PURPOSE: to include the 10 new Member States (2004 enlargement) in the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement between the European Union and Lebanon.
PROPOSED ACT: Council Decision.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Council may adopt the act only if Parliament has given its consent to the act.
BACKGROUND: the Protocol to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an Association between the European Community and its Member States, of the one part, and Lebanon, of the other part, was signed on behalf of the Union and its Member States.
It is now necessary for the Protocol to be approved on behalf of the European Union.
CONTENT: under this proposed Decision, the Council is called upon to conclude, on behalf of the European Union and its Member States, the Protocol to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an Association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and Lebanon, of the other part, to take account of the accession of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia to the European Union (AVC/2002/0083).
N.B.: the text takes account of the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009 and the passage from the European Community to the European Union.