Regional systems 115 the Charter at a later date, as their legal situation develops or as their financial circumstances allow (art. 3 (2)). The areas of public life, each corresponding to an article of part III, from which these specific undertakings must be chosen, are: • Education; • Judicial authorities; • Administrative authorities and public services; • Media; • Cultural activities and facilities; • Economic and social life; • Transfrontier exchanges. Implementation and monitoring Members of a committee of independent experts, composed of one member for each State party, are appointed by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe from “a list of individuals of the highest integrity and recognised competence in the matters dealt with in the Charter, who shall be nominated by the Party concerned”. As pointed out in the explanatory report of the Charter (para. 131), “by placing emphasis on the intrinsically personal trait of the ‘highest integrity’, the Charter makes clear that the experts appointed to the committee, in carrying out their task, should be free to act independently and not be subject to instructions from the governments concerned.” State reports on implementation of the Charter are to be submitted on a regular basis. The first report must be submitted within one year of the entry into force of the Charter for the State, and subsequent reports are to be submitted every three years thereafter. Once a State has submitted its report, the monitoring procedure begins. The committee of experts has developed innovative working methods and makes full use of the broad powers available to it to obtain and solicit information from non-official sources, particularly NGOs, under article 16.2 of the Charter. The committee carries out on-site visits, during which members visit the State being monitored to meet with both Government officials and representatives of the linguistic communities. Based on the information gathered, the committee adopts a report and submits it to the Committee of Ministers, which formulates recommendations to the State based upon the report and comments by the State. These reports are made public and are usually translated into the official language of the State.135 The role of NGOs in monitoring The committee of experts places great importance on the active role of NGOs in the monitoring procedure and sees NGOs as equal and essential partners in the dialogue between the States and the Council of Europe. NGOs have the opportunity to provide the committee with their views on the situation of regional or minority languages in the country concerned, in much the same way as they participate in the work of the Advisory Committee to the Framework Convention. NGOs and others should feel free to contact the committee of experts at any time to provide relevant information. Available from www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/minlang/Report/default_en.asp (accessed 4 December 2012). 135