Following the agreement in principle reached at the last JHA Council meeting on 9 and 10 March, the Council formally adopted the Regulation laying down a uniform format for visas (see Press Release 5423/95, Presse 69). The Regulation lays down that visas issued by the Member States will be produced in a uniform format - sticker - and will conform to the common specifications set out in an Annex to the Regulation, concerning, inter alia, security features that render the visa difficult to counterfeit or falsify, the nature and colour of the paper, the parts to be filled in by the issuing authority and the languages to be used. The uniform format for visas will come into effective use six months after the additional technical specifications to reduce counterfeiting or falsification have been adopted by the Commission with the assent of a committee consisting of representatives of the Member States.