(1)

On 23 April 2007, the Council authorised the Commission to negotiate an Association Agreement with Central America, on behalf of the European Union and its Member States. The negotiating directives were amended on 10 March 2010 to include Panama in the negotiation process.

(2)

Those negotiations were concluded at the occasion of the EU-Latin American and Caribbean Summit in Madrid in May 2010 and the Agreement establishing an Association between the European Union and its Member States, on the one hand, and Central America on the other, (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Agreement’) was initialled on 22 March 2011.

(3)

In accordance with Council Decision 2012/734/EU (2), the Agreement was signed on behalf of the Union on 29 June 2012, subject to its conclusion, and Part IV thereof applied on a provisional basis.

(4)

The Agreement should be approved.

(5)

The Agreement does not affect the rights of investors of the Member States to benefit from any more favourable treatment provided for in any agreement related to investment to which a Member State and a signatory Central American Republic are Parties.

(6)

Pursuant to Article 218(7) of the Treaty, it is appropriate for the Council to authorise the Commission to approve modifications to the list of geographical indications recommended by the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property to the Association Committee for approval by the Association Council pursuant to Articles 247 and 274.2(a) of the Agreement.

(7)

It is appropriate to set out the relevant procedures for the protection of geographical indications pursuant to the Agreement.

(8)

Pursuant to Article 356 of the Agreement, it is appropriate to clarify that the Agreement shall not be construed as conferring rights or imposing obligations which can be directly invoked before Union or Member State courts and tribunals.

(9)

The provisions of the Agreement that fall within the scope of Part Three, Title V of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union bind the United Kingdom and Ireland as separate Contracting Parties, and not as part of the European Union, unless the European Union together with the United Kingdom and/or Ireland have jointly notified the Central America Party that the United Kingdom or Ireland is bound as part of the European Union in accordance with the Protocol (No 21) on the position of the United Kingdom and Ireland in respect of the area of Freedom, Security and Justice annexed to the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

(10)

If the United Kingdom and/or Ireland ceases to be bound as part of the European Union in accordance with Article 4a of that Protocol (No 21), the European Union together with the United Kingdom and/or Ireland shall immediately inform the Central America Party of any change in their position. In that case, they shall remain bound by the provisions of the Agreement in their own right. The same applies to Denmark in accordance with the Protocol (No 22) on the position of Denmark annexed to those Treaties,