Rule 200  : Substitutes

1.    The political groups and the non-attached Members may appoint a number of permanent substitutes for each committee equal to the number of full members representing them on the committee. The President shall be informed accordingly. These permanent substitutes shall be entitled to attend and speak at committee meetings and, if the full member is absent, to take part in the vote.

In the event that the seat of a full member of a committee falls vacant, a permanent substitute from the same political group shall be entitled to vote in place of the full member, on a temporary basis pending the provisional replacement of the full member in accordance with Rule 199(5), or, in the absence of such provisional replacement, pending the appointment of a new full member. Such entitlement is based on Parliament's decision concerning the numerical composition of the committee, and aims at ensuring that the number of members of the political group concerned who can take part in the vote is equal to the number entitled to do so before the seat fell vacant.

2.    In addition, in the absence of the full member and where permanent substitutes either have not been appointed or are absent, the full member of the committee may arrange to be represented at meetings by another member of the same political group, who shall be entitled to vote. The Chair of the committee shall be notified of the name of the substitute prior to the beginning of the voting session.

Paragraph 2 shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to the non-attached Members.

The advance notification provided for in the last sentence of paragraph 2 must be given before the end of the debate or before the opening of the vote on the item or items for which the full member is to be replaced.

The provisions of this Rule encompass two concepts which are clearly defined by this text:

-    a political group may not have more permanent substitutes on a committee than it has full members;

-    only political groups are entitled to appoint permanent substitutes, on the sole condition that they inform the President.

To conclude:

-    the status of permanent substitutes depends exclusively on membership of a given political group;

-    if the number of a political group's full members in a committee changes, the maximum number of permanent substitutes which it can appoint to that committee changes accordingly;

-    Members who change their political group may not keep the status of permanent substitute which they had as members of their original group;

-    a committee member may not under any circumstances be a substitute for a colleague who belongs to another political group.