The Commission's weekly College meetings

The rules of procedure  [835 KB] provide that, as a general rule, the Commission must meet at least once a week.

In practice, the Commissioners meet every Wednesday in Brussels. However, during the European Parliament's plenary sessions, their meeting is held on Tuesday in Strasbourg.

In addition to its regular weekly meeting, the Commission may, when necessary, decide to hold special sittings (for example, an additional sitting to deal with a special matter, a sitting just before or at the same time as an important Council meeting).

For each meeting, the President of the Commission adopts an agenda, which may be linked to the Commission’s annual work programme for instance, and which is prepared by the Secretariat-General. The final agenda is circulated to the members of the Commission on the day before the meeting.

Certain requirements must be met regarding form and timing for an item to be entered on the Commission's agenda (oral procedure). The Commission may decide, by majority vote, to discuss a question which is not on the agenda or for which the necessary working documents have been distributed late.

The details of how the Commission meetings are organised are set forth in the rules of procedure of the Commission  [835 KB].

The meetings are not public and all discussions are confidential. However, the agendas and minutes of previous meetings are available in the register of Commission documents.

You are welcome to consult the agenda of the next Commission meeting. Please note that the agenda is set up in French before being translated into English. Therefore you might find the French version of the document some hours earlier on the Web.

The minutes of the most recent Commission meeting are usually available one week after the meeting was held. They are available in French and in English.

Moreover, the Commission takes most of its decisions not during its meetings. The Commission adopts mainly by written procedure as the major means. A decision project or draft is circulated between all Commissioners who can make comments or ask for changes during the time frame given. The decision is adopted when no comments have been given.