L7[74 Official Journal of the European Communities 11.1.2003 (Acts whose publication is not obligatory) COUNCIL COUNCIL DECISION of 10 December 2002 on the fulfilment of the conditions laid down in the Additional Protocol to the Europe Agreement establishing an Association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Czech Republic, of the other part, with regard to an extension of the period laid down in Article 8(4) of Protocol 2 to the Europe Agreement (2003/9/EC) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Commu- nity, and in particular Article 87(3)(e) thereof, Having regard to the Council decision of 29 July 2002 on the signature and provisional application of an Additional Protocol to the Europe Agreement establishing an Association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Czech Republic, of the other part, with regard to an extension of the period laid down in Article 8(4) of Protocol 2 to the Europe Agreement, Having regard to the Additional Protocol to the Europe Agree- ment establishing an Association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Czech Republic, of the other part, with regard to an extension of the period laid down in Article 8(4) of Protocol 2 to the Europe Agreement, and in particular Article 3 thereof, Having regard to the proposal of the Commission, Whereas: (1)  The Europe Agreement establishing an Association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Czech Republic, of the other part ("), was signed on 4 October 1993. (2)  Article 8(4) of Protocol 2 of the Europe Agreement lays down that during the first five years after the entry into force of the Agreement, and by way of derogation from paragraph 1(iii) of that Article, the Czech Republic may exceptionally, as regards steel products, grant public aid for restructuring purposes, provided that this leads to the viability of the benefiting firms under normal market conditions at the end of the restructuring period; that the amount and intensity of such aid are strictly limited to what is absolutely necessary in order to restore viabi- () OJ L 360, 31.12.1994, p. 2. lity and are progressively reduced; and that the restruc- turing programme is linked to a global rationalisation and reduction of capacity in the Czech Republic. The initial period of five years expired on 31 December 1996. The Czech Republic requested an extension of the abovementioned period in February 1998. It is appropriate to grant an extension of this period for an additional period of eight years starting on 1 January 1997 or until the date of the Czech Republic's accession to the European Union, whichever comes first. To this effect, an Additional Protocol to the Europe Agreement was signed by the Community and the Czech Republic on 9 October 2002 and is provisionally applied from that date. Article 1 of the Additional Protocol grants an extension of the abovenamed period, subject to the fulfilment of conditions laid out in Articles 2 and 3 of the Additional Protocol. Under Article 2 of the Additional Protocol, the extension of the abovementioned period is made conditional on the submission by the Czech Republic to the Commis- sion of a restructuring programme and business plans which meet the requirements of Article 8(4) of Protocol 2 of the Europe Agreement and have been assessed and agreed by its national State aid monitoring authority (the Office for the Protection of Economic Competition). In June, July and September 2002, the Czech Republic submitted to the Commission a restructuring programme and business plans which have been assessed and agreed by the Office for the Protection of Economic Competition.