The EU Member State’s foreign ministers agreed to sign, today, the EU free trade agreement with South Korea. Italy has agreed to sign the free-trade agreement in exchange of delaying the implementation for six months.

The Foreign Affairs Council adopted, therefore, a decision approving the signing of the free trade agreement with South Korea. Consequently, the agreement is expected to be signed on 6 October at the EU-South Korea summit.
The Council also agreed that the agreement will be provisionally applied from 1 July 2011, providing that the MEPs have given their consent to it and that a regulation implementing the bilateral safeguard clause of the agreement is in force.