Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be adopted, on behalf of the European Union, within the Joint Committee established by the Regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin as regards the request of the Republic of Moldova to become a Contracting Party to that Convention

The Regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin (hereafter 'the Convention') lays down provisions on the origin of goods traded under relevant Agreements concluded between the Contracting Parties.

Article 5(1) of the Convention provides that a third party may become a Contracting Party to the Convention, provided that the candidate country or territory has a free trade agreement in force, providing for preferential rules of origin, with at least one of the Contracting Parties. Article 2(2) of the Convention provides that, for the purposes of the Convention, ‘third party’ means any neighbouring country or territory which is not a Contracting Party.

The Republic of Moldova submitted its written request for accession to the Convention to the depositary of the Convention (the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU) on 17 July 2013.

In its request, the Republic of Moldova indicated that it is a member of the Central European Free Trade Agreement between Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo. As a consequence, the Republic of Moldova has a free trade agreement in force with six Contracting Parties to the Convention and complies with the condition set out in Article 5(1) of the Convention to become a Contracting Party. In its request, the Republic of Moldova also indicated that joining the PEM Convention was a commitment made in the framework of negotiations of the deep and comprehensive free trade agreement (DCFTA) with the EU and that it had recently concluded negotiations of a free trade agreement with Turkey.

The request should therefore be submitted to the Joint Committee of the Convention in application of its Article 4(3)(b) for adoption of a Decision inviting the Republic of Moldova to accede to the Convention. The position to be taken by the EU within the Joint Committee should be established by the Council.

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)110: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:110:FIN

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