Article 18

The Board of Appeal shall comprise six members and six alternates selected from among current or former senior staff of the national regulatory authorities, competition authorities or other national or Community institutions with relevant experience in the energy sector. The Board of Appeal shall designate its Chairman. The decisions of the Board of Appeal shall be adopted on the basis of a qualified majority of at least four of its six members. The Board of Appeal shall be convened when necessary. The members of the Board of Appeal shall be formally appointed by the Administrative Board, on a proposal from the Commission, following a public call for expression of interest, and after consultation of the Board of Regulators. The term of office of the members of the Board of Appeal shall be five years. That term shall be renewable. The members of the Board of Appeal shall be independent in making their decisions. They shall not be bound by any instructions. They shall not perform any other duties in the Agency, in its Administrative Board or in its Board of Regulators. A member of the Board of Appeal shall not be removed during his term of office, unless he has been found guilty of serious misconduct, and the Administrative Board, after consulting the Board of Regulators, takes a decision to that effect. Members of the Board of Appeal shall not take part in any appeal proceedings if they have any personal interest therein, or if they have previously been involved as representatives of one of the parties to the proceedings, or if they participated in the decision under appeal. A member of the Board of Appeal shall inform the Board in the event that he, for one of the reasons referred to in paragraph 4 or for any other reason, considers that a fellow member should not take part in any appeal proceedings. Any party to the appeal proceedings may object to the participation of a member of the Board of Appeal on any of the grounds referred to in paragraph 4, or if suspected of bias. Such an objection shall be inadmissible if it is based on the nationality of a member or if, while being aware of a reason for objecting, the objecting party to the appeal proceedings has taken a procedural step in the appeal proceedings other than objecting to the composition of the Board of Appeal. The Board of Appeal shall decide on the action to be taken in the cases specified in paragraphs 4 and 5 without the participation of the member concerned. For the purpose of taking that decision, the member concerned shall be replaced on the Board of Appeal by his alternate. If the alternate finds himself in a similar situation to that of the member, the Chairman shall designate a replacement from among the available alternates. The members of the Board of Appeal shall undertake to act independently and in the public interest. For that purpose, they shall make a written declaration of commitments and a written declaration of interests indicating either the absence of any interest which may be considered prejudicial to their independence or any direct or indirect interest which might be considered prejudicial to their independence. Those declarations shall be made public annually.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-30 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.