Without prejudice to the respective responsibilities and activities of the Commission, the Committee, France and the Member States participating in SIS 1+, a group of technical experts, called the Global Programme Management Board (the ‘Board’), is hereby set up. The Board shall be an advisory body for assistance to the central SIS II project and shall facilitate consistency between central and national SIS II projects. The Board shall have no decision-making power nor any mandate to represent the Commission or Member States.

The Board shall be composed of a maximum of 10 members, meeting on a regular basis. A maximum of eight experts and an equal number of alternates shall be designated by the Member States participating in SIS 1+ acting within the Council. A maximum of two experts and two alternates shall be designated by the Director-General of the responsible Directorate-General of the Commission from among the Commission officials.

The meetings of the Board may be attended by other experts of Member States and Commission officials directly involved in the development of the SIS II projects, at the expense of their respective administration or institution.

The Board may invite other experts to participate in the Board’s meetings as defined in the terms of reference referred to in paragraph 5, at the expense of their respective administration, institution or company.

Experts designated by the Member States acting as Presidency and incoming Presidency shall always be invited to participate in the Board’s meetings.

The Board’s secretariat shall be ensured by the Commission.

The Board shall draw up its own terms of reference which shall include in particular procedures on:

The terms of reference shall take effect after a favourable opinion has been given by the Director-General of the responsible Directorate-General of the Commission and by Member States participating in SIS 1+ meeting within the framework of the Committee.

The Board shall regularly submit written reports about the progress of the project including advice which has been given, and its justification, to the Committee or, as appropriate, to the relevant Council preparatory bodies.

Without prejudice to Article 16(2), the administrative costs and travel expenses arising from the activities of the Board shall be borne by the general budget of the Union, to the extent that they are not reimbursed from other sources. As regards travel expenses of the members in the Board designated by the Member States participating in SIS 1+ acting within the Council and experts invited pursuant to paragraph 3 of this Article which arise in connection with the work of the Board, the Commission’s ‘Rules on the reimbursement of expenses incurred by people from outside the Commission invited to attend meetings in an expert capacity’ shall apply.