Introductory text
United Kingdom
Council Decision (EU) 2016/1231
of 18 July 2016
on the position to be adopted on behalf of the European Union within the Joint Committee established by the Regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin as regards the request of Georgia to become a Contracting Party to that Convention
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular the first subparagraph of Article 207(4), in conjunction with Article 218(9) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,
Whereas:
(1)
The Regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of originf1 (the ‘Convention’) entered into force on 1 December 2012.
(2)
Article 5(1) of the Convention provides that a third party may become a Contracting Party to the Convention, provided that the candidate country or territory has a free trade agreement in force, providing for preferential rules of origin, with at least one of the Contracting Parties.
(3)
Georgia submitted a written request for accession to the Convention to the depositary of the Convention on 23 September 2015.
(4)
Georgia has a free trade agreement in force with two Contracting Parties to the Convention, namely the Union and the Republic of Turkey, and complies with the condition set out in Article 5(1) of the Convention to become a Contracting Party.
(5)
Point (b) of Article 4(3) of the Convention provides that the Joint Committee established by the Convention (the ‘Joint Committee’) is to adopt by decision invitations to third parties to accede to the Convention.
(6)
The position of the Union within the Joint Committee should therefore be based on the attached draft Decision,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: