The Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted the report by Antonio LÓPEZ-ISTÚRIZ WHITE (EPP, ES) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a Partnership Instrument for cooperation with third countries (PI).
The Committee on International Trade, exercising their prerogatives as associated committees under Rule 50 of Parliaments Rules of Procedure, was also consulted and gave an opinion on the report.
The committee recommended that the European Parliaments position at first reading, following the ordinary legislative procedure, should amend the Commission proposal.
The main amendments were as follows:
General objective: the objective of the PI II is to promote and defend the interests of the EU as well as those shared with other countries. The Partnership Instrument is intended to support measures that respond effectively and flexibly to objectives arising from bilateral, regional and multilateral relations with the EU and with third countries, encouraging political dialogue and an inclusive system of global governance or ensure adequate monitoring of decisions taken at the multilateral level
Specific objectives and scope: a series of new specific objectives have been added to the Programme such as:
The scope has been clarified to state that it is in the Union's interest to deepen its relations and dialogue with countries where the Union has a strategic interest in promoting links, especially developed and developing countries which play an increasingly important role in world affairs, including in global governance, foreign policy, international economy, multilateral fora.
Partner countries: the scope of this Regulation should be worldwide.
Visibility of EU aid: in order to ensure the visibility of the Union's assistance towards the citizens of the beneficiary countries and those of the Union, there should be, where appropriate, targeted communication and information by adequate means.
Performance indicators: progress in these areas would be assessed through performance indicators defined in the draft Regulation
General framework of assistance: the support should be granted in accordance with the general framework defined by the external policy of the EU and the relevant texts of the European Parliament in this area. Assistance should also be guided by the values founding the EU, respect for democracy and human rights and should be differentiated according to the needs of each beneficiary. To this end, a series of thematic objectives were defined in the Annex to future regulation. Multi-annual indicative programmes have also been established with specific priorities under which the geographical proximity of the EU with third countries, regions and territories should be taken into account.
Impact of civil society: the objectives of this Regulation should be pursued with an appropriate involvement of civil society organisations.
Implementation: provisions have been included to clarify the technical implementation of the PI II in terms of its strategic planning and programming.
Financial envelope: in accordance with the agreement on the Financial Framework, the financial envelope for the implementation of the PI II Regulation is set at EUR 954 765 000. Multi-annual indicative programmes may provide for an amount of funds, not exceeding 5% of the total amount.
Part of this amount would also be dedicated to transnational mobility with third countries including mobility actions under the ERASMUS+ programme if necessary.
It is also stated that the Union should seek the most efficient use of available resources in order to optimise the impact of its external action. This should be achieved through coherence and complementarity between Instruments for external action.
Delegated acts: the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of the detailed areas of cooperation defined in the Annex, adoption of multi-annual indicative programmes and the indicative allocations per programme set out in Annex Ia.
Following the publication of the Mid-term report and based upon the recommendations contained in the mid-term review report, the Commission shall adopt a delegated act amending Annex II to this Regulation by 31 March 2018.
Annexes: the future regulation contains an annex which defines the thematic priorities for assistance. It should be noted that the draft Regulation as amended is accompanied by a series of unilateral declarations including: