In its communication
to the European Parliament on the Council position on the adoption of a
Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation
(EC) No 1905/2006 establishing a financing instrument for development
cooperation (original Commission proposal 'BAM amendments', the Commission
can accept the Council position at first reading, which is the outcome of
constructive negotiations between the three institutions. It is in line with
the essential objectives and the underlying approach of the Commission’s
initial proposal and incorporates the European Parliament’s amendments on the
substance of the BAM provisions.
Main
characteristics of the Council position: the
position reflects the following key elements in line with the European Parliament’s
amendments:
- recitals: a number of recitals have been expanded and others have
been added to provide further explanations in relation to the context,
content and objectives of the BAM;
- specific
focus on poverty, livelihoods, small farmers and specification on the
viability of strategies (Article 17a –
Paragraph 1): the Union’s assistance has now been explicitly established
as focusing on poverty eradication and improvement of living and working
conditions of small farmers and other persons concerned;
- outermost
regions of the EU and overseas countries and territories (Article 17a – Paragraph 1): the Regulation now refers to
the regional environment of eligible BAM countries, specifically the
proximity to outermost regions of the EU and OCTs;
- bilateral
trade agreements with Latin American countries (Article 17a – Paragraph 2): both multilateral and bilateral
agreements relating to bananas concluded or in the process of being
concluded are mentioned;
- distribution
of funds (Article 17a – Paragraph 2): the
proposed criteria have been arranged by order of importance. Moreover,
the allocation criteria will use data of a period not longer than five
years before 2010, as well as a Commission study assessing the impact of
the trade agreements on ACP countries;
- requirements
in Multiannual Support Strategies (Article
17a – Paragraph 3): a number of requirements (e.g. environmental
profiles and ILO standards) to be included in the support strategies in
each country have been specified;
- programme
assessment (Article 17a – Paragraph 3): the
progress of the BAM programme will be assessed eighteen months before
its end and appropriate recommendations are to be made.
In addition,
an amendment originally tabled by the Commission (COM(2009)194), see COD/2009/0060A) was introduced:
- taxes and
duties (Article 25 – Paragraph 2): the
wording ‘in principle’ is added to the non-eligibility of taxes, duties
and other charges thus signalling the possibility of exceptions, these
being regulated internally by the instructions given to Authorising
Officer.
Amendments
by Parliament not acceptable to Council: delegated
acts (Article 290 TFEU): Parliament seeks by its first reading amendments
to apply this procedure to the adoption of multiannual strategy papers by the
Commission. Despite long and intensive negotiations (notably trilogues held
on 2 February, 23 March and 20 October) it was not possible to reach
agreement on this issue. The Council has not accepted these amendments in its
positions at first reading. The Commission is ready to continue efforts to
reconcile the positions of the institutions and to find ways to meet the
substantive concerns behind Parliament’s amendments, in particular in
ensuring that Parliament can exercise appropriate oversight over the
formulation of external cooperation strategies and the proper implementation
of external financial instruments.
The European
Commission can accept the Council position at first reading.