EU accession to the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC)

PURPOSE: to allow the EU to accede to the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC).

PROPOSED ACT: Council Decision.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Council may adopt the act only if Parliament has given its consent to the act. 

BACKGROUND: the European Union is a member of a number of international commodity bodies, but it is not a member of the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC).

On 27 April 2004, 27 May 2008 and 10 May 2010 the Council, in its Conclusions on the EU Action Plan on agricultural commodity chains, dependency and poverty, on the EU-Africa Partnership in support of cotton-sector development and on enhancing Union action in the area of commodities, respectively, invited the Commission to consider Union membership of the ICAC.

On 16 September 2013, the Council authorised the Commission to negotiate, on behalf of the Union, the accession of the Union to the ICAC, stating that membership of the ICAC is in the interest of the Union, owing to the significance of cotton to the Union’s agricultural and industrial economy and trade businesses. Cotton is also an important area for European development cooperation, the Union remaining one of the main donors to the African cotton sector.

Therefore, the EU should therefore accede to the ICAC and this is the aim of this proposal.

CONTENT: with this proposed Decision, the Council is called on to allow the EU to accede to the International Cotton Advisory Committee on behalf of the Union.

The Union will pay a contribution in accordance with the ICAC Rules and Regulations.

For further details, please refer to the summary of the Commission’s initial legislative proposal from 15.11.2016.