Council Decision (EU) 2016/1742 of 20 September 2016 on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Tonga on the short-stay visa waiver

Ce que fait l'acte

to conclude the Agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Tongo on the short-stay visa waiver. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Council may adopt the act only if Parliament has given its consent to the act. BACKGROUND: Regulation (EU) No 509/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council amended Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders of the Member States and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement. The Regulation was adopted on 20 May 2014 and entered into force on 9 June 2014. In July 2014, the Commission presented a Recommendation to the Council to authorise it to start negotiations on visa waiver agreements with each of the following 17 countries : Dominica, Grenada, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, the United Arab Emirates and Vanuatu. On 9 October 2014, the Council addressed negotiating directives to the Commission BACKGROUND: the Commission has negotiated on behalf of the European Union an agreement with Tonga on the short-stay visa waiver. In accordance with a Council Decision, the Agreement has been signed and is applied on a provisional basis. It is now necessary to conclude the Agreement on behalf of the European Union. CONTENT: under this proposed Decision, the Council is called upon to approve the Agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Tonga on the short-stay visa waiver is hereby approved on behalf of the Union. Territorial application : the provisions of the Agreement shall not apply to the United Kingdom nor to Ireland. Joint Committee : the Agreement sets up a Joint Committee of experts for the management of the Agreement. The Union is to be represented within that Joint Committee by the Commission, which should be assisted by the representatives of the Member States. The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs adopted the report by Mariya GABRIEL (EPP, BG) on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Tonga on the short-stay visa waiver. The committee recommended that the European Parliament should give its consent to the conclusion of the Agreement. To recall, the Agreement signed on 20 November 2015 provides for visa-free travel for the citizens of the European Union and for the citizens of Tongo when travelling to the territory of the other Contracting Party for a maximum period of 90 days in any 180-day period . The visa waiver covers all categories of persons (ordinary, diplomatic, service/official and special passport holders) travelling for all kinds of purposes, except for the purpose of carrying out a paid activity. The report is accompanied by a short justification stipulating that this Agreement constitutes simultaneously represents a culmination of the deepening of relations between the European Union and Tonga which is politically highly significant in the context of the Cotonou Agreement – and is an…