Introductory text

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Whereas:

By Decision 95/319/EC^f1 the Commission set up a Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors, hereinafter referred to as ‘the Committee’.

Recent enlargements of the European Union have effectively doubled the size of the Committee. The plenary meetings now comprise 54 Committee members. In the event of new enlargements this number will increase still further.

To enable the Committee to fulfil its tasks and allow the members of the Committee to engage in a practical, interactive exchange of experience and opinion, which is not feasible with such a large Committee, the number of members per Member State should be reduced from two to one. The Member States should be able to appoint an alternate member to attend meetings where the full member cannot be present.

To guarantee the quality of the Committee's work, nominees for membership should be the senior representatives of the national labour inspection services with a mandate to carry out the tasks of the Committee.

Provision should be made for each member or alternate member to be able to be accompanied by an expert at Committee meetings. For practical reasons relating to meeting organisation, notification of such experts' attendance should be given at least one month before the Committee meeting concerned.

To facilitate the way working groups operate, it should be possible for them to be chaired by an expert from a national labour inspection service who is not a member of the Committee.

Specific categories of observers should be able to attend Committee meetings.

The Committee should adopt rules of procedure laying down the practical arrangements for its work.

Decision 95/319/EC should be amended accordingly.

This Decision should take effect on 1 January 2010, the date on which a new term of office starts for members of the Committee,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS: