Legal provisions of COM(2014)386 - Amending exceptional trade measures for countries and territories related to the EU's Stabilisation and Association process and suspending it for Bosnia and Herzegovina

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dossier COM(2014)386 - Amending exceptional trade measures for countries and territories related to the EU's Stabilisation and Association process ...
document COM(2014)386 EN
date December 16, 2015

Contents

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 1215/2009 is amended as follows:

(1)In Article 2(1), the following point is added:

‘(d)the abstention of the countries and territories referred to in Article 1 from engaging in serious and systematic violations of human rights, including core labour rights, of fundamental principles of democracy and of the rule of law.’.

(2)Article 2(3) is replaced by the following:

‘3.   In the event of non-compliance by a country or territory with point (a), (b) or (c) of paragraph 1 or with paragraph 2, the Commission may, by means of implementing acts, suspend, in whole or in part, the entitlement of the country or territory concerned to benefits under this Regulation. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 8(4).’.

(3)In Article 7, the following point is added:

‘(c)suspension, in whole or in part, of the entitlement of a country or territory concerned to benefits under this Regulation, in the event of non-compliance by that country or territory with the conditions set out in point (d) of Article 2(1).’.

(4)In Article 10(1), the introductory wording is replaced by the following:

‘1.   Where the Commission finds that there is sufficient evidence of fraud or failure to provide administrative cooperation as required for the verification of evidence of origin, or that there is a massive increase in exports into the Union above the level of normal production and export capacity, or a failure of compliance with the provisions of point (a), (b) or (c) of Article 2(1) by the countries and territories referred to in Article 1, it may take measures to suspend in whole or in part the arrangements provided for in this Regulation for a period of three months, provided that it has first:’.

(5)In Article 12, the second and third paragraphs are replaced by the following:

‘It shall apply until 31 December 2020.’.

(6)In Annex I, footnote (5) is replaced by the following:

‘(5)Access for wine originating in Montenegro to the global tariff quota, insofar as it concerns products of CN code 2204 21, is subject to the prior exhaustion of the individual tariff quota provided for in the Protocol on wine concluded with Montenegro. That individual tariff quota is opened under order No 09.1514.’.

Article 2

The application of Regulation (EC) No 1215/2009 with regard to Bosnia and Herzegovina is suspended with effect from 1 January 2016.

Article 3

1. Notwithstanding Article 2, the application of Regulation (EC) No 1215/2009 with regard to Bosnia and Herzegovina shall not be suspended if, before 1 January 2016, the Union and Bosnia and Herzegovina sign and apply provisionally an agreement on the adaptation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement and the Interim Agreement to take into account the accession of Croatia to the European Union.

2. In the event that the agreement on an adaptation referred to in paragraph 1 is signed and applied provisionally only on or after 1 January 2016, Regulation (EC) No 1215/2009 shall be applicable again with regard to Bosnia and Herzegovina from the date on which such agreement is signed and applied provisionally.

3. The Commission shall publish a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union as soon as the agreement on an adaptation referred to in paragraph 1 has been signed.

Article 4

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from 1 January 2016.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.