Today in the INTA Committee, MEP Asimakopoulou expressed her thoughts on the new GSP proposal. MEP Asimakopoulou is the rapporteur for the DEVE committee’s opinion on GSP.

MEP Asimakopoulou stated that the current proposal on the table is not revolutionary in its scope and keeps the existing model intact. This is testament to the high regard in which the scheme is held and its existing
effectiveness at large. The new proposal, is, therefore, largely an exercise in improvement and fine-tuning.

MEP Asimakopoulou endorsed the abolition of the limited export criterion and the maintenance of the lack of export diversification element as “an approach that balances getting the most vulnerable EBA graduates
into GSP+, whilst ensuring that the richer, more developed GSP beneficiaries are kept out.”

MEP Asimakopoulou called for an even further reduction in the Rapid Response Mechanism timeframe, than the Commission’s proposal to reduce it from 6 to 5 months.