The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU has circulated a document to the Member States in an attempt to reconcile the positions of the Council and the European Parliament on the regulation revising the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP). A meeting of inter-institutional negotiations (‘trilogue’) is due to take place on Thursday 14 March to try to reach an agreement after more than a year of deadlock. This regulation will revise the current rules for granting tariff preferences to developing countries.
The negotiators were unable to reach agreement on the question of readmissions: the European Commission had proposed linking the non-readmission of nationals by a GSP beneficiary country with the possible withdrawal of trade preferences. The European Parliament had identified this point as a red line and refused to mention non-readmission in the list of breaches.
To move in the direction of MEPs, the Belgian Presidency has proposed changes to the text, including amendments that would have a slight impact on the obligation to readmit third countries.
Discussions still have to take place at Council level until Tuesday 12 March to give a mandate to the negotiators, but according to two sources, a qualified majority should be reached on this text from the Presidency, in order to hold the trilogue on Thursday 14 March. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)