The 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 (1) (‘the Association Agreement’) was concluded on behalf of the European Union by means of Council and Commission Decision 2000/204/EC, ECSC (2) and entered into force on 1 March 2000.
(2)
By means of Decision (EU) 2019/217 (3), the Council approved the conclusion of the Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco on the amendment of Protocols 1 and 4 to the Association Agreement (4) (‘the amending Agreement’) with a view to extending the tariff preferences laid down in the Association Agreement to products originating in Western Sahara.
(3)
In accordance with Article 81 of the Association Agreement, an Association Committee was established to manage the Association Agreement. Pursuant to Article 83 of the Association Agreement, the Association Committee has the power to take decisions for the management of the Association Agreement as well as in those areas in which the Council has delegated its powers to it.
(4)
The Association Committee is to adopt, at the latest two months after the entry into force of the amending Agreement, a decision on the arrangements for evaluating the impact of the amending Agreement, in particular on sustainable development and with regard to the advantages for the people concerned and the exploitation of the natural resources of Western Sahara.
(5)
It is appropriate to establish the position to be taken on the Union's behalf in the Association Committee, as the proposed decision will be binding on the Union.
(6)
In order to monitor the effects of the amending Agreement on the people concerned and the exploitation of the natural resources of the territories in question, the amending Agreement specifically provides for a suitable framework and procedure to allow the parties, on the basis of regular exchanges of information, to evaluate its consequences during implementation. The Union and the Kingdom of Morocco have agreed to exchange information at least once a year by means of the Association Committee. The specific arrangements for the evaluation exercise should therefore be laid down with a view to their adoption by the Association Committee.
(7)
The purpose of the exchange of information coincides with that of the joint report of 11 June 2018 by the Commission and the European External Action Service on the benefits for the people of Western Sahara and the public consultation on extending tariff preferences to products from Western Sahara.
(8)
As regards the impact on the territory’s economy, the information available to date primarily concerns agriculture and fishing, but the preferences concern all products; the data to be exchanged could therefore change according to developments in Western Sahara. Furthermore, the exchange of information does not exclusively concern economic aspects (‘benefits’ in the narrow sense) but is intended to allow for a broader evaluation covering such aspects as sustainable development and the impact on the exploitation of natural resources.
(9)
The Kingdom of Morocco has also agreed to set up separately a mechanism for collecting statistics on exports to the Union of products originating in Western Sahara, which are to be made available on a monthly basis to the Commission and to custom authorities in the Member States.
(10)
The Kingdom of Morocco will be able, on the basis of existing information systems, to ask the Union for information on production and trade in specific product categories of interest to the Kingdom of Morocco,
