Part ONE, Title II, Chapter 3, Section 3, Article 20 · Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2085

Contents

Article 20The states’ representatives group#

1.Except in cases where Member States and associated countries participate in a joint undertaking as members or constituent entities of members, joint undertakings shall establish a states’ representatives group as specified in Part Two subject to the provisions in this Article.

10.The states’ representatives group shall submit, at the end of each calendar year, a report describing the national or regional policies in the scope of the joint undertaking and identifying specific ways of cooperation with the actions funded by the joint undertaking.

11.The states’ representatives group may issue, on its own initiative, opinions, recommendations or proposals to the governing board or the executive director on technical, managerial and financial matters as well as on work programmes and other documents, in particular when those matters affect national or regional interests.

12.The states’ representatives group shall receive timely and relevant information on a regular basis, including a breakdown by country, among other data on the application and participation in indirect actions funded by the joint undertaking, on the evaluation results of each call for proposals and project implementation, on synergies with other relevant Union programmes and other European partnerships, on additional activities, on committed and actually provided financial and in-kind contributions and on the execution of the budget of the joint undertaking.

13.The states’ representatives group shall adopt its own rules of procedure with due consideration to Articles 33 and 42.

14.One or more joint undertakings may establish a joint state representatives group in accordance with the relevant provisions set out in Part Two.

2.The states’ representatives group shall consist of up to two representatives and up to two alternates from each Member State and from each associated country. The states’ representatives group shall elect a chairperson and vice-chairperson from among its members.

3.The states’ representatives group shall meet at least twice a year. The meetings shall be convened by the chairperson or by at least one third of the states’ representatives group members. The chairperson of the governing board and the executive director or their representatives shall attend the meetings as observers upon request of the chairperson of the states’ representatives group for the purpose of delivering information on specific matters.

4.The meetings of the states’ representatives group may be regulated by any relevant specific provisions set out in Part Two.

5.The chairperson of the states’ representatives group may invite other persons to attend its meetings as observers, in particular representatives of relevant federal or regional authorities within the Union, representatives of higher education institutions and research performing organisations, SME associations or industry associations and representatives of other bodies of the joint undertaking.

6.The agenda and supporting documents of the state representatives group’s meetings shall be circulated sufficiently in advance to ensure appropriate representation by each Member State and associated country. The agenda shall also be circulated for information to the governing board in a timely manner.

7.The states’ representatives group shall be consulted and, in particular, it shall review information and provide opinions on the following matters:

(a)programme progress of the joint undertaking and achievement of its targets and expected impacts as part of Horizon Europe, including the information on calls for proposals and proposals received as well as on the proposal evaluation process;

(b)updating of the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda or equivalent in line with the Horizon Europe strategic planning and with other Union and Member States funding instruments;

(c)links to Horizon Europe and other Union, national and, where relevant, regional initiatives, including cohesion policy funds in line with smart specialisation strategies;

(d)draft work programmes, including the content of calls for proposals, especially on lower TRL research topics included in the draft work programme and on the application of eligibility criteria;

(e)involvement of SMEs, start-ups, higher education institutions and research organisations, and measures taken for promoting participation of newcomers;

(f)actions taken for dissemination and exploitation of results along the value chain;

(g)annual activity report.

8.For the purpose of seeking the agreed position referred to in Article 17(2), point (l), the states’ representatives group shall solely include Member States. The rules of procedure of the states’ representatives group shall further specify the procedure for agreeing that position.

9.Where applicable, the states’ representatives group shall also regularly report to the governing board, and act as an interface with the joint undertaking on the following matters:

(a)the status of relevant national or regional research and innovation programmes and identification of potential areas of cooperation, including concrete actions taken or envisaged for the deployment and uptake of relevant technologies and innovative solutions;

(b)specific measures taken at national level or regional level with regard to dissemination events, dedicated technical workshops and communication activities;

(c)specific measures at national or regional level with regard to deployment activities in relation to each respective joint undertaking;

(d)national or regional policies and initiatives with a view to ensuring complementarities with regard to the joint undertaking’s Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda and annual work programmes.

Defined terms · 17

Show every defined term

additional activity
means an activity, included in the annual additional activities plan annexed to the main part of the work programme, that does not receive financial support from the joint undertaking but contributes to its objectives and is directly linked to the uptake of results from projects under that joint undertaking or its preceding initiatives or that has a significant Union added value;
architecture of the Digital European Sky
refers to the vision of the European ATM Master Plan, seeking to address the current inefficient airspace architecture in the medium to long term by combining airspace configuration and design with technologies to decouple service provision from local infrastructure and progressively increase the levels of collaboration and automation support;
associated member
means any legal entity established in a Member State, a country associated to Horizon Europe or, where applicable, associated to DEP, or an international organisation that accedes to a joint undertaking by signing a letter of commitment in accordance with Article 6(3) and subject to an approval in accordance with Article 7;
conflict of interest
means a situation involving a financial actor or other person as referred to in Article 61 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046;
constituent entities
means the entities that constitute a private member of a joint undertaking, where the private member is an association according to that member’s statutes;
contributing partner
means any country, international organisation or legal entity other than a member of a joint undertaking, or a constituent entity of a member or an affiliated entity of either, that supports the objectives of a joint undertaking in its specific area of research and whose application has been approved in accordance with Article 9;
Digital European Sky
refers to the vision of the European ATM Master Plan, seeking to transform Europe’s aviation infrastructure enabling it to handle the future growth and diversity of air traffic safely and efficiently, while minimising environmental impact;
founding member
means any legal entity established in a Member State, a country associated to Horizon Europe or, where applicable, associated with DEP, or an international organisation that is identified as a member of a joint undertaking in this Regulation or in one of its Annexes;
in-kind contributions to additional activities
means contributions by the private members, constituent entities or the affiliated entities of either, and by international organisations, consisting of the costs incurred by them in implementing additional activities less any contribution to those costs from the Union and from the participating states of that joint undertaking;
in-kind contributions to operational activities
means contributions by private members, constituent entities or the affiliated entities of either, by international organisations and by contributing partners, consisting of the eligible costs incurred by them in implementing indirect actions less the contribution of that joint undertaking and of the participating states of that joint undertaking to those costs;
member other than the Union
means any participating state, private member or international organisation that is a member of a joint undertaking;
newcomer
means an entity that is, for the first time, a beneficiary of a grant awarded by an individual joint undertaking or its preceding initiative and that is not a founding member of that joint undertaking or its preceding initiative.
participating state
means any Member State or country associated to Horizon Europe or, where applicable, associated to DEP upon notification of its participation in the activities of the relevant joint undertaking by means of a letter of commitment;
preceding initiative
means any partnership in one of the areas covered by a joint undertaking that received financial support from one of the previous Union framework programmes for research;
private member
means any legal entity established under public or private law that is a member of a joint undertaking other than the Union, participating states or international organisations;
Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda
means the document covering the duration of Horizon Europe that identifies the key priorities and the essential technologies and innovations required to achieve the objectives of a joint undertaking;
work programme
means the document referred to in Article 2, point (25), of the Horizon Europe Regulation;