Council Decision (EU) 2017/1766 of 25 September 2017 on the position to be adopted on behalf of the European Union within the EPA Committee established by the Interim agreement establishing a framework for an Economic Partnership Agreement between the Eastern and Southern Africa States, on the one part, and the European Community and its Member States, on the other part, regarding the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union and changes in the list of countries and territories associated with the European Union

The position to be adopted on behalf of the European Union within the EPA Committee established by the Interim Agreement establishing a framework for an Economic Partnership Agreement between the Eastern and Southern Africa States, on the one part, and the European Community and its Member States, on the other part, regarding the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union and changes in the list of countries and territories associated with the Union, shall be based on the attached draft Decision. Minor changes to the draft Decision may be agreed by the representative of the Union in the EPA Committee without further decision of the Council.

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

The Republic of Croatia, as a a Party to the Agreement, shall, in the same manner as the other Member States of the Union, respectively adopt and take note of the texts of the Agreement, as well as the Annexes, Protocols and Declarations attached thereto.

This Agreement is drawn up in duplicate in the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish languages, each of these texts being equally authentic.’.

The European Union shall communicate to the ESA States the Croatian language version of the Agreement.

1 The Agreement shall be applied to goods exported, from either one of the ESA States to the Republic of Croatia or from the Republic of Croatia to one of the ESA States, which comply with the provisions of Protocol 1 to the Agreement and which on 1 July 2013 were either en route or in temporary storage, in a customs warehouse or in a free zone in one of the ESA States or in the Republic of Croatia.

2 In the cases referred to in paragraph 1, preferential treatment shall be granted subject to the submission to the customs authorities of the importing country, within four months of the date of entry into force of this Decision, of a proof of origin issued retrospectively by the customs authorities of the exporting country.

ESA States shall undertake not to make any claim, request or referral nor to modify or withdraw any concession pursuant to Articles XXIV.6 and XXVIII of the GATT 1994 or Article XXI of the GATS in relation to the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union.

Annex IX to Protocol 1 to the Agreement is replaced by the following: ‘’.

This Decision shall enter into force on …. Articles 3 and 4 shall apply with effect from 1 July 2013.