Scheme 8

[Roselee Kruppa]

Over50 years ago, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) asked developed countries to help developing countries integrate into the world economy. The Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) was born. Today, about a dozen countries have GSP mechanisms in place.

In addition, if a country applies for GSP+ status, the beneficiary country is required to ratify 27 international conventions, and to cooperate with the European Commission to monitor the implementation of these conventions related to environmental and climate protection, and good governance listed in the GSP Regulation.

The Commission publishes a report on the implementation of GSP every two years, providing information on the progress made by the GSP+ beneficiary countries in implementing the 27 international conventions.

The EU is engaging with these countries due to the gravity of alleged shortcomings in respecting core human rights and labour rights standards, as testified by reports from the United Nations, the International Labour Organization, and civil society.

As part of the biennial report, a specific report was published on the Enhanced Engagement, which provides details on issues discussed and priorities for further monitoring with the countries concerned.

The evaluation indicates that countries increasingly use the available trade preferences and diversify their exports. Moreover, GSP+ beneficiaries saw an economic incentive for making progress in ratifying and implementing the 27 international conventions required under GSP+.

The review is based on the 2018 Mid-Term Evaluation (MTE) of GSP, the External Study supporting the Impact Assessment, a Commission Impact Assessment, and the 2020 Open Public Consultation that confirmed the achievements of the EU GSP.

In November 2023, the Council of EU Member States and the European Parliament signed an amendment to the existing Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) Regulation, in order to extend the GSP scheme for the period 2024-2027.

This will allow GSP beneficiaries to continue enjoying tariff preferences, as the Council and the Parliament have not yet reached an agreement on the Commission's proposal of September 2021 to update the GSP rules. The proposal to extend the current GSP scheme was put forward by the Commission in July 2023.

The Commission regularly reports to the European Parliament, and to the Council of the European Union, on GSP matters. The Commission also regularly answers questions from Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). These questions (and responses) and related issues can be found on the European Parliament's website.

In addition, the Commission chairs the Expert Group on the Generalised Scheme of Preferences and the Generalised Preferences Committee, which gathers expert representatives from each Member State to oversee and vote on issues related to the GSP.

The FSF's commitment is unwavering, but we urgently need your financial support. New and renewing associate members will help us bring free software to every facet of people's lives. Help us reach our goal of 200 new members by July 26.

MIT/GNU Scheme is an implementation of the Scheme programminglanguage, providing an interpreter, compiler, source-code debugger,integrated Emacs-like editor, and a large runtime library. MIT/GNUScheme is best suited to programming large applications with a rapiddevelopment cycle.

The releases provide binaries that run on x86-64 andaarch64 machines running unix systems. They have beentested on GNU/Linux, NetBSD, and macossystems. We no longer support OS/2, DOS, or Windows, though it'spossible that this software could be used on Windows Subsystem forLinux (we haven't tried).

No native-code support for Apple silicon: At thistime, we are unable to support native-code compilation on new macsusing Apple's silicon (the M* chips). Although we support the ARMarchitecture it's based on, Apple's design uses W^X restrictions thatconflict with the way that MIT/GNU Scheme manages memory. Ournative-code implementation requires both write and execute permissionson memory, and fixing that is a significant redesign that's unlikelyto happen in the near future. Instead use the SVM1 binaries, whichshould work properly, if slowly, on that architecture.

We also no longer distribute macos applications, as therewere versioning issues with those that we did distribute. It is easyto generate a macos application from our normaldistribution: after running make, run makemacosx-app. Instead of running make install, justmove mit-scheme.app to /Applications/ (orwherever you want).

Documentation for MIT/GNU Scheme is available online, as is documentation for most GNU software. The MIT/GNU Schemedocumentation is available in HTML and PDF formats on this page, andin other formats as downloads.

Note that you cannot build a working system from the source unless youhave a working MIT/GNU Scheme compiler to do the compilation.(This doesn't apply to the portable C source, which requires only a Ccompiler.) This means that if the above binaries don't work on yoursystem, it is pointless to try building a custom set of binaries fromthe source code.

