Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-02-16-Speech-4-052-000"
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"en.20120216.6.4-052-000"2
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"Mr President, I would first like to thank Mr Menéndez del Valle and Mr Moreira for this report and this question, to which I will reply on behalf of my colleague, Algirdas Šemeta, who regrets that he is unable to be here personally to reassure you, honourable Members, of the Commission’s total commitment to the gradual creation of a Euro-Mediterranean free trade area and the social and economic integration of our southern Mediterranean partners.
To ensure that no settlement product benefits unduly from a preference in the European Union through cumulation with partners having a free trade agreement with Israel, the Commission believes that the best approach would be to invite these partners to negotiate with Israel arrangements that are similar or identical to that negotiated by the European Union.
Finally, I want to state categorically that the Commission is satisfied with how the technical arrangement operates. That is why, today, it does not think it is necessary to change its legal status.
Those are the answers that Mr Šemeta wanted to give to the four questions you wanted to ask the Commission.
Mr Menéndez del Valle and Mr Moreira, you asked several questions, which I would like to answer accurately on behalf of Mr Šemeta. First, the regional convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin is one of the first practical responses to the historical and positive events that have recently taken place in the countries of many of our southern Mediterranean neighbours.
This convention is important for several reasons. First, it will promote trade between the European Union and its southern Mediterranean neighbours. It will therefore foster economic integration amongst them. It will then pave the way for a simplification of the rules of origin and their adaptation to the new economic order of the region. It will also enable other European neighbours, most notably, the countries of the Western Balkans, to integrate into the pan-Euro-Mediterranean area by offering them new opportunities within an enlarged trade area.
Furthermore, since I am talking about the economic integration of this region and its association with the European Union, I am expressing, as Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, the concern and the idea that one of the ways for this region which is opening up to democracy and the world, would undoubtedly be for these countries at the other side of the Mediterranean to succeed in first creating a common market amongst themselves. The other day, I heard the new President of Tunisia argue for the creation of such a market, which would facilitate trade, communications, the dismantling of borders and the removal of obstacles between countries, most notably, the countries in the Arab Maghreb. However, we also have tools, as I have just said, to move towards a free trade area, organised between them and us, beyond the Mediterranean.
The second question you asked me was whether a dispute settlement mechanism had been provided for in the body of the convention. Such a mechanism is indeed included under Article 33 of Appendix 1 to the convention. This, moreover, is logically where it belongs, insofar as the disputes that may arise between partner countries will concern essentially bilateral issues relating to the verification of proofs of origin.
Honourable Members, the text of this Appendix will be legally binding and it will replace the protocols relating to the rules of origin, which are currently annexed to the bilateral free trade agreements between partners of the pan-Euro-Mediterranean area. Thus, all the free trade agreements concluded between these partners will refer to the same rules of origin and therefore to identical dispute settlement provisions.
The third question you asked me was whether the convention and its Appendices could be revised at any time. For example, after several years of implementation and in the light of the experience gained, amendments may be adopted by decision of the Joint Committee, as precisely stipulated in Article 4 of the convention. I cite: ‘The Joint Committee shall adopt by decision amendments to this convention, including amendments to the Appendices’. We are not, therefore, in a totally rigid procedure, which will never move. In the light of experience, and you have cited a number of problems, developments are possible. This mechanism will be developed in the Rules of Procedure of the Joint Committee created by the convention.
As regards the fourth question, I would like to assure you, Mr Menéndez del Valle and Mr Moreira, on behalf of Mr Šemeta, that the Commission is monitoring the technical arrangement between the European Union and the State of Israel very closely and is taking the necessary measures to improve, if necessary, the functioning of the arrangement. The notice to importers on imports from Israel is currently being examined very closely for that purpose.
The Commission services are examining, in close cooperation with the customs authorities of all the Member States, the possibility of releasing the list of settlements and publishing a modified version of the notice to importers. The objective of such a measure would be to oblige importers to verify themselves the post codes on the proofs of origin established in Israel which they intend to submit to the customs authorities of the EU Member States. This should, I believe, improve controls, with the task of verification being, in the future, shared between the importers and the customs authorities."@en1
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