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1. All the new provisions of the present Agreement, including its Annex and Appendices 1B and 2, relating to the introduction of a digital control device, shall become mandatory for countries which are Contracting Parties to this Agreement at latest four years after the date of entry into force of the relevant amendments resulting from the procedure specified in article 21. In consequence, all vehicles covered by this Agreement, put into service for the first time after the expiry of this period, shall be equipped with a control device conforming to these new requirements. During this four-year period, Contracting Parties, which have not yet implemented these amendments in their countries, shall accept and control on their territory vehicles registered in another Contracting Party to this Agreement, which are already equipped with such a digital control device.
2. a) The Contracting Parties shall take the necessary steps to be able to issue the driver cards referred to in the Annex to the present Agreement, as amended, at latest three months before the expiry of the four-year deadline referred to in paragraph 1. This minimum period of three months shall also be complied with in the event of the implementation by a Contracting Party of the provisions relating to the digital control device in conformity with Appendix 1B to this Annex before the expiry of the four-year deadline. Such Contracting Parties shall keep the secretariat of the Working Party on Road Transport of the Economic Commission for Europe informed of progress in the introduction of the digital control device in conformity with Appendix 1B to this Annex within its territory.
b) Pending the issue by Contracting Parties of the cards referred to in a), the provisions of article 14 of the Annex to this Agreement shall apply to drivers who may be required to drive vehicles fitted with a digital control device in accordance with Appendix 1B to this Annex.
3. Any instrument of ratification or accession deposited by a State after the entry into force of the amendments referred to in paragraph 1 shall be deemed to apply to the Agreement as amended, including the deadline for implementation specified in paragraph 1.
If accession takes place less than two years before the expiry of the deadline referred to in paragraph 1, the State shall inform the depositary of the date on which the digital control device will be brought into effective use in its territory when it deposits its instrument of ratification or accession. Such State may make use of a transitional period not exceeding two years from the date of entry into force of the Agreement for the State. The depositary shall so inform all Contracting Parties.
The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall also apply in the event of the accession of a State after the expiry of the four-year deadline for implementation referred to in paragraph 1.