The initiative to connect trade measures with migration policy emerges amid significant gains by far-right parties in Europe and demands for stricter enforcement of deportations. Currently, only a small fraction of those eligible for removal from the EU are actually deported, often because their home countries fail to cooperate.
“In instances of serious and systematic failures related to the international obligation to readmit a beneficiary country’s own nationals, the preferential arrangements may be temporarily withdrawn for all or certain products from that beneficiary country if the Commission deems there is insufficient cooperation on readmission,” the statement reads.
The readmission clause will be applied with varying conditions based on a country’s development level, according to the document.
These measures, only to be enacted after dialogue with countries, are part of a revision of the Generalized Scheme of Preferences, a 50-year-old program that allows poorer countries to export goods to EU nations at reduced tariffs.
“As part of efforts to establish a more just and effective migration approach, the co-legislators agreed that GSP preferences may be withdrawn if a beneficiary country does not cooperate with the EU on the readmission of their nationals,” stated an EU Council press release issued on Monday night.
The program review, negotiated for over three years, is aimed at assisting these nations in economic development and is linked to enforcing human rights, labor, and environmental reforms.
Leave a Reply