1.   An Integrated Carbon Observation System European Research Infrastructure Consortium ‘ICOS ERIC’ is set up.

2.   ICOS ERIC shall have its statutory seat in Helsinki, Finland (the ‘hosting state’).

3.   The working language of ICOS ERIC shall be English.

1.   The principal task of ICOS ERIC shall be to establish a distributed Integrated Carbon Observation System Research Infrastructure (ICOS RI) and to coordinate the operations of ICOS RI, distribute information from ICOS RI to user communities and to establish integrated data and analysis from GHG observation systems.

2.   ICOS ERIC shall provide effective access to coherent and precise data to facilitate research into multi-scale analysis of GHG emissions, sinks and their driving processes by making available measurement protocols, long-term data and data products. Technological developments and demonstrations, related to GHGs, shall be promoted by the linking of research, education and innovation. To this end ICOS ERIC shall undertake and coordinate activities, including but not limited to:

3.   ICOS ERIC shall be operated on a non-economic basis. In order to further promote innovation as well as transfer of knowledge and technology, limited economic activities may be carried out provided that they are closely related to its principal task and that they do not jeopardise the achievement thereof.

1.   The following entities may become Members or Observers of ICOS ERIC:

2.   Entities referred to in paragraph 1 may become Members of ICOS ERIC if they contribute to the operation of ICOS ERIC and/or host ICOS Central Facility and/or ICOS National Networks.

3.   Members of ICOS ERIC shall include at least a Member State and two other countries that are either Member States or associated countries.

4.   Member States or associated countries shall hold jointly the majority of the voting rights in the General Assembly. The General Assembly shall determine any modification of voting rights that are necessary to ensure the ICOS ERIC complies at all times with that requirement.

5.   A Member or an Observer may be represented by one or more public entities, including regions or private entities with a public service mission, of its own choosing and appointed according to its own rules and procedures. A Member or an Observer shall inform in writing the Chairperson of the General Assembly of any change regarding the representing entity.

6.   The Members and the Observers as well as their representing entities are listed in Annex 1. Annex 1 shall be kept up to date by the Chairperson of the General Assembly or any person authorised by him/her.

1.   The admission of Members shall comply with the following conditions:

2.   The admission of Observers shall comply with the following conditions:

3.   An Observer may be admitted for maximum of three years. The General Assembly, on request of the Observer, may extend that initial period once for the same duration. In exceptional cases the General Assembly may accept more than one extension of an Observer status.

1.   No Member may withdraw within a period of five years following the entry into force of the Commission Decision setting up ICOS ERIC unless the General Assembly accepts the Member's request to withdraw at an earlier time.

2.   After the period referred to in paragraph 1 a Member may withdraw at the end of a financial year provided that it notifies its intention to withdraw by sending an official request 12 months in advance to the Chairperson of the General Assembly.

3.   An Observer may withdraw at the end of a financial year provided that it notifies its intention to withdraw by sending an official request six months in advance to the Chairperson of the General Assembly.

4.   A withdrawing Member or Observer shall fulfil all obligations, including financial obligations, it has entered into before its withdrawal.

5.   The General Assembly may terminate the Membership or the Observer status if the following cumulative conditions are met:

1.   Rights of Members shall include:

2.   Each Member shall:

3.   Rights of Observers shall include:

An Observer may have other rights granted by the General Assembly according to the procedure determined in the internal rules.

4.   Each Observer shall:

1.   ICOS ERIC shall include the following bodies: the General Assembly, the Scientific Advisory Board, the Ethical Advisory Board, and the Director-General supported by the ICOS Research Infrastructure Committee. The General Assembly may establish other advisory bodies that it considers appropriate.

2.   Specific agreements describing the roles and responsibilities, including financial obligations shall be concluded between ICOS ERIC and the entities responsible for managing the ICOS Central Facilities and ICOS National Networks.

1.   The General Assembly shall be the governing body of ICOS ERIC and shall be composed of representatives of the Members and Observers of ICOS ERIC. Each Member may have up to three representatives. An Observer may have one representative in the General Assembly.

2.   The General Assembly shall elect a Chairperson and a Vice Chairperson amongst the representatives for the term of two years, renewable twice.

3.   The General Assembly shall be convened and chaired by the Chairperson. In his or her absence, the General Assembly shall be chaired by the Vice Chairperson.

4.   The General Assembly shall meet at least once per year and be responsible for the overall direction and supervision of ICOS ERIC and decide upon the strategic orientation and structure of ICOS RI.

5.   An extraordinary meeting of the General Assembly may be requested by at least one third of the Members.

6.   A Member may be represented by another Member if notified in writing to the Chairperson of the General Assembly. A Member cannot represent more than one other Member.

