Proposal to give Western Balkan countries five more years of unilateral duty- and quota-free access for most of products to the EU market was voted in law by the European Parliament on Tuesday. The access rules are also updated with an EU suspension right in case of serious violations of human rights. In legislative inter-institutional negotiations MEPs managed to ensure their right to veto European Commission’s decisions of suspension in this case.
“The approval of the extension of trade preferences with the Western Balkans is good news and confirms the interest of the European Union towards a strategic area which has historically been struggling“, said the rapporteur Goffredo Maria Bettini (S&D, IT).
The preferences
Since 2000 the EU allows nearly all Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYROM, Montenegro, and Serbia products to enter the EU market without customs duties or limits on quantities (with the exceptions of sugar, wine, baby beef and certain fisheries products), in order to support their economic integration with the EU and foster political stability and economic progress in the entire region.
Decision to renew the preferences is reviewed and renewed every five years, with the current rules expiring in December 2015. Tuesday’s vote (with 534 MEPs in favour, 128 voting against and 36 abstentions) extends the regime until 31 December 2020.
Due to still on-going negotiations, the new rules suspend for the time being the autonomous trade preferences for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2016, until it modifies its trade modalities with Croatia to take into account the country’s entry into the European Union.
EU veto over suspension for fraud, human rights or rule of law breaches
MEPs managed to ensure that the EU’s decisions to suspend the trade preferences in case any of the beneficiary countries seriously and systematically violates human rights and rule of law will be taken by “delegated acts” which allows for the European Parliament’s veto right.
“The choice of the delegated acts to assess the respect for human rights is an extraordinary victory for the European Parliament, which sees its role and its function strengthened“, added Mr Bettini
Background
The EU is Western Balkan’s largest trading partner both in terms of imports (72,7%) and exports (81,8%) (2013 data).