Commissioner PAPOUTSIS stated that the Commission could take over all of the amendments tabled with the exception of three amendments (Amendments Nos 7, 8 and 9) to Article 7 on the proposed committee. To this end, the Commission had wanted an advisory committee to be set up, not to provide opinions on the projects but purely to exchange views on the annual guidelines. Consequently, the Commission felt that it could support the views of the Council, which, as far as the formulation of an official opinion on these guidelines was concerned, preferred the type IIb committee procedure. Mr Papoutsis also commented that the amendment to Article 8(2) seemed to be motivated by a certain disregard for decentralised agents, who could not be treated like implementing officials.