Rule 206  : Committee meetings

1.    A committee shall meet when convened by its Chair or at the request of the President.

2.    The Commission and the Council may take part in committee meetings if invited to do so on behalf of a committee by its Chair.

By special decision of a committee, any other person may be invited to attend and to speak at a meeting.

By analogy, the decision on whether to allow Members' assistants to be present at committee meetings is left to the discretion of each committee.

The committee responsible may, subject to approval by the Bureau, organise a hearing of experts if it considers such a hearing essential to the effective conduct of its work on a particular subject.

Committees asked for opinions may attend the hearing if they so wish.

Provisions of this paragraph shall be interpreted in accordance with the point 50 of the Framework Agreement on relations between the European Parliament and the European Commission (1).

3.    Without prejudice to Rule 53(6) and unless the committee concerned decides otherwise, Members may attend meetings of committees to which they do not belong but may not take part in their deliberations.

Such Members may, however, be allowed by the committee to take part in its proceedings in an advisory capacity.