Council Decision (EU) 2024/876 of 4 March 2024 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 (ASAP)

The position to be adopted, on behalf of the Union, within 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.

‘15 32023 R 1525: Regulation (EU) 2023/1525 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 July 2023 on supporting ammunition production (ASAP) (OJ L 185, 24.7.2023, p. 7). The EFTA States shall, as from 25 July 2023, participate in the Union actions related to the following budget lines, entered in the general budget of the European Union: Budget line 13 01 05: “Support expenditure for the Defence Industrial Reinforcement Instrument”, Budget line 13 07 01: “Defence Industrial Reinforcement Instrument”. The costs incurred for activities the implementation of which starts after 25 July 2023 or, where the conditions of Article 7(2) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1525 are fulfilled, after 20 March 2023 may be considered eligible as from the starting date of the action fixed in the grant agreement or the grant decisions concerned, under the conditions set out therein, provided that Decision of the EEA Joint Committee No … of … [This Decision] enters into force before the end of the action. In accordance with paragraphs 8 and 9 of Article 1 of Protocol 32 to the EEA Agreement, the financial contribution of the EFTA States shall apply to all the transactions that are made on the relevant budget lines for the financial year 2023 retroactively. The corresponding commitment appropriations for the financial year 2023 shall be available, mutatis mutandis, under the same terms as the appropriations for the financial year 2024; they shall in particular give rise to the provision, at the start of the financial year 2024, of the full amounts of the corresponding commitment appropriations for the financial year 2023. Iceland and Liechtenstein shall be exempted from participation in, and the financial contribution to, the Instrument established by Regulation (EU) 2023/1525.’

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 25 July 2023.

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