Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-17-Speech-3-042"
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"en.20031217.3.3-042"2
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". – Mr President, I fully share the presidency's views. I would add some additional remarks even though it is obviously not an issue on which the Commission takes a lead, given the way in which the CFSP is operating. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China recently said during his meeting in Harvard in the US that China's reform and opening-up aims at promoting human rights. The two are mutually dependent and reinforcing.
This is encouraging language showing that they present human rights in a context which is linked to their general orientation of where they want to go and they do it on their own initiative. But we should not jump to conclusions and the reality on the ground is the real yardstick in measuring progress, also in an area like this.
We have seen some real change but also there is still good reason for keeping up a systematically organised dialogue with China on human rights.
We have been systematically doing this through the years. The issue here of course is that a number of Member States are favourably disposed towards considering a lifting of the arms embargo and have also made that position public. These Member States believe that there is no longer a technical need for the embargo as arms sales to China are already covered by the EU’s 1998 Code of Conduct, or that the issue should be considered in the overall context of our relations. Other Member States believe that lifting the embargo is premature. They underscore the need for further progress in human rights.
Last week’s European Council referred the issue to the first General Affairs and External Relations Council under the Irish presidency. The Commission fully supports an in-depth political discussion of this matter. Developing a clear EU line on this question at the highest level is important.
Factually speaking, lifting the embargo would have few practical implications for European arms exports to China, since the 1998 EU Code of Conduct prohibits arms exports to countries which have not forgone using arms for internal repression or aggressively against another country. It is in fact the Code of Conduct which applies in this issue.
That said, and given the high political and symbolic value of the whole matter, any consideration of this should include an updated political assessment of how far things have moved on the human rights front since 1989. We are naturally interested in Parliament's views on that question so the Commission welcomes the discussion here today."@en1
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