THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Articles 113, 66, 57 (2) in conjunction with Article 228 (3), first sentence, and Article 228 (4) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,

Whereas the Agreements between the European Community and the State of Israel on, respectively, procurement by telecommunications operators and government procurement should be approved;

Whereas these agreements concern public procurements to award contracts for goods, works and other services; whereas such other services cannot be reduced to the sole hypothesis of transfrontier services; whereas in its judgment of 7 March 1996 the Court of Justice of the European Community indicated that, in the present state of Community law, Article 113 of the Treaty establishing the European Community is not sufficient to base a Council Decision to conclude an agreement which concerns, on an independent basis, the provision of services whose nature cannot be considered as merely transfrontier; whereas it is therefore appropriate to base this Decision also on Article 66 of the said Treaty, in conjunction with Article 57 (2), which provides the procedural requirement necessary for its application;

Whereas it is appropriate for the Council to authorize the Commission, in consultation with a special committee to be appointed by the Council, to approve modifications, on behalf of the Community, to Annexes I and II to the first of the abovementioned Agreements; whereas, however, such authorization will be limited, as far as Annex I is concerned, to the modifications resulting from the application of the procedure of Article 8 of Council Directive 93/38/EEC of 14 June 1993 coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and telecommunications sector and, as far as Annex II is concerned, to the results of future negotiations within the framework of the 1996 Government Procurement Agreement,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS: