Introductory text

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 338(1), in conjunction with Article 218(9) thereof,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2894/94 of 28 November 1994 concerning arrangements for implementing the Agreement on the European Economic Area^f1, and in particular Article 1(3) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

Whereas:

The Agreement on the European Economic Area^f2 (‘the EEA Agreement’) entered into force on 1 January 1994.

Pursuant to Article 98 of the EEA Agreement, the EEA Joint Committee may decide to amend, inter alia, Annexes IV and XXI thereto.

Annexes IV and XXI to the EEA Agreement contain specific provisions and arrangements concerning energy and statistics, respectively.

Directive 2008/92/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008 concerning a Community procedure to improve the transparency of gas and electricity prices charged to industrial end-users^f3 is to be incorporated into the EEA Agreement.

Directive 2008/92/EC repeals Council Directive 90/377/EEC of 29 June 1990 concerning a Community procedure to improve the transparency of gas and electricity prices charged to industrial end-users^f4 which is incorporated into the EEA Agreement. Directive 90/377/EEC is consequently to be repealed under the EEA Agreement.

Liechtenstein is to be exempted from the obligations foreseen in Directive 2008/92/EC, except for the obligation to provide the industrial price data for industrial end-user band IC for electricity and for industrial end-user band I3 for gas.

Annexes IV and XXI to the EEA Agreement should therefore be amended accordingly.

The position of the Union in the EEA Joint Committee should be based on the attached draft Decision,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: