Strasbourg, 13/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - Presenting on Tuesday evening to the European Parliament the update of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) for the 2002-2004 period, Commissioner Pascal Lamy underlined that effort made for the simplification achieved by the Commission (two categorise instead of four) and insisted on the new positive signal that was thus sent to the developing countries after the "everything but arms" initiative (EBA). He notably explained that the countries of Latin America could benefit from a drug scheme" that is practically as favourable as the EBA scheme in order to favour the development of other productions. Another scheme would support the countries that respect the ILO rules and implement measures guaranteeing the protection of tropical forests. Welcoming this initiative, the Austrian ÖVP member Paul Rubig raised the possibility of trade without barriers. With the EBA initiative and the enhancing of the GSP, access to the European market is satisfactory, answered the Commissioner when insisting on the respect for the rules of origin. Answering the British Green Caroline Lukas who questioned him over the mechanisms to support the social and ecological efforts in the LDC, Mr Lamy said that, if the Commission decided to double the preferences, it is because it has taken into account the lack of results until now. This must also contribute to "providing the ILO a bigger profile", including in the human rights dimension, said the Commissioner, when feelings that at the same time the setting conditions through monitoring has increased and that the incentives are enhanced, without moving into sanctions (see other story on details of proposal).