Decision of the President of the European Commission of 29 February 2012 on the function and terms of reference of the hearing officer in certain trade proceedings (2012/199/EU)

Article 9 Preparation of hearings

1. After hearing the Director responsible or his delegate, the hearing officer shall determine the date, the duration and the place of the hearing. Where a postponement is requested by the interested parties or the Commission services, the hearing officer shall decide whether or not to allow it.

2. Where appropriate, the hearing officer may hold a preparatory meeting with the interested parties or with the Commission services responsible for the investigation and other services in order to identify and clarify, as far as possible, any questions of fact or law to be addressed during the hearing. To this effect, the hearing officer may request from the participants in a hearing any information necessary for the preparation of the hearing.

3. The hearing officer shall prepare the agenda of each hearing which shall be made available to all participants prior to the hearing.

4. The hearing officer may, within a reasonable time after the deadline for the submission of comments on a disclosure and before a hearing among parties, invite the participants to submit questions on the information provided by other interested parties.

5. Where appropriate, in view of the need to ensure that the hearing among parties is properly prepared and particularly that questions of fact are clarified as far as possible, the hearing officer may, after hearing the Director responsible or his delegate, supply in advance to the parties invited to the hearing a list of the questions on which he wishes them to make known their views.

6. The hearing officer may also ask for prior written notification of the essential contents of the intended statement of the participants in any hearing.

7. The Hearing Officer may invite external experts to the hearings. Interested parties and the Commission services may request the hearing officer to admit external experts to hearings. The hearing officer shall decide on such requests. The external experts invited to a hearing shall be required to sign a confidentiality agreement.

8. The external experts may be asked to provide any relevant analysis, reports or publications which shall be included in the file and made available to all participants whenever possible prior to the hearing.