CELEX: 31971D0122
Language: en
Date: 1971-02-19 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 19 February 1971 setting up a Joint Advisory Committee on Social Questions arising in the Railway Industry

Official Journal of the European Communities                                   25
 No L 57/22                         Official Journal of the European Communities                             10.3.71
                                             COMMISSION DECISION
                                                of 19 February 1971
              setting up a Joint Advisory Committee on Social Questions arising in the Railway
                                                       Industry
                                                   (71 / 122/EEC)
 THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                                       Article 1
COMMUNITIES,
                                                              There shall be attached to the Commission a Com­
                                                              mittee called the ' Joint Advisory Committee on So­
 Whereas in its Memorandum of 10 April 1961 on the            cial Questions arising in the Railway Industry'.
guidelines for the common transport policy, the Com­
mission indicated the course to be followed in ap­                                    Article 2
plying to transport in general rules and provisions
provided for by the Treaty under the Community's              1 . The Commission may request the Committee for
social policy, which entails a number of measures             an opinion on any special question arising in the
concerning the common transport policy; whereas in            railway industry.
its action programme of 23 May 1962 on the com­
mon transport policy the Commission set out in a              2 . The Commission may, when seeking the opinion
more concrete form its views on harmonization in              of the Committee, set a time limit within which such
 social matters as part of the common transport               opinion shall be given.
policy;
                                                              3 . In the event of unanimous agreement being
Whereas in their Opinions on the proposed Council             reached in the Committee on the opinion to be given
                                                              to the Commission, the Committee shall formulate
Decision on the harmonization of certain provisions
affecting competition in transport by rail, road and          joint conclusions and attach them to the report of its
inland waterway the European Parliament and the               proceedings forwarded to the Commission.
Economic and Social Committee expressed the wish
to see set up a joint committee representing the two          4. Otherwise the opinions expressed shall be in­
sides of industry;                                            cluded in that report.
                                                                                      Article 3
Whereas by its Decisions of 5 July 19651 and 28 No­
vember 19672 the Commisison has already set up                The Committee shall discuss matters on which the
 Joint Advisory Committees on Social Questions                Commission has requested an opinion.
arising in, respectively, Road Transport and Inland
Navigation, and whereas the grounds then put for­                                     Article 4
ward now justify, in view of progress achieved, the           1 . The Committee shall consist of 42 full members
setting up of a joint advisory committee on social            and 42 alternate members .
questions arising in the railway industry;
                                                              2. Seats on the Committee shall be apportioned as
Whereas the special links existing in all Member              follows :
States between the State and railway undertakings
make it justifiable for representatives of the Member         - to representatives of Governments, 14 full mem­
States to participate alongside the representatives               bers and 14 alternate members;
from the undertakings in the work of the committee,           - to railway undertakings, 14 full members and 14
                                                                  alternate members ;
HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS :
                                                              - to railway employees, 14 full members and 14 al­
                                                                  ternate members .
1 OJ No 130,16.7.1965 .                                       3 . Alternate members shall attend Committee meet­
2 OJ No 297, 7.10.1967.                                       ings and take part in the work of the Committee only
 ---pagebreak---  26                                Official Journal of the European Communities
 in the event of full members being unable to do so,
 except where, in pursuance of Article 10, they are           4. No member of the Committee may hold suc­
 attending as experts.                                        cessively the offices of Chairman and Vice-Chairman
                                                              during a period exceeding two full terms of office as
                        Article 5                             laid down under paragraph 3 .
 The members of the Committee representing em­
 ployees or undertakings shall be appointed by the                                   Article 8
 Commission on proposals from the following organi­           1 . The Chairman shall be responsible for relations
 zations set up at Community level to represent the           with the Commission.
 various sections of the industry:
                                                             2. The Chairman .and Vice-Chairman acting jointly .
 Employees:                                                   may draw the attention of the Commission to the
 - Committee of ITF Unions in the EEC (ITF -                  desirability of consulting the Committee on a matter
     ICFTU) :                                                within the latter's competence on which its views
 - European Transport Committee (ETC - WCL);                  have not been sought. They shall do so where the
                                                              request for consultation is made by one-third of the i
 - CGT - CGIL Standing Committee.                             members of the Committee.
 Undertakings:                                                                       Article 9
 - Common Market Group of the International Union
     of Railways (UIC).                                      The Committee may set up working parties to pre­
                                                             pare, on specific questions or in specific fields, draft
 The members representing the Member States shall            opinions to be submitted to the Committee for con­
 be nominated by their respective Governments.               sideration. These working parties shall consist of a
                                                             limited number of full or alternate members.
 The list of the members of the Committee shall be
published for information purposes in the Official                                  Article 10
Journal of the European Communities.                         The Chairman may propose to the Commission that
                                                             it should invite any person with special qualifications
                        Article 6                            in a subject on the agenda to take part in an expert
 1 . The term of office for members and alternates           capacity in meetings of the Committee or of a work­
shall be three years. Their appoinments may be               ing party of the Committee. The Chairman shall do
renewed.                                                     so when requested by any of the organizations men­
                                                             tioned in Article 5 or by a representative of a Mem­
2. After expiry of the three years members and alter­        ber State. Experts shall be present only at the dis­
nates shall remain in office until replaced.                 cussion of those questions on account of which they
                                                             were invited .
3 . In the event of the death or resignation of a mem­
ber or alternate or of his ceasing to belong to the                                 Article 11
organization which he represents, he shall be replaced
for the remainder of his term of office.                      1 . The Committee and working parties shall meet
                                                             when convened by the Commission.
                        Article 7
                                                             2. Representatives of the Commission departments
 1 . The Committee shall, by a two-thirds majority ol        concerned shall take part in these meetings.
members present, elect a Chairman and two Vice­
Chairmen from among its full members. The Chair­                                    Article 12
man and Vice-Chairmen must each belong to a dif­
ferent category of representative.                           Secretarial services shall be provided for the Com­
                                                             mittee by the Commission.
2. Should the Chairman or a Vice-Chairman cease to                        /
hold office before the period for which he was                                      Article 13
elected has expired, he shall be replaced for the            An opinion delivered by the Committee shall not be
remainder of his term of office.
                                                             valid unless two-thirds of the members are present.
3 . The term of office for Chairman and Vice-Chair­
                                                                                    Article 14
men shall be eighteen months.
                                                             Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 214 of
The incoming Chairman shall be elected from among            the Treaty, where the Commission indicates that the
the members belonging to the two categories of re­           opinion requested is on a matter of a confidential
presentative other than that to which the outgoing           nature, persons present at the meetings of the Com­
Chairman belongs.                                            mittee or of the working parties shall not disclose
 ---pagebreak---                                  Official Journal of the European Communities                    27
information which has come to their knowledge               Done at Brussels, 19 February 1971 .
through the work of the Committee.
                     Article 15                           <              " For the Commission
After hearing the Committee, the Commission may                                  The President
amend this Decision in the light of experience.                            Franco M. MALFATTI