Attachment

The Commission welcomes the first reading agreement between the European Parliament and the Council on Regulation (EU) No 20/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 January 2013 implementing the bilateral safeguard clause and the stabilisation mechanism for bananas of the Agreement establishing an Association between the European Union and its Member States, on the one hand, and Central America on the other^f1.

As envisaged in Regulation (EU) No 20/2013, the Commission will submit an annual report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the implementation of Part IV of the Agreement and will be ready to discuss with the responsible committee of the European Parliament any issues arising from the implementation of Part IV of the Agreement.

The Commission will attach particular importance to the effective implementation of commitments on trade and sustainable development in the Agreement, taking into account the specific information provided by the relevant monitoring bodies of the fundamental Conventions of the International Labour Organisation and the multilateral environmental agreements listed in Title VIII of Part IV of the Agreement. In this context, the Commission will also seek the views of the relevant civil society advisory groups.

After the expiry of the Banana Stabilisation Mechanism on 31 December 2019, the Commission will assess the situation of the Union market for bananas and the state of Union banana producers. The Commission will report its findings to the European Parliament and the Council and would include a preliminary assessment of the functioning of the ‘Programme d'Options Spécifiques à l'Éloignement et l'Insularité’ (POSEI) in preserving the banana production in the Union.