THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Decision 2002/309/EC, Euratom of the Council, and of the Commission as regards the Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation, of 4 April 2002 on the conclusion of seven Agreements with the Swiss Confederation, and in particular the sixth indent of the second subparagraph of Article 5(2) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
The Agreement between the European Community and the Swiss Confederation on trade in agricultural products (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Agreement’) entered into force on 1 June 2002.
(2)
Article 6 of the Agreement sets up a Joint Committee on Agriculture (hereinafter ‘the Committee’) to be responsible for the administration of the Agreement and ensure its proper functioning.
(3)
In accordance with Article 6(4) and (7) of the Agreement, on 21 October 2003 the Committee adopted its Rules of Procedure and set up the working groups needed to administer the Annexes to the Agreement.
(4)
The bilateral Working Group on Organic Products met to examine, in particular, the scope of Annex 9, the import rules applied by the two Parties and the exchanges of information between them to make recommendations on this to the Committee with a view to adapting Annex 9 to the Agreement.
(5)
Pursuant to Article 11 of the Agreement, the Committee may decide to amend the Annexes to the Agreement.
(6)
The Head of the European Union Delegation within the Joint Committee on Agriculture expresses the European Union’s support for the final version of the draft Decision of the Joint Committee.
(7)
The measures provided for by this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee set up by Article 37 of Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: