L 208/62 Official Journal of the European Communities 24. 7. 98 COMMISSION DECISION of 16 July 1998 establishing priority areas for the action plan for the exchange between the administrations of the participating countries of national officials who are engaged in the implementation of Community legislation required to achieve the internal market, adopted pursuant to Council Decision 92/481/EEC (Karolus programme) (notified under document number C(1998) 2012) (Text with EEA relevance) (98/471/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Decision 92/481/EEC of 22 September 1992 on the adoption of an action plan for the exchange between Member State administrations of national officials who are engaged in the implementation of Community legislation required to achieve the internal market ('), as amended by Decision No 889/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (3, and, in par- ticular, the sixth indent of Article 5 of Decision 92/481/EEC, Whereas Decision 92/481/EEC lays down that the Commission shall, in consultation with the Committee referred to in Article 10 thereof, decide annually on the priority areas to be covered by the exchange programme; Whereas those areas must be established for 1998; Whereas the definition of those priority areas is closely connected with the implementation of various measures for the completion of the internal market as laid down in Article 7a of the EC Treaty; Whereas the exchanges of officials are designed to contri- bute to improving convergence in both the interpretation of Community Acts and the implementation of those Acts; Whereas the Karolus-programme does not in any way affect Community exchange programmes such as Matthaeus () in the area of customs, Fiscalis (*) in the area of indirect taxation, Grotius (°) in the area of justice, Odys- seus (%), Oisin ("), Falcone (¥) and Stop (°) in the area of internal affairs; Whereas the measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the committee referred to in Article 10 of Decision 92/481/EEC concerning the action plan, HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS: Article 1 For the 1998 financial year, the priority areas referred to in the sixth indent of Article 5 of Decision 92/481/EEC shall be as follows: — pharmaceutical products and veterinary medicinal products (officials with responsibility for the licensing and supervision of medicinal products, including the establishment of a network of remote links in the field of medical data-processing which provides guarantees of IT security and confidentiality in respect of exchanges of the data concerned; personnel involved in good manufacturing practice (GMP) and inspection of manufacturers, in accordance with Council Directive 75/319/EEC (°); personnel involved in market surveillance of medicinal products, particu- larly those in the official medicine control laboratories (OMClLs)), — public procurement (officials working in administra- tive departments with responsibility for awarding contracts whose value is equal to or greater than the thresholds referred to in Council Directives 92/50/EEC ("), 93/36/EEC (), 93/37/EEC (") and 93/38/EEC (%), including officials of independent authorities involved in the organisation, control or supervision of systems for the award of such contracts or in the development of training activites geared to the current state of progress in implementing these systems and developing their expertise in public procurement), — export controls on certain dual-use goods and techno- logies covered by Council Regulation (EC) No 3881/94 (), without prejudice to the application of national provisions on the protection of defence secrets (officials with responsibility for export li- censing and monitoring),