THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

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

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Whereas bilateral agreements on trade in textile products, hereafter referred to as ‘basic agreements’, were negotiated with Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan and have been applied on a provisional basis by Council Decision 94/277/EC of 20 December 19931;

Whereas the basic agreement with Lithuania was approved by Council Decision 94/978/EC of 19 December 19942 and entered into force on 1 January 1995;

Whereas the Commission has negotiated on behalf of the Community bilateral agreements in the form of Exchanges of Letters to amend the basic agreements with the abovementioned countries in order to take into account the accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden to the European Union; whereas these negotiated agreements should be applied on a provisional basis from 1 January 1995, pending the completion of procedures required for their conclusion, subject to reciprocal provisional application by the countries in question,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS: