The European Parliament adopted a legislative resolution on the draft Council Decision on the conclusion of a Protocol to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the State of Israel, of the other part, on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (CAA).
Parliament gave its consent to the conclusion of the Protocol by 379 votes to 230, with 41 abstentions and in spite of its fundamental reservations on Israeli policy with respect to the Palestinians.
To recap, the EU-Israel Agreement on the mutual recognition of pharmaceutical certificates will remove technical barriers to trade, cut manufacturers’ costs and enable them to get their products to market faster. This Agreement will apply to all pharmaceuticals except for advanced therapy products based on tissues and cells of human origin and medicinal products that include blood products.
However, Parliament had feared that its consent to this Agreement would send the wrong political message to Israel at a time when Members condemn its policy in regard to Palestinians. It recalls that Members tables an Oral Question O-000129/2012 to Commissioner De GUCHT asking for the scope of the territorial competence of the Israeli Responsible Authority to be defined in respect of the Protocol. At the plenary session of 3 July 2012, the Commission clarified all the concerns of the parliamentary committees.
As a result, Parliament gives its consent to the Protocol but calls on the Commission to provide it with regular reports on the progress of the Protocol’s implementation.