Explanatory Memorandum to JOIN(2017)37 - Conclusion of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement with Armenia - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | JOIN(2017)37 - Conclusion of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement with Armenia. |
|---|---|
| source | JOIN(2017)37  |
| date | 25-09-2017 |
1. CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL
• Reasons for and objectives of the proposal
The attached proposal constitutes the legal instrument for the conclusion of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Armenia, of the other part (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Agreement’).
Relations between the European Union (EU) and the Republic of Armenia (Armenia) are currently based on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Armenia, of the other part, which entered into force on 1 July 1999 for an initial ten-year period and which has been automatically renewed.
On 29 September 2015, the Council adopted Decisions authorising the European Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to negotiate a Framework Agreement between the EU and Armenia. The Council has been kept informed at all stages of the negotiations. It has been consulted in the Working Party on Eastern Europe and Central Asia and in the Trade Policy Committee. The European Parliament has also been kept promptly and fully informed throughout the negotiations.
Negotiation of the Agreement began on 7 December 2015 and the text of the Agreement was initialled on 21 March 2017.
2. LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE PROPOSAL
2.1The aim and content of the agreement
The scope of the new Agreement is comprehensive, covering issues of EU competence and interests, which reflects the existing wide range of cooperation in economic, trade and political areas, a on sectoral policies. The Agreement develops these areas further, thus providing a long-term basis for further developing EU-Armenia relations. By intensifying political dialogue and improving cooperation in a broad range of areas, the Agreement lays the foundations for a more effective bilateral engagement with Armenia.
The Agreement includes the EU’s standard political clauses on human rights, the international criminal courts, weapons of mass destruction, small arms and light weapons, and counter-terrorism. It also contains provisions on cooperation in areas such as transport, energy, health, the environment, climate change, taxation, education and culture, employment and social affairs, banking and insurance, industrial policy, agriculture and rural development, tourism, research and innovation, and mining. In addition, it covers legal cooperation, the rule of law, combating money laundering and terrorist financing, and fighting organised crime and corruption.
The Agreement contains a substantive trade title with important commitments in several trade policy areas. These will improve conditions for bilateral EU-Armenia trade, while taking full account of Armenia’s obligations as a member of the Eurasian Economic Union. They will ensure a better regulatory environment for economic operators in areas such as trade in services and goods, setting up and running companies, capital movements, government procurement and intellectual property rights, sustainable development, and competition.
Following the adoption of the Council Decision on the signing, on behalf of the European Union, and provisional application of the Agreement, the Agreement was signed by the European Union and the Republic of Armenia as a mixed Agreement.
In certain areas, the Agreement is also designed to bring Armenian law gradually closer to the EU acquis. However, it does not go as far as to establish an association between the EU and Armenia.
2.2 The legal basis for the proposed decision
Article 218(6)(a)(iii) TFEU provides that, where an agreement establishes a specific institutional framework by organising cooperation procedures, the Council adopts a decision concluding the agreement after obtaining consent of the European Parliament. Moreover, the second subparagraph of Article 218(8) TFEU provides that the Council acts unanimously when the agreement covers a field for which unanimity is required for the adoption of an European Union act.
With regard to a measure that simultaneously pursues a number of objectives, or that has several components, which are inseparably linked without one being incidental to the other, the Court has held that, where various provisions of the Treaty are therefore applicable, such a measure will have to be founded, exceptionally, on the various corresponding legal bases, unless the procedure laid down for each legal basis is incompatible with each other (Case C-490/10 Parliament v Council, ECLI: EU:C:2012:525, paragraph 46).
The Agreement pursues objectives and includes components from the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the Common Commercial Policy and development cooperation. These aspects of the Agreement are inseparably linked without one being incidental to the other.
The Common Foreign and Security Policy is a field for which unanimity is required for the adoption of an Union act.
The Agreement establishes an institutional framework by organising cooperation procedures between Armenia and the EU.
The legal basis of the proposed decision should therefore be Article 37 TEU, Article 207 TFEU and Article 209 TFEU read in conjunction with Article 218(6)(a) TFEU and the second subparagraph of Article 218(8) TFEU. No additional provisions are required as legal basis (see Case C-377/12 Commission v Council, ECLI: EU: C:2014:1903).
Having assessed the text of the Agreement, the Commission and the High Representative take the view that the Agreement does not cover any areas that would fall into the exclusive competence of the Member States and would thus warrant, in legal terms, the use of a mixed agreement. However, as the negotiating directives were issued in view of a mixed agreement, the text of the Agreement was initialled as mixed agreement and in consequence proposed here as such for signature and conclusion, the parties being the European Union and European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States of the one part and the Republic of Armenia, of the other part.
2.3 The necessity of the proposed decision
Article 216 TFEU provides that the European Union may conclude an agreement with one or more third country where the Treaties so provide or where the conclusion of an agreement is necessary in order to achieve, in the context of EU policies, one of the objectives referred to in the Treaties, where it is provided for in a legally binding EU act, or where it is likely to affect common rules or alter their scope.
The Treaties provide for the conclusion of agreements such as the this one, namely in Articles 37 TEU, 207 TFEU and 209 TFEU. Moreover, the conclusion of the Agreement is necessary for the purpose of achieving, within the framework of the European Union’s policies, objectives referred to in the Treaties, including strengthening human rights, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, counter-terrorism, the fight against corruption and organised crime, trade, migration, the environment, energy, climate change, transport, science and technology, employment and social affairs, education, agriculture.