The draft Conclusions Report is shown to relevant parts of the EIB organisation and they have five working days to comment (20 days in exceptionally complex cases). If no comments are forthcoming, this will imply tacit agreement. In case of disagreement, the draft will be submitted to the Management Committee which will have five working days to comment.

The draft Conclusions Report is then circulated to the stakeholders involved in the complaint process and given up to 10 working days to make comments. This draft is watermarked as “Confidential Draft – do not disclose – for recipient comments purpose only”.

Comments are sought in order to:

• eliminate factual errors and omissions;
• clarify misunderstandings;
• allow the provision of substantial new evidence, if any;
• incorporate any decisions taken based on the conclusions provided;
• express views on the substance of the findings.

If no comments are received by the deadline, EIB-CM will proceed to the next stage. Otherwise, EIB-CM must respond to critical comments on its findings and recommendations, but it does not have to obtain the agreement of the parties consulted before the process moves to the next stage.