PURPOSE: to conclude, on behalf of the Union, the agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the EU and Morocco on the amendment of Protocols 1 and 4 to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and Morocco, of the other part.
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 Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an Association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and Morocco, of the other part entered into force on 1 March 2000.
Since the Association Agreement came into force, products from Western Sahara certified to be of Moroccan origin have been imported to the Union, benefiting from the tariff preferences laid down in its relevant provisions.
In its judgment of 21 December 2016, the Court of Justice specified that the Association Agreement covered the territory of the Kingdom of Morocco alone and not Western Sahara, which is a non-self-governing territory.
On 29 May 2017, the Council authorised the Commission to open negotiations with the Kingdom of Morocco with a view to establishing, in accordance with the judgment of the Court of Justice, a legal basis to grant the tariff preferences laid down in the Association Agreement to products originating in Western Sahara. An agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco is the only means of ensuring that the import of products originating in Western Sahara benefits from preferential origin, given that only the Moroccan authorities are able to ensure compliance with the rules necessary for the granting of such preferences.
It has been assessed that the extension of tariff preferences to products originating in Western Sahara will have a positive overall effect for the people concerned. The existence in Western Sahara of economic and production activities that would benefit greatly from the tariff preferences laid down in the Association Agreement shows that failure to grant tariff preferences would significantly jeopardise exports from Western Sahara, especially those of fishery and agricultural products.
It is assessed that by stimulating investment, the granting of tariff preferences should also have a positive impact on the development of Western Sahara’s economy.
Having regard to the considerations on consent in the ruling of the Court of Justice, the Commission, in liaison with the European External Action Service, has taken all reasonable and feasible steps in the current context to adequately involve the people concerned in order to ascertain their consent to the agreement.
The text of the Agreement does not imply that it recognises Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. The Union will also continue to step up its efforts in support of the process, initiated and pursued through the United Nations, working towards a peaceful resolution of the dispute.
CONTENT: the draft Council Decision seeks, on behalf of the Union, to approve the Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco on the amendment of Protocols 1 and 4 to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Kingdom of Morocco, of the other part.
This draft Decision seeks to apply amendments to Protocol 4 and Protocol 1 of the EU-Morocco Association Agreement with a view to respecting the obligations of the Court judgment of 21 December 2016 and providing a legal basis for granting preferences to products from Western Sahara.