31.5.2011 [ EN | Official Journal of the European Union L 145/19 REGULATION (EU) No 511/2011 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 11 May 2011 implementing the bilateral safeguard clause of the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States and the Republic of Korea THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 207(2) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments, Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (1), Whereas: 1 (6) On 23 April 2007 the Council authorised the Commission to open negotiations for a free trade agreement with the Republic of Korea (Korea) on behalf of the Union and its Member States. Those negotiations have been concluded and the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Korea, of the other part, (the Agreement’) was signed on 6 October 2010 (3, received the consent of the European Parliament on 17 February 2011 () and is to apply as provided for in Article 15.10 of the Agreement. It is necessary to lay down the procedures for applying certain provisions of the Agreement which concern safeguards. The terms ‘serious injury’, ‘threat of serious injury’ and ‘transition period’ as referred to in Article 3.5 of the Agreement should be defined. Safeguard measures may be considered only if the product in question is imported into the Union in such increased quantities and under such conditions as to cause, or threaten to cause, serious injury to Union producers of like or directly competitive products as laid down in Article 3.1 of the Agreement. Safeguard measures should take one of the forms referred to in Article 3.1 of the Agreement. (") Position of the European Parliament of 17 February 2011 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and decision of the Council of 11 April 2011. (3) Not yet published in the Official Journal. (®) Not yet published in the Official Journal. ) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) The tasks of following up and reviewing the Agreement and, if necessary, imposing safeguard measures should be carried out in the most transparent manner possible. The Commission should submit a report once a year on the implementation of the Agreement and the appli- cation of the safeguard measures. There should be detailed provisions on the initiation of proceedings. The Commission should receive information including available evidence from the Member States of any trends in imports which might call for the appli- cation of safeguard measures. The reliability of statistics on all imports from Korea to the Union is therefore crucial to determining whether the conditions to apply safeguard measures are met. In some cases, an increase of imports concentrated in one or several Member States may cause or threaten to cause by itself serious injury to the Union industry. In the event that there is an increase of imports concentrated in one or several Member States, the Commission may introduce prior surveillance measures. The Commission will give full consideration to how the product subject to investigation, and consequently the Union industry producing the like product, can be defined in a manner which provides for an effective remedy, while fully respecting the criteria under this Regulation and the Agreement. If there is sufficient prima facie evidence to justify the initiation of a proceeding the Commission should publish a notice as provided for in Article 3.2.2 of the Agreement in the Official Journal of the European Union. There should be detailed provisions on the initiation of investigations, access and inspections by interested parties to the information gathered, hearings for the parties involved and the opportunities for those parties to submit their views as provided for in Article 3.2.2 of the Agreement. The Commission should notify Korea in writing of the initiation of an investigation and consult with Korea as provided for in Article 3.2.1 of the Agreement. It is also necessary, pursuant to Articles 3.2 and 3.3 of the Agreement, to set time limits for the initiation of investigations and for determinations as to whether or not measures are appropriate, with a view to ensuring that such determinations are made quickly, in order to increase legal certainty for the economic operators concerned.