Introductory text

United Kingdom

Council Decision

of 11 March 2014

on the position to be taken on behalf of the European Union within the Joint Committee on Agriculture set up by the Agreement between the European Community and the Swiss Confederation on trade in agricultural products, as regards the amendment of Decision No 2/2003 of that Committee

(2014/143/EU)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 207(4) in conjunction with Article 218(9) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

Whereas:

(1)

The Agreement between the European Community and the Swiss Confederation on trade in agricultural products^f1 (hereinafter referred to as the "Agreement") entered into force on 1 June 2002.

(2)

Article 6 of the Agreement sets up a Joint Committee on Agriculture (hereinafter referred to as the "Committee"), which is responsible for the administration of the Agreement and ensures its good functioning.

(3)

In accordance with Article 6(4) of the Agreement, by its Decision No 1/2003, the Committee adopted its own Rules of Procedure^f2.

(4)

In accordance with Article 6(7) of the Agreement, several working groups needed to administer the Annexes to the Agreement were set up, including a working group on protection of designations of origin (PDOs) and on protection of geographical indications (PGIs) (Working Group on PDOs and PGIs), and their terms of reference were adopted by Decision No 2/2003 of the Committee^f3. In accordance with the Annex to that Decision, the main task of the Working Group on PDOs and PGIs is to consider the mutual protection of PDOs and PGIs.

(5)

In 2011, the Union and Switzerland concluded an Agreement on the protection of designations of origin and geographical indications^f4, amending the Agreement by adding Annex 12 on the protection of designations of origin and geographical indications for agricultural products and foodstuffs.

(6)

The Working Group on PDOs and PGIs met in order to consider, in particular, amending Decision No 2/2003 as regards the terms of reference of the working group in order to take into account that amendment to the Agreement.

(7)

It is appropriate to establish the position to be taken on the Union's behalf in the Committee as regards amending Decision No 2/2003.

(8)

The position of the Union within the Committee should therefore be based on the attached draft Decision,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Annotations

Footnotes

f1: OJ L 114, 30.4.2002, p. 132.
f2: Decision No 1/2003 of the Joint Committee on Agriculture set up by the Agreement between the European Community and the Swiss Confederation on trade in agricultural products of 21 October 2003 concerning the adoption of its Rules of Procedure (OJ L 303, 21.11.2003, p. 24).
f3: Decision No 2/2003 of the Joint Committee on Agriculture set up by the Agreement between the European Community and the Swiss Confederation on trade in agricultural Products of 21 October 2003 concerning the setting-up of the working groups and the adoption of the terms of reference of those groups (OJ L 303, 21.11.2003, p. 27).
f4: Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the protection of designations of origin and geographical indications for agricultural products and foodstuffs, amending the Agreement between the European Community and the Swiss Confederation on trade in agricultural products (OJ L 297, 16.11.2011, p. 3).