Considerations on COM(2010)619 - EU position within the ACP-EU Council of Ministers concerning the status of Equatorial Guinea in relation to the revised ACP-EC Partnership Agreement

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1. In accordance with Article 93(3) thereof, the revised ACP-EC Agreement entered into force on 1 July 2008.

2. Equatorial Guinea, which signed the revised ACP-EC Agreement on 25 June 2005, deposited an instrument of ratification with a reservation – an instrument rejected by the European Union and its Member States. As a result, the ratification is invalid according to the provisions of Article 93(4).

3. Article 94 of the revised ACP-EC Agreement stipulates that any request for accession by a State is to be presented to, and approved by, the ACP-EU Council of Ministers.

4. In May 2010, Equatorial Guinea presented a request for accession in accordance with Article 94 of the ACP-EC Agreement and a request for observer status, enabling it to participate in the joint institutions set up by the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement, until the accession procedure was completed.

5. The granting of this status until 30 April 2011 by the joint ACP-EU Council of Ministers should be approved, with Equatorial Guinea having to deposit the Act of Accession no later than the aforementioned date with the Secretariat General of the Council of the European Union and the Secretariat of the ACP States, Depositaries of the Agreement.

6. In accordance with Article 15(4) of the Agreement, the Joint ACP-EU Council of Ministers agreed in Ouagadougou on 21 June 2010 to give a mandate to the Committee of Ambassadors to take a decision to this effect.

7. There is a need to determine the position to be adopted by the EU within the ACP-EU Committee of Ambassadors in response to this request.