Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2011)640 - EU position concerning the adoption of a Decision by the Joint Committee of the Convention of 20 May 1987 on a common transit procedure and a Decision by the Joint Committee of the Convention of 20 May 1987 on the simplification of formalities in trade of goods concerning an invitation to Croatia and Turkey to accede to these Conventions

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dossier COM(2011)640 - EU position concerning the adoption of a Decision by the Joint Committee of the Convention of 20 May 1987 on a common ...
source COM(2011)640 EN
date 13-10-2011
The 1987 EU-EFTA Conventions on a common transit procedure and the simplification of formalities in trade in goods (hereafter: the Conventions) currently have four Contracting Parties: the EU, Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland.

Croatia and Turkey are interested in being invited to accede to the Conventions.

The Commission has set out its strategy to prepare certain candidate countries for accession to the Conventions in its Communications to the European Parliament and the Council of 31.5.2001 i and of 18.11.2010 i. The approach of the Commission is that any country applying for accession to the Conventions can only be invited to accede if it is able to implement the whole of the acquis on common transit and the simplification of formalities in force at the time, at the legislative, operational and computerisation levels. On the latter point, the only countries that can be invited to accede to the Conventions are those possessing a computerised transit system that meets the legal, technical and financial requirements of the New Computerised Transit System (NCTS) in force at the time of the invitation.

Assessment of a country’s compliance with the standards set shall be done on an individual basis and will require an evaluation of its administrative capacity as well as conformance testing for the connection to NCTS. Both Croatia and Turkey should be in a position to join the Conventions as soon as they are connected to the CCN/CSI which will allow the exchange of NCTS messages between Contracting Parties.

The EU, as Contracting Party to the Conventions, would have to establish a common position to agree to the proposal to invite Croatia and Turkey to accede to the Conventions by means of a Decision of the Council on the basis of Article 207 in conjunction with Article 218, ninth paragraph thereof, of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. In order to be able to have the legal basis for the use of the common transit procedure as quickly as possible after assessment has shown that the candidate country complies with the conditions set, the Council Decision should provide the basis of acceptance for these countries, leaving it to the Commission, which represents the EU in the Joint Committees, to launch the invitation procedure for the accession of new partner countries.

The legal assurance from the EU side that the countries’ compliance with the accession criteria will immediately result in the possibility to accede to the Conventions, should for those countries be an incentive to continue their efforts.

Accession to the Conventions will create a larger area for common transit operations which will benefit European trade.

This Council decision should be the basis for the invitation for accession to Croatia and Turkey, which should be ready to comply with the conditions for accession as soon as the connection to CCN/CSI is established. The Commission will propose the decisions of the Joint Committees established by both Conventions to invite Croatia and Turkey, and launch the procedure for the adoption of the invitations addressed to each country as soon as the Commission and the experts of Member States and Contracting Parties have confirmed that the country in question complies with the technical conditions for accession to the Conventions.