EC/United States agreement: application of competition rules

Following an exchange of interpretative letters between the EC and the United States, which was annexed to their agreement on the application of their competition laws, the Council forwarded to Parliament a new draft decision which included this exchange of letters, in order that Parliament might express a new opinion on the entire text (agreement plus interpretative letters). In view of the obligation to take measures in conjunction with Court judgment C.327/91 of 09.08.1994, annulling the act by which the Commission concluded the agreement, the latter should be concluded by the Council as soon as possible. This is why the Council (in application of Article 228 (3) (1) and Article 235 of the Treaty) called on Parliament to give its new opinion before 17 March 1995. The exchange of letters seeks: - on the one part to correct the names of the contracting parties (errors due to the fact that the Agreement had previously been concluded between the Commission and the USA, and not between the Council plus the ECSC and the USA, as recommended in Court judgment C.327/91); - on the other part to specify the confidentiality of the information being entrusted to one or other of the Parties. �