7.   Decisions of the General Assembly may also be taken by written procedure.

8.   The General Assembly shall adopt its rules of procedure.

1.   Each Member shall have at least one vote that shall be supplemented with an additional vote for a Member hosting an ICOS Central Facility, the Carbon Portal or the Head Office, and an additional vote for a Member hosting four ICOS Class-1 stations of at least two different types (atmospheric, ecosystem, ocean station). Each Member shall have maximally three votes.

2.   Members with more than one vote cannot split their votes.

3.   The Chairperson or in her/his absence the Vice Chairperson, shall have no voting rights. The Member from which the Chairperson/Vice Chairperson originates may nominate another Member representative.

1.   To reach a quorum, two thirds of all the Members must be represented.

2.   The General Assembly shall decide by unanimity of the Members represented on the following matters:

3.   The General Assembly shall decide by two-thirds majority of the votes of the Members represented on the following matters:

4.   Decisions of the General Assembly on the following matters shall require: (a) a two-thirds majority of the votes of the Members represented; and (b) a two-thirds majority of the annual membership contributions paid for the most recent full financial year:

5.   Any other decision by the General Assembly shall be made with simple majority of the votes of the Members represented.

1.   The Director-General of ICOS ERIC shall be appointed by the General Assembly according to a procedure established by the General Assembly. The term for the Director-General shall be five years, renewable twice.

2.   The Director-General shall be the legal representative of ICOS ERIC.

3.   The Director-General shall carry out the day-to-day management of the ICOS ERIC and be responsible for the implementation of the decisions by the General Assembly, including the annual work plan and annual budget as well as overseeing and coordinating the ICOS RI activities.

4.   The Director-General shall be based at the statutory seat of ICOS ERIC and shall be responsible for managing staff and activities of the Head Office and the Carbon Portal in accordance with the ICOS ERIC budget.

1.   The General Assembly shall establish an independent Scientific Advisory Board.

2.   The membership and the rules of procedure of the Scientific Advisory Board shall be decided by the General Assembly and included into the internal rules.

3.   The Scientific Advisory Board shall:

1.   The General Assembly shall establish an independent Ethical Advisory Board to advise and give periodic reports on ethical issues. The Ethical Advisory Board shall be composed of three to five independent persons.

2.   The membership and the rules of procedure of the Ethical Advisory Board shall be decided by the General Assembly and included into the internal rules.

1.   There shall be an ICOS Research Infrastructure Committee (ICOS RI Committee) for the ICOS ERIC. The ICOS RI Committee shall include one representative from the Head Office, Carbon Portal, each ICOS Central Facility and each monitoring station assembly, the latter formed by scientific and technical experts from the ICOS National Networks.

2.   The ICOS RI Committee shall adopt its own rules of procedure.

3.   The Director-General shall consult the ICOS RI Committee for all general matters including drawing up proposals for the General Assembly for establishing and modifying annual work plans related to ICOS RI to ensure consistence, coherence and stability of the research infrastructure services.

4.   ICOS RI Committee meetings shall be convened by the Director-General.

1.   Members and Observers shall pay annual contributions as described in Annex 2.

2.   Annual Member and Observer contributions are cash contributions. Principles of contributions are set out in the Annex 2 and will be further defined in the internal rules.

3.   Contributions other than the annual contribution to ICOS ERIC may be provided by Members and Observers individually or in cooperation with other Members, Observers or third parties.

4.   ICOS ERIC may also receive donations, gifts and other contributions after approval by the General Assembly.

5.   ICOS ERIC resources shall be used for objectives as laid down in these Statutes.

6.   The financial year of ICOS ERIC shall begin on 1 January and end on 31 December of each year.

7.   The accounts of ICOS ERIC shall be accompanied by a report on budgetary and financial management of the financial year.

8.   ICOS ERIC shall be subject to the legal requirements of the applicable law regarding preparation, filing, auditing and publication of accounts.

1.   ICOS ERIC shall be liable for its debts.

2.   Financial liability of the Members towards the ICOS ERIC's debts shall be limited to their respective annual financial contribution.

3.   ICOS ERIC shall take appropriate insurance to cover the risks of its activities.

1.   ICOS ERIC shall produce an annual activity report, containing in particular the scientific, operational and financial aspects of its activities. The report shall be approved by the General Assembly and transmitted to the Commission and relevant public authorities within six months after the end of the corresponding financial year. The report shall be made publicly available.

2.   ICOS ERIC shall inform the Commission of any circumstances which threaten to seriously jeopardise the achievement of ICOS ERIC tasks or hinder the ICOS ERIC from fulfilling requirements laid down in Regulation (EC) No 723/2009.

