The Commission shall monitor and evaluate the situation in Belarus with regard to ILO conventions Nos 87 and 98 for a period of six months from the publication date of an announcement on the monitoring and evaluation period in the Official Journal of the European Union.

In that announcement, the Commission will call upon Belarus to make a commitment, before the end of the period of six months, to take the measures necessary to conform, within eight months, with the principles referred to in the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, as expressed in the 12 recommendations of the ILO Commission of Enquiry report of July 2004.

Unless Belarus makes such a commitment, the Commission intends to submit, after the expiry of the six-month period referrred to in paragraph 1, a proposal to the Council for temporary withdrawal of the trade preferences granted under Regulation (EC) No 2501/2001.