Considerations on COM(2020)576 - Amending the Interim Partnership Agreement with the Pacific States as regards the accessions of Samoa and the Solomon Islands, and of future accessions

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dossier COM(2020)576 - Amending the Interim Partnership Agreement with the Pacific States as regards the accessions of Samoa and the Solomon ...
document COM(2020)576 EN
date September 22, 2020
 
(1) On 12 June 2002, the Council authorised the Commission to open negotiations for Economic Partnership Agreements with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States 5 .

(2) The Interim Partnership Agreement between the European Community, of the one part, and the Pacific States, of the other part 6 (the ‘Interim Partnership Agreement’), which establishes a framework for an Economic Partnership Agreement, as signed in London on 30 July 2009. The Interim Partnership Agreement has been provisionally applied between the Union and Papua New Guinea since 20 December 2009 and between the Union and Fiji since 28 July 2014.

(3) Article 80 of the Interim Partnership Agreement provides for the accession of other Pacific Island States. By Decision (EU) 2018/1908 7 and Decision (EU) 2020/409 8 , the Council approved the accessions of Samoa and of Solomon Islands to the Interim Partnership Agreement, respectively. Samoa acceded to the Interim Partnership Agreement on 21 December 2018 and has provisionally applied it since 31 December 2018, and Solomon Islands acceded to the Interim Partnership Agreement on 7 May 2020 and has provisionally applied it since 17 May 2020.

(4) Following the accessions of Samoa and of Solomon Islands, for reasons of legal certainty, it is necessary to amend the Interim Partnership Agreement in order to list these countries as Parties to the Interim Partnership Agreement. A similar amendment needs to be made to the Interim Partnership Agreement each time a Pacific Island State accedes to the Agreement.

(5) Article 68 of the Interim Partnership Agreement establishes a Trade Committee that is to deal with all matters necessary for the implementation of the Agreement. It is appropriate to empower the Trade Committee to decide on any amendment to the Interim Partnership Agreement that might be necessary following the accession of other Pacific Island States.

(6) By Decision (EU) 2019/1707 9 , the Council decided on the position to be taken on behalf of the Union in the Trade Committee as regards those amendments, which were agreed at the seventh meeting of the Trade Committee held on 4 October 2019.

(7) Therefore, the Agreement amending the Interim Partnership Agreement should be signed on behalf of the Union, subject to its conclusion at a later date.

(8) As Article 76(2) of the Interim Partnership Agreement provides for its provisional application pending its entry into force, the Agreement amending the Interim Partnership Agreement should be applied provisionally.