1.   ICOS RI data, as well as intellectual property rights and other knowledge that is related to the ICOS RI data and produced and developed within the ICOS RI, shall belong to the entity or to the person who has generated it. The use of ICOS RI data shall be granted to ICOS ERIC by the data providers in accordance with the conditions defined in the ICOS data policy document.

2.   ICOS ERIC shall adopt common principles and rules in order to ensure access to the scientific knowledge of the ICOS RI. Data providers and authors shall be acknowledged in an appropriate manner.

1.   ICOS ERIC shall establish secure, fair and transparent procedures to provide access to the ICOS data for all data users.

2.   If research access to the ICOS RI facilities and services has to be restricted for capacity reasons the selection criteria shall be based on scientific excellence of the proposals according to the procedure set out in the internal rules.

3.   The data providers and the ICOS ERIC shall encourage researchers to make their research results publicly available and request researchers of member countries to make results available through the ICOS ERIC.

4.   In order to reach various target audiences the ICOS ERIC shall use several channels, such as web portal, newsletters, workshops, presence in conferences, articles in magazines and daily newspapers.

1.   Every five years an independent panel of international external evaluators of the highest quality, appointed by the General Assembly, shall carry out:

The panel shall give special attention to the fulfilment of user requirements.

2.   The results of the evaluations referred to in paragraph 1 shall be reported to the General Assembly.

1.   ICOS ERIC shall treat procurement candidates and tenderers equally and in non-discriminatory way, independent of whether or not they are established in the European Union. The procurement policy of ICOS ERIC shall follow the principles of transparency, non- discrimination and competition.

2.   The Director-General shall be responsible for all ICOS ERIC procurements. Tenders shall be publicised on the ICOS ERIC website and in the Members' and Observers' territories. The decision to award procurement shall be publicised and include a full justification. ICOS ERIC shall establish its own procurement policy.

3.   Procurement by Members and Observers concerning ICOS ERIC activities shall be done in such a way that due consideration is given to ICOS ERIC needs, technical requirements and specifications issued by the relevant bodies.

4.   ICOS ERIC procurement policy shall be used for the entire ICOS RI where feasible.

5.   Tax exemptions based on Article 143(1)(g) and Article 151(1)(b) of Council Directive 2006/112/EC (1) and in accordance with Articles 50 and 51 of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011 (2) shall be limited to the value added tax for such goods and services which are for official use by ICOS ERIC, exceed the value of EUR 250, and are wholly paid and procured by the ICOS ERIC. The tax exemptions shall apply to non-economic activities. They shall not apply to economic activities. Procurement by individual Members shall not benefit from these exemptions. No further limits shall apply.

1.   The winding-up of the ICOS ERIC shall require a decision of the General Assembly in accordance with Article 10(2)(b) and shall be notified within 10 days after its adoption to the European Commission.

2.   Assets remaining after payment of the ICOS ERIC debts shall be apportioned among the Members in proportion to their cumulated contribution to the ICOS ERIC over the five consecutive years prior to winding-up.

3.   Without undue delay and in any event within 10 days of the closure of the winding-up procedure, the ICOS ERIC shall notify the Commission thereof.

4.   The ICOS ERIC shall cease to exist on the day on which the European Commission publishes the appropriate notice in the Official Journal of the European Union.

5.   At any time, in the event that ICOS ERIC is unable to pay its debts, it shall immediately notify the Commission thereof.

1.   Amendments may be proposed to the General Assembly by any Member or by the Director-General.

2.   Proposals for amendments to these Statutes may be adopted by the General Assembly and submitted to the European Commission in accordance with Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 723/2009.

1.   The Court of Justice of the European Union shall have jurisdiction over litigation among the Members in relation to the ICOS ERIC, between Members and the ICOS ERIC and over any litigation to which the Union is a party.

2.   Union legislation on jurisdiction shall apply to disputes between the ICOS ERIC and third parties. In cases not covered by Union legislation, the law of the hosting state shall determine the competent jurisdiction for the resolution of such disputes.

1.   A constitutional meeting of the General Assembly shall be called by the hosting state as soon as possible after the Commission decision to set up the ICOS ERIC takes effect.

2.   Before the constitutional meeting is held and no later than 45 calendar days after the Commission decision to set up the ICOS ERIC takes effect, the hosting state shall notify the founding Members and Observers, as listed in Annex 1, of any specific urgent legal action that needs to be taken on behalf of ICOS ERIC. Unless a Member objects within five working days after being notified, the legal action shall be carried out by a person duly authorised by the hosting state.