EU presents "a desolate picture of discord” – China policy must be more closely geared to human rights

In the light of the dispute among the EU foreign ministers on Europe’s reaction to the persecution of the Tibetans the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has called for new guide-lines for the China policy of the European Union. "Europe’s China policy must be more firmly geared to human rights and not merely pursue economic interests”, said the GfbV Asia correspondent, Ulrich Delius, on Friday on the opening of the two-day talks of the EU foreign ministers in Slovenia.

"The EU presents a desolate picture of discord in the question of a boycott of the official opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Peking”, criticised Delius. Poland’s Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, and the President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, have stated that they will not travel to Peking. Belgium and France have not excluded the possibility of boycotting the festivities, but the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who has an eye on the Olympic Games in London in the year 2012, intends to travel at all events to Peking. The President of the EU Commission, Javier Barroso, has also expressed cautiously that he excludes any possibility of not being present at the ceremony. The President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, however, has expressed a statement to the contrary.

The China policy of the EU is neither consistent nor credible. Instead of orienting itself on joint concerns it merely shows up the particular interests of the individual states”, criticised Delius. So there is not much chance of achieving any improvement of the human rights situation in the People’s Republic.