Article 90: Members of the Board of Appeal

1.  The term of office of the members of the Board of Appeal, including the Chairman and the alternates shall be five years. It may be prolonged once.
2.  The members of the Board of Appeal shall be independent. In making their decisions they shall not be bound by any instructions.
3.  The members of the Board of Appeal may not perform any other duties in the Agency.
4.  The members of the Board of Appeal may not be removed either from office or from the list during their respective terms, unless there are serious grounds for such removal and the Commission, after obtaining the opinion of the Management Board, takes a decision to this effect.
5.  Members of the Board of Appeal may not take part in any appeal proceedings if they have any personal interest therein, or if they have previously been involved as representatives of one of the parties to the proceedings, or if they participated in the decision under appeal.
6.  If a member of the Board of Appeal considers for reasons mentioned in paragraph 5 that he must not take part in a specific appeal proceedings, he shall inform the Board of Appeal accordingly. Members of the Board may be objected to by any party to the appeal proceedings on any of the grounds mentioned in paragraph 5, or if suspected of partiality. No objection may be based on the nationality of members.
7.  The Board of Appeal shall decide as to the action to be taken in the cases specified in paragraphs 5 and 6 without the participation of the member concerned. For the purposes of taking this decision, the member concerned shall be replaced on the Board of Appeal by an alternate.