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1. The Administrative Board shall be composed of nine members. Each member shall have an alternate. Two members and their alternates shall be appointed by the Commission, two members and their alternates shall be appointed by the European Parliament and five members and their alternates shall be appointed by the Council. No Member of the European Parliament shall be a member of the Administrative Board. A member of the Administrative Board shall not be a member of the Board of Regulators.

2. The term of office of the members of the Administrative Board and their alternates shall be four years, renewable once. For the first mandate, the term of office of half of the members of the Administrative Board and their alternates shall be six years.

3. The Administrative Board shall elect its Chair and its Vice-Chair from among its members by a two-thirds majority. The Vice-Chair shall automatically replace the Chair if the latter is not in a position to perform his or her duties. The term of office of the Chair and of the Vice-Chair shall be two years, renewable once. The term of office of the Chair and that of the Vice-Chair shall expire when they cease to be members of the Administrative Board.

4. The meetings of the Administrative Board shall be convened by its Chair. The Chair of the Board of Regulators or the nominee of the Board of Regulators, and the Director shall participate, without the right to vote, in the deliberations unless the Administrative Board decides otherwise as regards the Director. The Administrative Board shall meet at least twice a year in ordinary session. It shall also meet at the initiative of its Chair, at the request of the Commission or at the request of at least a third of its members. The Administrative Board may invite any person who may have a relevant opinion to attend its meetings in the capacity of an observer. The members of the Administrative Board may, subject to its rules of procedure, be assisted by advisers or experts. The Administrative Board's secretarial services shall be provided by ACER.

5. Decisions of the Administrative Board shall be adopted on the basis of a two-thirds majority of the members present, unless provided otherwise in this Regulation. Each member of the Administrative Board or alternate shall have one vote.

6. The rules of procedure shall set out in greater detail:

(a) the arrangements governing voting, in particular the conditions on the basis of which one member may act on behalf of another and also, where appropriate, the rules governing quorums; and (b) the arrangements governing the rotation applicable to the renewal of the members of the Administrative Board who are appointed by the Council so as to ensure a balanced participation of Member States over time.

7. Without prejudice to the role of the members appointed by the Commission, the members of the Administrative Board shall undertake to act independently and objectively in the interest of the Union as a whole, and shall neither seek nor follow instructions from Union institutions, bodies, offices or agencies, from any government of a Member State or from any other public or private body. For that purpose, each member shall make a written declaration of commitments and a written declaration of interests, indicating either the absence of any interest which might be considered to be prejudicial to his or her independence or any direct or indirect interest which might be considered prejudicial to his or her independence. ACER shall make those declarations public on an annual basis.