Paneuromed area, clear information officially published

It is in the Official Journal of the EU 2024/3112 that the long-awaited clarifications concerning modernised rules have finally been published! Indeed, the Paneuromed Convention, and more specifically the rules of cumulation of origin within this area, must impose on 1 January 2025, for all parties involved in the Convention, even those who had been reluctant for years to adopt its common rules.

At the end of November and early December, several successive publications of the European Commission announced the updating of the rules of origin for those countries which had not yet taken action (cf.Paneuromed zone: the countdown is launched before the implementation of the modernised rules!). 

First good news,Tunisia and Turkey have adopted these new rulessuccessively, through regulations2024/3009and2024/3125published on 5 December.

Important points regarding the December 13 publication are:

• Parties that have not yet updated their protocol with the new rules of origin have one more year to do so (following requests for postponement due to national administrative lengths). In order not to disrupt the application of the rules for parties that have already amended their protocol, thepermeability of both systems will be permitted. In other words, a country A wishing to apply cumulation with the new rules of origin can do so even if its components come from a country B in the area that has not yet signed the new rules (so far, both countries had to apply the same rules).
• The documents proving the origin of the products drawn up before 1 January 2025 under the current rules will remain valid to benefit from reductions in customs duties on imports, even after that date, until the new revised rules of the Convention enter into force in a comprehensive manner. This means that EUR1/EURMED can be issued regardless of the origin of the components used with either of the evidence. Let us recall that, once the modernised rules are approved by all, the EURMED certificate will disappear in favour of only EUR1.
• Every four months, the Contracting Parties shall inform each other, through the European Commission, of the progress made in updating their bilateral protocols to incorporate the reference to the new rules. We will communicate every update of the matrix until it is fully filled.

Attention, until 31 December 2025, proofs of origin must always state their character « RULES »in box 7 of the EUR1 or on the DOF (declaration of origin on invoice).

You can find a summary of the changes to the rules in our articlePaneuromed area: official publication of modernised rulespublished in February 2024.

Regulation EU 2024/3009 | Regulation EU 2024/3125 | Regulation EU 2024/3112