Attachment

The European Parliament and the Commission agree on the importance of close cooperation concerning the implementation of the Agreements listed in the Annex to the Regulation (EU) 2019/287 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 February 2019 implementing bilateral safeguard clauses and other mechanisms allowing for the temporary withdrawal of preferences in certain trade agreements concluded between the European Union and third countries. To that end they agree that where the European Parliament adopts a recommendation to initiate a safeguard investigation, the Commission will carefully examine whether the conditions under the Regulation for ex officio initiation are fulfilled. Where the Commission considers that those conditions are not fulfilled, it will present a report to the committee responsible of the European Parliament including an explanation of all the factors relevant to the initiation of such an investigation.