Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Union and Morocco on the amendment of Protocols 1 and 4 to the EU-Morocco Association Agreement

Summary:

Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Union and Morocco on amendments to the EU-Morocco Association Agreement regarding products originating in Western Sahara.

Further information:

The Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Kingdom of Morocco, of the other part entered into force in 2000. Liberalisation measures on agricultural products, processed agricultural products, fish and fishery products were introduced into the Agreement in 2012.

Since the Association Agreement came into force, products from Western Sahara certified to be of Moroccan origin have been imported to the Union, benefiting from the tariff preferences laid down in its provisions. However, in its judgment of 21 December 2016 in Case C-104/16 P, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the Association Agreement applied only to Morocco and not to Western Sahara.

In May 2017, the Council of the European Union authorised the opening of negotiations with Morocco with a view to establishing a legal basis to grant the tariff preferences laid down in the Association Agreement to products originating in Western Sahara. The Commission therefore negotiated an Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the EU and Morocco on the amendment of Protocols 1 and 4 to the Association Agreement, which was initialled on 31 January 2018.

In June 2018 the European Commission presented proposals for Council Decisions on the signature and conclusion of the Agreement. The signature of the Agreement was approved on 16 July by Council Decision (EU) 2018/1893 and took place on 25 October. The conclusion of the Agreement was approved on 28 January 2019 by Council Decision (EU) 2019/217.

Official

EUR-Lex: Official Journal, L310, 06/12/2018: Decision (EU) 2018/1893 on the signature of the Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Union and Morocco on the amendment of Protocols 1 and 4 to the EU-Morocco Association Agreement https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2018.310.01.0001.01.ENG

EUR-Lex: Official Journal, L34, 06/02/2019: Decision (EU) 2019/317 on the conclusion of the Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Union and Morocco on the amendment of Protocols 1 and 4 to the EU-Morocco Association Agreement https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2019.034.01.0001.01.ENG

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