 8, will make a preliminary selection from among project proposals based on their fundamental relevance.
(4) Relevant project proposals will then be refined by the WG in preparation for a vote of the SG.
§12 Acceptance as an Official PA 8 Project
(1) The WG will transmit an overview, as well as relevant Data Sheets of received project proposals designated for presentation to the SG, to the PAC 8 at least four (4) weeks prior to an SG meeting
(2) Collected project data will be made available to SG members prior to the SG meeting, in accordance with timelines in §5 (2), by the PAC 8 via the PA 8 website.
(3) Proponents may be invited to present project proposals to SG meetings by the WG in consultation with the PAC 8.
(4) The SG will decide on the acceptance of a project proposal as an official project of the PA 8 according to the generally accepted voting procedures in §8.
§13 Letter of Recommendation
(1) The Letter of Recommendation will be issued by the PAC 8 upon request, but first provided to SG members for reference.
(2) The consent procedures per §10 (1) will apply.
Validity
§ 14 Applicability
The Rules of Procedure were adopted unanimously by the participants of the 4th SG meeting and become effective immediately.
Stuttgart, 13 November 2012
Dragica KaraicDr. Hans Peter Herdlitschka
PAC 8 CroatiaPAC 8 Baden-Württemberg/ Germany