9. PROTOCOL ON THE TREATY AND THE ACT OF ACCESSION OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC, ESTONIA, CYPRUS, LATVIA, LITHUANIA, HUNGARY, MALTA, POLAND, SLOVENIA AND THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

PART ONE PROVISIONS RELATING TO THE ACT OF ACCESSION OF 16 APRIL 2003

TITLE I PRINCIPLES Article 1 For the purposes of this Protocol: (a) the expression ‘Act of Accession of 16 April 2003’ means the Act concerning the conditions of accession of the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic and the adjustments to the Treaties on which the European Union is founded;954393_TRAITE_EN_301_350 12-01-2005 15:56 Pagina 305 Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe 305 (b) the expressions ‘Treaty establishing the European Community’ (EC Treaty) and ‘Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community’ (EAEC Treaty) mean those Treaties as supplemented or amended by treaties or other acts which entered into force before 1 May 2004; (c) the expression ‘Treaty on European Union’ (EU Treaty) means that Treaty as supplemented or amended by treaties or other acts which entered into force before 1 May 2004; (d) the expression ‘the Community’ means one or both of the Communities referred to in (b) as the case may be; (e) the expression ‘present Member States’ means the following Member States: the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of Denmark, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Hellenic Republic, the Kingdom of Spain, the French Republic, Ireland, the Italian Republic, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Republic of Austria, the Portuguese Republic, the Republic of Finland, the Kingdom of Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; (f) the expression ‘new Member States’ means the following Member States: the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic. Article 2 The rights and obligations resulting from the Treaty on the Accession of the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic, referred to in Article IV‑437(2)(e) of the Constitution, took effect, under the conditions laid down in that Treaty, as from 1 May 2004. Article 3

1. The provisions of the Schengen acquis integrated into the framework of the Union by the Protocol annexed to the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Schengen Protocol’) and the acts building upon it or otherwise related to it, listed in Annex I to the Act of Accession of 16 April 2003, as well as any further such acts adopted before 1 May 2004, shall be binding on and applicable in the new Member States from 1 May 2004.
2. Those provisions of the Schengen acquis as integrated into the framework of the Union and the acts building upon it or otherwise related to it not referred to in paragraph 1, while binding on the new Member States from 1 May 2004, shall apply in a new Member State only pursuant to a European decision of the Council to that effect after verification in accordance with the applicable Schengen evaluation procedures that the necessary conditions for the application of all parts of the acquis concerned have been met in that new Member State. The Council shall take its decision, after consulting the European Parliament, acting with the unanimity of its members representing the Governments of the Member States in respect of which the provisions referred to in the present paragraph have already been put into effect and of the representative of the Government of the Member State in respect of which those provisions are to be put into effect. The members of the Council representing the Governments of Ireland and of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland shall take part in such a decision insofar as it relates to the provisions of the Schengen acquis and the acts building upon it or otherwise related to it in which these Member States participate.
3. The Agreements concluded by the Council under Article 6 of the Schengen Protocol shall be binding on the new Member States from 1 May 2004.
4. The new Member States shall be required in respect of those conventions or instruments in the field of justice and home affairs which are inseparable from the attainment of the objectives of the EU Treaty: (a) to accede to those which, by 1 May 2004, have been opened for signature by the present Member States, and to those which have been drawn up by the Council in accordance with Title VI of the EU Treaty and recommended to the Member States for adoption; (b) to introduce administrative and other arrangements, such as those adopted by 1 May 2004 by the present Member States or by the Council, to facilitate practical cooperation between the Member States’ institutions and organisations working in the field of justice and home affairs. Article 4 Each of the new Member States shall participate in Economic and Monetary Union from 1 May 2004 as a Member State with a derogation within the meaning of Article 3‑197 of the Constitution. Article 5
5. The new Member States, which have acceded by the Act of Accession of 16 April 2003 to the decisions and agreements adopted by the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council, shall be required to accede to all other agreements concluded by the present Member States relating to the functioning of the Union or connected with the activities thereof.
6. The new Member States shall be required to accede to the conventions provided for in Article 293 of the EC Treaty and to those that are inseparable from the attainment of the objectives of the EC Treaty, insofar as they are still in force, and also to the protocols on the interpretation of those conventions by the Court of Justice of the European Communities, signed by the present Member States, and to this end they shall be required to enter into negotiations with the present Member States in order to make the necessary adjustments thereto.

