In the description of an authority it is mandatory to fill out three fields (taken from Bulletin No. 1):
Name of authority: it is the right place to give the original name of the unit (in any language - even not supported by the Commission -) and it is a field that is not translated. It is not expected to be particularly useful for locating authorities, since the official name (p.ej. “General Subdirectorate of …”, or “Ministry of …”) does not necessarily clarify well the role played as an authority within IMI.
Unofficial designation: it is translated (it must be written in Spanish so that the Commission can translate it) and its objective is to give a short and more useful description than the official designation about the role of the authority.
Description of the authority: allows a more detailed description (in Spanish, since it is translated) than is possible through the ‘unofficial designation’.
In spite of everything, it must be taken into account that when searching for authorities, the list obtained (and unless we decide to ‘open’ the detail of a specific authority) still shows only the fields of ‘designation’ and ‘unofficial designation’, in addition to the status and type of authority or coordinator in each legislative field (directive). Therefore, it is still highly recommended to clarify in the short description (the ‘unofficial designation’) the scope of authority within the system (the ‘long description’ is not available in the list of authorities located after a search, this information can only be accessed by viewing the detail of an authority). For example, in the competent authorities for professional qualifications, we recommend the explicit inclusion in the unofficial description of the profession (and the region if they are non-national authorities). When the system improves its search and results presentation options, this recommendation can be ignored, but today without following it, it is difficult to discern the correct authority through the list presented.