THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 207(2) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,
After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments,
Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure,
Whereas:
(1)
Article 329 of the Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Colombia and Peru, of the other part (the ‘Agreement’), signed on 26 June 2012, provides for the accession of other Member Countries of the Andean Community to the Agreement. Ecuador has been a Member Country of the Andean Community since its foundation in 1969.
(2)
The Union and Ecuador concluded negotiations for the accession of Ecuador to the Agreement on 17 July 2014. The Protocol of Accession to the Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Colombia and Peru, of the other part, to take account of the accession of Ecuador (the ‘Protocol of Accession’) was signed on 11 November 2016 and is being applied provisionally in accordance with Article 27(4) thereof since 1 January 2017.
(3)
Following the signature of the Protocol of Accession, it is necessary to guarantee, with regard to Ecuador, the effective application of the bilateral safeguard clause and of the stabilisation mechanism for bananas, as provided for in the Agreement.
(4)
In addition, the Combined Nomenclature (CN) code for bananas used in Annex I to the Agreement (Tariff Elimination Schedules) refers to the 2007 CN code. The same code is used in both Regulation (EU) No 19/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EU) No 20/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council. However, the relevant code for bananas was changed from 1 January 2012 from 0803 00 19 to 0803 90 10 in order to reflect the compulsory Harmonised System (HS) amendments. For the sake of clarity, that change should be introduced in both Regulation (EU) No 19/2013 and Regulation (EU) No 20/2013 in the relevant part on the stabilisation mechanism for bananas.
(5)
Ecuador is one of the main producers and suppliers of bananas to the Union, along with Colombia. The current stabilisation mechanism for bananas should therefore be extended to Ecuador.
(6)
The stabilisation mechanism has been in place since 2013 and it appears that, based on past experience, the information flow between the Commission, the Member States and the European Parliament should be improved, in particular by including an early warning when import volumes reach 80 % of the trigger import volumes.
(7)
Due to the close interrelation with the Agreement, it is appropriate to apply this Regulation from the date of provisional application of the Protocol of Accession.
(8)
Regulation (EU) No 19/2013 and Regulation (EU) No 20/2013 should therefore be amended accordingly,
HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: