On the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the Union, of the Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Union and the Arab Republic of Egypt pursuant to Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 relating to the modification of concessions on all the tariff rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union

(12361/2023 – C90003/2024 – 2023/0296(NLE))

(Consent)

The European Parliament,

–having regard to the draft Council decision (12361/2023),

–having regard to draft agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Union and the Arab Republic of Egypt pursuant to Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 relating to the modification of concessions on all the tariff rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union (12362/2023),

–having regard to the request for consent submitted by the Council in accordance with Article 207(4), first subparagraph, and Article 218(6), second subparagraph, point (a)(v), of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, (C90003/2024),

–having regard to Rule 105(1) and (4), and Rule 114(7) of its Rules of Procedure,

–having regard to the letter from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development,

–having regard to the recommendation of the Committee on International Trade (A9-0078/2024),

1.Gives its consent to the conclusion of the agreement;

2.Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States and of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

In 2018, the EU formally launched the negotiations process under Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) of 1994 with a number of WTO Members in Geneva.

The underlying principle of the negotiations is a ‘joint approach’ developed between the EU and the UK back in 2017 on how to ‘apportion’ the quantitative commitments contained in the EU28 WTO schedule for the 143 EU agricultural, fish and industrial WTO tariff rate quotas (TRQ).The basis of this approach was that the existing volume of each TRQ would be fully maintained in the future, but split across two separate customs territories: the EU27 and the UK.

The principle of the applied methodology was based on the trade flows into the EU27 and the UK during a representative reference period of 3 years, from 2013 to 2015, for all WTO TRQ.

The methodology is described in detail in Regulation (EU) 2019/216 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Article 2(b) of Regulation (EU) 2019/216 empowers the Commission to amend the apportionment shares taking into account pertinent information that it may receive either in the context of negotiations under Article XXVIII of GATT 1994 or from other sources with an interest in a specific TRQ.

The Arab Republic of Egypt has negotiating rights for one erga omnes TRQ on cucumbers. A change in volume has been agreed for this TRQ. The EU27 share had been revised to 647 tonnes, taking into account the reference period from 2013 to 2016.

Negotiations with Egypt resulted in an Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters that was initialled on 22 May 2023 in Geneva.

In accordance with Article 218(6) TFEU, the consent of the European Parliament is needed in order for the Council to adopt a Decision concluding the Agreement and for the latter to come into force in due time.

In the light of the above, the Rapporteur recommends that the Parliament give its consent to the conclusion of the Agreement, without prejudice to its democratic right of continuous scrutiny.

Pursuant to Rule 55(4) of the Rules of Procedure

Inma Rodríguez-Piñero on behalf of the S&D group

MariePierre Vedrenne on behalf of Renew Europe group

As pro-European political groups, we are devoted to supporting legislative proposals in the interest of the European Union. Therefore, we support the European Commission's adjustment of WTO tariff-rate quotas with Egypt after the exit of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland from the EU. In this sense, our Groups will vote in favour of Mr Marco Campomenosi’s legislative report.

Nevertheless, our Groups would like to state that our support for this report, whose Rapporteur is from the ID Group, does not in any way link us to this political group and the Eurosceptic positions it conveys, against which we firmly are opposed.

The rapporteur declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.

29.11.2023

Mr Bernd Lange

Chair of the Committee on International Trade

ASP 12G301

BRUSSELS

Ref.: IPOL-COM-AGRI D(2023) 42069

Subject: Opinion on a proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion of an agreement between the EU and Egypt on the apportionment of WTO tariff-rate quotas following Brexit (2023/0296(NLE))

Dear Mr Chair,

I refer to the proposals for Council decisions on, respectively, the conclusion of an agreement between the EU and Egypt on the apportionment of WTO tariff-rate quotas following Brexit [2023/0296 (NLE)], and the amendment to the agreement between the EU and Argentina on the same subject [2023/0303 (NLE)].

AGRI Coordinators considered the matter at their meeting of 28 November. They agreed with the above agreement with Egypt and amendment to the agreement with Argentina. Also, they asked me to convey their opinion to you pursuant to Rule 56.

This recommendation was endorsed by the AGRI Committee at its meeting of 7 December 2023.

Yours sincerely,

Norbert Lins

Copy: Mr Martin Hlaváček, AGRI Standing Rapporteur for Brexit related issues