2014/348/EU: Council Decision of 5 June 2014 on the position to be adopted, on behalf of the European Union, within the EEA Joint Committee concerning an amendment to Protocol 31 to the EEA Agreement, on cooperation in specific fields outside the four freedoms

The position to be adopted, on behalf of the European Union, in the EEA Joint Committee on the proposed amendment to Protocol 31 to the EEA Agreement, on cooperation in specific fields outside the four freedoms, shall be based on the draft Decision of the EEA Joint Committee attached to this Decision.

This Decision shall enter into force on the date of its adoption.

Article 15 of Protocol 31 to the EEA Agreement shall be amended as follows: 1. In paragraph 2, the words ‘and which are carried out before 1 January 2014,’ are added after the words ‘paragraph 1’. 2. The following is added in paragraph 8: ‘— 32013 R 1296: Regulation (EU) No 1296/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on a European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (“EaSI”) and amending Decision No 283/2010/EU establishing a European Progress Microfinance Facility for employment and social inclusion (OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, p. 238). Liechtenstein shall be exempted from the participation in, and the financial contribution to, this programme. Norway shall participate in, and financially contribute to, only the EURES axis of the programme.’ 3. The text of paragraph 5 is replaced by the following: ‘The EFTA States shall participate in the Community activities referred to in the first indent of paragraph 8 as from 1 January 1999, in the activities referred to in the second indent as from 1 January 2003 and in the activities referred to in the third indent as from 1 January 2014.’

This Decision shall enter into force on the day following the last notification under Article 103(1) of the EEA Agreement . It shall apply from 1 January 2014.

This Decision shall be published in the EEA Section of, and in the EEA Supplement to, the Official Journal of the European Union.