Considerations on COM(2010)136 - Authorisation of the signature and provisional application of the Free Trade Agreement with Korea

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table>(1)On 23 April 2007 the Council authorised the Commission to negotiate a free trade agreement with the Republic of Korea, hereinafter referred to as ‘Korea’, on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.
(2)Those negotiations have been concluded and a Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Korea, of the other part, hereinafter referred to as ‘the Agreement’, was initialled on 15 October 2009.

(3)Article 15.10.5 of the Agreement provides for its provisional application.

(4)The Agreement should be signed on behalf of the Union and applied on a provisional basis, pending the completion of the procedures for its conclusion.

(5)The Agreement does not affect the rights of investors of the Member States to benefit from any more favourable treatment provided for in any agreement related to investment to which a Member State and Korea are Parties.

(6)Pursuant to Article 218(7) of the Treaty, it is appropriate for the Council to authorise the Commission to approve certain limited modifications to the Agreement. The Commission should be authorised to bring about the termination of the entitlement to co-productions as provided for in Article 5 of the Protocol on Cultural Cooperation unless the Commission determines that the entitlement should be continued and this is approved by the Council pursuant to a specific procedure necessitated both by the sensitive nature of this element of the Agreement and by the fact that the Agreement is to be concluded by the Union and its Member States. In addition, the Commission should be authorised to approve modifications to be adopted by the Working Group on Geographical Indications pursuant to Article 10.25 of the Agreement.

(7)It is appropriate to set out the relevant procedures for the protection of geographical indications which are given protection pursuant to the Agreement.

(8)The Union should activate the procedures relating to limitations on duty drawback, safeguard and dispute settlement whenever the conditions established in the relevant provisions of the Agreement are met. The rights of the Union provided for in Article 14 (Drawback of, or exemption from, customs duties) of the Protocol concerning the definition of ‘originating products’ and methods of administrative cooperation of the Agreement should be exercised in accordance with the relevant provisions to be contained in the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council implementing the bilateral safeguard clause of the EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement.

(9)The provisional application foreseen in this Decision does not prejudge the allocation of competences between the Union and its Member States in accordance with the Treaties,