For the purpose of this Decision the following definitions shall apply:
‘Director-General’ means Director-General or Head of Service of the Commission;
‘meeting’ means a bilateral encounter organised at the initiative of an organisation or self-employed individual or a Director-General to discuss an issue related to policy-making and implementation in the Union. Encounters taking place in the context of an administrative procedure established by the Treaties or Union acts, which falls under the direct responsibility of the Director-General, as well as encounters of a purely private or social character or spontaneous encounters are excluded from this notion;
‘organisation or self-employed individual’ means any organisation or individual, irrespective of their legal status, engaged in activities carried out with the objective of directly or indirectly influencing the formulation or implementation of policy and the decision-making processes of the institutions of the Union, irrespective of where these activities are undertaken and of the channel or medium of communication used.
This notion does not include representatives of other Union institutions or bodies, national, regional and local authorities of Member States and of third countries or international organisations. However, it covers any association or network created to represent regions or other sub-national public authorities collectively.