On the draft Council decision on the accession of Vanuatu to the Interim Partnership Agreement between the European Community, of the one part, and the Pacific States, of the other part

(07847/2025 – C100085/2025 – 2025/0055(NLE))

(Consent)

The European Parliament,

–having regard to the draft Council decision (07847/2025),

–having regard to the Interim Partnership Agreement between the European Community, of the one part, and the Pacific States, of the other part,

–having regard to the request for consent submitted by the Council in accordance with Article 207(4), first subparagraph, in conjunction with Article 218(6), second subparagraph, point (a)(v) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (C100085/2025),

–having regard to Rule 107(1) and (4), and Rule 117(7) of its Rules of Procedure,

–having regard to the recommendation of the Committee on International Trade (A100000/2025),

1.Gives its consent to the accession of Vanuatu to 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 Vanuatu.

The accession of Vanuatu to the interim EPA between the EU, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Solomon Islands, which is an asymmetric and WTO-compatible trade agreement, reinforces the legal framework of the EU trade relations with Pacific partner countries and facilitates reciprocal trade. It also incorporates Vanuatu into the regime of joint rules and institutions established by the interim EPA.

Following Vanuatu’s classification by the World Bank as an upper middle-income country, the country will be removed from the list of Everything But Arms (EBA) beneficiary countries under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP), and will no longer benefit from the tariff preferences (duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market) provided under the special arrangement EBA for the least-developed countries as of 1 January 2025.

Your rapporteur supports the economic integration of the Pacific States and welcomes the accession of Vanuatu’s to the iEPA as this will be beneficial for the region as well as for trade relations with the European Union.

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.