Ukraine Autonomous Trade Measure: Conclusion of trilogue negotiations and vote by Parliament’s International Trade Committee

During the early hours of 20 March, Member States and Parliament negotiators concluded the interinstitutional negotiations on the Ukraine Autonomous Trade Measure procedure.

The co-legislators agreed to maintain poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, maize, groats and honey in the list of sensitive products that will be subject to the automatic safeguard measures.

However, the reference dates for triggering this automatic safeguard measure will be as originally proposed by the Commission, namely the arithmetic mean of quantities imported in 2022 and 2023, and not include 2021 as the Parliament had proposed.

The time period for activation of the automatic safeguard will be reduced, from 21 to 14 days.

According to the Council, the next steps are as follows:

1. The European Parliament and the Council will now need to approve the provisional agreement.

2. The European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade and the EU’s ambassadors (Coreper) will be invited to confirm the outcome of the interinstitutional negotiations later today (20^th March).

3. The Parliament’s position at first reading is then expected to be adopted at one of the April plenary sessions.

4. The regulation is then to be adopted by the Council, signed by the representatives of the Council and the European Parliament and published in the Official Journal, before entering into force on 6 June 2024.

During the afternoon of 20 March, the members of the International Trade Committee (INTA) of the European Parliament (the lead committee) voted in favour of this compromise text.

Additionally, the chair of the INTA Committee provided an update on this file from the Council, noting that at the time of the INTA vote, EU Member States Permanent Representatives (COREPER I) meeting also on 20 March had been unable to vote on the same file as some Member States noted that they need more time before a vote.

The INTA Committee chair pointed out that this means that, despite the vote by the Parliament’s lead Committee, the lack of a vote by COREPER means that Member States may still change their position on the agreed text, which may then require another vote at Committee stage.

More information: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/03/20/ukraine-council-and-parliament-reach-a-deal-to-renew-eu-s-autonomous-trade-measures/

Vote recording: https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstreaming/event_20240320-1430-COMMITTEE-INTA?start=240320151828&end=240320153003&audio=en

Text of the provisional agreement resulting from the interinstitutional negotiations on the ATM proposal of 20 March: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2014_2019/plmrep/COMMITTEES/INTA/DV/2024/03-20/1299303EN.pdf

Contact: Lebo Mofolo, lmofolo@frucom.eu