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Document 02021R1173-20240709
Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 of 13 July 2021 on establishing the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking and repealing Regulation (EU) 2018/1488
Consolidated text: Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 of 13 July 2021 on establishing the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking and repealing Regulation (EU) 2018/1488
Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 of 13 July 2021 on establishing the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking and repealing Regulation (EU) 2018/1488
02021R1173 — EN — 09.07.2024 — 001.001
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COUNCIL REGULATION (EU) 2021/1173 of 13 July 2021 (OJ L 256 19.7.2021, p. 3) |
Amended by:
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L 1732 |
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COUNCIL REGULATION (EU) 2021/1173
of 13 July 2021
on establishing the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking and repealing Regulation (EU) 2018/1488
Article 1
Establishment
Article 2
Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:
‘acceptance test’ means a test conducted to determine if the requirements of the system specification are met by a EuroHPC supercomputer;
‘access time’ means the computing time of a supercomputer that is made available to a user or a group of users to execute their computer programmes;
‘affiliated entity’ means any legal entity as defined in Article 187(1) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046;
‘AI-optimised supercomputer’ means a supercomputer that is designed primarily for training large scale, general-purpose artificial intelligence (‘AI’) models and emerging AI applications;
‘AI factory’ means a centralised or distributed entity that provides an AI supercomputing service infrastructure which is composed of an AI-optimised supercomputer or an AI partition of a supercomputer, an associated data centre, dedicated access and AI-oriented supercomputing services, and which attracts and pools talent to provide the competences required to use the supercomputers for AI;
‘Centre of Excellence in High Performance Computing’ means a collaborative project selected in an open and competitive call for proposals to promote the use of upcoming extreme performance computing capabilities enabling user communities in collaboration with other High Performance Computing stakeholders to scale up existing parallel codes towards exascale and extreme scaling performance;
‘co-design’ means a collective approach between technology suppliers and users engaged in a collaborative and iterative design process for developing new technologies, applications and systems;
‘conflict of interest’ means a situation involving a financial actor or other person as referred to in Article 61 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046;
‘constituent entity’ means an entity that constitutes a Private Member of the Joint Undertaking, pursuant to the statutes of each Private Member;
‘consortium of private partners’ means an association of Union legal entities coming together for the purpose of acquiring jointly with the Joint Undertaking an industrial-grade supercomputer; one or more of these private partners may be participating in the Private Members of the Joint Undertaking;
‘EuroHPC supercomputer’ means any computing system which is fully owned by the Joint Undertaking or co-owned with other Participating States or a consortium of private partners and which is a classical supercomputer (high-end supercomputer, industrial-grade supercomputer, AI-optimised supercomputer or mid-range supercomputer), a hybrid classical-quantum computer, a quantum computer or a quantum simulator;
‘exascale’ means a performance level capable of executing ten to the power of eighteen operations per second (or 1 Exaflop);
‘high-end supercomputer’ means a world-class computing system developed with the most advanced technology available at a given point in time and achieving at least exascale levels of performance or beyond (i.e. post-exascale) for applications addressing problems of greater complexity;
‘hosting consortium’ means a group of Participating States or a consortium of private partners that have agreed to contribute to the acquisition and operation of a EuroHPC supercomputer, including any organisations representing these Participating States;
‘hosting entity’ means a legal entity which includes facilities to host and operate a EuroHPC supercomputer and which is established in a Participating State that is a Member State;
‘hyper-connected’ means a communication capability of transferring data at 10 to the power of twelve bits per second (1 Terabit per second) or beyond;
‘industrial-grade supercomputer’ means at least a mid-range supercomputer specifically designed with security, confidentiality and data integrity requirements for industrial users that are more demanding than for a scientific use;
‘in-kind contributions to indirect actions’ funded from Horizon Europe means contributions by the Participating State or the Private Members of the Joint Undertaking or their constituent entities or their affiliated entities, consisting of the eligible costs incurred by them in implementing indirect actions less the contribution of that Joint Undertaking, of the Participating States of that Joint Undertaking and of any other Union contribution to those costs;
‘in-kind contributions to actions’ funded from the Digital Europe Programme or the Connecting Europe Facility means contributions by the Participating State or the Private Members of the Joint Undertaking or their constituent entities or their affiliated entities, consisting of the eligible costs incurred by them in implementing part of the activities of the Joint Undertaking less the contribution of that Joint Undertaking, of the Participating States of that Joint Undertaking and of any other Union contribution to those costs;
‘mid-range supercomputer’ means a world-class supercomputer with at most one order of magnitude lower performance level than a high-end supercomputer;
‘national High Performance Computing Competence Centre’ means a legal entity, or a consortium of legal entities, established in a Participating State, associated with a national supercomputing centre of that Participating State, providing users from industry, including SMEs, academia, and public administrations with access on demand to the supercomputers and to the latest High Performance Computing technologies, tools, applications and services, and offering expertise, skills, training, networking and outreach;
‘observer State’ means a country eligible to participate in the actions of the Joint Undertaking funded by Horizon Europe or the Digital Europe Programme that is not a Participating State;
‘Participating State’ means a country that is a member of the Joint Undertaking;
‘performance level’ means the number of floating point operations per second (flops) that a supercomputer can execute;
‘Private Member’ means any member of the Joint Undertaking other than the Union or Participating States;
‘quantum computer’ means a computing device that harnesses the laws of quantum mechanics to solve certain particular tasks using therefore fewer computational resources than classical computers;
‘quantum simulator’ means a highly controllable quantum device that allows to obtain insights into properties of complex quantum systems or to solve specific computational problems inaccessible to classical computers;
‘security of the supply chain’ of a EuroHPC supercomputer means the measures to include in the selection of any supplier of this supercomputer to ensure the availability of components, technologies, systems and knowhow required in the acquisition and operation of this supercomputer; this includes measures for mitigating the risks related to eventual disruptions in the supply of such components, technologies, and systems, including price changes or lower performance or alternative sources of supply; it covers the whole lifetime of the EuroHPC supercomputer;
‘Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda’ means the document covering the duration of Horizon Europe that identifies the key priorities and the essential technologies and innovations required to achieve the objectives of the Joint Undertaking;
‘multiannual strategic programme’ means a document laying out a strategy for all the activities of the Joint Undertaking;
‘supercomputing’ means computing at performance levels requiring the massive integration of individual computing elements, including quantum components, for solving problems which cannot be handled by standard computing systems;
‘total cost of ownership’ of a EuroHPC supercomputer means the acquisition costs plus the operating costs, including maintenance, until the ownership of the supercomputer is transferred to the hosting entity or is sold, or until the supercomputer is decommissioned without transfer of ownership;
‘work programme’ means the document referred to in Article 2, point (25), of Regulation (EU) 2021/695 or, where relevant, the document which also functions as the work programme referred to in Article 24 of Regulation (EU) 2021/694, or Article 19 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1153.
