Decision-Making Principles

Before draft measures are adopted by the College under the oral or written procedure those draft measures must be submitted to an inter-service consultation of the “departments with a legitimate interest in the draft text” (Article 23(3) of the Rules of Procedure). The purpose of that consultation at services level is to prepare the decision of the College of Commissioners. Where one or more services disagree the measure must be adopted under the oral procedure. Otherwise it can be adopted under the written procedure.

An inter-service consultation must also take place before an individual Commissioner or Director General adopts a draft measure under the empowerment, sub-delegation or delegation procedure. Where a so-called associated service issues a negative opinion in the course of that inter-service consultation, the measure cannot any longer be adopted under the empowerment, sub-delegation or delegation procedure, but must be submitted to the oral procedure (Rules giving effect to Article 21, point 6). The prior agreement of the Legal Service is always required, other interested services are generally only informed and invited to provide comments within a given deadline. In the context of the empowerment, sub-delegation and delegation procedure the interservice consultation acts thus as a safeguard for the principle of collegiality.

The rules on the involvement of other services are explained in more detail in Section 3 below.

Resources

References

Information about Decision-Making Principles in the Antitrust Manual of Procedures for the application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU (Internal DG Competition)

Decision-Making Principles

Decision-Making Principles