EC/Morocco Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement: accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU. Protocol

PURPOSE: to include Bulgaria and Romania (2007 enlargement) to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement between the European Union and Morocco.

PROPOSED ACT: Council Decision.

CONTENT: the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Kingdom of Morocco, of the other part, was signed in Brussels on 26 February 1996 and came into force on 1 March 2000 (AVC/1995/0363).

It is necessary to join a new Protocol to the initial Euro-Mediterranean Agreement to take account of the accession of these 2 new Member States. According to Article 6(2) of the Act annexed to the Treaty of Accession of 25 April 2005, accession of the new Member States to the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement is to be agreed by means of a protocol to that Agreement. The same article provides for a simplified procedure, whereby the protocol is to be concluded by the Council, acting unanimously on behalf of the Member States, and by the third country concerned. This procedure is without prejudice to the Community's own competences.

On 23 October 2006, the Council authorised the Commission, on behalf of the European Community and its Member States, to negotiate with Morocco a protocol amending the agreements concluded between the European Community and third countries, in particular the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and Morocco, of the other part, to take account of the accession of the new Member States to the EU.

The negotiations with Morocco have since been completed to the satisfaction of the Commission. Morocco marked its agreement on 23 April in an exchange of letters.

The text of the protocol negotiated with Morocco is attached. The most important provisions of the protocol concern the accession of the new Member States to the EU-Morocco Agreement and the inclusion of the new official languages of the EU to take account of the EU's enlargement, plus Morocco's speeding-up of the dismantling of a number of duties and taxes on products originating in the EU.

Given that Morocco has indicated that it may again speed up tariff dismantling in future, provision should be made for a special mechanism to approve any such speeding-up of dismantling. Given that the speeding-up does not affect the nature of the provisions of the Agreement but, on the contrary, will help to achieve the Agreement's objectives more rapidly than foreseen.

The European Parliament will be called upon to give its assent to this Protocol.