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 (Galileo)

In order to ensure the requisite legal security and homogeneity of the Internal Market, the EEA Joint Committee is to integrate all the relevant EU legislation into the EEA Agreement as soon as possible after its adoption.

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, information services, and research and innovation.

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 information services, and research and innovation.

In order to extend the cooperation of the Contracting Parties to the EEA Agreement, Decision No 1104/2011/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on the rules for access to the public regulated service provided by the global navigation satellite system established under the Galileo programme needs to be incorporated in the EEA Agreement.

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

It should be noted that Liechtenstein decided not to participate in this activity and participation of Iceland shall be suspended until otherwise decided by the EEA Joint Committee.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)525: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making process http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:525:FIN

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