Key problems are due to loss of traceability in those two steps of the production chain, where consignments might be put on the market without preliminary control of their origin.

26. Notes that Performance Audits by the Court, including a preliminary study, take two years, which in several cases has made the audit findings outdated and prevented the implementation of adequate measures; expects the Court to streamline the drawing up of its Performance Audits and to cut down on redundant procedural steps;

7. Welcomes the fact that a peace accord was signed in Mali on 18 June 2013 in order to pave the way for the successfully held presidential election and for peace negotiations between the Malian authorities and armed insurgent groups in northern Mali, and that the signatories have all promised to end human rights violations in every form; embraces their commitment to unity, dialogue and the restoration of constitutional order; recognises, nevertheless, that this is a preliminary agreement which must be followed by action on both sides to bring the conflict to a definitive end; urges the Malian authorities and their international partn ...[+++]ers, to this end, to pay close attention to the new patterns of human rights violations, particularly reprisals based on ethnicity, that have emerged since the recovery of certain parts of northern Mali, and which could constitute a grave obstacle to peace-building and reconciliation if not properly addressed; welcomes the fact that the Malian Government has set up units to monitor military operations in northern Mali and has opened investigations into the human rights violations allegedly committed by certain elements of the Malian armed forces; calls upon the armed forces to show professionalism as they consolidate themselves in formerly rebel-held areas; calls, moreover, upon the Malian Government to redouble its efforts to facilitate the reporting of abuses both in their current operations and in any future offensives, including through support to the National Human Rights Commission, and to respect due process when interrogating suspected militants; reiterates its condemnation of the reported atrocities committed against the civilian population, prisoners and soldiers; recalls the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor’s determination of a reasonable basis to believe that atrocities committed in the Mali conflict may constitute war crimes; believes, moreover, that some atrocities could constitute crimes against huma ...

18. Welcomes the important role played by the African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA), which has laid the foundations for MINUSMA; welcomes, furthermore, the substantial African contingent within the MINUSMA mission, and in particular the AU’s decision to send human rights observers embedded within it; hopes that both these features continue as standard in African operations; welcomes the fact that both Malian authorities and armed groups promised in the interim peace accord to facilitate the observers’ deployment; welcomes the arrival of observers in Gao and Timbuktu, and hopes that it will soon be possible also t ...[+++]o deploy observers in Kidal, reflecting the importance of investigating allegations of human rights abuses in the north by all sides of the Mali conflict; welcomes, furthermore, the Commission’s support to these observers and its endeavour to train and deploy additional local and regional civil society observers through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights; urges the EU to learn lessons from this experience and, drawing on the assistance of stakeholders in Mali’s national and local civil society, to explore appropriate ways to have available pools of trained experts, who could be quickly deployed on the ground in urgent situations to give professional advice to EU policy-makers if necessary;

First of all, it is planned to operate a withdrawal in two steps: The first step consists of a so-called preventive withdrawal of production under the quota.

8. Invites the Conference of Presidents to authorise its competent committee to send a fact-finding delegation to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia two months after the start of the operation in order to establish a progress report to evaluate the efficiency of the operation in relation to the above questions;