Council Decision (EU) 2019/2198 of 25 November 2019 on the position to be taken 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 amendment of the 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:

The Regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin (the ‘Convention’) was concluded by the Union by means of Council Decision 2013/94/EU^f1 and entered into force in the Union on 1 May 2012.

The pan-Euro-Mediterranean system of cumulation of origin allows for the application of diagonal cumulation between the 26 Contracting Parties to the Convention: the Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine^f2, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo^f3, the Faroe Islands, Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine.

The Convention envisages that the rules of origin will need to be amended in order to better respond to the economic reality and establishes procedures for the adoption of amendments. Amendments to the Convention are to be adopted by unanimous decision of the Joint Committee established by the Convention (the ‘Joint Committee’).

The process of amending the Convention started in 2012 and resulted in a new set of modernised and more flexible rules of origin, consistent with those which have already been agreed by the Union in certain other recent agreements, namely the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada, of the one part, and the European Union and its Member States, of the other part^f4, the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, the Agreement between the European Union and Japan for an Economic Partnership^f5 and the Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and the SADC EPA States, of the other part^f6, or schemes of generalised tariff preferences.

The Joint Committee is expected to adopt a decision on the amendment of the Convention during its meeting on 27 November 2019 or at a later date.

It is appropriate to establish the position to be taken on the Union’s behalf in the Joint Committee with regard to the amendment of the Convention, as the amendment of the Convention will have legal effect in the Union,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: