JEE Deployment error if CODI is outside of WAR

When deploying an EAR with a WAR inside which has CODI inside the WEB-INF/lib of the WAR, everything works fine.
But if CODI is placed outside the WAR (e.g. in the root of the EAR) deployment fails with this exception:
[23.10.12 10:24:32:075 CEST] FFDC
Exception:javax.naming.ConfigurationException
SourceId:com.ibm.ws.naming.java.javaURLContextImpl.throwConfigurationExceptionWithDefaultJavaNS
ProbeId:537 Reporter:java.lang.Class@784d5d
javax.naming.ConfigurationException: A JNDI operation on a "java:" name cannot
be completed because the server runtime is not able to associate the operation's
thread with any J2EE application component. This condition can occur when the
JNDI client using the "java:" name is not executed on the thread of a server
application request. Make sure that a J2EE application does not execute JNDI
operations on "java:" names within static code blocks or in threads created by
that J2EE application. Such code does not necessarily run on the thread of a
server application request and therefore is not supported by JNDI operations on
"java:" names. [Root exception is javax.naming.NameNotFoundException: Name
comp/env/myfaces-codi not found in context "java:".]
at
com.ibm.ws.naming.java.javaURLContextImpl.throwExceptionIfDefaultJavaNS(javaURLContextImpl.java:522)

at
com.ibm.ws.naming.java.javaURLContextImpl.throwConfigurationExceptionWithDefaultJavaNS(javaURLContextImpl.java:552)

at
com.ibm.ws.naming.java.javaURLContextImpl.lookupExt(javaURLContextImpl.java:481)