What does the sentence ‘ESF provides the COST Office through a European Commission contract’ on your website mean? What does ‘implementing agent for COST’ mean?
The COST Committee of Senior Officials is the main decision-making body and formulates the general strategy for COST. The CSO does not have the legal personality which would allow it to receive a contract from the European Commission and to manage the COST Office which is responsible for implementing the CSO decisions. To that end, the ESF acts as the legal entity to provide and manage the COST Office in Brussels through a specific contract with the European Commission. To give a concrete example: COST Office staff is employed by the ESF in France with a contract under Belgian labour law to work on the decisions taken by the CSO.