Development of MIT/GNU Scheme, and GNU in general, isa volunteer effort, and you can contribute. For information, pleaseread How to help GNU. If you'd like to getinvolved, it's a good idea to join the discussion mailing list (seeabove).

MIT/GNU Scheme is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modifyit under the terms of the GPL as published by the Free SoftwareFoundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) anylater version.

ENISA contributes to EU cyber policy, enhances the trustworthiness of ICT products, services and processes with cybersecurity certification schemes, cooperates with Member States and EU bodies, and helps Europe prepare for the cyber challenges of tomorrow.

In recent years many companies have successfully utilized so-called "multi-level marketing" practices. It is important, therefore, to address the differences between a pyramid scheme and a legitimate multi-level marketing company. Initially, it should be noted that pyramid schemes always fail, while multi-level marketing companies sometimes survive.

A pyramid scheme is a fraudulent system of making money based on recruiting an ever-increasing number of "investors." The initial promoters recruit investors, who in turn recruit more investors, and so on. The scheme is called a "pyramid" because at each level, the number of investors increases. The small group of initial promotors at the top require a large base of later investors to support the scheme by providing profits to the earlier investors.

Pyramid schemes are illegal in New York State, as well as in many other states. Article 23A of the General Business Law of the State of New York 359-fff sets forth the criminality of initiating and participating in pyramid schemes (also known as chain distributor schemes).

Pyramid schemes may or may not involve the sale of products or distributorships. The trend is to involve sales of products or distributorships in an attempt to show legitimacy. This is done solely to sidestep the regulatory agencies, as most state laws prohibit marketing practices where the potential for profit stems primarily from recruiting other investors and not from the sale of products. The bottom line, however, is that in all pyramid schemes, the selling of a product itself is much less important than the recruiting of new investors.

Multi-level marketing is a method of selling products directly to consumers without intermediary retail stores. Products are sold through a network of distributors or salespersons set up to resemble a pyramid: each distributor recruits and trains additional distributors and will earn commissions on their sales, as well as on the sales he or she makes. Because of their pyramidal structure, multi-level marketing companies can sometimes be pyramid schemes.

A legitimate multi-level marketing company emphasizes reliable products or services. A pyramid scheme uses products or services to disguise its quest for collecting money from the investors on the bottom levels to pay other investors further up the pyramid.

In a typical pyramid scheme, new investors must pay a fee for the right to sell the products or services as well as for the right to recruit others into the pyramid for rewards unrelated to product sales or services. Very often the products or services the victim must buy are unsalable, and the pyramid's promoters refuse to repurchase them. On the other hand, legitimate multi-level marketing companies will buy back unsold merchandise, although often at a discount from the original price.

Success in multi-level marketing is based on two factors: product and service quality, and the hard work involved in being able to sell the products or services. Recruitment of new investors is secondary.

Pyramid schemes are doomed to fail because their success depends on the ability to recruit more and more investors. Since there are only a limited number of people in a given community, all pyramid schemes will ultimately collapse. The only people who make money are those few who are on the top of the pyramid.

Legitimate multi-level marketing companies, on the other hand, can be around for a long time. Although the recruiting of additional investors is an essential part of the marketing practice, since legitimate multi-level marketing companies involve solid products or services, participants in these companies are not subject to huge losses.

If all pyramid schemes fail, why would anyone invest in them? There are three basic categories of people who invest in pyramid schemes: those who participate out of greed; those who are misled into thinking that they are joining an "investment club" or a "gift program"; and those who believe that the products or services are legitimate.

The people who participate in pyramid schemes out of greed often know that they are illegal. They nevertheless participate, hoping that the scams will last long enough for them to make a profit. However, the end result of a pyramid scheme is inevitable. At best, a few people, usually the promotors, walk away with a lot of money, leaving the bulk of the investors to lose all of the money they put into the scheme. In fact, the only way anyone could make money from pyramid schemes, is if other people are defrauded into giving money upon the promise that they in turn will be repaid

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