Rules of procedure

In accordance with § 3(7) of the Decree establishing a National Ethics Council dated 2 May 2001 (Decision of the Federal Cabinet), the Council provided itself with the following Rules of Procedure at its meeting of 6 July 2001:

§ 1
Independence of members. Conflict of interest. Duty of secrecy

(1) The members of the Council shall not be bound by external instructions. They shall represent their personal convictions and shall be subject to their conscience alone.

(2) In the event of concern about a possible conflict of interest in relation to a specific issue, the relevant member shall declare this to the chair and discuss it with him or her. Should agreement not be reached in this discussion as to whether a conflict of interest exists, the Council shall rule in the absence of the relevant member on whether he or she shall participate in the deliberations and in the taking of a decision on the issue in question.

(3) The members shall observe secrecy with regard to the deliberations and to documents stated to be confidential. The same requirement shall apply to experts and to other persons summoned by the Council to attend its meetings or to work with it in any other way.

§ 2
Taking of decisions

The Council shall have a quorum for taking decisions if not less than 13 members are present. Except where different majorities are provided for in these Rules of Procedure, the Council shall take decisions by a majority of the votes of the members present. In the event of a tie the chair shall have the casting vote.

§ 3
Office of chair

(1) The chair and his or her deputies shall be elected by absolute majority of votes of the members of the Council. If this majority is not obtained in a first ballot, a second ballot shall be held and the decision shall be taken by relative majority. In the event of a tie the result shall be decided by lot.

(2) The chair shall be in charge of meetings and shall be responsible for preparing their agenda. He or she shall represent the Council to outside bodies and individuals. If he or she is prevented from exercising his or her functions, his or her deputies shall assume these functions in the order determined by the Council. With the consent of the Council he or she may assign individual functions to the deputies.

§ 4
Work programme

The Council shall provide itself with a work programme on the basis of the Decree of 2 May 2001 by which the Council was established. This programme shall as a rule be updated annually.

§ 5
Meetings

(1) Meetings shall as a rule be held monthly in Berlin. They shall not be public unless the Council so decides.

(2) The dates of each meeting shall be set for a fairly long period in advance by the Council. An extraordinary meeting shall be held within ten days if so requested by not less than seven members.

(3) The agenda of each meeting shall be fixed provisionally at the preceding meeting. The chair may add further items to the agenda if the need arises subsequently. He or she shall do this if so requested by three members. A final decision on the agenda shall be taken at the beginning of the relevant meeting.

(4) Notices convening meetings shall be despatched not less than ten days in advance and shall be accompanied by the agenda and by the necessary documents. In the case of extraordinary meetings the period of notice shall be three days.

§ 5 a
Public meetings

(1) Meetings of the Council shall be open to the public in so far as they serve the preparation and discussion of Council opinions and recommendations; the Council may deviate from this arrangement in exceptional cases. Meetings of the working parties shall not be open to the public.

(2) Agenda items which are to be discussed at a public meeting in accordance with paragraph (1) shall be so identified on the agenda. The agenda shall be made public on the Internet.

(3) Admission to public meetings shall be subject to the availability of seating. The Council may allow meetings to be filmed or recorded in individual cases.

§ 6
Minutes

Minutes recording the results of meetings shall be drawn up. The minutes shall be forwarded to all members within two weeks of the relevant meeting. Any objections shall be raised within ten days of forwarding. If an objection is not accepted, a decision on it shall be taken at the next meeting.

§ 7
Expert reports, experts and guests

The Council may commission studies or expert reports and invite experts to its meetings. In addition, representatives of the constitutional bodies entitled to submit issues for consideration, of authorities and institutions, of organizations and associations, as well as other guests, may be invited to attend meetings on specific topics.

§ 8
Rapporteurs. Working parties

(1) The Council may appoint members, subject to their consent, to act as rapporteurs on specific topics.

(2) In addition, the Council may appoint working parties from among its members to prepare individual topics, as well as to discuss entire fields of related topics. The working parties shall appoint their spokesperson and, if required, their rapporteurs to present the results of their work to the Council.

§ 9
Expression of views. Publications

(1) Opinions, recommendations and annual reports shall be adopted after oral discussion on the basis of the draft presented by the rapporteur. If this cannot be done immediately after the relevant deliberations, the taking of a decision may be postponed until the next meeting. For this purpose a version of the draft revised by the rapporteur on the basis of the results of the proceedings shall be forwarded to the members sufficiently in advance of that meeting. At the request of members who disagree with the version adopted, the relevant dissenting views shall be attached to the decision.

(2) The Council shall decide in each individual case as to the timing and manner of publication of Opinions, recommendations and reports.

§ 10
Provision of information and material for discussion. Public conferences

The Council shall draw up information and discussion material to be addressed to interested groups and shall prepare public conferences. For this purpose too, rapporteurs may be appointed and working parties set up.

§ 11
General Secretariat. Budget

(1) The Council shall be assisted in its work by a General Secretariat. The staff of the General Secretariat shall carry out the instructions of the Council in matters relating to the Council's function and, where the day-to-day business of the Council is concerned, the instructions of its chair.

(2) On the basis of proposals submitted by the chair, the Council shall decide on the organization of the General Secretariat and on its executive-grade staffing as well as on the appropriation of the overall budget at its disposal.

(3) The staff of the General Secretariat shall attend meetings as determined by the Council.

§ 12
Amendments to the Rules of Procedure

Amendments to the Rules of Procedure shall be adopted by a two-thirds majority of the members of the Council.

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