EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

1.CONTEXT OF THE RECOMMENDATION

The Interbus Agreement on the international occasional carriage of passengers by coach and bus () (hereafter “the Interbus Agreement”) entered into force on 1 January 2003. The European Union is a Contracting Party of the Interbus Agreement ().

The Interbus Agreement currently covers the international occasional carriage of passengers by coach and bus.

On 5 December 2014 (), the Council authorised the Commission to open negotiations, on behalf of the European Union, to extend the scope of the Interbus Agreement to regular and special regular carriage of passengers by coach and bus. Under the same authorisation from the Council, the Commission negotiated a Protocol extending the possibility of accession to the Interbus Agreement to the Kingdom of Morocco.

On the basis of a Commission proposal, the Council adopted on 16 July 2018 () Decisions on the signing of both Protocols.

Article 20(1) of the Protocol to the Agreement on the international occasional carriage of passengers by coach and bus (Interbus Agreement) regarding the international regular and special regular carriage of passengers by coach and bus (hereinafter ‘the Protocol on regular and special regular services’) and Article 2 of the Protocol amending the Agreement on the international occasional carriage of passengers by coach and bus (Interbus Agreement) by extending the possibility of accession to the Kingdom of Morocco (hereinafter ‘the Protocol on the Kingdom of Morocco’) establish respectively that: ‘This Protocol shall be open for signature at Brussels from 16/07/2018 to 16/04/2019 at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union which shall act as the Depositary of the Protocol.’

Before the end of the period for signature, i.e. 16 April 2019, only one Contracting Party to the Interbus Agreement had signed the Protocol on regular and special regular services and four Contracting Parties to the Interbus Agreement had signed the Protocol on the Kingdom of Morocco.

The Protocol on regular and special regular services provides with regard to its entry into force that the respective provisions of the Interbus Agreement, in particular Articles 27 and 28 thereof, shall apply mutatis mutandis. According to these provisions, the Agreement shall be approved or ratified by the signatories in accordance with their own procedures and shall enter into force for the Contracting Parties that have approved of ratified it when four Contracting Parties, including the EU have approved or ratified it. The reference to signatories implies that in order for the Protocol on regular and special regular services to be able to enter into force, there would need to be at least four Contracting Parties that have signed and, consequently, approved or ratified it. As mentioned above, before the elapse of the period during which the Protocol on regular and special regular services was open for signature, only the Union had signed it.

The Protocol on the Kingdom of Morocco, for its part, envisages that it shall be signed, approved or ratified by the signatories in accordance with their own procedures. However, it does not provide for accession of Contracting Parties that have not signed and approved or ratified it. As mentioned above, before the elapse of the period during which the Protocol on the Kingdom of Morocco was open for signature not all of the Contracting Parties to the Interbus Agreement had signed it.

In light of the above, unless the periods of signature of the Protocols are prolonged or removed, no other Interbus Contracting Party could sign them and, consequently approve or ratify them and become also a Contracting Party of the Protocols. This would have serious consequences: the Protocol on regular and special regular services could not enter into force since it requires four ratifications while, the Protocol on the Kingdom of Morocco, signed and approved or ratified by four Contracting Parties to the Interbus Agreement, could enter into force but would only cover four out of eight current Contracting Parties which would make the governance of the whole Interbus Agreement unreasonably complex and practically hinder the possibility of the Kingdom of Morocco to enter in treaty relationship with all the Contacting Parties to the Interbus Agreement.

Furthermore, should the Kingdom of Morocco accede to the Interbus Agreement before all current Contracting Parties to the Interbus Agreement have ratified the Protocol on the Kingdom of Morocco, this would in practice be creating a new, smaller Interbus Agreement within the main Agreement (one with the Kingdom of Morocco and the Contracting Parties for which the Protocol would have entered into force, and another one with the current eight existing Contracting Parties without the Kingdom of Morocco). Such an arrangement is not foreseen in the Interbus Agreement and it would make the governance of the Interbus Agreement practically impossible. It would, therefore be appropriate to amend Article 4 of the Protocol on the Kingdom of Morocco to the effect that that Protocol should enter into force only after all Contracting Parties have approved or ratified it.

Since in the meantime one of the Contracting Parties to the Interbus Agreement has changed its official denomination, namely the Republic of North Macedonia, it might be opportune to also amend the two Protocols to refer to that Contracting Party with its new denomination.

The modification of the Protocols should not affect the validity of the signatures that have already taken place.