Article 3
Mission and objectives
The Joint Undertaking shall have the following overall objectives:
to contribute to the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2021/695 and in particular Article 3 thereof, to deliver scientific, economic, environmental, technological and societal impact from the Union’s investments in research and innovation, so as to strengthen the scientific and technological bases of the Union, deliver on the Union strategic priorities and contribute to the realisation of Union objectives and policies, and to contribute to tackling global challenges, including the Sustainable Development Goals by following the principles of the United Nations Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( 1 );
to develop close cooperation and ensure coordination with other European Partnerships, including through joint calls, as well as to seek synergies with relevant activities and programmes at Union, national, and regional level, in particular with those supporting the deployment of innovative solutions, education and regional development, where relevant;
to develop, deploy, extend and maintain in the Union an integrated, demand-oriented and user-driven hyper-connected world-class supercomputing and data infrastructure;
to federate the hyper-connected supercomputing and data infrastructure and interconnect it with the European data spaces and cloud ecosystem for providing computing and data services to a wide range of public and private users in Europe;
to promote scientific excellence and support the uptake and systematic use of research and innovation results generated in the Union;
to further develop and support a highly competitive and innovative supercomputing and data ecosystem broadly distributed in Europe contributing to the scientific and digital leadership of the Union, capable of autonomously producing computing technologies and architectures and their integration on leading computing systems, and advanced applications optimised for these systems;
to widen the use of supercomputing services and the development of key skills that European science and industry need;
to develop and operate the AI factories in support of the further development of a highly competitive and innovative AI ecosystem in the Union.
Article 4
Pillars of activity
The Joint Undertaking shall implement the mission referred to in Article 3 according to the following pillars of activities:
administration pillar, covering the general activities for the operation and management of the Joint Undertaking;
infrastructure pillar, encompassing the activities for the acquisition, deployment, upgrading and operation of the secure, hyper-connected world-class supercomputing, quantum computing and data infrastructure, including the promotion of the uptake and systematic use of research and innovation results generated in the Union;
federation of supercomputing services pillar, covering all activities for providing Union-wide access to federated, secure supercomputing and data resources and services throughout Europe for the research and scientific community, industry, including SMEs, and the public sector, in particular in cooperation with PRACE and GÉANT; those activities shall include:
support to the interconnection of the High Performance Computing, quantum computing and data resources owned fully or partially by the Joint Undertaking or made available on a voluntary basis by the Participating States;
support to the interconnection of the supercomputing, and quantum computing data infrastructures with the Union’s common European data spaces and federated, secure cloud and data infrastructures;
support to the development, acquisition and operation of a platform for the seamless federation and secure service provisioning of supercomputing and quantum computing service and data infrastructure, establishing a one-stop shop access point for any supercomputing or data service managed by the Joint Undertaking, providing any user with a single point of entry;
technology pillar, addressing ambitious research and innovation activities for developing a world-class, competitive and innovative supercomputing ecosystem across Europe addressing hardware and software technologies, and their integration into computing systems, covering the whole scientific and industrial value chain, for contributing to the Union’s strategic autonomy; it shall also focus on energy-efficient High Performance Computing technologies, contributing to environmental sustainability; those activities shall address inter alia:
low-power micro-processing components, interconnection components, system architecture and related technologies such as novel algorithms, software codes, tools, and environments;
emerging computing paradigms and their integration into leading supercomputing systems through a co-design approach; these technologies shall be linked with the development, acquisition and deployment of high-end supercomputers, including quantum computers, and infrastructures;
technologies and systems for the interconnection and operation of classical supercomputing systems with other, often complementary computing technologies, such as quantum computing or other emerging computing technologies and ensure their effective operation;
new algorithms and software technologies that offer substantial performance increases;
application pillar, addressing activities for achieving and maintaining European excellence in key computing and data applications and codes for science, industry, including SMEs, and the public sector; those activities shall address inter alia:
applications, including new algorithms and software developments, for public and private users that benefit from the exploitation of the resources and capabilities of high-end supercomputers and their convergence with advanced digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, high performance data analytics, cloud technologies, etc. through the co-design, development and optimisation of High Performance Computing-enabled large-scale and emerging lead-market codes and applications;
support, among others, to Centres of Excellence in High Performance Computing in applications and large-scale High Performance Computing-enabled pilot demonstrators and test-beds for big data applications and advanced digital services in a wide range of scientific, public and industrial sectors;
widening usage and skills pillar, aiming at developing capabilities and skills that foster excellence in supercomputing, quantum computing, and data use, taking into account synergies with other programmes and instruments, in particular Digital Europe Programme, widening the scientific and industrial use of supercomputing resources and data applications and fostering the industrial access and use of supercomputing and data infrastructures for innovation adapted to industrial needs, as well as providing Europe with a knowledgeable leading scientific community and a skilled workforce for scientific leadership and digital transformation of industry and public administration, including the support and networking of national High Performance Computing Competence Centres and Centres of Excellence in High Performance Computing;
international cooperation pillar, in line with the external policy objectives and international commitments of the Union, defining, implementing and participating in activities relevant to the promotion of international collaboration in supercomputing to solve global scientific and societal challenges, while promoting competitiveness of the European High Performance Computing supply and user ecosystem;
AI factory pillar for trustworthy and ethical AI, covering activities for the provision of an AI-oriented supercomputing service infrastructure that aims to further develop the research and innovation capabilities, competences and skills of the AI ecosystem; it shall include the following activities:
the acquisition and operation of AI-optimised supercomputers co-located with data centres or connected to data centres via very high speed networks;
the upgrading of existing EuroHPC supercomputers with AI capabilities;
providing access and fair access opportunities to the AI-optimised supercomputers or EuroHPC supercomputers that have been upgraded with AI capabilities, including widening their use to a large number of public and private users, including startups and small and medium-sized enterprises;
the operation of centralised or distributed AI-oriented supercomputing service centres in support of the AI startup ecosystem and the research and innovation ecosystem providing algorithmic support, support for the further development, training, testing, evaluation and validation of AI training models and systems, and support for the development of emerging large-scale AI applications in strategic areas such as health and care, climate change, robotics, or connected and automated driving;
the operation of supercomputer-friendly programming facilities, including for the parallelisation of AI applications for optimising the use of supercomputing capabilities;
the operation of other AI-enabling supercomputing services;
attracting, pooling and training talent to develop their competences and skills in using the EuroHPC supercomputers for AI;
interacting with the other AI factories, making their services accessible across Europe and cooperating with the EuroHPC Competence Centres and EuroHPC Centres of Excellence, and with relevant AI initiatives of the Union, such as the hubs of Artificial Intelligence startups, the Artificial Intelligence and data ecosystems, the Artificial Intelligence Testing and Experimentation Facilities, the European central Artificial Intelligence platform, the Artificial Intelligence-oriented Digital Innovation Hubs, the Artificial Intelligence related European Institute of Innovation and Technology Knowledge and Innovation Communities, relevant European research infrastructures and other related initiatives.
