26. Welcomes the nearly complete network of human rights focal points in EU Delegations; calls on the VP/HR and the EEAS to develop a plan on how this network can be used to realise its full potential; invites the EU Delegations to publish the contact details of all human rights focal points and EU Liaison Officers for Human Rights Defenders; Human rights in the EU‘s trade policy 27. Supports the practice of including legally binding and non-negotiable human rights clauses in the EU‘s international agreements concluded with third countries, and considers that human rights clauses should also be systematically included in trade agreements; calls for effective monitoring of their application and reporting back to Parliament’s relevant committee on their assessment and suggested response; 28. Points out that Parliament should withhold its consent to international agreements when serious breaches of human rights occur; 29. Recalls that the revised GSP scheme will come into force on 1 January 2014; welcomes the continuation of the GSP+ scheme whereby countries can enjoy additional preferential tariffs once they have ratified and implemented the 27 core human rights, labour and environment conventions; recalls the possibility of suspending GSP, GSP+ and Everything But Arms (EBA) preferences in the event of serious human rights violations; calls on the Commission to make the assessments for GSP+ eligibility publicly available, in order to increase transparency and accountability; 30. Calls, furthermore, on the EU to define and adopt specific policy guidelines on the effective inclusion of human rights in its trade and investment agreements in order to achieve methodological consistency and rigour in the human rights impact assessments; Human rights in EU development policies 31. Underlines the fact that the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation has called on the international community to adopt a human rights-based approach (HRBA) to international cooperation in order to boost the effectiveness of development efforts; 32. Calls on the Commission to conduct extensive impact assessments of EU development cooperation projects, which should include an assessment of their impact on the human rights situation, in order to ensure that EU development efforts do not contribute to further marginalisation of groups suffering discrimination and that EU funds are distributed fairly among different regions within a country, on the basis of their needs and level of development; 33. Reiterates that the Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) should be accountable for the adoption of a rights-based approach in the future programming exercise; 34. Takes the view that national parliaments and civil society organisations play an important role in implementing human rights provisions effectively, and stresses that appropriate conditions should be put in place for their participation in decision making in order to promote genuine ownership of development strategy policy choices; European Union policy on transition processes