Answer given by Mr Hogan on behalf of the European Commission
26.10.2018
The Commission has presented proposals[1] to modify Protocols 1 and 4 of the EU-Morocco Association Agreement[2]. Those proposals aim at establishing a legal basis for granting tariff preferences to goods originating in Western Sahara, thus ensuring to those products access to the EU market in conditions similar to those applied in practice before the judgment of 16 December 2016 of Court of Justice of the European Union[3] where the Court determined that legally the agreement was not applicable to the Western Sahara.
The extension of the protocol is without prejudice to the EU phytosanitary import conditions that remain in place.
The provisions of the Association Agreements established between the EU and Morocco and Egypt respectively, foresee the possibility for the parties to agree additional concessions for agricultural products in a reciprocal manner.
The Commission would like to remind the Honourable Member that there are no negotiations of the kind currently ongoing with those countries and that both Morocco and Egypt are free from the citrus diseases mentioned in the question.
Foodstuffs imported into the Union and foodstuffs produced in the Union have to comply with the relevant EU legislation setting maximum residue levels for pesticides residues in food and feed[4].
- [1] COM(2018) 476 and 481
- [2] Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an Association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Kingdom of Morocco, of the other part — OJ L 70, 18.3.2000, p. 2
- [3] Judgment of the Court of Justice of 21 December 2016, Council of the European Union v Polisario Front, C-104/16 P, ECLI:EU:C:2016:973
- [4] Regulation (EC) No 396/2005, OJ L 70, 16.3.2005, p.1.