1. The Board shall be composed of representatives from all Member States and the Commission. It shall be chaired by a representative of the Commission (the ‘Chair’).
2. Each Member State shall appoint a high-level representative to the Board. Where relevant as regards the function and expertise, a Member State may appoint different representatives in relation to different tasks of the Board. Each representative appointed to the Board shall have an alternate. Only Member States shall have voting rights. Each Member State shall have only one vote regardless of the number of its representatives.
The Chair shall invite representatives of the European Parliament to attend, as observers, the meetings of the Board including the meetings of the standing or temporary subgroups referred to in paragraph 8.
3. Where appropriate, the Chair may invite representatives of industry, especially SMEs, civil society, academia, trade unions, local or regional authorities, third countries, OCTs, as well as of the European Defence Agency, the European Chemical Agency, the European Environmental Agency and the European External Action Service to attend meetings of the Board or its standing or temporary subgroups referred to in paragraph 8 as observers or to provide written contributions. Observers shall not participate in the formulation of advice of the Board and its subgroups.
4. At its first meeting, the Board shall, on a proposal by the Commission, adopt its rules of procedure by a simple majority of its members.
5. The Board shall meet at regular intervals in order to allow the effective performance of its tasks provided for in this Regulation. Where necessary, the Board shall meet on the basis of a reasoned request by the Commission or by a Member State justifying a particular interest with regard to a Strategic Project on its territory warranting an additional meeting.
The Board shall meet at least as follows:
(a)
every three months for the assessment of applications for Strategic Projects pursuant to Chapter 3, Section 2;
(b)
every six months for the development of monitoring pursuant to Chapter 4;
(c)
once a year in order to discuss the progress of the implementation of Member State obligations related to exploration set out in Chapter 3, Section 5, including in light of updates to the lists of strategic or critical raw materials.
6. The Commission shall coordinate the work of the Board by means of an executive secretariat that provides technical and logistical support.
7. The Board shall carry out the following:
(a)
periodically discuss the implementation of Article 9 and share best practices for the purpose of accelerating the permitting procedure for critical raw material projects, as well as to improve the public participation and consultation in those projects;
(b)
where relevant, propose to the Commission guidelines for the implementation of Article 9(1) to be taken into account by the single points of contact;
(c)
periodically discuss the implementation of Strategic Projects and, where necessary, measures that could be taken by the project promoter or the Member State whose territory is concerned by a Strategic Project to further facilitate the implementation of those Strategic Projects pursuant to Article 15;
(d)
provide advice to the Commission on the assessment of the set up of the joint purchasing system pursuant to Article 25;
(e)
facilitate the exchange of best practices among Member States with the purpose of improving their national programmes pursuant to Article 26.
8. The Board may establish standing or temporary subgroups to deal with specific questions and tasks.
The Board shall establish at least the following standing subgroups:
(a)
a subgroup to discuss and coordinate financing for Strategic Projects in accordance with Article 16, to which representatives of national promotional banks and institutions, export credit agencies, the European development financial institutions, the European Investment Bank Group, other international financial institutions including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and, as appropriate, private financial institutions are to be invited as observers;
(b)
a subgroup to discuss and exchange views on measures to increase public knowledge on the critical raw materials supply chain and share best practices concerning public participation and stakeholders involvement in critical raw materials projects, to which representatives of civil society organisations are to be regularly invited as observers;
(c)
a subgroup bringing together national or, where relevant, regional geological institutes or surveys or, in the absence of such institute or survey, the relevant national authority in charge of general exploration, with the purpose of contributing to the coordination of national exploration programmes drawn up pursuant to Article 19;
(d)
a subgroup to discuss and exchange views on measures to promote circularity, resource efficiency and substitution of critical raw materials;
(e)
a subgroup bringing together national supply and information agencies covering critical raw materials or, in the absence of such agency, the relevant national authority in charge of that matter, with the purpose of contributing to the Commission’s monitoring and stress testing pursuant to Article 20;
(f)
a subgroup bringing together national emergency agency and national authorities responsible for strategic stocks or, in the absence of such agency and authority, the relevant national authority in charge of that matter, with the purpose of contributing to the coordination of strategic stocks as set out in Article 23.
In carrying out its tasks, the Board shall, where appropriate, ensure coordination, cooperation and information exchange with the relevant crisis response and crisis preparedness structures established under Union law.
9. The Board shall take the necessary measures to ensure the safe handling and processing of confidential and commercially sensitive information in accordance with Article 46.
10. The Board shall use its best endeavours to take decisions by means of consensus.