Mirror Group

1. Mission

To implement the recommendations of the “vision” report of the Photovoltaic Technology Platform at national level by deepening co-operation between Member States and European Activities on technical and non-technical matters related to the Technology Platform, with a view to promoting a European Research Area, facilitating public/private partnerships, removing national barriers to commercial exploitation and contributing to the realisation of a coherent European policy framework.

2. Main Objectives

• Ensure an appropriate interface for coordination and the representation (or inclusion) of relevant national, regional or local initiatives and activities under the technology platform.
• Provide representation and input to the Steering Committee and Working Groups from a national, regional or local perspective.
• Advance the European Research Area by initiating activities for closer coordination and co-operation between national and regional programmes, under the orientations provided by the technology platform.

3. Role and tasks

The Member State Mirror Group, acting in co-operation with the platform Steering Committee and its Governing Board has a crucial role to play in goal and target setting, proposing actions and providing opinion and feedback on strategies, activities and results generated through the platform operations. It will address the following activities:

Providing opinion and advice: Provide information and advice on a periodic voluntary basis to the Steering Committee on policies and programmes in the Member States, including Associated States and Candidate countries that are relevant to realising the goals and deliverables of the technology platform.

Promoting an enhanced co-operation and co-ordination among Member States and European activities: Explore mechanisms for developing synergies and reinforce the co-operation among national initiatives, programmes and projects, including information exchange, co-ordination in programme development and possibly joint implementation of programmes and initiatives.

Structuring and strategy development: Contribute to building a coherent EU strategy on research and deployment and exploring possible mechanisms for achieving greater integration, such as Article 169 or other instruments of the EU treaties.

Scoping activities and target setting: Propose actions to the Steering Committee relevant to concerns of Member States. Work with the Steering Committee to set goals and targets; provide reflection on overall European goal and target setting, having regard to national aspirations and circumstances, including those relating to economics, demography, climate and geography.

Closing the loop between technology development and policy-making: Identify mechanisms and develop suitable links with economic, energy, transport and environment policy to promote understanding and awareness of technology developments and to establish agreed criteria for proving cost-effectiveness of these technologies to meet policy objectives.

Act as an informal moderating body: Representing collectively and individually the interests and views of the Member States; and their respective regions and cities, provide responses to the recommendations and actions of the Steering Committee and assist in the dissemination of results of Working Groups.

Promoting public/private partnerships and “lighthouse” projects: Identify interlocutors in Member States, including cities and regions, to develop dialogue, inform and stimulate activities leading to definition of prestigious “lighthouse” demonstration projects based on public/private partnerships and demonstrating the potential of photovoltaic systems for utilities and consumer applications; acting together to develop common technology procurement programmes will provide leverage on public funding, and provide a sound basis for future industrial investment; exploring possible opportunities to showcase technologies in regional development projects.

4. Membership and rules for participation

Participants in the Mirror Group are Member States, Associated Candidate Countries and Associated States of the research Framework Programme having an interest in the development of photovoltaics. Additional participation from Regions or large Cities having ambitious integrated initiatives may be considered. Transnational organisations can participate in the Mirror Group provided that the individual countries which belong to them do not raise any objections.

The delegation of each Member State will be considered to be one Group member. Each Group member decides on the composition of its delegation and informs the group Secretary and the Chairperson. Each member of the Group will have a leader who can be accompanied by other delegates for those agenda items where their specific expertise is required. These additional delegates can attend the meetings and participate in the discussions and deliberations but cannot take part in votes.

            4.1. Obligation for members’ commitment

It is crucial that Member State delegates are empowered to devote time and effort to participate to meetings and to develop Member State position papers responding to recommended actions and reports from the Steering Committee and Working Groups.

            4.2. Chairperson and vice-chairpersons

The Mirror Group will select a committed member to act as Chairperson, to stimulate and co-ordinate Member States’ activities, to interact with the Steering Committee and participate to its meetings as representative of the Mirror Group. Two vice-chairpersons shall be appointed to assist the Chairperson. The Chairperson and Vice-chairpersons will serve for a two-year term with the possibility to renew it once.

            4.3. Secretariat

A secretariat will be established to support the activities of the Mirror Group and a Secretary will be appointed by the Mirror Group. The secretariat will act in a purely administrative capacity. This could be supported through a funded ERA-NET co-ordination action.

5. Resource Allocations

They will be determined by the Mirror Group.

6. Role of the Commission

The European Commission will be fully associated with the Group and will provide input to the process from the point of view of the Institution. It may provide initial secretarial support to the Mirror Group through organising and convening meetings to start the process.

7.  Rules of Procedure

            7.1 Interface with Technology Platform bodies

The Mirror Group will interact strongly with the Steering Committee and Working Groups. Links will be established explicitly through an appropriate level of cross-representation to be determined.

The Mirror Group may choose to structure their work in the most appropriate way, i.e. establishing working sub-groups to examine particular issues or to interact with the different Working Groups or other bodies of the Technology Platform. The sub-groups should report back to the Mirror Group. To this end, they may appoint a lead person to act as Rapporteur.

            7.2 Organisation and frequency of meetings 

The frequency and dates of plenary meetings of the Mirror Group will be co-ordinated with the meetings of the Steering Committee. An indicative number of two to four plenary meetings might be held per year. Joint meetings of the Mirror Group with other groups or committees may also be convened if necessary.

             7.3 Decisions and consensus 

The Mirror Group is an informal body and therefore it is not considered necessary to apply strict rules concerning voting procedures and opinions. Decisions will be taken by consensus as far as possible. One opinion per Member State will be allowed. If no consensus can be reached the chairperson might consider calling for a vote.

             7.4 Summary report of the meeting 

The summary report of each meeting shall be drawn up by the Secretary of the Group under the auspices of the Chairperson. This report shall contain, in particular, the conclusions and the proposed measures and actions. It shall be sent to the group members within 10 working days.

The group members shall send any written comments they may have on the summary report to the Chairperson and the Secretary. Any group member who does not provide any comments within 2 weeks will be considered to have given his or her tacit agreement to the report. If there are any disagreements, the proposed modifications may be discussed at the next plenary meeting of the Group at the discretion of the Chairperson.

            7.5 Attendance 

The official delegates of the group (see section 4) can attend the group meetings and will receive the formal invitation. At the previous request of a Group member or on the initiative of the Chairperson, the latter may decide to invite experts, in quality of observers, to discuss on particular matters. At each meeting, the Chairperson shall draw up an attendance list specifying the authorities or bodies to which the persons appointed by the Member States to represent them belong. At the beginning of every meeting any Group member whose participation in the work of the group might constitute a conflict of interest with regard to a particular agenda point must inform the Chairperson of this situation.

             7.6 Correspondence 

Correspondence relating to the Group shall be addressed to the attention of the Group Secretary with copy to the Chairperson preferably by e-mail. Correspondence for Group members shall be addressed to all the delegates designated by the different Member States.