Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-14-Speech-3-328"
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"en.20010214.10.3-328"2
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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, my report on the European Union and Macau was discussed twice in the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Security and Defence Policy, which then unanimously approved it. As a matter of fact, I had previously incorporated some conclusions from the opinion issued by the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy. In December 1999, in other words, just over a year ago, Macau stopped being a special territory under the administration of Portugal, which it had been, peacefully and with the consent of the people, for 450 years. It is today a Special Administrative Region that is part of the People’s Republic of China, in accordance with the Chinese principle of ‘one country, two systems’. I wish to take this opportunity to say that there is a serious mistake in the report, in item No 9 of the explanatory statement, where it says, in repeating this principle, ‘one system, two countries’. The Chinese idea is completely the opposite – ‘one country, two systems’. This is a mistake which still needs to be corrected.
As a Portuguese citizen and having enjoyed direct constitutional responsibility for Macau, I must state that Macau’s handover from Portuguese administration to the Chinese was done consensually and with enormous goodwill under the terms of the 1987 Joint Sino-Portuguese Declaration, which is still in force today and which will remain so for the next fifty years. This last year has also been peaceful and consensual, according to first-hand information that I have received from various sources and, in particular, from the Portuguese and Macanese who still live and work there. I have already passed this information to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
As we all know, the policy of the People’s Republic of China towards Hong Kong and now towards Macau seeks to achieve a rapprochement between Taiwan and China and, eventually, to integrate it into China. Despite the fact that there have been, and still are, minor and inevitable problems with this integration in the case of Hong Kong, a much larger, more populous and richer territory than Macau, albeit with a much more recent past, it is widely known that the these two territories have, by and large, enjoyed a relatively smooth transition. As I pointed out, Macau was never a colony. It was a territory under Portuguese administration, by agreement between Portugal and China. Following Portugal’s ‘Carnation Revolution’, when I arrived for the first time at the United Nations in 1974 as Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs said to me, ‘Be careful, do not decolonise Macau, because Macau is not a colony and never has been.’ In 1949, when Mao Tse Tung came to power, he said ‘Portugal has spent 400 years in Macau without ever having waged war against China.’ This was a very important point for Macau, and still is.
Although Macau is not as rich as Hong Kong, its development in many areas in the last ten years has been extraordinary. Formerly, gambling alone ruled, but today there is a very strong sector producing goods for tourists and toys and various objects, and many other industries, including the textile industry. Relations between Hong Kong and Macau are and have always been excellent. It is worth bearing in mind, and I shall take this opportunity to remind Parliament, that every territory has its peculiarities. They are all different and the European Union should therefore deal with them all as separate issues even though they are closely related. These territories must not be lumped together, particularly in terms of the European Union’s representation there. Portugal has historically enjoyed excellent relations with the People’s Republic, which are still improving at various levels. This year, there were several visits to Portugal by Chinese Ministers and by Portuguese Ministers to China. Relations are still very close between Portugal and Macau. The current Governor of Macau, Mr Edmond Ho, who was actually appointed by the Chinese Government, paid an official visit to Portugal this year. As a matter of fact, this was his first trip abroad.
Under the terms of the Joint Sino-Portuguese Declaration, the People's Republic of China made a commitment to respecting the economic system and the political and legal system instituted by Portugal when it established the Special Administrative Region of Macau for the next 50 years. As a founding member of the World Trade Organisation, Macau is a signatory to the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights and the International Pact on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It has a kind of economic and trade delegation called the Macau Economic and Trade Office. I say ‘kind of’, because this delegation is not recognised by the European Union, since responsibility for foreign relations and defence lies with Beijing. In principle, the European Union is supposed to appoint its own permanent representative in Macau. This is important and I believe that it has already been done.
Portugal left Macau with a complete, western-style democratic legal system, with political institutions that function well, with a Chief Executive appointed by Beijing replacing the former Portuguese Governor, with a Legislative Assembly of 23 members, independent courts and a Court of Final Appeal as well as an efficient police force. The Joint Sino-Portuguese Declaration defines civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, which have been respected, and the territory does not have the death penalty. Portugal enjoys excellent relations with the People’s Republic of China, as I said, and continues to have a considerable presence in Macau through its investors and businesses and in the civil service and the liberal professions. There is a Portuguese high school in Macau which is thriving and where Portuguese continues to be taught.
Macau can and must retain its importance for the European Union as a centre for business and investment, not only in the territory itself, but also for the business that is traditionally entered into there with China and with other Asian countries. Because Macau is a Special Administrative Region with its own cultural identity and a population that is mixed, although largely Chinese, the European Union can only gain by maintaining a presence there, for both of these reasons. I must therefore insist that the European Union sends a permanent representative to Macau and that we step up economic, political and cultural relations between the European Union and Macau. The European Union must not lose interest in Macau, because what happens over the next 50 years in this territory, which is under special jurisdiction, depends to a certain extent on the vigilance with which the European Union watches over Macau."@en1
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