21.2.2013 Official Journal of the European Union L 485 COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) No 155/2013 of 18 December 2012 establishing rules related to the procedure for granting the special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance under Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council applying a scheme of generalised tariff preferences THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and in particular Article 207 thereof, Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 applying a scheme of generalised tariff preferences and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 732/2008 (), and in particular Article 10(7) thereof, Whereas: (1)  Article 9(1) of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 establishes the requirements for the granting of the preferences under the special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance. To ensure the trans- parency and predictability of the process, the Commission has been empowered by the European Parliament and the Council to adopt a delegated act to establish rules related to the procedure for granting the special incentive arrangement for sustainable devel- opment and good governance in particular with respect to deadlines and the submission and processing of requests. (20 In line with paragraph 4 of the Common Understanding on delegated acts between the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission, appropriate and transparent consultations, including at expert level, have been carried out on the procedural rules provided for in this Regulation, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: Atticle 1 Submission of application 1. The requesting country shall submit its request in writing. The requesting country shall explicitly state that its request is made in the framework of the special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance (GSP+ arrangement) under Article 9(1) of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 (GSP Regulation). 2. The request shall be accompanied by the following docu- mentation: (a) comprehensive information concerning the ratification of the conventions listed in Annex VIII to the GSP Regulation (the ‘relevant conventions’), including a copy of the deposited ratification instrument to the relevant inter- national organisation, the reservations made by the requesting country and the objections to these reservations made by other parties to the convention; () O] L 303, 31.10.2012, p. 1. (b) the binding undertaking, to be done by the signature by the competent authority of the requesting country of the form in the Annex to this Regulation, containing: (i) a statement of the commitment to maintain ratification of the relevant conventions and to ensure their effective implementation; (i) a statement to accept without reservation the reporting requirements imposed by each relevant convention and to accept regular monitoring and review of its imple- mentation record in accordance with the provisions of the relevant conventions; (ili) a statement of the commitment to participate in and cooperate with the monitoring procedure referred to in Article 13 of the GSP Regulation. 3. To facilitate the review process of the applications, all requests and accompanying documentation shall be submitted in English. The copy of the documents under point 2(a) if the original language is different from English shall be accompanied by an English translation. 4. The request, together with the accompanying documents, shall be submitted to the Commission’s mail reception service: Central mail service (Courrier central) Batiment DAV1 Avenue du Bourget/Bourgetlaan 1 1140 Bruxelles/Brussel BELGIQUE/BELGIE 5. In addition to the formal written submission, the request and the accompanying documents shall also be submitted in electronic format. Any request submitted exclusively in elec- tronic format will not be considered valid for the purposes of this Regulation. 6. To facilitate information exchange and verification, in its application the requesting country shall inform the Commission of the contact person who is competent to handle the processing of the application. 7. The request shall be deemed to have been lodged on the first working day following its delivery to the Commission by registered mail or the issuing of an acknowledgement of receipt by the Commission. Atticle 2 Examination of application 1.  The Commission shall examine whether the conditions of Article 9(1) of the GSP Regulation have been met. When examining the request the Commission shall assess the most