Press Release: Operations of preferential trade to become easier between the European Union, the partners of the Southern Mediterranean and the Western Balkans

The Council of the European Union has decided to launch the process of signing the regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin. This Convention is intended to overcome the difficulties in the management of the current network of some 60 bilateral protocols on rules of origin among the countries or territories of the pan-Euro-Mediterranean zone.

On 15 April 2011, the Council adopted a decision authorising the signature of the Convention by the Commission on behalf of the European Union. The Convention will replace the current pan-Euro-Mediterranean system of rules of origin based on individual protocols applicable between two partner countries, with a single legal instrument in the form of a regional convention on preferential rules of origin.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Proposal for a Council Decision on the signature of the regional convention on Pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin http://www.europeansources.info/record/proposal-for-a-council-decision-on-the-signature-of-the-regional-convention-on-pan-euro-mediterranean-preferential-rules-of-origin/

---