Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-03-14-Speech-3-463-000"
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"en.20120314.26.3-463-000"2
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"Mr President, it is true that Kazakhstan is the most open country in Central Asia, economically speaking. European investments are welcome there and companies such as Total, Eni, Areva and Alstom have operations there with major interests. It is also true that Europe is hoping to use this country as a route to transport its troops and military equipment out of Afghanistan.
In view of its interests, Europe is remaining discreet and pragmatic towards the Kazakh authorities. However, are we not being too pragmatic at the risk of repeating the same mistakes we made with the Arab world? Moreover, that is what civil society in Kazakhstan, and in the former Soviet Union in general, is convinced that we are doing. We must therefore be attentive to what is actually happening in Kazakhstan. By freeing Ms Sokolova, the lawyer for the trade unionists, and Mr Zhovtis, the human rights defender, the Kazakh authorities are showing proof of goodwill. However, growing and continuing repression of the political opposition, the trade unionists and the independent media persists. Forty-three strikers in Zhanaozen are being threatened with long prison sentences, as are nine members of the opposition, Mr Kozlov, Mr Viniavski and Ms Amirova.
We have seen unbelievable censorship of the electronic media to silence all alternative sources of information. Following the orders of the presidential Security Council, 125 websites, judged to be dangerous, have already been blocked, with 168 others on a blacklist.
A series of recently promulgated laws tracks this regression in the human rights situation in Kazakhstan: laws on audio-visual material, the Internet and information and a law on religious communities.
Although the Kazakh authorities are telling us that they learned their lesson from the tragedy in Zhanaozen, they have just promulgated a law on national security which severely limits freedom of expression and the freedom to change the labour code, which restricts the rights of workers.
Are we going to, once again, content ourselves with verbal promises from the Kazakh authorities and continue with business as usual or are we going to openly say to our Kazakh partners that the repression of dissident voices cannot ensure long-term stability? The European Union will, in any case, have to commit to daily monitoring of the upcoming trials of the various strikers and opponents and ensure that the legislative reforms guarantee fundamental freedoms.
All of these developments should determine our position on upgrading the partnership with Kazakhstan."@en1
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