Opinion procedure 2/15

570.On the basis of the above considerations, I propose that the Court answer the Commission’s request for an Opinion as follows:

(1)The Free Trade Agreement envisaged between the European Union and the Republic of Singapore (‘the EUSFTA’) can be concluded only by the European Union and the Member States acting jointly.

(2)The European Union enjoys exclusive external competence as regards the parts of the EUSFTA which comprise the provisions falling within the common commercial policy, namely:

–objectives and general definitions (Chapter One);

–trade in goods (Chapters Two to Six);

–trade and investment in renewable energy generation (Chapter Seven);

–trade in services and government procurement (Chapters Eight and Ten), under exclusion of those parts of the EUSFTA applying to transport services and services inherently linked to transport services;

–foreign direct investment (Chapter Nine, Section A);

–the commercial aspects of intellectual property rights (Chapter Eleven under exclusion of the provisions relating to the non-commercial aspects of those rights);

–competition and related matters (Chapter Twelve); and

–trade and sustainable development in so far as the provisions in question primarily relate to commercial policy instruments (Chapter Thirteen, under exclusion of the provisions relating to the conservation of marine biological resources and the provisions laying down fundamental labour and environmental standards and thus falling within the scope of either social policy or environmental protection policy).

The European Union also enjoys exclusive external competence as regards the parts of the EUSFTA (Chapter Thirteen) relating to the conservation of marine biological resources.

The European Union also enjoys exclusive external competence as regards the provisions of the EUSFTA (Chapter Eight) concerning trade in rail and road transport services.

The European Union also enjoys exclusive external competence in respect of the matters covered by Section B in Chapter Nine, Articles 13.16 and 13.17, Chapters Fourteen to Seventeen of the EUSFTA in so far as those provisions apply to (and are therefore ancillary to) the parts of the EUSFTA for which the European Union enjoys exclusive external competence.

(3)The European Union’s external competence is shared with the Member States with respect to the following components of the EUSFTA:

–the provisions on trade in air transport services, maritime transport services, and transport by inland waterway, including services inherently linked to those transport services (Chapter Eight);

–the provisions on types of investment other than foreign direct investment (Chapter Nine, Section A);

–the provisions on government procurement in so far as they apply to transport services and services inherently linked to transport services (Chapter Ten);

–the provisions relating to the non-commercial aspects of intellectual property rights (Chapter Eleven);

–the provisions laying down fundamental labour and environmental standards and thus falling within the scope of either social policy or environmental protection policy (Chapter Thirteen); and

–the matters covered by Section B of Chapter Nine, Articles 13.16 and 13.17, and Chapters Fourteen to Seventeen of the EUSFTA in so far as those provisions apply to (and are therefore ancillary to) the parts of the EUSFTA for which the European Union enjoys shared external competence.

(4)The European Union has no external competence to agree to be bound by Article 9.10.1 of the EUSFTA (Chapter Nine, Section A), terminating bilateral agreements concluded between certain Member States and Singapore. That competence belongs exclusively to those Member States.