EU: Free trade area around the Mediterranean a priority at trade ministers’ meeting
Swedish Presidency of the EU | 10 December 2009
Free trade area around the Mediterranean a priority at trade ministers’
The EuroMed meeting in Brussels today adopted a roadmap for the establishment of a free trade area around the Mediterranean starting in 2010. Support was also given at the meeting for a regional convention with uniform rules on the origin of goods. This will enable greater freedom of movement for goods.
The convention covers the 27 EU Member States, ten Mediterranean countries, the four EFTA countries and the Faroe Islands, and it will also be open in future to the seven countries of the Western Balkans. The convention also provides future opportunities to make the rules more liberal and user-friendly.
New dispute settlement protocols between the EU and Morocco and the EU and Jordan were provisionally signed at the meeting.
EuroMed/the Union for the Mediterranean includes the EU Member States and ten Mediterranean partners. In its capacity as holder of the Presidency of the EU, Sweden is included in a co-presidency for the Union for the Mediterranean with France and the partner country Egypt.
