Agreement Concluded by the Council of the European Union and the Republic of Iceland and the Kingdom of Norway concerning the Latters' Association with the Implementation, Application and Development of the Schengen Acquis (Schengen Association Agreement)

The provisions of the Schengen acquis as listed in Annex A to this Agreement as they apply to the Member States of the European Union hereinafter referred to as the "Member States" which participate in the closer cooperation authorised by the Schengen Protocol, shall be implemented and applied by Iceland and Norway.

The provisions of the acts of the European Community listed in Annex B to this Agreement, to the extent that they have replaced corresponding provisions of, or adopted pursuant to, the Convention signed in Schengen on 19 June 1990 implementing the Agreement on the gradual abolition of checks at the common borders, shall be implemented and applied by Iceland and Norway.

The acts and the measures taken by the European Union amending or building upon the provisions referred to in Annexes A and B, to which the procedures set out in this Agreement have been applied, shall also, without prejudice to Article 8, be accepted, implemented and applied by Iceland and Norway.

A Mixed Committee is hereby established, consisting of representatives of the governments of Iceland and Norway, the members of the Council of the European Union, hereinafter referred to as the "Council", and of the Commission of the European Communities, hereinafter referred to as the "Commission".

The Mixed Committee shall adopt its own Rules of Procedure by consensus.

The Mixed Committee shall meet at the initiative of its President or at the request of any of its members.

Subject to Article 4(2), the Mixed Committee meets at the level of Ministers, senior officials or experts, as circumstances require.

The office of President of the Mixed Committee shall be held:

The Mixed Committee shall address, in accordance with this Agreement, all matters covered by Article 2 and shall ensure that any concern entertained by Iceland and Norway is duly considered.

In the Mixed Committee at the ministerial level, the representatives of Iceland and Norway shall have the opportunity:

Meetings of the Mixed Committee at ministerial level shall be prepared by the Mixed Committee at the level of senior officials.

The representatives of the governments of Iceland and Norway shall have the right to make suggestions in the Mixed Committee relating to the matters mentioned in Article 1. After discussion, the Commission or any Member State may consider such suggestions with a view to making a proposal or taking an initiative, in accordance with the rules of the European Union, for the adoption of an act or measure of the European Community or the European Union.

The adoption of new acts or measures related to matters reffered to in Article 2 shall be reserved to the competent institutions of the European Union. Subject to paragraph 2, such acts or measures shall enter into force simultaneously for the European Union and its Member States concerned and for Iceland and Norway, unless those acts or measures explicitly state otherwise. In this context, due account shall be taken of the time indicated by Iceland or Norway in the Mixed Committee as the time necessary to enable Iceland or Norway to fulfil their constitutional requirements.

The acceptance by Iceland and Norway of the content of acts and measures referred to in paragraph 2 shall create rights and obligations between Iceland and Norway, and between Iceland and Norway on the one hand, and the European Community and those of its Member States bound by those acts and measures, on the other hand.

In case:

this Agreement shall be considered terminated with respect to Iceland or Norway, as the case may be, unless the Mixed Committee, after a careful examination of ways to continue the Agreement, decides otherwise within ninety days. Termination of this Agreement shall take effect three months after the expiry of the ninety days period.

In order to achieve the objective of the Contracting Parties to arrive at as uniform an application and interpretation as possible of the provisions referred to in Article 2, the Mixed Committee shall keep under constant review the development of the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Communities, hereinafter referred to as the "Court of Justice", as well as the development of the case law of the competent courts of Iceland and Norway relating to such provisions. To this end a mechanism shall be set up to ensure regular mutual transmission of such case law.

Subject to the adoption of the necessary modifications to the Statute of the Court of Justice, Iceland and Norway shall be entitled to submit statements of case or written observations to the Court of Justice in cases where a question has been referred to it by a court or tribunal of a Member State for a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of any provision referred to in Article 2.

