on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council applying the arrangements for products originating in certain states which are part of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States provided for in agreements establishing, or leading to the establishment of, Economic Partnership Agreements (recast)

(COM(2015)0282 – C8‑0154/2015 – 2015/0128(COD))

(Ordinary legislative procedure – recast)

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(2015)0282),

–  having regard to Article 294(2) and Article 207(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C8‑0154/2015),

–  having regard to Article 294(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–  having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 28 November 2001 on a more structured use of the recasting technique for legal acts

OJ C 77, 28.3.2002, p. 1.

–  having regard to the letter of 16 September 2015 from the Committee on Legal Affairs to the Committee on International Trade in accordance with Rule 104(3) of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to Rules 104 and 59 its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on International Trade (A8-0010/2016),

A.  whereas, according to the Consultative Working Party of the legal services of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, the Commission proposal does not include any substantive amendments other than those identified as such in the proposal and whereas, as regards the codification of the unchanged provisions of the earlier acts together with those amendments, the proposal contains a straightforward codification of the existing texts, without any change in their substance;

1.  Adopts its position at first reading, taking over the Commission proposal and taking account of the recommendations of the Consultative Working Party of the legal services of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission;

2.  Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it intends to amend its proposal substantially or replace it with another text;

3.  Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

The Commission proposal concerns a codification and recast of the Council Regulation (EC) No 1528/2007, the so-called "Market Access Regulation" (MAR), governing imports of products originating in certain ACP countries. This temporary instrument provides duty-free quota-free access to the EU market for products originating in non-LDC ACP countries in the run-up to the conclusion and application of respective WTO-compatible Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) before the 1 October 2016. The Annex I of the MAR currently includes 27 countries.

The aim of the codification exercise is to ensure transparency, clarity and simplification of the EU legislation after an original legal instrument has been amended numerous times. Since its adoption in 2007, the Market Access Regulation has already been amended nine times, including the post-Lisbon alignment exercise under the "Trade Omnibus II" and subsequent Commission delegated regulations (see the Annex III of the Commission proposal). Thus, codification is essential to ensure clarity and readability of the regulation.

The method of a recast is used because of the need for certain limited substantive changes in the existing Article 3 (4) and Article 22.

The proposed amendment of the Article 3 (4) would empower the Commission to adopt delegated acts to set out the regime applicable to products originating in South Africa once the relevant provisions of the EU-South Africa Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) have been superseded by the relevant provisions of the EPA between the EU and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), concluded on 15 July 2014.

In Article 22, a superfluous reference to the Article 134 of the Treaty establishing the European Community should be deleted, as this Article was repealed by the Lisbon Treaty.

Following the above-mentioned considerations and in view of the favourable opinion of the Committee on Legal Affairs, confirming that the proposal is straightforward codification and limits itself to the identified substantive amendments, your Rapporteur recommends adopting the Commission proposal without modifications.

ANNEX: LETTER FROM THE COMMITTEE ON LEGAL AFFAIRS

Ref. D(2015)40901

Bernd Lange

Chair, Committee on International Trade

ASP 12G205

Brussels

Subject: Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council applying the arrangements for products originating in certain states which are part of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States provided for in agreements establishing, or leading to the establishment of, Economic Partnership Agreements (recast)

COM(2015)0282 – C8-0154/2015 – 2015/0128(COD))

Dear Chair,

The Committee on Legal Affairs has examined the proposal referred to above, pursuant to Rule 104 on Recasting, as introduced into the Parliament's Rules of Procedure.

Paragraph 3 of that Rule reads as follows:

"If the committee responsible for legal affairs considers that the proposal does not entail any substantive changes other than those identified as such in the proposal, it shall inform the committee responsible.

In such a case, over and above the conditions laid down in Rules 169 and 170, amendments shall be admissible within the committee responsible only if they concern those parts of the proposal which contain changes.

However, if in accordance with point 8 of the Interinstitutional Agreement, the committee responsible intends also to submit amendments to the codified parts of the proposal, it shall immediately notify its intention to the Council and to the Commission, and the latter should inform the committee, prior to the vote pursuant to Rule 58, of its position on the amendments and whether or not it intends to withdraw the recast proposal."

Following the opinion of the Legal Service, whose representatives participated in the meetings of the Consultative Working Party examining the recast proposal, and in keeping with the recommendations of the draftsperson, the Committee on Legal Affairs considers that the proposal in question does not include any substantive changes other than those identified as such in the proposal and that, as regards the codification of the unchanged provisions of the earlier acts with those changes, the proposal contains a straightforward codification of the existing texts, without any change in their substance.

In conclusion, at its meeting of 15 September 2015, the Committee on Legal Affairs unanimously decided, with 22 votes in favour

The following Members were present: Max Andersson, Joëlle Bergeron, Marie-Christine Boutonnet, Daniel Buda, Jean-Marie Cavada, Therese Comodini Cachia, Angel Dzhambazki, Laura Ferrara, Enrico Gasbarra, Lidia Joanna Geringer de Oedenberg, Jytte Guteland, Heidi Hautala, Sajjad Karim, Dietmar Köster, Verónica Lope Fontagné, Dominique Martin, Stefano Maullu, Emil Radev, Julia Reda, Evelyn Regner, Virginie Rozière, Pavel Svoboda, Axel Voss, Tadeusz Zwiefka.

Yours sincerely,

Pavel Svoboda

Encl.: Opinion of the Consultative Working Party.

ANNEX: OPINION OF THE CONSULTATIVE WORKING PARTY OF THE LEGAL SERVICES OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL AND THE COMMISSION

Brussels, 10 August 2015

OPINION

  FOR THE ATTENTION OF  THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

    THE COUNCIL

    THE COMMISSION

Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council applying the arrangements for products originating in certain states which are part of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States provided for in agreements establishing, or leading to the establishment of, Economic Partnership Agreements (recast)

COM(2015)0282 of 10.6.2015 – 2015/0128(COD)

Having regard to the Inter-institutional Agreement of 28 November 2001 on a more structured use of the recasting technique for legal acts, and in particular to point 9 thereof, the Consultative Working Party consisting of the respective legal services of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission met on 25 June 2015 for the purpose of examining, among others, the aforementioned proposal submitted by the Commission.

At that meeting

The Consultative Working Party worked on the basis of the English language version of the proposal, being the master-copy language version of the text under discussion.

1. In Article 5, the word 'examination' and the article number '21(5)', both having been marked with adaptation arrows, should have been marked with the grey shaded type generally used for identifying substantive changes in recast proposals.

2. In the title of Article 7, the words 'quotas and eventual elimination of duties' should be removed.

3. In the title of Article 8, the word 'quotas' should be removed.

4. In Article 21(1), the reference made to 'Article 4(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 260/2009 ' should be adapted so as to read as a reference to 'Article 3(1) of Regulation (EU) 2015/478 of the European Parliament and of the Council'.

In consequence, examination of the proposal has enabled the Consultative Working Party to conclude, without dissent, that the proposal does not comprise any substantive amendments other than those identified as such. The Working Party also concluded, as regards the codification of the unchanged provisions of the earlier act with those substantive amendments, that the proposal contains a straightforward codification of the existing legal text, without any change in its substance.

F. DREXLER      H. LEGAL      L. ROMERO REQUENA

Jurisconsult      Jurisconsult      Director General

PROCEDURE – COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE