Introductory text

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 71 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee^f1,

After consulting the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty^f2,

Whereas:

Council Directive 95/50/EC^f3 provides that certain measures are to be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission^f4.

Decision 1999/468/EC has been amended by Decision 2006/512/EC, which introduced the regulatory procedure with scrutiny for the adoption of measures of general scope and designed to amend non-essential elements of a basic instrument adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty, inter alia, by deleting some of those elements or by supplementing the instrument with new non-essential elements.

In accordance with the statement by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission^f5 concerning Decision 2006/512/EC, for the regulatory procedure with scrutiny to be applicable to instruments adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty which are already in force, those instruments must be adjusted in accordance with the applicable procedures.

In particular the Commission should be empowered to adapt the Annexes to Directive 95/50/EC to scientific and technical progress. Since those measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of Directive 95/50/EC, they must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC.

Directive 95/50/EC should therefore be amended accordingly.

Since the amendments made to Directive 95/50/EC by this Directive are technical in nature and concern committee procedure only, they do not need to be transposed by the Member States. It is therefore not necessary to lay down provisions to that effect,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE: