WRITTEN QUESTION E-3440/03 by Koenraad Dillen (NI) to the Council. Human rights in China.
Date: 2003-11-20
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: China, EU relations, cooperation policy, human rights, satellite navigation, summit meeting

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/239

Can the Council say what new facts the Presidency has in its possession that allowed Mr Berlusconi to
claim that the problems linked to Chechnya can be considered as ‘tales’ put about by the international
press?

Joint answer
to Written Questions P-3415/03 and P-3473/03

(9 March 2004)

The Council underlines that it is not for the Council to comment on the declaration quoted at the end of
the question.

Regarding the situation in Chechnya, it was discussed in detail during the EU-Russia summit in Rome on
6 November 2003. The absence of a reference to Chechnya in the joint statement from the summit
reflected the persistent disagreement between the EU and Russia on the situation there. The EU in
particular regretted and rejected the linkage made by Russia between the situation in Chechnya and the
situation of the Russian minorities in the Baltic states. The agreed Council position, as quoted in the
question, has therefore not changed as a result of the summit.

(2004/C 84 E/0283)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3440/03

by Koenraad Dillen (NI) to the Council

(20 November 2003)

Subject: Human rights in China

At the European-Chinese summit between Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi and his Chinese counterpart
Hu Jintao, trade agreements relating to cooperation between China and Europe in the field of satellite
navigation were discussed. It was the European Commission which launched the Galileo programme
concerning this.

A new report by Amnesty International now states that human rights are being persistently and seriously
violated in China. Torture, executions and repression are still commonplace. Amnesty International reports
that more than 300 000 political prisoners are being held in special camps in China.

According to various newspaper reports, not a word was spoken about the human rights situation in
China at the summit meeting between Berlusconi and Hu Jintao. Are these reports correct?

If so, is it ethically acceptable to hold trade talks with China without raising this issue? Is not progress over
human rights an essential condition for progress in relations between the EU and China?

What efforts has the Council made in the past to improve the human rights situation in China through
diplomatic channels?

Reply

(11 March 2004)

On a general

1.
declaration on China presented on the occasion of
December.

level, the Council

invites the Honourable Parliamentarian to refer to the Council
the European Parliament’s plenary session last

Contrary to sources quoted by the Honourable Member of Parliament, the Council

2.
informs the
Honourable Parliamentarian that human rights issues were on the agenda of the Summit meeting. Human
rights issues are raised regularly at all levels with China, including at the highest level. At the Summit
meeting which took place on 30 October in Beijing, the EU raised in particular China’s accession to the
Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court, freedom of expression, religious freedom and the death
penalty. Both sides had also addressed human rights issues in policy papers that were published shortly
before the Summit.

C 84 E/240

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

Since 1995 the EU has held a human rights dialogue with China in principle once per Council
3.
Presidency and has organised related seminars on human rights issues with NGOs. These dialogue
meetings are conducted on the basis of detailed reports of the human rights situation on the ground
prepared by the EU Heads of Delegation in Beijing, which take into account a variety of credible sources,
including reports by human rights NGOs. Heads of Delegation are involved in the follow-up to these
meetings and in carrying out démarches on individual cases of concern.

4.
During the last round of the EU-China human rights dialogue, which took place in Beijing on
27/28 November 2003, both sides acknowledged once again that human rights are an important element
of their overall relations and that it is important to keep up the momentum of the Summit. During this
meeting and in addition to the issues mentioned above, the EU raised ‘inter alia’ the question of minority
rights, co-operation with UN special mechanisms, torture and administrative detention, discrimination
against persons living with HIV/AIDS and co-operation projects to strengthen human rights protection in
China.

(2004/C 84 E/0284)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3441/03

by Koenraad Dillen (NI) to the Council

(20 November 2003)

Subject: EU action against the Guantánamo Bay prison

The European Parliament has asked the current President of the Council, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi, to protest to Washington about the imprisonment of EU residents at the US naval base at
Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. 26 EU residents are being held at Camp X-Ray. This prison holds people who
have been arrested in connection with the war on terrorism since 11 September.

Does the Council know exactly what offences these 26 detainees are accused of?

Do not national governments have a responsibility to help safeguard the legal rights of their nationals in
foreign prisons?

Can the Council provide a list of other EU residents who are being held in other non-European prisons for
political reasons or in connection with criminal offences? Does the Council also keep abreast of their
situation? How, specifically, does the Council go about this? To what results has it led in the past?

Reply

(11 March 2004)

The Council is not in a position to provide details of the offences for which any detainees are currently
being held in Guantánamo Bay.

As the Council has previously stated in its replies to Written Questions E-1420/03 and E-2444/03, the
protection of
to the Vienna
the rights and interests of Member States’ nationals abroad pursuant
Convention on Consular Relations is the responsibility of the individual Member States concerned, whether
the individuals involved are being held in Guantánamo Bay or elsewhere.

For this reason, the Council does not maintain any list of the type to which the question refers. If a
Member State chooses to bring the case of detention of one of its nationals abroad to the attention of the
other Member States and requests assistance from the EU in lobbying for his/her release, then the relevant
Council Working Group may agree to the Presidency’s instructing the EU Heads of Mission in the third
country concerned to carry out an appropriate démarche, confidential or otherwise, or to the EU Troika