Article 5
Union’s financial contribution
The Union financial contribution to the Joint Undertaking including EEA appropriations shall be up to EUR 3 081 300 000 , including EUR 92 000 000 for administrative costs, on the condition that that amount is at least matched by the contribution of Participating States, distributed as follows:
up to EUR 900 000 000 from Horizon Europe;
up to EUR 1 981 300 000 from the Digital Europe Programme;
up to EUR 200 000 000 from the Connecting Europe Facility.
Article 6
Other Union contributions
Contributions from Union programmes other than those referred to in Article 5(1) that are part of a Union co-financing to a programme implemented by one of the Participating States that is a Member State shall not be accounted for in the calculation of the Union maximum financial contribution referred to in Article 5.
Article 7
Contributions of members other than the Union
The Commission may terminate, proportionally reduce or suspend the Union financial contribution to the Joint Undertaking or trigger the winding up procedure referred to in Article 23 of the Statutes in the following cases:
if the Joint Undertaking fails to meet the conditions for the Union contribution; or
if the members other than the Union or their constituent entities or their affiliated entities fail to contribute, contribute only partially or do not respect the time frames with regard to the contribution referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article; or
as a result of the evaluations referred to in Article 24.
The Commission’s decision to terminate, proportionally reduce or suspend the Union financial contribution shall not hinder the reimbursement of eligible costs incurred by the members other than the Union before the decision is notified to the Joint Undertaking.
Article 8
Management of contributions from the Participating States
In addition to the criteria set out in Article 22 of Regulation (EU) 2021/695, in Article 18 of Regulation (EU) 2021/694 or in Article 11 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1153, the work programme may include, as an annex, eligibility criteria regarding the participation of national legal entities.
Each Participating State shall entrust the Joint Undertaking with the evaluation of the proposals in accordance with Horizon Europe rules.
The selection of proposals shall be based on the ranking list provided by the evaluation committee. The Governing Board may deviate from that list in duly justified cases as set out in the work programme to ensure the overall consistency of the portfolio approach.
Each Participating State shall have a right of veto on all issues concerning the use of its own national financial contributions to the Joint Undertaking for applicants established in those Participating States, on the basis of national strategic priorities.
Each Participating State shall strive to synchronise its payment schedule, reporting and audits, with those of the Joint Undertaking and to converge its cost eligibility rules with Horizon Europe’s rules.
Article 9
Hosting entity
Following a call for expression of interest, the hosting entity referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article and the corresponding Participating State where the hosting entity is established or the corresponding hosting consortium shall be selected by the Governing Board through a fair and transparent process based, inter alia, on the following criteria:
compliance with the general system specifications defined in the call for expression of interest;
total cost of ownership of the EuroHPC supercomputer, including an accurate estimate and a verification method of the operating costs of this supercomputer during its lifetime;
experience of the hosting entity in installing and operating similar systems;
quality of the hosting facility’s physical and IT infrastructure, its security and its connectivity with the rest of the Union;
quality of service to the users, namely capability to comply with the service level agreement provided among the documents accompanying the selection procedure;
provision of an appropriate supporting document proving the commitment of the Member State where the hosting entity is established or of the competent authorities of the Participating States of the hosting consortium to cover the share of the total cost of ownership of the EuroHPC supercomputer that is not covered by the Union contribution as set out in Article 5 or any other Union contribution as set out in Article 6, either until its ownership is transferred by the Joint Undertaking to that hosting entity or until the supercomputer is sold or decommissioned if there is no transfer of ownership.
For the AI-optimised supercomputers the following additional selection criteria shall apply for the hosting entities:
proximity with an established datacentre or connection to an established datacentre via very high speed networks;
vision, plans and capability of the hosting entity to address the challenges of the AI startup ecosystem, the research and innovation ecosystem and the AI user community, and providing a supportive centralised or distributed AI-oriented supercomputing service;
quality and pertinence of experience and know-how available amongst the team that is expected to be in charge for the supportive AI-oriented supercomputing service environment;
plans for interaction and cooperation with other AI factories, with EuroHPC Competence Centres and EuroHPC Centres of Excellence and with relevant AI initiatives such as the hubs of Artificial Intelligence startups, the Artificial Intelligence and data ecosystems, the Artificial Intelligence Testing and Experimentation Facilities, the European central Artificial Intelligence platform, the Artificial Intelligence-oriented Digital Innovation Hubs and other related initiatives;
existing capabilities and future plans of the hosting entity to contribute to the development of the talent pool.
