17.5.2014 Official Journal of the European Union L 14779 COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION of 10 March 2014 setting out criteria for establishing and evaluating European Reference Networks and their Members and for facilitating the exchange of information and expertise on establishing and evalu- ating such Networks (Text with EEA relevance) (2014/287|EU) THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Having regard to Directive 2011/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2011 on the applica- tion of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare ('), and in particular Article 12(4)(b) and (c) thereof, Whereas: (1)  Commission Delegated Decision 2014/286/EU () sets out the criteria and conditions that European Reference Networks (Networks’) and healthcare providers wishing to join such Networks must fulfil. (2)  Pursuant to Article 12(4)(b) and (c) of Directive 2011/24/EU, the Commission is to decide the criteria for estab- lishing and evaluating the Networks and the measures for facilitating the exchange of information and expertise on establishing and evaluating the Networks. (3)  Networks should be established and healthcare providers approved as Members of the Networks on the basis of an open and transparent procedure. The procedure should include: (1) the call for interest; (2) Member States’ endorsement of applications of their healthcare providers; (3) the submission of applications to the Commis- sion; (4) the verification of the completeness of applications; (5) the technical assessment by an independent body of applications to form the Networks and of applications from individual healthcare providers wishing to be Members of a Network, to determine whether the applicants fulfil the criteria; (6) the communication of the assessment outcomes; (7) the approval of the Networks and their membership by Member States; and (8) the publication of the list of established Networks and of their Members. (4)  In order to increase the coverage of the Networks, individual healthcare providers wishing to join a Network should be allowed to do so at any time. Their applications should be assessed according to the same procedure as that used to assess applications for the initial Network, including the endorsement of applications by the Member State in question. (5)  In order to guarantee that the Network has genuine European Union added value and is big enough to enable the sharing of expertise and to improve access to care for patients across the Union, only applications from the minimum required numbers of healthcare providers and Member States, submitted in line with the call of interest, should be approved. If an insufficient number of healthcare providers apply or applications cover an insufficient number of Member States, the Commission should ask Member States to encourage their healthcare providers to join the proposed Network. (6) It might be difficult to reach the required minimum number of healthcare providers or Member States for some rare diseases or conditions due to a lack of expertise. It would therefore be a good idea to group healthcare pro- viders that focus on related rare diseases or conditions in a thematic Network. Networks could also include pro- viders of high technology services which usually require very high capital investment, such as laboratories, radi- ology services or nuclear medicine services. () OJL88,4.4.2011, p. 45. (*) See page 71 of this Official Journal.