Council Regulation (EC) No 254/2003 of 11 February 2003 amending Regulation (EC) No 2368/2002 implementing the Kimberley Process certification scheme for the international trade in rough diamonds

Council Regulation (EC) No 254/2003
of 11 February 2003
amending Regulation (EC) No 2368/2002 implementing the Kimberley Process certification scheme for the international trade in rough diamonds
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 133 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Whereas:
(1) It is appropriate to ensure that the provisions established by Council Regulation (EC) No 2368/2002 of 20 December 2002 implementing the Kimberley Process certification scheme for the international trade in rough diamonds(1) enable all WTO-members fulfilling the requirements of the Kimberley Process certification scheme to participate in the scheme. Therefore, the definition of participant set out in Article 2 of that Regulation and the conditions governing the insertion into the list of participants contained in Annex II to that Regulation should be amended.
(2) The Community and all other participants listed in Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 2368/2002 have fulfilled the requirements of the Kimberley Process certification scheme in such a manner that the full application of all provisions of that Regulation will not lead to a serious disturbance of international trade in rough diamonds.
(3) Sufficient evidence has been submitted that those requirements will be fulfilled by 1 February 2003. The suspension of the applicability of those provisions should, therefore, be lifted from that date,