Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be adopted within the EEA Joint Committee concerning an amendment to Annex II to the EEA Agreement

The draft Decision of the EEA Joint Committee (annexed to the proposed Council Decision) aims to amend Annex II (Technical regulations, standards, testing and certification) to the EEA Agreement in order to incorporate Directive (EU) 2015/1535 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical regulations and of rules on Information Society services.

The main adaptations proposed are:

1) Definition of "technical specification", Article 1(1).
The adaptation ensures that the sentence "agricultural products as referred to in (…) Article 38(1) of the (…) TFEU" is disapplied as part of the definition of a "technical specification", on the grounds that Article 38(1) TFEU refers to the EU's CAP and CFP, both being instruments which are not within the scope of the EEA Agreement.

2) Requests for further information, Article 5(1).
An adaptation has been included to ensure sufficient exchange of information between the EU-pillar and the EFTA-pillar.

3) Forwarding of comments, Article 5(2).
The adaptation clarifies how comments to draft technical regulations shall be communicated between the EU-pillar and the EFTA-pillar.