For the industrial-grade EuroHPC supercomputers referred to in Article 13, the hosting entity shall enter into an agreement with a consortium of private partners for preparing the acquisition and for operating such supercomputers or partitions of EuroHPC supercomputers.
Hosting an industrial-grade supercomputer shall respect the following conditions:
the Joint Undertaking shall entrust to the hosting entity the operation of each individual industrial-grade EuroHPC supercomputer jointly owned in accordance with Article 13;
hosting entities shall be selected in accordance with paragraph 5 of this Article and the Joint Undertaking’s financial rules referred to in Article 19;
following a call for expression of interest, the hosting entity and its associated consortium of private partners shall be selected by the Governing Board through a fair and transparent process based, inter alia, on the following:
the criteria set out in paragraphs 5(a) to 5(e) of this Article; and
the provision of an appropriate supporting document proving the commitment of the consortium of private partners to cover the share of the total cost of ownership of the EuroHPC supercomputer that is not covered by the Union contribution as set out in Article 5 or any other Union contribution as set out in Article 6.
Article 10
Hosting agreement
The hosting agreement shall address in particular the following elements regarding the EuroHPC supercomputers:
the rights and obligations during the procedure for acquisition of the supercomputer, including the acceptance tests of the supercomputer;
the liability conditions for operating the supercomputer;
the quality of service offered to the users when operating the supercomputer, as set out in the service level agreement;
the plans regarding the supercomputer’s energy efficiency and environmental sustainability;
the access conditions of the Union’s share of access time to the supercomputer, as decided by the Governing Board in accordance with Article 17;
the accounting modalities of the access times;
the share of the total cost of ownership that the hosting entity shall arrange to be covered by the Participating State where the hosting entity is established or by the Participating States in the hosting consortium;
the conditions for the transfer of ownership referred to in Articles 11(5), 12(7), 13(6) and 14(6), including, in the case of EuroHPC supercomputers, provisions for the calculation of their residual value and for their decommissioning;
the obligation of the hosting entity to provide access to the EuroHPC supercomputers, while ensuring the security of the supercomputers, the protection of personal data in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the protection of privacy of electronic communications in accordance with Directive 2002/58/EC, the protection of trade secrets in accordance with Directive (EU) 2016/943 and the protection of confidentiality of other data covered by the obligation of professional secrecy;
the obligation of the hosting entity to put in place a certified audit procedure covering the costs of operation of the EuroHPC supercomputer and the access times of the users;
the obligation of the hosting entity to submit by 31 January of each year to the Governing Board an audit report and data on the use of access time in the previous financial year;
the specific conditions applicable when the hosting entity operates a EuroHPC supercomputer for industrial usage or an AI-optimised supercomputer.
Article 11
Acquisition and ownership of high-end supercomputers
The remaining total cost of ownership of the high-end supercomputers shall be covered by the Participating State where the hosting entity is established or by the Participating States in the hosting consortium, possibly supplemented by the contributions referred to in Article 6.
Article 12
Acquisition and ownership of quantum computers and quantum simulators
The remaining total cost of ownership of the quantum computers and quantum simulators shall be covered by the Participating State where the hosting entity is established or by the Participating States in the hosting consortium, possibly supplemented by the contributions referred to in Article 6.
Article 12a
Acquisition and ownership of AI-optimised supercomputers
The remaining total cost of ownership of the AI-optimised supercomputers shall be covered by the Participating State where the hosting entity is established or by the Participating States in the hosting consortium, possibly supplemented by the contributions referred to in Article 6.
Article 13
Acquisition and ownership of industrial-grade EuroHPC supercomputers
Article 14
Acquisition and ownership of the mid-range supercomputers
Article 15
Upgrading of supercomputers
▼M1 —————
The hosting entity shall be selected by the Governing Board through a fair and transparent process based, inter alia, on the following criteria:
justification of the upgrade;
compatibility with the original EuroHPC supercomputer;
increase in operational capacity performance of the EuroHPC supercomputer;
provision of an appropriate supporting document proving the commitment of the Member State where the hosting entity is established or of the competent authorities of the Participating States of the hosting consortium to cover the share of the upgrading cost of the EuroHPC supercomputer that is not covered by the Union contribution as set out in Article 5 or any other Union contribution as set out in Article 6, either until its ownership is transferred by the Joint Undertaking to that hosting entity or until the supercomputer is sold or decommissioned if there is no transfer of ownership.
Article 16
Use of EuroHPC supercomputers
Article 17
Allocation of Union’s access time to the EuroHPC supercomputers
The Governing Board shall regularly monitor the Union’s share of access time granted per Participating State and per user category, including for commercial purposes. It may decide among others to:
re-adapt access times per category of activity or user, with the aim to optimise the use capabilities of the EuroHPC supercomputers;
propose additional support measures for providing fair access opportunities to users that would aim to raise their level of skills and expertise in High Performance Computing systems.
Article 18
Union’s access time to EuroHPC supercomputers for commercial purposes
Article 19
Financial rules
Article 20
Staff
Article 21
Seconded national experts and trainees
Article 22
Privileges and Immunities
Protocol No 7 on the privileges and immunities of the European Union, annexed to the TEU and the TFEU, shall apply to the Joint Undertaking and its staff.
Article 23
Liability of the Joint Undertaking
Article 24
Monitoring and evaluation
Article 25
Jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union and applicable law
The Court of Justice of the European Union shall have jurisdiction:
pursuant to any arbitration clause contained in agreements or contracts concluded by the Joint Undertaking, or in its decisions;
in disputes relating to compensation for damage caused by the staff of the Joint Undertaking in the performance of their duties;
in any dispute between the Joint Undertaking and its staff within the limits and under the conditions laid down in the Staff Regulations or the Conditions of Employment.
Article 26
Complaints to the Ombudsman
Decisions taken by the Joint Undertaking in implementing this Regulation may form the subject of a complaint to the Ombudsman in accordance with Article 228 TFEU.
Article 27
Ex post audits
Article 28
Protection of the financial interests of the members
Article 29
Confidentiality
The Joint Undertaking shall ensure the protection of sensitive information the disclosure of which could damage the interests of its members or of participants in the activities of the Joint Undertaking.
