Brussels, 21/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 20 December, the Council adopted a regulation temporarily excluding Belarus from the EU's generalised system of preferences (GSP), of which it had been a part, in line with regulation 980/2005. Noting that Minsk continued to violate the principles set out in the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) conventions 87 (on freedom of association and protection of the right to organise) and 98 (on the right to organise and to bargain collectively) and had still not provided any indication of the effective implementation of these conventions, the Council decided on the temporary withdrawal of trade preferences for products from Belarus. This decision will come into effect in six months, unless there have been significant changes before then. The decision follows investigations launched by the Commission at the end of 2003, at the request of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL). The investigation showed that there were serious and systematic violations of freedom of organisation and collective bargaining. Were these violations to cease, Belarus would once again be granted access to the GSP. (ab)