Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-06-11-Speech-1-070-000"
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"en.20120611.19.1-070-000"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank the rapporteur, Christofer Fjellner, for his hard work and good cooperation.
I quite often agree with Mr Scholz on trade policy, but I fundamentally disagree with him on this matter. We are right to try and focus on the poorest countries in the world.
My group did try to include a vulnerability criteria so that some of the vulnerable upper-middle income countries could have been included in this scheme, but that was not carried, and we as a group will support the compromise agreed in the trialogue.
It is worth recalling, when we talk about GSP reform, that we still have the most generous scheme in the world for the poorest countries in the world. The Everything But Arms initiative is unparalleled, and we should be proud of that and proud that it has not been touched in this scheme.
I agree with Mr Rinaldi about the GSP+. He is right to point to the shift in the burden of proof. The weakness in GSP+ up until now has not been the criteria we have set. We have been right to insist on strong human rights and environmental and labour standards, but we have been unable to enforce these so far. This reversal in the burden of proof will make a significant difference, and I welcome it.
In terms of where we go from here, I think it is right that the scheme lasts for ten years. I know the Commission would have liked an open-ended agreement, but I thought that was too long, and ten years is a reasonable period.
What we have made clear in the trialogue is that it is not ten years from now – not ten years from the date of the agreement – but ten years from the date of implementation of the agreement, so this gives importers inside the European Union a period of stability and it gives our exporting partners ten years in which to take advantage of the situation. Built into this scheme as well, there is the flexibility for countries to join if they become poorer countries, and to enter into the scheme at a later stage.
All in all, the Socialist Group would have nuanced the package differently, but we welcome this agreement and, as a group, we will support it."@en1
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