on the signing, on behalf of the European Union and its Member States, and provisional application of a Protocol to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an Association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Arab Republic of Egypt, of the other part, to take account of the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

The Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an Association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Arab Republic of Egypt, of the other part (hereinafter referred to as 'the Agreement'), was signed on 25 June 2001. The Agreement entered into force on 1 June 2004.

According to its Act of Accession, the Republic of Croatia undertakes to accede to the international agreements signed or concluded by the European Union and its Member States by means of a protocol to these agreements.

The attached proposal constitutes the legal instrument for the signing, and provisional application of the Protocol to the Agreement in order to take account of the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union.

With regards to rules of origin, the EU and the Arab Republic of Egypt agreed, by Decision No 1/2015 of the EU-Egypt Association Council of 21 September 2015, that the new Protocol 4 to the Agreement will have to refer to the Regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin, which lays down the rules of origin and provides for cumulation of origin between the European Union, Egypt and other Contracting Parties as of 1 February 2016. Therefore, the article 3 (Rules of Origin) of the Protocol annexed to this decision will only cover the period between the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the EU and the entry into force of Decision No 1/2015.

By its Decision of 14 September 2012, the Council authorised the Commission to open negotiations with the third countries concerned, in order to conclude the relevant protocols. The negotiations with the Arab Republic of Egypt were successfully concluded on 29 October 2015.

The proposed Protocol incorporates the Republic of Croatia as a contracting party to the Agreement and commits the Union to providing an authentic version of the Agreement in Croatian.

The Commission judges the results of the negotiations to be satisfactory and requests the Council to adopt the attached Decision on the signing and provisional application of the Protocol.

2016/0122 (NLE)

Proposal for a

COUNCIL DECISION

on the signing, on behalf of the European Union and its Member States, and provisional application of a Protocol to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an Association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Arab Republic of Egypt, of the other part, to take account of the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 217, in conjunction with Article 218(5) thereof,

Having regard to the Act of Accession of the Republic of Croatia, and in particular Article 6(2) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

Whereas:

(1)The Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an Association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Arab Republic of Egypt, of the other part ('the Agreement'), was signed on 25 June 2001. The Agreement entered into force on 1 June 2004.

(2)The Republic of Croatia became a Member State of the European Union on 1 July 2013.