(1)

The Management Board of the European Chemicals Agency (the ‘Agency’) has decided to transition the Board of Appeal to a new operating model, under which its three members are no longer to be engaged as permanent staff of the Agency. That decision does not affect the composition of the Board of Appeal, which consists of three members, including a chairman, and their alternates.

(2)

The rules of organisation and procedure of the Board of Appeal set out in Commission Regulation (EC) No 771/2008 (2) (‘Rules of Procedure’) should be amended to reflect the new operating model, and to modernise the current rules.

(3)

The rules regarding replacement of members of the Board of Appeal should be clarified, in particular regarding the designation of alternates when a member is precluded from participating in the proceedings or when a position as member of the Board of Appeal is vacant.

(4)

In order to ensure cohesion and consistency between cases with a similar subject matter and to increase efficiency and allow for consideration of workload, the Chairman should be able to designate another member as rapporteur, after having consulted the members concerned.

(5)

It is necessary to ensure that the appeals procedure continues to function efficiently and consistently, so that appeals are processed at a satisfactory rate. The management of the appeals procedure should therefore be entrusted to the Registrar, who should be appointed by the Executive Director of the Agency.

(6)

It is also necessary to ensure that the operational framework of the Board of Appeal remains independent and free from undue influences. Specific provision should therefore be made for the role and position of the Registrar and the Registry within the Agency. It should also be clarified that the Registrar reports to the Chairman of the Board of Appeal as regards the conduct of the appeals procedure and the decision-making process of the Board of Appeal, and to the Agency director responsible for resources as regards staff matters.

(7)

In order to ensure consistency under the new operating model and to follow the current practice the Registrar should review the notice of appeal for compliance not only with the requirements concerning the content of that notice, but also with implementing rules and measures adopted by the Board of Appeal pursuant to Article 27(2) and (3) of the Rules of Procedure (‘practice directions’). The Registrar should be able to prescribe a period for the appellant to rectify the notice of appeal.

(8)

For reasons of procedural and resource efficiency, the two-month period for the Agency to submit its defence should start when the period for the Chairman to decide on the admissibility of the appeal expires.

(9)

In order to ensure that appeals continue to be processed at a satisfactory rate, decisions on applications for leave to intervene should be taken by the Chairman, instead of the full Board of Appeal.

(10)

In order to simplify and modernise the Rules of Procedure and increase efficiency through digitalisation, all procedural documents should be lodged and served by email or other digital means of communication, such as the webform established for that purpose by the Agency.

(11)

In view of the adversarial nature of the proceedings before the Board of Appeal, as confirmed by the General Court (3), the Rules of Procedure should clarify that the Board of Appeal is to take into consideration only those procedural documents and items which have been made available to the appellant and the Agency and on which they have been given an opportunity to express their views, subject to confidentiality rules.

(12)

In view of the importance of the principle of secrecy of deliberations and since the Code of Conduct for the permanent members of the Board of Appeal (4) will expire with the transition to the new operating model, the Rules of Procedure of the Board of Appeal should list the elements of deliberations that are to be subject to secrecy.

(13)

To ensure that the appeals procedure continues to function efficiently and consistently, the setting and extending of certain procedural time-limits should be entrusted to the Registrar. A party or intervener should be able to request an extension of a time-limit.

(14)

The procedure for changes of clerical mistakes, errors in calculation or obvious mistakes in decisions of the Board of Appeal which have been served should be clarified. For reasons of procedural economy and to simplify processes, the parties and the interveners should be able to submit written observations on clerical mistakes, errors in calculation and obvious mistakes in the decision which has been served on them, to allow for the decision to be corrected. For coherence and to differentiate from the rectification procedure provided for in Article 93(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, the terminology should be changed to correction of decisions. In addition, the procedure for changes to the operative part of the decision or one of the grounds constituting the necessary support for the operative part of the decision should be set out.

(15)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee established by Article 133(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006,

(1)

Article 1b is replaced by the following:

(2)

in Article 3(2), the first subparagraph is replaced by the following:

‘The Chairman may replace any member of the Board of Appeal, at the request of that member, by an alternate if that member is precluded from participating in the proceedings or if the position is vacant. The criteria for designation of an alternate shall be set out in accordance with the procedure set out in Article 27(3).’;

(3)

Article 4 is amended as follows:

(4)

Article 5 is amended as follows:

(5)

Article 6 is amended as follows:

(6)

Article 7 is amended as follows:

(7)

Article 8 is amended as follows:

(8)

in Article 10(3), the first subparagraph is replaced by the following:

‘All procedural documents shall be lodged by email or other digital means of communication determined by the Board of Appeal.’;

(9)

Article 11 is amended as follows:

(10)

the following Article 11a is inserted:

(11)

Article 12 is amended as follows:

(12)

in Article 13(1), the second subparagraph is replaced by the following:

‘The request shall be submitted within two weeks from notification to the party of the closure of the written part of the proceedings. This period may be extended by the Registrar.’;

(13)

in Article 19, the following paragraph 1a is inserted:

(14)

in Article 22, the second subparagraph is replaced by the following:

‘All decisions and communications shall be served by email or other digital means of communication determined by the Board of Appeal, after the parties concerned have agreed to those means of communication.’;

(15)

in Article 23, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:

(16)

in Article 24, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:

(17)

Article 26 is replaced by the following:

(18)

in Article 27, paragraph 3 is replaced by the following: