The website and commenting features of the GSP Hub are dedicated to actively engage stakeholders, facilitate the monitoring and increase the transparency of the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP). User comments and contributions are an important part of the GSP Hub. The quality of these comments and contributions is of high importance to us. Our goal is to encourage users to actively engage with other stakeholders on the EU’s GSP, to provide a tool that allows for comments on the beneficiary countries’ performance related to the international conventions covered under the EU’s GSP as well as to overall facilitate interesting and relevant discussions and the gathering of new insights. We would like to create a secure environment where users can interact in a constructive fashion. To achieve this we have established our netiquette with a set of rules which we ask you to respect while using this platform. We reserve the right to intervene in case users violate these rules and, as a last resort, block a user’s access to this platform in case of repeated violation of these rules. 

We ask users of our platform to respect the following rules. 

1. Posting advertisements or other commercial content is not allowed. Users should also refrain from posting links to their personal website/blogs or social media accounts. You can include a linkage to external content in your profile. You can, however, include linkages to further information that supports your contribution or leads other users to further information. The GSP Project Team is not responsible for linked contents. In case the linked content violates these rules we reserve the right to delete these links. 

2. When writing your comment, please ensure you have the rights for the distribution and publication of the information included in your contribution. In case you would like to include foreign contents, please ensure the distribution of this information is permitted. Furthermore, make sure you provide a source. This is also valid in case your contribution or comment includes a quote. 

3. We do not allow insults, defamation or discrimination on our platform. If you disagree with a comment or statement by another user, please make sure you criticize the statement rather than the other user. Likewise, statements that include discriminatory content relating to the nationality, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender, age, income or other personal characteristics are not tolerated. We also do not tolerate statements of defamatory nature which are based on unverifiable allegations or suspicions. 

4. The commenting feature are only accessible for registered users. However, be sure you do not publish personal data relating to third parties. Please also think carefully about what kind of information you would like to share on this platform. If you would rather like to share information privately with the European Commission, please use the upload function on the homepage. For further information on how your data is treated, please refer to our privacy policy.

5. Please ensure to write clear and comprehensive statements that are supported by credible sources. 

A good contribution or comment is of relevance to the EU’s GSP in a broader sense. Please be respectful when dealing with other users and be sure to articulate your own statement in a clear and concise way. Whenever possible explain your statement rather than only making an assertion. 

Please make sure you write your comments using English language so that all users can understand and interact with your statement. Make sure your comment respects basic grammar rules and use paragraphs to enhance readability. Statements written in capital letters do not support overall readability.

Thank you for reading and respecting these rules.