[T]he Rana Plaza collapse...provided a wake-up call, and an urgency to improve...dire working conditions [in Bangladesh]. Within weeks, the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety was launched by trade unions and brands, successfully beginning to make factories safer...[T]he government of Bangladesh now suggests it will not allow its successor, the 2018 Transition Accord, to fulfill its role to ensure factory monitoring continues according to rigorous standards until such time that national institutions are up to this task...The EU should respond and make a stand towards the Bangladeshi government to improve labour conditions and to ensure full cooperation with the 2018 Transition Accord until an independent assessment concludes that the Bangladeshi national institutions are fit to take over.