If the Chairman in office is prevented from attending a meeting of the Technical Commission, his deputy shall act as chairman.

Members may be accompanied at the meetings of the Technical Commission by one or more additional experts where this is necessary because of the nature of the subjects to be dealt with. Each delegation may, as a rule, consist of not more than four persons.

The representative of the Commission of the European Communities or a member of the Secretariat or any other person designated by the Secretary-General of the Administrative Commission shall attend all meetings of the Technical Commission or its adhoc working groups. Those meetings may furthermore be attended, where this is relevant to the question to be dealt with, by a representative of other departments of the Commission of the European Communities.

When a standing member of the Technical Commission holds the office of Chairman, his deputy shall vote in his place.

Any member present when a vote is taken who abstains from voting shall be invited by the chairman to state his reasons for abstaining.

When the majority of members present abstain, the proposal put to the vote shall be considered as not having been taken into consideration.

The provisional agenda of each meeting of the Technical Commission shall be drawn up by the Secretariat in consultation with the chairman of the Technical Commission. Before proposing to include an item in the agenda, the Secretariat may, where this appears necessary, ask the delegations concerned to make their views on this question known in writing.

The provisional agenda shall, in principle, comprise items for which a request submitted by a member or by the representative of the Commission of the European Communities and, where appropriate, notes relating to it have been received by the Secretariat at least 20 working days before the beginning of the meeting.

The provisional agenda shall be sent at least 10 working days before the beginning of each meeting to the members of the Technical Commission, the representative of the Commission of the European Communities, and any other person expected to be attending the meeting. The documents relating to the items on the agenda shall be sent to them as soon as they are available.

At the beginning of each meeting the Technical Commission shall approve the agenda of the meeting. A unanimous vote of the Technical Commission is required for the inclusion in the agenda of any items other than those appearing on the provisional agenda. Except in cases of urgency, members of the Technical Commission may reserve their final position until the following meeting with regard to items appearing on the provisional agenda for which they have not received the relevant documents in their own language five working days before the beginning of the meeting.

Ad hoc working groups shall be presided over by an expert designated by the Chairman of the Technical Commission in consultation with the representative of the Commission of the European Communities or, failing this, by an expert representing the State whose representative on the Administrative Commission holds the office of Chairman of that Commission.

The chairman of the ad hoc working group shall be summoned to the meeting of the Technical Commission in the course of which the report of that ad hoc working group is discussed.

The Chairman of the Technical Commission may give the Secretariat any instructions for meetings to be held and for the performance of activities that are within the scope of the functions of the Technical Commission.

The Technical Commission shall be convened by a letter of convocation sent to the members and the representative of the Commission of the European Communities 10 working days before the meeting by the Secretariat in consultation with the Chairman of the Technical Commission.

Minutes are to be recorded for each meeting and are, in principle, to be approved at the following meeting.