Negotiators in the European Parliament and the EU Council are still divided over two key elements of the revised Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) regulation: the condition of readmission of nationals to benefit from tariff preferences and safeguard measures to protect the EU market.
On readmission, the European Parliament is adamant that there is no question of MEPs accepting that tariff preferences for developing third countries should be linked to the readmission of their nationals illegally present on European soil (see EUROPE 13172/25).
In a note circulated in the EU Council on 12 May, of which EUROPE has a copy, the Swedish Presidency of the Council indicates that it has presented several ideas in a working group to maintain the link with readmissions while reducing conditionality. “This includes raising the conditionality threshold for readmission, ideas around how to make withdrawal of preference a last resort, and the delay of entry into force of the readmission conditionality”, the note’s authors say. They invite the Permanent Representatives of the Member States to indicate their degree of flexibility on the subject.
Discussions on safeguards, as well as on readmissions, are continuing at technical level, ahead of a potential trilogue on 23 May.
See the Presidency note: https://aeur.eu/f/6vo (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)