Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be adopted by the European Union within the ACP-EU Council of Ministers concerning the status of the Federal Republic of Somalia in relation to the Partnership Agreement between the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, of the one part, and the European Community and its Member States, of the other part

On 23 June 2000, the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (hereinafter referred to as ACP States), on the one hand, and the European Community and its Member States, on the other, signed a Partnership Agreement in Cotonou (Benin) (hereinafter referred to as the 'Cotonou Agreement').

In a letter dated 25 February 2013 sent to the EU High Representative/Vice President Catherine Ashton, and to the President of the ACP-EU Council through the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, the Federal Republic of Somalia's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, H.E. Fawzia Yusuf Adam, formally requested observership and subsequent accession to the Cotonou Agreement in accordance with the provisions of Article 94 of the Agreement.

The European Union should respond favourably to this request, which should be approved by a formal decision by the Joint ACP-EU Council of Ministers, during their meeting in Brussels on 6 and 7 June 2013.

The Commission therefore proposes that the Council adopt the attached proposal for an EU position concerning the status of the Federal Republic of Somalia in relation to the amended Cotonou Agreement.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)272: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:272:FIN

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