PURPOSE: to approve the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Agreement between the European Union and New Zealand on cooperation and mutual administrative assistance in customs matters.
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: on 22 July 2013, the Council authorised the Commission to open negotiations with New Zealand with a view to concluding an Agreement between the European Union and New Zealand on cooperation and mutual administrative assistance in customs matters. The negotiations resulted in the initialling of the Agreement on 23 September 2015.
The Agreement should now be approved.
CONTENT: the Council’s draft aims for the approval, on behalf of the European Union, of the EU-New Zealand Agreement on cooperation and mutual administrative assistance in customs matters.
The general objective of the Agreement is to develop and intensify cooperation and mutual administrative assistance in customs matters with New Zealand; in particular, to establish the legal basis for a cooperation framework which aims at securing the supply chain and facilitating legitimate trade, as well as enabling information exchange to ensure the proper application of customs legislation and the prevention, investigation and combating of breaches of customs legislation.
For further details on the content of the agreement, please refer to the summary of the Commission’s initial legislative proposal dated 21.1.2016.