Within twelve months, the Commission will, in principle, endeavour to:
- adopt a decision for priority cases pursuant to Article 4 of the PR, with a copy
addressed to the complainant; or
- send an initial administrative letter to the complainant setting out its preliminary views on non-priority cases.
The above instructions are "Best practices" and therefore do not constitute legally binding deadlines. The specificity of an individual case may indeed require an adaptation of, or deviation from these instructions, depending on the case at hand. Nevertheless, since the Commission must examine complaints "without delay" (Article 10(1) of the PR, as confirmed by the Court in Athinaïki and NDSHT), the rules enshrined in the Best Practices Code should be used as the normal milestones for handling complaints.