EU/ACP countries' Economic Partnership Agreements: exclusion of certain countries from trade preferences; Commission delegated powers
The European Parliament adopted by 322 votes to 78 with 218 abstentions a legislative resolution on the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Annex I to Council Regulation (EC) No 1528/2007 as regards the exclusion of a number of countries from the list of regions or states which have concluded negotiations.
Parliament adopted its position on first reading following the ordinary legislative procedure. The main amendments are as follows:
Postponement of the date of entry into force of the Regulation: Parliament wants the Regulation to apply from 1 January 2016 rather than 2014. It considers that the proposed timetable is unrealistic and is far too short to permit the satisfactory conclusion of the negotiations under way on the partnership agreements.
Date of application: the Regulation will apply from 1 January 2016, rather than 2014.
Powers conferred on the Commission: Parliament made the following amendments:
- it emphasised the need for the European Parliament to be duly involved in preparation and implementation of delegated acts;
- the delegation of power shall be conferred on the Commission for a period of five years (rather than for an indeterminate period, as the Commission had proposed);
- the Commission shall draw up a report in respect of the delegation of power not later than nine months before the end of the five-year period. The delegation of power shall be tacitly extended for periods of an identical duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension not later than three months before the end of each period;
- the European Parliament and Council will have four months (rather than two) to object to a delegated act.
It should be noted that the plenary session rejected a proposal from the GUE/NGL group to reject the Commission’s proposal by 98 votes for, 510 against, with 9 abstentions.