Article 30
Transparency
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 6 ) shall apply to documents held by the Joint Undertaking.
Article 31
Processing of personal data
Where the implementation of this Regulation requires the processing of personal data, they shall be processed in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 7 ).
Article 32
Access to results and information on proposals
Article 33
Rules for participation and dissemination applicable to indirect actions funded under Horizon Europe
Article 34
Reimbursement rates
For indirect actions funded under Horizon Europe, by way of derogation from Article 34 of Regulation (EU) 2021/695, and for activities funded under the Digital Europe Programme, the Joint Undertaking may apply different reimbursement rates for Union funding within an action depending on the type of participant, namely SMEs, and the type of action. The reimbursement rates shall be indicated in the work programme.
Article 35
Rules applicable to the activities funded under the Connecting Europe Facility
Regulation (EU) 2021/1153 shall apply to the activities funded by the Joint Undertaking under the Connecting Europe Facility.
Article 36
Rules applicable to the activities funded under the Digital Europe Programme
Regulation (EU) 2021/694 shall apply to the activities funded by the Joint Undertaking under the Digital Europe Programme.
Article 37
Support from the host Member State
An administrative agreement may be concluded between the Joint Undertaking and the Member State where its seat is located concerning privileges and immunities and other support to be provided by that State to the Joint Undertaking.
Article 38
Repeal
As regards the actions initiated under Articles 10, 11, 13 and 14 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1488, as well as Articles 6 and 7 of the Statutes annexed to that Regulation, it shall continue to apply until their completion and to the extent necessary.
Actions arising from calls for proposals and calls for tenders provided for in annual implementation plans adopted under Regulation (EU) 2018/1488 shall also be regarded as actions initiated under that Regulation.
Article 39
Transitional provisions
Article 40
Entry into force
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
ANNEX
STATUTES OF THE EUROPEAN HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING JOINT UNDERTAKING
Article 1
Tasks
The Joint Undertaking shall carry out the following tasks:
mobilise public and private sector funds for the financing of the activities of the Joint Undertaking;
support the implementation of the mission, the objectives and the pillars of activities of the Joint Undertaking listed in Articles 3 and 4 of this Regulation; those activities will be funded by the Union’s budget stemming from Regulation (EU) 2021/695 establishing Horizon Europe, Regulation (EU) 2021/694 establishing Digital Europe Programme and Regulation (EU) 2021/1153 establishing the Connecting Europe Facility, in accordance with the scope of their respective Regulations and by contributions from the relevant Participating States to the Joint Undertaking; for that purpose the Joint Undertaking shall launch calls for proposals, calls for tenders, and any other instrument or procedure provided for in Horizon Europe, the Digital Europe Programme, and the Connecting Europe Facility;
initiate and manage the calls for expression of interest for hosting or upgrading EuroHPC supercomputers and evaluate the offers received, with the support of independent external experts;
select the hosting entity of the EuroHPC supercomputers in a fair, open and transparent manner, in accordance with Article 9 of this Regulation;
conclude a hosting agreement in accordance with Article 10 of this Regulation with the hosting entity for the operation and maintenance of the EuroHPC supercomputers and monitor the contractual compliance with the hosting agreement, including the acceptance test of the acquired supercomputers;
define general and specific conditions for allocating the Union’s share of access time to the EuroHPC supercomputers and monitor access to those supercomputers in accordance with Article 17 of this Regulation;
ensure the contribution of its operations to the achievement of the objectives of Horizon Europe, the strategic multiannual planning, reporting, monitoring and evaluation and other requirements of that programme such as the implementation of the common policy feedback framework;
initiate open calls for proposals and award funding in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2021/695, and within the limits of available funds, to indirect actions, mainly in the form of grants;
initiate open calls for proposals and calls for tenders and award funding in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2021/694 and Regulation (EU) 2021/1153 within the limits of available funds;
monitor the implementation of the actions and manage grant agreements and procurement contracts;
ensure the efficiency of the European High Performance Computing initiative, on the basis of a set of appropriate measures;
monitor overall progress towards achieving the objectives of the Joint Undertaking;
develop close cooperation and ensure coordination with Union and national activities, bodies and stakeholders, creating synergies and improving exploitation of research and innovation results in the area of High Performance Computing;
develop close cooperation and ensure coordination with other European Partnerships, as well as operational synergies in common back office functions with other Joint Undertakings;
define the multiannual strategic programme, draw up and implement the corresponding annual work programmes for their execution and make any necessary adjustments to the multiannual strategic programme;
engage in information, communication, exploitation and dissemination activities by applying mutatis mutandis Article 51 of Regulation (EU) 2021/695, including making the detailed information on results from calls for proposals available and accessible in a common Horizon Europe e-database;
perform any other task needed to achieve the objectives set out in Article 3 of this Regulation.
Article 2
Members
The members of the Joint Undertaking shall be:
the Union, represented by the Commission;
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden;
Montenegro, North Macedonia, Switzerland and Turkey, on the condition that those third countries are associated to at least one of the relevant programmes referred to in Article 5(1) of this Regulation;
upon acceptance of these Statutes by means of a letter of endorsement, the European Technology Platform for High Performance Computing (ETP4HPC) Association registered under Dutch law with its registered office in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and Data, AI and Robotics (DAIRO) registered under Belgian law with its registered office in Brussels (Belgium).
Article 3
Changes to membership
Article 4
Bodies of the Joint Undertaking
The bodies of the Joint Undertaking shall be:
the Governing Board;
the Executive Director;
the Industrial and Scientific Advisory Board composed of the Research and Innovation Advisory Group and the Infrastructure Advisory Group.
Article 5
Composition of the Governing Board
Article 6
Functioning of the Governing Board
For the purpose of this paragraph, decisions of the Governing Board shall be taken by a majority consisting of the Union’s vote and at least 50 % of all votes of the Participating States, including the votes of the members who are absent.
For the purpose of this paragraph, decisions of the Governing Board shall be taken by a qualified majority. Qualified majority shall be deemed established if it represents the Union and at least 55 % of the Participating States that are Member States, comprising at least 65 % of the total population of these States. To determine the population, the figures set out in Annex III to Council Decision 2009/937/EU ( 8 ) shall be used.
