06/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - Adopting a report by Paolo Costa (ALDE, Italy) in plenary on 5 July without debate, the European Parliament gave a favourable opinion in the consultation procedure to the protocol amending the shipping agreement between the EU and its Member States and China. Following the accession of ten new Member States to the EU, the 6 December 2002 agreement had to be amended with a protocol setting out the technical and linguistic changes. The Commission and Chinese representatives in Brussels initialled the draft protocol on 24 September 2004. The draft protocol now has to be unanimously decided upon by the Council of the European Union on behalf of the Member States.