Article 6

1. The new Member States shall be required to accede, under the conditions laid down in this Protocol, to the agreements or conventions concluded or provisionally applied by the present Member States and the Union or the European Atomic Energy Community, acting jointly, and to the agreements concluded by those States which are related to those agreements or conventions. The accession of the new Member States to the agreements or conventions mentioned in paragraph 4, as well as the agreements with Belarus, China, Chile, Mercosur and Switzerland which have been concluded or signed by the Community and its present Member States jointly shall be agreed by the conclusion of a protocol to such agreements or conventions between the Council, acting unanimously on behalf of the Member States, and the third country or countries or international organisation concerned. This procedure is without prejudice to the Union’s and the European Atomic Energy Community’s own competences and does not affect the allocation of powers between the Union and the European Atomic Energy Community and the Member States as regards the conclusion of such agreements in the future or any other amendments not related to accession. The Commission shall negotiate these protocols on behalf of the Member States on the basis of negotiating directives approved by the Council, acting by unanimity, and in consultation with a committee comprised of the representatives of the Member States. It shall submit a draft of the protocols for conclusion to the Council.
2. Upon acceding to the agreements and conventions referred to in paragraph 1 the new Member States shall acquire the same rights and obligations under those agreements and conventions as the present Member States.
3. The new Member States shall be required to accede, under the conditions laid down in this Protocol, to the Agreement on the European Economic Area ( 1 ), in accordance with Article 128 of that Agreement.
4. As from 1 May 2004, and, where appropriate, pending the conclusion of the necessary protocols referred to in paragraph 1, the new Member States shall apply the provisions of the Agreements concluded by the present Member States and, jointly, the Community, with Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Egypt, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Romania, the Russian Federation, San Marino, South Africa, South Korea, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan as well as the provisions of other agreements concluded jointly by the present Member States and the Community before 1 May 2004. Any adjustments to these Agreements shall be the subject of protocols concluded with the co‑contracting countries in conformity with the provisions of the second subparagraph of paragraph
5. Should the protocols not have been concluded by 1 May 2004, the Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and the Member States shall take, in the framework of their respective competences, the necessary measures to deal with that situation.
6. As from 1 May 2004, the new Member States shall apply the bilateral textile agreements and arrangements concluded by the Community with third countries. The quantitative restrictions applied by the Union on imports of textile and clothing products shall be adjusted to take account of the accession of the new Member States. Should the amendments to the bilateral textile agreements and arrangements not have entered into force by 1 May 2004, the Union shall make the necessary adjustments to its rules for the import of textile and clothing products from third countries to take into account the accession of the new Member States.
7. The quantitative restrictions applied by the Union on imports of steel and steel products shall be adjusted on the basis of imports by new Member States during the years immediately preceding the signing of the Accession Treaty of steel products originating in the supplier countries concerned.
8. Fisheries agreements concluded before 1 May 2004 by the new Member States with third countries shall be managed by the Union. The rights and obligations resulting for the new Member States from those agreements shall not be affected during the period in which the provisions of those agreements are provisionally maintained. As soon as possible, and in any event before the expiry of the agreements referred to in the first subparagraph, appropriate European decisions for the continuation of fishing activities resulting from those agreements shall be adopted in each case by the Council on a proposal from the Commission, including the possibility of extending certain agreements for periods not exceeding one year.
9. With effect from 1 May 2004, the new Member States shall withdraw from any free trade agreements with third countries, including the Central European Free Trade Agreement. To the extent that agreements between one or more of the new Member States on the one hand, and one or more third countries on the other, are not compatible with the obligations arising from the Constitution and in particular from this Protocol, the new Member States shall take all appropriate steps to eliminate the incompatibilities established. If a new Member State encounters difficulties in adjusting an agreement concluded with one or more third countries before accession, it shall, according to the terms of the agreement, withdraw from that agreement.
10. The new Member States shall take appropriate measures, where necessary, to adjust their position in relation to international organisations, and in relation to those international agreements to which the Union or the European Atomic Energy Community or other Member States are also parties, to the rights and obligations arising from their accession to the Union. They shall in particular withdraw at 1 May 2004 or the earliest possible date thereafter from international fisheries agreements and organisations to which the Union is also a party, unless their membership relates to matters other than fisheries.

Article 7

Acts adopted by the institutions to which the transitional provisions laid down in this Protocol relate shall retain their status in law; in particular, the procedures for amending those acts shall continue to apply.

Article 8

Provisions of the Act of Accession of 16 April 2003, as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the European Communities and the Court of First Instance, the purpose or effect of which is to repeal or amend, otherwise than as a transitional measure, acts adopted by the institutions, bodies, offices or agencies of the Community or of the European Union established by the Treaty on European Union shall remain in force subject to the application of the second paragraph.

These provisions shall have the same status in law as the acts which they repeal or amend and shall be subject to the same rules as those acts.

Article 9

The texts of the acts of the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the Community or of the European Union established by the Treaty on European Union and the texts of acts of the European Central Bank which were adopted before 1 May 2004 and which were drawn up in the Czech, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Maltese, Polish, Slovenian and Slovak languages shall be authentic from that date, under the same conditions as the texts drawn up and authentic in the other languages.

Article 10

A European law of the Council may repeal the transitional provisions set out in this Protocol, when they are no longer applicable. The Council shall act unanimously after consulting the European Parliament. Article 11 The application of the Constitution and acts adopted by the institutions shall, as a transitional measure, be subject to the derogations provided for in this Protocol.