For the purpose of this paragraph, decisions of the Governing Board shall be taken by a majority of at least 75 % of all votes, including the votes of the members who are absent.
At the first stage, the remaining 50 % of the voting rights shall be distributed equally among all Participating States. Decisions of the Governing Board shall be taken by a majority consisting of the Union’s vote and at least 55 % of all votes of Participating States, including the votes of the members who are absent.
At the second stage, the Governing Board shall decide by the qualified majority referred to in paragraph 4 of this Article.
The Executive Director shall have the right to attend the meetings and take part in the deliberations but shall have no voting rights. The Governing Board may invite, on a case-by-case basis, other persons to attend its meetings as observers.
Each observer State may appoint one delegate in the Governing Board, who shall receive all relevant documents and may participate in the deliberations of the Governing Board unless decided otherwise by the Governing Board on a case-by-case basis. Those delegates shall have no voting rights and shall ensure the confidentiality of sensitive information in accordance with Article 29 of this Regulation and be subject to the rules of conflict of interest.
Article 7
Tasks of the Governing Board
The Governing Board shall, in particular, carry out the following general administrative tasks of the Joint Undertaking:
assess, accept or reject applications for membership in accordance with Article 3(2) of these Statutes;
decide on the termination of membership in the Joint Undertaking of any member that does not fulfil its obligations;
discuss and adopt the financial rules of the Joint Undertaking in accordance with Article 19 of this Regulation;
discuss and adopt the annual administrative budget of the Joint Undertaking, including the corresponding staff establishment plan indicating the number of temporary posts by function group and by grade, the number of contract staff and seconded national experts expressed in full-time equivalents;
appoint, dismiss, extend the term of office of, provide guidance to and monitor the performance of the Executive Director;
discuss and approve the consolidated annual activity report, including the corresponding expenditure referred to in Article 18(1) of these Statutes;
exercise the powers of the appointing authority with respect to staff in accordance with Article 20 of this Regulation;
where appropriate, establish implementing rules to the Staff Regulations and the Conditions of Employment in accordance with Article 20(3) of this Regulation;
where appropriate, lay down rules on the secondment of national experts to the Joint Undertaking and on the use of trainees in accordance with Article 21(2) of this Regulation;
where appropriate, set up advisory groups in addition to the bodies of the Joint Undertaking referred to in Article 4 of these Statutes;
lay down rules and specific criteria for the selection, appointment and dismissal of members of the advisory groups set up in accordance with point (j), including considerations of gender and geographical diversity, and approve the rules of procedure laid down autonomously by these advisory groups;
discuss and approve the organisational structure of the Programme Office upon recommendation of the Executive Director;
where appropriate, submit to the Commission a request to amend this Regulation proposed by a member of the Joint Undertaking;
define the general and specific access conditions to use the Union’s share of access time of the EuroHPC supercomputers, in accordance with Article 17 of this Regulation;
establish the level of the fee of the commercial services referred to in Article 18 of this Regulation, and decide on the allocation of the access time for those services;
discuss and approve the Joint Undertaking’s communication policy upon recommendation by the Executive Director;
be responsible for any task that is not specifically allocated to a particular body of the Joint Undertaking; it may assign such tasks to any body of the Joint Undertaking.
The Governing Board shall, in particular, carry out the following tasks related to the acquisition and operation of the EuroHPC supercomputers and generated revenues referred to in Article 16 of this Regulation:
discuss and adopt the part of the multiannual strategic programme that is related to the acquisition of EuroHPC supercomputers referred to in Article 18(1) of these Statutes;
discuss and adopt the part of the annual work programme that is related to the acquisition of EuroHPC supercomputers and the selection of hosting entities and the corresponding expenditure estimates referred to in Article 18(4) of these Statutes;
approve the launch of calls for expression of interest, in accordance with the annual work programme;
approve the selection of the hosting entities for the EuroHPC supercomputers selected through a fair, open and transparent process in accordance with Article 9 of this Regulation;
decide annually on the use of any revenue generated by the fees for commercial services referred to in Article 18 of this Regulation;
approve the launch of calls for tenders, in accordance with the annual work programme;
approve the tenders selected for funding;
decide on the possible transfer of ownership of the EuroHPC supercomputers to a hosting entity, their sale to another entity or their decommissioning, in accordance with Articles 11(5), 12(7) and 14(6) of this Regulation;
decide on the possible transfer of ownership of the EuroHPC supercomputers to a consortium of private partners, their sale to another entity or their decommissioning, in accordance with Article 13(6) of this Regulation.
The Governing Board shall, in particular, carry out the following tasks related to the research and innovation activities, as well as the data use and skills activities of the Joint Undertaking:
discuss and adopt the part of the multiannual strategic programme that is related to the research and innovation activities referred to in Article 18(1) of these Statutes at the beginning of the initiative and amend it throughout the duration of Horizon Europe, if necessary; the multiannual strategic programme shall identify, inter alia, the other European partnerships with which the Joint Undertaking shall establish a formal and regular collaboration, as well as possibilities for synergies between the Joint Undertaking’s actions and national or regional initiatives and policies based on information received by the Participating States;
discuss and adopt the part of the annual work programme that is related to the research and innovation activities and the corresponding expenditure estimates referred to in Article 18(4) of these Statutes to implement the multiannual strategic programme, including the content of the calls for proposals, the applicable funding rate per call topic, as well as the related rules for submission, evaluation, selection, award and review procedures;
approve the launch of calls for proposals, in accordance with the annual work programme;
approve the list of actions selected for funding on the basis of the recommendation of the Executive Director pursuant to Article 8 of this Regulation;
be responsible for the close and timely monitoring of the progress of the Joint Undertaking’s research and innovation programme and individual actions in relation to the priorities of the Commission and the multiannual strategic programme and take corrective measures where needed to ensure that the Joint Undertaking meets its objectives.
