PEM rules 2025: Transitional provisions

In connection with the introduction of the new PEM rules on January 1, 2025, there are still considerable uncertainties in November 2024 due to the regulations on the transitional provisions. The official decision of the Joint Committee of the PEM Convention is not expected until mid-December. It is unclear whether the transitional provisions will come into force in time before January 1, 2025. You can find information on this in the article PEM rules 2025: Challenges and your next steps.

Until the decision is announced in mid-December, it is therefore unclear what will happen next. It is of central importance for AEB to provide a legally compliant solution on January 1, 2025. AEB will continue to provide only one rule set in the future. To ensure the consistency of evaluations, this cannot be changed at will. AEB reserves the right to make a decision at short notice in December in order to be able to react in the best possible way. 

Based on the information available at the beginning of November 2024, AEB considers the following three scenarios regarding an agreement on a parallel use of the transitional provisions in 2025 to be possible. We ask all Origin & Preferences customers to make organizational preparations for all three:

Scenario 1: Unanimous decision, but no timely ratification (by the end of December 2024) by all participants in the Regional Convention 

In this scenario, AEB will switch to the revised PEM rules, as AEB must provide a legally compliant solution in Origin & Preferences by January 1, 2025 that takes all agreement constellations into account. Application of the transitional provisions at a later date cannot be taken into account. This scenario is currently considered the most likely, and AEB is preparing a corresponding service pack.

Scenario 2: No unanimous decision in December 2024 

This would mean no change to the currently known situation. The revised PEM rules would enter into force on January 1, 2025 as the sole rules for the Regional Convention. There would be no transitional provisions. This scenario cannot be ruled out and AEB has a service pack ready for this possibility. Information on this can be found in the article Pan-Euro-Mediterranean (PEM): Change at the start of 2025. 

Scenario 3: Unanimous decision and timely ratification (by the end of December 2024) by all participants in the Regional Convention 

In this scenario, it could possibly make sense to continue working with the advantages of the more diverse cumulation options of the old PEM rules, wait for the other participants to the Regional Convention and then switch over with them as a whole at the turn of the year 2026. Unfortunately, the final decision for this possible scenario may be made at very short notice. 
Even in this scenario, changes may be necessary, e.g. references on forms to the rules used. In this case, AEB would also provide a service pack.

Notes

• We will inform you via this channel in the second half of December about which scenario will actually be implemented by AEB.
• Especially for customers with on-premises installations, we would like to point out that the instructions for installing the required service pack, as described in the article Pan-Euro-Mediterranean (PEM): Change at the start of 2025, should be firmly planned.
• Regardless of the three scenarios, we ask customers who use customized forms to contact AEB for the necessary adjustments. Details can be found in the article PEM Rules 2025: Challenges and your next steps.
• We ask for your understanding that no version can be made available for testing in December.