This Tuesday 17 April, the European Commission will adopt and then submit to the Council of the EU and the European Parliament the texts of the EU/Japan and EU/Singapore free-trade agreements for signature and ratification, a Commission spokesperson confirmed on Monday 16 April.
According to our information, the approval process by the Council of the two agreements will not run simultaneously but consecutively, due to a lack of resources in the form of lawyer-linguists.
The Council will first examine the EU/Japan economic partnership agreement, which was concluded in December 2017 (see EUROPE 11922), with a view to a decision by the end of June authorising the Commission to sign the agreement on behalf of the EU, a Community source explained.
The date for an EU/Japan summit for the signature has still not been decided on, but the idea is to hold it around 10-11 July, assuming the work on the text of the agreement is making good progress at the Council, a different Community source told us.
At the European Parliament, the rapporteur, Pedro Silva Pereira (S&D, Portugal) said on 22 March that he hoped that the Council would sign off the text by the summer so that it could be examined by the MEPs in the autumn ahead of a ratification vote in December.
The EU and Japan want to ensure that their agreement can enter into force in early 2019, ideally before the United Kingdom leaves the EU in March of that year (see EUROPE 11972).
Talks between the Commission and the Japanese administration are continuing on the investment protection chapter, which is separate from the free-trade agreement. The EU wants an ICS-type investment dispute settlement mechanism, along the lines of the one promoted in its trade deal with Canada, but Japan would prefer an ISDS-type system (see EUROPE 11946).
Once the EU/Japan agreement is signed and sealed, the Council will move on to the EU/Singapore free-trade agreement concluded in December 2012 (see EUROPE 10753), which includes a chapter on investment, for its signature and ratification.
This agreement with Singapore, the first free-trade agreement negotiated and concluded by the EU since the Lisbon Treaty entered into force, was the subject of a Court of Justice judgment on the distribution of competences between the EU and its member states over its conclusion and ratification (see EUROPE 11789).
On Tuesday, therefore, the Commission may make two separate proposals, one on the trade provisions, which requires ratification by the European Parliament only, and the other on the provisions on investment, which will require ratification by the European Parliament and the national parliaments. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)