ANNEX

RECOMMENDATION No 1/93 OF THE EEC-EFTA JOINT COMMITTEE ON COMMON TRANSIT of 23 September 1993 for the amendment of the Convention of 20 May 1987 on a common transit procedure

THE JOINT COMMITTEE,

Having regard to the Convention of 20 May 1987 on a common transit procedure, and in particular 15 (2) (a) thereof,

Whereas the said Convention contains the Common Transit rules in trade between the European Community and the countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and between those countries themselves;

Whereas the Convention should be amended to allow for the accession of third countries,

HEREBY RECOMMENDS that the Contracting Parties to the Convention:

- amend it, with effect from 1 July 1994, along the lines set out in the proposal annexed to this recommendation,

- inform each other, by means of an exchange of letters, of their acceptance of this recommendation.

Done at Oslo, 23 September 1993.

For the Joint Committee

The Chairman

Jan SOLBERG

ANNEX TO THE ANNEX

Proposed amendment to the Convention between the European Economic Community and the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Finland, the Republic of Iceland, the Kingdom of Norway, the Kingdom of Sweden and the Swiss Confederation on a common transit procedure

The Convention between the European Economic Community and the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Finland, the Republic of Iceland, the Kingdom of Norway, the Kingdom of Sweden and the Swiss Confederation on a common transit procedure is hereby amended as follows:

A. Article 3 shall be replaced by the following text:

'Article 3

1. For the purposes of this Convention, the term:

(a) "transit" shall mean a procedure under which goods are carried under the control of the competent authorities from one office of a Contracting Party to another office of the same Contracting Party or that of another Contracting Party over at least one frontier;

(b) "country", shall mean any EFTA country, any Member State of the Community or any other State which has acceded to this Convention;

(c) "third country" shall mean any State which is not Contracting Party to this Convention.

2. From the date on which the accession of a new Contracting Party becomes effective in accordance with Article 15a, all references to EFTA countries shall apply to that country mutatis mutandis, and solely for the purposes of this Convention.

3. In the application of the rules laid down in this Convention for the T1 or T2 procedure, the EFTA countries and the Community and its Member States shall have the same rights and obligations.`

B. Article 15 (3) shall be replaced by the following:

'3. The Joint Committee shall adopt by decision:

(a) amendments to the Appendices;

(b) amendments of the definition of the ecu as set out in Article 10 (3);

(c) other amendments to this Convention made necessary by amendments to the Appendices;

(d) measures to be taken under Article 28 (2) of Appendix 1;

(e) transitional measures required in the case of the accession of new Member States to the Community;

(f) invitations to third countries within the meaning of Article 3 (1) (c) to accede to this Convention in accordance with Article 15a.

Decisions taken under subparagraphs (a) to (e) shall be put into effect by the Contracting Parties in accordance with their own legislation.`

C. The following shall be added after Article 15:

'5. Decisions of the Joint Committee referred to in paragraph 3 (f) inviting a third country to accede to this Convention shall be sent to the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Communities, which shall communicate it to the third country concerned, together with a text of the Convention in force on that date.

6. From the date referred to in paragraph 5, the third country concerned may be represented on the Joint Committee, subcommittees and working parties by observers.`

D. The following title and Article shall be inserted after Article 15:

'Accession of third countries

Article 15a

1. Any third country may become a Contracting Party to this Convention if invited to do so by the depositary of the Convention following a decision of the Joint Committee.

2. A third country invited to become a Contracting Party to this Convention shall do so by lodging an instrument of accession with the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Communities. The said instrument shall be accompanied by a translation of the Convention into the official language(s) of the acceding country.

3. The accession shall become effective on the first day of the second month following the lodging of the instrument of accession.

4. The depositary shall notify all Contracting Parties of the date on which the instrument of accession was lodged and the date on which the accession will become effective.

5. Recommendations and decisions of the Joint Committee referred to in Article 15 (2) and (3) adopted between the date referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article and the date on which accession becomes effective shall also be communicated to the invited third country via the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Communities.

A declaration accepting such acts shall be inserted either in the instrument of accession or in a separate instrument lodged with the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Communities within six months of the communication. If the declaration is not lodged within that period the accession shall be considered void.`