Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-07-03-Speech-4-188"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20030703.12.4-188"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, I would firstly like to point out that the Commission generally supports the European Parliament’s joint motion for a resolution which we are debating.
Secondly, with regard to the issue of the European journalists arrested, Mr Falise and Mr Reynaud, this issue is being dealt with at bilateral level by France and Belgium.
The European Union's ministerial troika, however, has had the opportunity to talk bilaterally through the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Laos, on the occasion of the recent Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum in Phnom Penh on 19 June. The Commission is in close contact with the French Embassy and with the Belgian Consulate in Vientiane, and with other Member States with local representation or accredited in Bangkok, and the Commission has held an informal meeting with top officials of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Laos.
Of course, the Commission supports the diplomatic actions taken by the Member States in question to find a satisfactory solution to this case, a solution which – we agree with Mrs André-Léonard – can only be found by means of a diplomatic and political solution. Furthermore, we are prepared to take any necessary action to put pressure on the government of Laos at European Union level.
We do not, however, consider it useful to include an issue of this type on an agenda of a different nature, such as the meetings of ASEAN, since we do not believe it to be appropriate to raise this issue in high-level multilateral meetings. We hope that the news given earlier by Mrs André-Léonard will eventually lead to a good result.
A final comment on the general human rights situation in Laos and our position. The Commission is closely monitoring the situation by means of our delegation in Vientiane and we are going to continue to analyse the human rights situation and its possible impact on the EC-Laos cooperation programme in view of the joint EC-Laos committee scheduled for next autumn. In this regard, the Commission is always prepared to discuss this issue with the European Parliament."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples