Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-07-08-Speech-4-454"
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"en.20100708.23.4-454"2
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"Madam President, I would like to congratulate Parliament for undertaking this debate. If you allow me, I would like to recognise the young boy behind seat No 582, because the future of North Korea is relevant to the future of our children.
It is very sad to record that in the past seven years, since the adoption of the first resolution in the UN context condemning the deplorable human rights situation in North Korea, very little if any progress towards improvement has been made. The Commission fully shares the concerns about the need to address the very serious human rights situation in the country, as expressed in the joint motion for a resolution we are debating today.
The EU has been working towards such an improvement in the international context ever since 2003, when it initiated in the Geneva Commission on Human Rights the first resolution condemning the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which as many have already mentioned is not very democratic. In addition, the EU continues to raise the issue of human rights in our bilateral political dialogue with North Korea. We are also raising it, as a number of speakers have pointed out, in our discussions with China, and specifically the issue of the forced return of North Korean citizens who entered China illegally. We will continue to do so. These people cannot simply be regarded as ‘economic migrants’.
So many of the elements incorporated in the motion for a resolution are already part of the EU’s current human rights policy with regard to North Korea. We very much welcome the convergence of views among Members and between the Members of Parliament and the Commission. We fully agree on what needs to be done, including a point that has been made by many speakers that we need to maintain the existing programmes to assist the most vulnerable people in North Korea, who are facing tremendous hardship. We should not punish them for the sins of their leaders.
We broadly agree on how to go about it but there are three specific points where the Commission holds somewhat different views – and I would like to explain what they are and why we have some differences.
The first one is the proposal to include in the EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement a clause to monitor North Korean workers active in the Kaesong Industrial Complex. The negotiated text for this free trade agreement provides for the possibility of designating outward processing zones. Both sides recognise that such zones could promote the goal of peace on the peninsula, but, before a zone can be recognised as such under the free trade agreement, it has to be proposed by one side and considered by a special committee of representatives of both sides. In the current political circumstances, it is unlikely that such a proposal is to be made in the short term, once the free trade agreement has entered into force. However, I would like to assure you that the Commission will pursue the ample opportunities to deal with this issue at a later stage.
The second proposal contained in the motion for a resolution concerns the possible nomination of an EU special envoy to North Korea, and a number of speakers supported this proposal today. The EU is committed to stepping up its contribution to international coordination and the High Representative/Vice President is very seriously interested in pursuing that. She is, however, now considering all options to do it in the context of two things. One is the review of the mandate of all EU Special Representatives, and the second is the establishment of the External Action Service. It would be in this context that the High Representative/Vice President would pursue increased participation by the EU in international coordination.
The third point is a proposal to press for the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry at the UN. The European Commission deeply appreciates the rationale of this proposal in the motion for a resolution. At the same time, we believe it would be prudent at this stage to put all our efforts into supporting the mandate of the new, recently appointed UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in North Korea, Mr Marzuki Darusman, who has been empowered by the UN Human Rights Council to pursue the matter of human rights in North Korea. With this in mind, we need to ensure that he has all the back-up to do his job. From the Commission’s position, we see this today as the better course in front of us."@en1
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