Iceland and Norway shall submit reports annually to the Mixed Committee on the way in which their administrative authorities and their courts have applied and interpreted the provisions referred to in Article 2, as interpreted by the Court of Justice, as the case may be.

If the Mixed Committee, within two months after a substantial difference in the case law of the Court of Justice and the courts of Iceland or Norway or a substancial difference in application between the authorities of the Member States concerned and those of Iceland or Norway in respect of the provisions referred to in Article 2 has been brought before it, has not been able to ensure the preservation of a uniform application and interpretation, the procedure in article 11 shall apply.

In the case of a dispute about the application of this Agreement or in a case where the situation provided for in Article 10(2) occurs, the matter shall be officially entered as a matter of dispute on the agenda of the Mixed Committee at ministerial level.

The Mixed Committee shall have ninety days from the date of the adoption of the agenda on which the dispute has been entered within which to settle the dispute.

In a case where the dispute cannot be settled by the Mixed Committee within the period of ninety days envisaged in paragraph 2, a further period of thirty days shall be observed for reaching a final settlement.

As far as administrative costs involved in the application of this Agreement are concerned, Iceland and Norway shall contribute to the general budget of the European Communities an annual sum of:

(or an equivalent amount in euro) subject to annual adjustment in view of the rate of inflation within the European Union.

In cases where operational costs involved in the application of this Agreement are not attributed to the general budget of the European Communities, but are directly incumbent upon the participating Member States, Iceland and Norway shall contribute to these costs in accordance with the percentage of the gross national product of their countries in relation to the gross national product of all participating States.

In cases where operational costs are attributed to the general budget of the European Community, Iceland and Norway shall share in these costs by contributing to the said budget an annual sum in accordance with the percentage of the gross national product of their countries in relation with the gross national product of all participating States.

Iceland and Norway shall have the right to receive documents drawn up by the Commission or within the Council pertaining to this Agreement and, at meetings of the Mixed Commitee, to request interpretation into an official language of the institutions of the European Communities of their choice. However, any costs of translation or interpretation into or form Icelandic or Nowegian shall be borne by Iceland or Norway, as the case may be.

This Agreement shall not affect in any way the Agreement on the European Economic Area or any other agreement concluded between the European Community and Iceland and/or Norway.

This Agreement shall not affect in any way any future agreements to be concluded with Iceland and/or Norway by the European Community, or on the basis of Articles 24 and 38 of the Treaty on European Union.

This Agreement shall not affect the cooperation in the framework of the Nordic passport Union, to the extent that such cooperation is not contrary to and does not hinder this Agreement and the acts and measures based on this Agreement.

This Agreement shall enter into force one month following the day on which the Secretary General of the Council, who shall act as its depositary, has established that all formal requirements concerning the expression of the consent by or on behalf of the Parties to this Agreement to be bound by it have been fulfilled.

Articles 1, 3, 4, 5 and 8(2)(a), first sentence shall apply provisionally as from the time of signature of this Agreement.

With respect to acts or measures adopted after the signature of this Agreement but before its entry into force, the period of thirty days referred to in Article 8(2)(a), last sentence shall start to run from the day of entry into force of this Agreement.

The provisions referred to in Annex A und Annex B, as well as those already adopted pursuant to Article 2(3), shall be put into effect for Iceland and Norway on a date to be fixed by the Council acting by unanimity of its Members representing the Member States which participate in the closer cooperation authorised by the Schengen Protocol, after consultations in the Mixed Committee in accordance with Article 4 of this Agreement, having satisfied itself that the preconditions for the implementation of the relevant provisions have been fulfilled by Iceland and Norway and that controls at their external borders are effective.

The putting into effect of the provisions referred to in paragraph 4 shall create rights and obligations between Iceland and Norway, and between Iceland and Norway on the one hand, and the European Community and those of its Member States in respect of which those provisions have also been put into effect, on the other hand.