Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-03-23-Speech-3-289-000"
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"en.20110323.23.3-289-000"2
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"Mr President, Mrs Győri, Mr De Gucht, ladies and gentlemen, we are discussing an important aspect of international trade policy very late in the day. Given its importance, I would have preferred the House to be full, with all the seats occupied. The European Union’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) is a major achievement of European trade policy. It opens up our market to the poorest countries in the world for all types of goods except arms. It also gives developing countries trade concessions on a whole range of products. GSP+ is a valuable incentive system which offers developing countries further concessions if they sign and put into practice important international agreements on human rights, labour standards and protecting the environment. However, the system does have weak points and it needs to be updated regularly.
Over the years, the European Parliament, partner countries, companies and non-governmental organisations have made important suggestions for improving the system. The whole world is now waiting for the Commission to issue its proposal on the much-needed revision of the system. The deadline for this proposal was 1 June 2010. The Commission has not delivered on time and its failure to do so has left the countries involved and companies both inside and outside the EU in a dangerous state of uncertainty. The existing regulation must now be revised.
You are attempting to rescue the situation by means of a transitional regulation and this is what we will be voting on tomorrow, that is on Thursday. The transitional regulation is simply an extension. It does not change anything, it does not improve anything and it does not implement the new requirements resulting from the Treaty of Lisbon. This has given rise to feelings not only of surprise but also of displeasure within the European Parliament and, as the rapporteur, I have felt the same. It is the obligation of the Members of this Parliament to ensure that the rights, the duties and also the powers granted to the elected representatives of the citizens of Europe by the Treaty of Lisbon are respected. It is also our obligation to make sure that the reduction in tariffs brings about a genuine improvement in the situation of the developing countries. In order to protect the EU’s partners from the consequences of a long-drawn-out procedure, I suggested initially to the Committee on International Trade that only those elements of the regulation should be amended which are necessary to allow Parliament to fulfil its new role.
At the same time, I would like to emphasise that I also believe a general redrafting of the GSP and GSP+ schemes is needed. During the intensive meetings with the Council and the Commission on the legal issues resulting from the Treaty of Lisbon which affect the transitional regulation, Parliament finally decided to take a big leap of faith. At this point, I would like once again to express my sincere thanks to the chair of the Committee on International Trade, Professor Moreira, for his untiring efforts as mediator and also to you, Mr De Gucht, for the Commission’s assurance that key amendments, in particular with regard to informing and involving Parliament, would be addressed in practice. Therefore, we decided to drop all our amendments, in order to enable the transitional regulation to come into force as quickly as possible. We did this primarily in the interests of our partners and of the companies which are affected.
The Commission’s assurance includes a promise in future to inform the European Parliament in full, immediately and at the same time as the Council about work relating to essential aspects of the GSP and about all developments and to share all documents relating to the GSP. The Commission also guarantees that the European Parliament will be notified about any suspension of preferences, in accordance with Article 16(3), about withdrawals, including the corresponding investigation reports from the Commission, in accordance with Article 17, and about safeguard decisions, in accordance with Articles 20 and 21, before they come into force.
We welcome the tabling of Omnibus 1 and the Commission’s readiness to enter into an in-depth discussion of the proposals which it has made in Omnibus 1. At the same time, we would like to remind the Commission that Omnibus 2 must be tabled urgently.
Finally, I would like to emphasise once again that Parliament has made a concession on the transitional regulation. We must not forget that we need to fight for the ongoing and fundamental implementation of Parliament’s parliamentary rights."@en1
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