The Governing Board shall, in particular, carry out the following tasks related to the capability building and widening activities of the Joint Undertaking:
discuss and adopt the part of the multiannual strategic programme that is related to the capability building and widening activities referred to in Article 18(1) of these Statutes;
discuss and adopt the part of the annual work programme that is related to the capability building and widening activities and the corresponding expenditure estimates referred to in Article 18(4) of these Statutes;
approve the launch of calls for proposals and calls for tenders, in accordance with the annual work programme;
approve the list of actions selected for funding on the basis of the recommendation of the Executive Director.
The Governing Board shall, in particular, carry out the following tasks related to the federation and connectivity of the High Performance Computing and data infrastructure activities, as well as the international cooperation activities of the Joint Undertaking:
discuss and adopt the part of the multiannual strategic programme that is related to the federation and connectivity of the High Performance Computing and data infrastructure activities, as well as the international cooperation activities referred to in Article 18(1) of these Statutes;
discuss and adopt the part of the annual work programme that is related to the federation and connectivity of the High Performance Computing and data infrastructure activities, as well as to the international cooperation activities and the corresponding expenditure estimates referred to in Article 18(4) of these Statutes;
approve the launch of calls for proposals and calls for tenders, in accordance with the annual work programme;
approve the list of actions selected for funding on the basis of the recommendation of the Executive Director.
Article 8
Appointment, dismissal or extension of the term of office of the Executive Director
The Executive Director shall be appointed by the Governing Board from a list of candidates proposed by the Commission following an open and transparent selection procedure.
For the purpose of concluding the contract of the Executive Director, the Joint Undertaking shall be represented by the chair of the Governing Board.
Article 9
Tasks of the Executive Director
The Executive Director shall carry out, in particular, the following tasks in an independent manner:
submit for discussion and adoption to the Governing Board the draft multiannual strategic programme referred to in Article 18(1) of these Statutes;
prepare and submit to the Governing Board for discussion and adoption the draft annual budget, including the corresponding staff establishment programme indicating the number of temporary posts in each grade and function group and the number of contract staff and seconded national experts expressed in full-time equivalents;
prepare and submit to the Governing Board for discussion and adoption the draft annual work programme including the scope of the calls for proposals, calls for expression of interest and calls for tenders needed to implement the research and innovation activities programme, the procurement programme, the capability building and widening activities programme and the federation, connectivity and international cooperation activities programme, as proposed by the Industrial and Scientific Advisory Board, and the corresponding expenditure estimates, as proposed by the Participating States and the Commission;
submit the annual accounts to the Governing Board for its opinion;
prepare and submit for approval to the Governing Board the consolidated annual activity report, including the information on corresponding expenditure;
sign individual grant agreements, contracts and decisions in his or her remit on behalf of the Joint Undertaking;
sign procurement contracts;
monitor the operations of the EuroHPC supercomputers owned or funded by the Joint Undertaking, including the allocation of the Union’s share of access time, compliance with the access rights for academic and industrial users and quality of provided services;
propose the Joint Undertaking’s communication policy to the Governing Board;
organise, direct and supervise the operations and the staff of the Joint Undertaking within the limits of the delegation by the Governing Board as provided for in Article 20(2) of this Regulation;
establish and ensure the functioning of an effective and efficient internal control system and report any significant change to it to the Governing Board;
ensure that risk assessment and risk management are performed;
arrange, as appropriate, for the establishment of an internal audit capability of the Joint Undertaking;
allocate access time for emergencies and crisis management, in agreement with the access policy defined by the Governing Board;
take any other measures needed to assess the progress of the Joint Undertaking towards its objectives, as set out in Article 3 of this Regulation;
perform any other tasks entrusted or delegated to the Executive Director by the Governing Board.
The Executive Director shall set up a Programme Office for the execution, under his or her responsibility, of all support tasks arising from this Regulation. The Programme Office shall be composed of the staff of the Joint Undertaking and shall in particular carry out the following tasks:
provide support in establishing and managing an appropriate accounting system in accordance with the financial rules referred to in Article 19 of this Regulation;
manage the calls for proposals as provided for in the annual work programme and administer the grant agreements and decisions;
manage the calls for tenders as provided for in the annual work programme and administer the contracts;
manage the process for the selection of the hosting entities and administer the hosting agreements;
provide the members and the other bodies of the Joint Undertaking with all relevant information and support necessary for them to perform their duties, as well as respond to their specific requests;
act as the secretariat of the bodies of the Joint Undertaking and provide support to advisory groups set up by the Governing Board.
Article 10
Composition of the Industrial and Scientific Advisory Board
Article 11
Functioning of the Research and Innovation Advisory Group
Article 12
Functioning of the Infrastructure Advisory Group
Article 13
Tasks of the Research and Innovation Advisory Group
The Research and Innovation Advisory Group shall:
draw up its contribution to the draft multiannual strategic programme in relation to research and innovation activities referred to in Article 18(1) of these Statutes and review it regularly in accordance with the evolution of the scientific and industrial demand;
organise public consultations open to all public and private stakeholders having an interest in the fields of High Performance Computing and quantum computing to inform them about, and collect feedback on, the draft multiannual strategic programme and the related draft activities of the research and innovation work programme for a given year.
The contribution to the draft multiannual strategic programme referred to in paragraph 1 shall include:
the strategic research and innovation agenda identifying the research and innovation priorities for the development and uptake of technologies and end-user applications for High Performance Computing across different application areas, in order to support the development of an integrated High Performance Computing, quantum computing and data ecosystem in the Union, to increase the Union’s resilience and to help create new markets and societal applications and measures to promote the development and uptake of European technology;
potential international cooperation activities in research and innovation that add value and are of mutual interest;
training and education priorities for addressing key competences and the skills gap in High Performance Computing and quantum computing technologies and applications, in particular for industry.
Article 14
Tasks of the Infrastructure Advisory Group
The Infrastructure Advisory Group shall provide advice to the Governing Board for the acquisition and operation of the EuroHPC supercomputers. For that purpose, it shall:
draw up its contribution to the draft multiannual strategic programme referred to in Article 18(1) of these Statutes in relation to acquisition of EuroHPC computers and capability building and widening activities and review it regularly in accordance with the evolution of scientific and industrial demand;
organise public consultations open to all public and private stakeholders having an interest in the field of High Performance Computing, including quantum computing, to inform them about, and collect feedback on, the draft multiannual strategic programme for the acquisition and operation of the EuroHPC supercomputers and the related draft activities of the work programme for a given year.
