Who is this page for?
If you collaborate with the European Commission, you will probably use the digital platform M365. Here you will find instructions on how to access it.
I have been invited to collaborate with European Commission Staff. What next?
A member of European Commission staff has invited you to collaborate with them on the Commission’s M365 digital platform. If this is the case, you should have received an email in your inbox. Please check your spam or junk folder as well.
Open the mail, and click on 'Open Teams' or 'Accept Invitation'. The process will guide you through authenticating your account and granting you access.
Signing in
To access the M365 platform, you need to sign in and authenticate as a guest.
Only after successfully authenticating in the M365 platform will you be able to collaborate with Commission staff in Teams or join a Teams meeting.
How you will sign in depends on your email address and the account type.
Different account types
There are two scenarios:
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If you are using Microsoft services(Office 365 or Azure AD), you can log in with your usual authentication method from your home organisation.
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If you do not have an account with Microsoft, you can authenticate with a One-Time Password (OTP) or create a Microsoft account to authenticate with a password.
Logging in with a Microsoft account:
Note: If you have an email address ending with Outlook, Hotmail, or Office, you can sign into M365 and Teams with your email account and password. They are all Microsoft accounts.
- When clicking on the 'purple button' in the email received, you will be asked to enter your email address and password for the Microsoft account.
- If you use Office 365 at your organisation, you will be asked to authenticate as usual – this will allow you to switch to the Commission’s platform when needed.
- After authenticating, you will be guided to the Commission’s M365 platform
Switching platforms:
- After you have been added to the Commission’s M365 platform, you will be able to switch to it, by clicking on your profile picture and selecting European Commission.
- If you do not see the Commission platform in the list of available platforms on the Teams web app, please clear your browser cookies.
- If you do not see the Commission’s platform in the list of available platforms on the Teams desktop app, please be patient. It might take up to a few days for the authentication to be processed. If urgent, please consider using the Teams web app, or clearing the Teams desktop app cache.
Logging in without a Microsoft account:
- If you do not have a Microsoft account, keep the email invitation to connect to the Team in the future. It will be your quick access 'ticket in' to re-authenticate in a simple manner.
- If you lose it, you may ask your contact at the Commission to remove you and re-invite you back to the team.
Authenticating with a One-Time Password:
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On the 'Sign in' dialog box, select 'Send code'.
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You will now receive an account verification code. This is called a 'One-Time Password' (OTP) verification. Copy the code.
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Now enter the code you copied in the verify email dialog box and click on 'Sign in'
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Review permission and click on 'Accept'.
Collaboration vs. Communication
Communication (instant messaging, audio and video calling) with Commission staff is possible if your home organisation is using Office 365, and the external access configuration allows for communication. Using external access is sufficient for joining meetings. However, collaboration (in a Team, sharing posts, co-authoring documents) will always require a guest account on the Commission’s M365 platform.
Note for IT administrators: Organisations that are using Office 365, who would like to communicate with Commission staff – are invited to add the ec.europa.eu tenant to the allow list in the federation settings of your tenant and adapt any other settings to enable external access.
Guest portal
Once you have followed all the steps and are logged into the EC M365 platform, you will be able to access the guest portal. There you can manage your 'guest account'. To verify if you have logged in correctly, try accessing the guest portal. If you get an error message, please make sure you followed all the steps mentioned under the sign-in section above.