Brussels, 22/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - After three months of intense trialogue negotiations with the European Commission, on 16 December, the European Parliament and the Council reached first reading agreement on the draft regulation on the implementation of the safeguard clause in the EU-South Korea free trade agreement, concluded in 2009 and formally signed in October. The safeguard clause with its provisions beefed up by MEPs will provide better protection of the interests of EU industry, especially the sensitive car and electronics sectors.
“Parliament's objective was to negotiate the most effective safeguard possible, while at the same time respecting the agreement with South Korea. Parliament wanted to reach four objectives: first, to create a safeguard clause that would be easy to apply; second, that the safeguard would be the most effective possible to address a possible surge of South Korean imports; third, that it would make the FTA more attractive to the concerned European industry; and fourth, to make the procedures for the adoption of provisional and definitive safeguard measures, for the imposition of surveillance measures, and for the termination of an investigation without measures, subject to an efficient and democratically controlled mechanism of implementing measures in line with the requirements of Article 291 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,” said rapporteur Pablo Zalba Bidegain (EPP, Spain) and the chairman of the Parliament international trade committee, Vital Moreira (S&D, Portugal), in a joint press statement.
MEPs approved a raft of amendments to the legislative act proposed by the Commission, which will afford better protection to European industry, said Zalba Bidegain and Moreira.
Firstly, Parliament and also industry will have the right to ask the Commission to open investigations, which could lead to activation of the clause, and the Commission will be able to examine a wider range of factors when seeking to determine if there has been any harm to interests.
Secondly, a key point for the automotive industry: the definition of the products that fall within the scope of the safeguard clause has been clarified.
The Commission will introduce surveillance measures, especially for the most sensitive sectors in the event of an increase of imports concentrated in one or several EU member states.
Monitoring procedures, especially for those products which might be affected by the free trade agreement's duty-drawback clause, will be toughened. Information on the monitoring of the duty-drawback affected products will be shared regularly with the European Parliament, the Council and industry.
Parliament was also successful in expanding the factors that the Commission might evaluate in an investigation to determine if there has been injury.
Compensation, the sixth point brought into the clause, is another key amendment introduced by the Parliament. Whenever member states apply for aid from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, they may refer to the adoption of definitive safeguard measures in this regulation.
The Commission will be required to report to all interested parties on all decisions referring to the application and termination of safeguard measures as well as statistics of figures of the EU-South Korea trade.
A new online platform will be set up to make the exchange of information between Commission and interested parties easier and to shorten the times.
Parliament succeeded in applying the procedures for implementing acts for the adoption of provisional and definitive safeguard measures, for the imposition of surveillance measures, and for the termination of an investigation without measures according to the recently adopted regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by member states of the Commission's exercise of implementing powers. Accordingly, the Safeguard Regulation represents the first case where the EU applies the system of implementing acts according to Article 291 of the Treaty of Lisbon.
With regard to the free trade agreement recently concluded between South Korea and the United States, the Commission confirmed that any amendment brought to this agreement will automatically apply to the free trade agreement with the EU.
The international trade committee will approve the trialogue agreement on 25 January. Prior to that, it will have passed the report by Robert Sturdy (ECR, UK) on the free trade agreement. The Sturdy and Zalba Bidegain reports will then be put to the vote in the February plenary session. If they are passed, the EU-South Korea free trade agreement and the regulation of safeguards will come into force in July 2011. (E.H./transl.rt)