1. A committee shall meet when convened by its Chair or at the request of the President.
When convening such a meeting, the Chair may decide, on a case-by-case basis and with the approval of coordinators representing a majority of the committee members, that the meeting may also be attended remotely, except for committee meetings to be held in camera.
When convening the meeting, the Chair shall submit a draft agenda, in which it shall be stated whether the meeting may also be attended remotely. The committee shall take a decision on the agenda at the beginning of the meeting.
2. The Commission, the Council and other Union institutions may take the floor in committee meetings if invited to do so on behalf of a committee by its Chair.
By decision of a committee, any other person may be invited to attend and to take the floor at a meeting.
The committee responsible may, subject to approval by the Bureau, organise a hearing of experts if it considers such a hearing to be essential for the effective conduct of its work on a particular subject.
3. Without prejudice to Rule 56(8) and unless the committee concerned decides otherwise, Members who attend meetings of committees to which they do not belong, may not take part in their deliberations.
They may, however, be allowed by the committee to take part in its meetings in an advisory capacity.
4. Rule 171(2) shall apply
mutatis mutandis to committees. However, the second sentence of Rule 171(2) shall not apply to Members who are attending the meeting remotely.
5. Where a verbatim report is drawn up, Rule 204 (2), (3) and (5) shall apply
mutatis mutandis.
6. For any remote participation, it shall be ensured that:
– Members are able to exercise their parliamentary mandate, including, in particular, their right to speak in committees without impairment;
– the information technology solutions made available are ‘technology neutral’;
– secure electronic means that are managed and supervised by Parliament’s services directly and internally are used;
– the technical equipment enables the necessary audio and video quality; and
– the intervention is done from an appropriate place.