Rules of Procedure

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Draft Rules of Procedure of the

JOINT CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE set up by the Agreement establishing an association between the European Community and its Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Chile, of the other

 

Having regard to the Agreement establishing an association between the European Community and its Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Chile, of the other (hereinafter referred to as “the Agreement”), signed in Brussels on 18 November 2002, and in particular to Article 10 thereof, which provides for the establishment of a Joint Consultative Committee (hereinafter "JCC"),

Whereas the JCC is required to adopt its own Rules of Procedure and, to this end, provides for the participation of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and members of the corresponding institution which deals with economic and social issues in the Republic of Chile (hereinafter referred to as “the Chilean counterpart”), which was established by Decree 167 issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, enacted on 20 November 2015 and published in the Chilean Official Gazette of 19 March 2016,

 

THE JCC LAYS DOWN THE FOLLOWING RULES OF PROCEDURE:

Rule 1 – Role and objectives

  1. The JCC is a consultative body and its role is to assist the Agreement Association Council to promote dialogue and cooperation between the various civil society economic and social organisations of the European Union and Chile.
  2. This dialogue shall encompass all economic and social aspects of relations between the EU and Chile that may arise in the context of the Agreement. The Committee may express its views on issues arising in these areas.
  3. The Committee shall carry out its activities on the basis of consultation by the Association Council or, for the purposes of promoting the dialogue between the various economic and social representatives, on its own initiative.

 

Rule 2 – Membership

  1. The JCC shall have an equal number of members from the EESC and from the Chilean counterpart.
  2. The JCC shall have a total of 18 members and shall be composed of nine members appointed by the EESC and nine members appointed by the Chilean counterpart.
  3. Each party shall be composed of equal numbers of representatives of civil society organisations from three sectors: economic, labour and other interests of a socio-economic or civic nature. Each of these three groups shall choose its organisations independently.
  4. The JCC may amend its membership, subject to the limit provided in the second paragraph of this rule and with the prior consent of the parties.

 

Rule 3 – Chairs

  1. The JCC shall be chaired jointly by two co-chairs, elected to represent the European and Chilean parties respectively, for a maximum period of two and a half years.
  2. The co-chairs shall be elected independently by the European and Chilean parties.
  3. The role of co-chair for each party shall rotate between the three groups in accordance with the order established by the parties.
  4. The co-chairs shall be responsible for coordinating and organising meetings. Similarly, they shall coordinate work relating to such meetings.
  5. The co-chairs shall take part in meetings of the Association Council and Committee, at the invitation of these bodies, in order to present reports, final declarations from their meetings and other work of interest.
  6. The co-chairs may assign specific tasks to other members of the JCC when they deem it appropriate to do so.

 

Rule 4 – Secretariat

  1. The secretariat shall be provided by the EESC secretariat or by the secretariat of the Chilean counterpart. Responsibility for organising the JCC’s meetings shall fall to one or the other when meetings are held in their respective country or bloc.
  2. The secretariat shall work in coordination with both co-chairs.

 

Rule 5 – Meetings

  1. As a general rule the JCC shall meet once a year, alternating between the European Union and the Chilean counterpart’s places of work, unless its members decide otherwise.
  2. JCC meetings shall be convened jointly by the co-chairs of the JCC.

 

Rule 6 – Agenda

  1. The draft agenda for JCC meetings shall be drawn up by the co-chairs, taking into account proposals from other JCC members, which shall be sent to the other JCC members before the meeting.
  2. The agenda shall be adopted at the start of each meeting. Subject to the agreement of the co-chairs, points which did not feature in the draft agenda may be included in the agenda at the request of one of more of the JCC’s members.

 

Rule 7 – Proceedings

  1. As a general rule, the EESC and its Chilean counterpart shall, respectively, appoint one or several rapporteurs. The rapporteurs from both parties shall collaborate from the beginning of the work.
  2. Each rapporteur shall draft a report or proposal on the topic under consideration, and shall submit it for discussion by the JCC.
  3. Rapporteurs may receive support from experts with specific experience of the topics under consideration and who shall be appointed by the EESC or the Chilean counterpart.
  4. The secretariat shall draw up a joint position called the draft final declaration, based on the reports and the discussion held at the meeting.
  5. The final declaration shall be adopted by the JCC by consensus.
  6. In the event that a consensus cannot be reached, the final declaration shall be put to a vote and adopted by a simple majority of the representatives present and of each sector.

 

Rule 8 – Forwarding

Reports and final declarations issued by the JCC by consensus shall be forwarded in writing to the Association Council and to the EU-Chile Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

 

Rule 9 – Distribution

The JCC shall distribute its official positions to authorities, institutions and civil society organisations in Chile and the European Union. Both the EESC secretariat and the Chilean council shall be responsible for distributing reports and conclusions.

 

Article 10 – Languages

  1. The official languages of the JCC shall be those languages recognised as such by Chile and by the European Union.
  2. For the purposes of drafting and translating reports, the working languages shall be Spanish, the language of the European co-chair and other working languages of JCC members.
  3. Each final text approved by the JCC shall be published in Spanish and in as many of the official languages of the European Union as shall be considered necessary.

 

Rule 11 – Financial provisions

  1. Each delegation shall cover the travel and subsistence expenses of its members, as well as costs arising from their attendance at JCC meetings.
  2. The operating costs of holding annual JCC meetings (cost of rooms, equipment, interpretation and other expenses) shall be covered by the host party.
  3. The EESC shall cover the cost of translating documents.
  4. The host party shall cover the cost of interpreting into Spanish and into one of the official languages of the EU. The EESC shall cover the costs of additional languages that it deems appropriate.

 

Rule 12 – Amendment of the Rules of Procedure

  1. These Rules of Procedure may be amended by the JCC at a plenary session, by a consensus of its members.
  2. For this purpose, the co-chairs shall submit the proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure in advance.
  3. The voting procedure in this case shall be the same as that described in Rule 7.

 

Rule 13 – Permanent observers

  1. Each of the parties may appoint a maximum of three permanent observers.
  2. The two co-chairs, by mutual agreement, may appoint observers to take part in the discussion of specific agenda items.

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