36. GRE took note of the outcome of the first session of the Special Interest Group (SIG) which had taken place in Brussels on 12 February 2014 and had been attended by 20 experts (GRE-71-16). In particular, SIG was of the view that priority should be given to reducing the administrative burden presented by the numerous collective amendments. To achieve this, SIG proposed to reactivate the GRE Horizontal Reference Document (HRD) Informal Group and to update its Terms of Reference (ToR).

37. On behalf of SIG, the expert from EC presented draft ToR of a new informal working group (IWG) (GRE-71-22) and stated that EC would be prepared to act as Co-Chair of IWG. Regarding the position of Chair, he suggested that an EU member State or another Contracting Party assume this role. Before IWG becomes operational, SIG would continue its activities. In this respect, the expert from EC informed GRE that the second meeting of SIG would take place in Brussels during the week 9-13 June 2014.

38. GRE had a first exchange of views on the proposed ToR with a particular focus on paras. 2, 3 and 4 of GRE-71-22.

39. GRE addressed the issue of the legal implications of placing the common requirements into a horizontal reference document, such as R.E.3 managed by WP.29. The expert from EC and the secretariat pointed out that, if needed, they would seek legal advice from, respectively, EU and United Nations legal services. The secretariat informed GRE that R.E.3 had proved to be very instrumental for all UN Regulations, in particular, with regard to common definitions. In this context, the secretariat also drew the attention of GRE to the work undertaken by the secretariat to harmonize the definitions in lighting and light-signalling UN Regulations (GRE-71-23). GRE requested the SIG to consider this document and consolidate harmonized definitions into the horizontal document.

40. The Chair invited experts to consider the underlying issues, in particular the draft ToR of IWG in GRE-71-22 to be discussed at the next SIG session, and to report back to GRE at its next session. He also suggested that the newly proposed IWG take into due consideration ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRE/2008/32, GRE-59-01, GRE 63-27, GRE-66-13 and GRE-66-14.