Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be adopted, on behalf of the European Union, in the EEA Joint Committee concerning an amendment to Protocol 31 to the EEA Agreement, on cooperation in specific fields outside the four freedoms

In order to ensure the requisite legal security and homogeneity of the Internal Market, the EEA Joint Committee is to integrate all the relevant Union legislation into the EEA Agreement as soon as possible after its adoption and also allow for the participation of the EEA EFTA States in EEA relevant EU actions, activities or programmes.

Article 78 of the EEA Agreement provides that the Contracting Parties shall strengthen and broaden cooperation in the framework of the Union’s activities in the fields of, inter alia, small and medium-sized enterprises.

The draft Decision of the EEA Joint Committee (annexed to the proposed Council Decision) aims to amend Protocol 31 to the EEA Agreement on cooperation in specific fields outside the four freedoms in order to extend the cooperation of the Contracting Parties in the area of small and medium-sized enterprises.

It is therefore needed to incorporate in the EEA Agreement Regulation (EU) No 1287/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 establishing a Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (COSME) (2014-2020) and repealing Decision No 1639/2006/EC.

Protocol 31 to the EEA Agreement should therefore be amended in order to allow for this extended cooperation to take place from 1 January 2014.

It should be noted that Liechtenstein and Norway shall be exempted from the participation in, and the financial contribution to, this programme.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)250: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:250:FIN

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