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Whereas the six Contracting States to the Revised Convention for the navigation of the Rhine, that is to say five Member States of the European Communities (Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) and Switzerland amended that Convention by Additional Protocol 2 signed in Strasbourg on 17 October 1979; Whereas the said Additional Protocol stipulates that only vessels belonging to the Rhine Navigation shall be authorized to transport merchandise and persons between two points situated on the navigable inland waterways referred to in the first paragraph of Article 3 of the Convention; whereas vessels are considered to belong to the Rhine Navigation if they carry a document issued by the competent authority;

Whereas the Protocol of Signature to the abovementioned Additional Protocol provides that the document certifying that a vessel belongs to the Rhine Navigation shall be issued by the competent authority of the State concerned only to vessels which have with that State a genuine link the constituent factors of which are to be determined on the basis of equal treatment between Contracting States to the Convention; whereas, under the terms of the Protocol of Signature, the same treatment must be accorded to vessels which have a genuine link with any Member State; whereas, to that effect, these other Member States are accorded equal status with the Contracting States to the Convention; Whereas the Contracting States to the Convention have drawn up, within the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine (CCR), implementing provisions determining the conditions under which the abovementioned document should be issued; whereas, by Decision of 8 November 1984, the Council, acting on a proposal from the Commission, defined the common action under which Member States which are Contracting Parties to the Convention adopted these provisions in the form of a resolution of the CCR;

Whereas, in order to ensure that the implementing provisions are put into effect throughout the Community, it is necessary to incorporate them into Community law by means of a Council Regulation adopted under Article 75 of the Treaty fixing the detailed rules required to take into account Community rules and procedures; Whereas provision should be made for Member States to send the Commission a copy of the information they send the CCR in accordance with this Rgulation, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: