Brussels, 04/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Commission's legal services are presently looking into the legal implications of the Italian reservations over the ratification of the trade, development and co-operation agreement between the European Union and South Africa for the provisional implementation of this agreement.
Theoretically, the agreement concluded in March 1999 and signed last 13 October, has enter into force, provisionally, on 1 January 2000, without awaiting the ratification procedures by the national Parliaments (see EUROPE of 15 and 16 November, p.7). Nevertheless, the legal uncertainties mortgage the reality of this anticipated implementation, decide by the two parties not to deprive themselves to the advantages of an agreement grabbed in the heat of debate. The announcement made by the Italian government of its difficulty in submitting for Parliamentary ratification as long as it has not obtained the guarantees she is asking for regarding the protection of the name "Grappa" in the framework agreement on wines and spirits still being negotiated (see EUROPE of 18 December 1999) is the source of this worry. The Commission's legal services, consulted for advice, want to determine: a) if the intention stated by one Member State of the Union not to ratify a global agreement could bring into question the provisional implementation; b) if a declaration of a delegation at the level of the Permanent Representatives of the Member States (Coreper) has the legal strength needed to prevent the provisional implementation of the agreement or if the Council should take a position on this issue.
Diplomatic sources, the Italian fears, caused by the laborious negotiations of an EU/South Africa agreement on wines and spirits, are not as tied to the economic implications of the potential competition of South African products with Italian "Grappa" (the volume of South African exports of spirits called "Grappa" is tiny) to the fears of seeing a precedent created for the protection of traditional names in the framework of future agreements negotiated by the European Union with other partners.
EUROPE reminds that the provisional implementation on 1 January 2000 of the trade, development and co-operation agreement EU/South Africa has taken by Council decision (N° 199/753/EC) and that the Council has adopted a first technical regulation aimed at simplifying the implementation of the agreement
(The text appeared in the Official Journal N° L337 p. 30 December, p.29)