The contribution to the draft multiannual strategic programme referred to in paragraph 1 shall address:
the acquisition of the EuroHPC supercomputers taking into account, inter alia, the planning of the acquisition, the needed capacity increases, the types of applications and user communities to be addressed, the relevant user requirements and appropriate system architectures, the user requirements, and the architecture of the infrastructure;
the federation and interconnection of this infrastructure, taking into account, inter alia, the integration with national High Performance Computing or quantum computing infrastructures, and the architecture of the hyper-connected and federated infrastructure; and
the capability building, including the national High Performance Computing Competence Centres and widening and training activities for end-users, as well as opportunities for promoting the take-up and use of European technology solutions notably by the national High Performance Computing Competence Centres.
Article 15
Sources of financing
If part of the Union contribution for administrative costs is not used, it may be made available to cover the operational costs of the Joint Undertaking.
The operational costs of the Joint Undertaking shall be covered by means of:
the Union’s financial contribution;
financial contributions by the Participating State where the hosting entity is established or by the Participating States in a hosting consortium to the Joint Undertaking, including the Union contributions that are considered to be contributions of the Participating State pursuant to Article 15(3) of Regulation (EU) 2021/695, for the acquisition of the high-end EuroHPC supercomputers or quantum machines and for their operation until their ownership is transferred to the hosting entity, they are sold or decommissioned in accordance with Articles 11(5) and 12(7) of this Regulation, less the contributions by the Joint Undertaking and any other Union contribution to those costs;
in-kind contributions by the Participating State where the hosting entity is established or by the Participating States in a hosting consortium, including the Union contributions that are considered to be contributions of the Participating State pursuant to Article 15(3) of Regulation (EU) 2021/695, consisting of the operating costs of the EuroHPC supercomputers owned by the Joint Undertaking, incurred by the hosting entities, less the contributions by the Joint Undertaking and any other Union contribution to those costs;
financial contributions by the Participating State where the hosting entity is established or by the Participating States in a hosting consortium, including the Union contributions that are considered to be contributions of the Participating State pursuant to Article 15(3) of Regulation (EU) 2021/695, consisting of the costs incurred for the acquisition, jointly with the Joint Undertaking, of the mid-range EuroHPC supercomputers, less the contributions by the Joint Undertaking and any other Union contribution to those costs;
financial contributions by a consortium of private partners consisting of the costs incurred for the acquisition and operation, jointly with the Joint Undertaking, of the industrial-grade EuroHPC supercomputers, less the contributions by the Joint Undertaking and any other Union contribution to those costs, until their ownership is transferred to the hosting entity, they are sold or decommissioned in accordance with Article 13(6) of this Regulation;
financial contributions by Participating States to the eligible costs incurred by beneficiaries established in that Participating State, including the Union contributions that are considered to be contributions of the Participating State pursuant to Article 15(3) of Regulation (EU) 2021/695, in implementing indirect actions corresponding to the research and innovation agenda as a complement to the reimbursement of these costs made by the Joint Undertaking, less the contributions by the Joint Undertaking and any other Union contribution to those costs. Such contributions shall be without prejudice to state-aid rules;
in-kind contributions by the Private Members or their constituent entities and affiliated entities as defined in Article 2, points (16) and (17) of this Regulation.
The resources of the Joint Undertaking entered in its budget shall be composed of the following contributions:
Union financial contributions to the administrative costs;
members’ financial contributions to the operational costs;
any revenue generated by the Joint Undertaking;
any other financial contributions, resources and revenues;
any interest yielded by the contributions paid to the Joint Undertaking shall be considered to be its revenue.
Article 16
Financial commitments
The financial commitments of the Joint Undertaking shall not exceed the amount of financial resources available or committed to its budget by its members. The Commission may provide multi-annual commitments.
Article 17
Financial year
The financial year shall run from 1 January to 31 December.
Article 18
Operational and financial planning
Article 19
Operational and financial reporting
The Executive Director shall report annually to the Governing Board on the performance of his or her duties in accordance with the financial rules of the Joint Undertaking referred to in Article 19 of this Regulation. The consolidated annual activity report shall include, inter alia, information on the following matters:
research, innovation and other actions carried out and the corresponding expenditure;
acquisition and operation of infrastructure, including the use of and access to the infrastructure, including the access time effectively used by each Participating State;
the proposals and tenders submitted, including a breakdown by participant type, including SMEs, and by country;
the indirect actions selected for funding, with a breakdown by participant type, including SMEs, and by country, and indicating the contributions of the Joint Undertaking to the individual participants and actions;
the tenders selected for funding, with a breakdown by type of contractor, including SMEs, and by country, and indicating the contributions of the Joint Undertaking to the individual contractors and procurement actions;
the outcome of the procurement activities;
progress towards the achievement of the objectives set out in Article 3 of this Regulation and proposals for further necessary work to achieve those objectives.
Article 20
Internal audit
Article 21
Liability of members and insurance
Article 22
Conflict of interest
Article 23
Winding-up
( 1 ) OJ L 282, 19.10.2016, p. 4.
( 2 ) OJ L 56, 4.3.1968, p. 1.
( 3 ) Council Regulation (Euratom, EC) No 2185/96 of 11 November 1996 concerning on-the-spot checks and inspections carried out by the Commission in order to protect the European Communities’ financial interests against fraud and other irregularities (OJ L 292, 15.11.1996, p. 2).
( 4 ) Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 883/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 September 2013 concerning investigations conducted by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1073/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Regulation (Euratom) No 1074/1999 (OJ L 248, 18.9.2013, p. 1).
( 5 ) OJ L 136, 31.5.1999, p. 15.
( 6 ) Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43).
( 7 ) Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC (OJ L 295, 21.11.2018, p. 39).
( 8 ) Council Decision 2009/937/EU of 1 December 2009 adopting the Council’s Rules of Procedure (OJ L 325, 11.12.2009, p. 35).