Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-12-16-Speech-3-299"
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"en.20091216.17.3-299"2
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"Thank you for your question. The Council is extremely aware of the human rights situation in Vietnam and we are monitoring developments in the country closely.
Twice a year, the Council and the Commission make an assessment of the situation within the framework of the human rights dialogue that we have with the Vietnamese authorities. The latest dialogue meeting was held in Hanoi last week, on 11 December. Many urgent issues were discussed, such as freedom of expression, reform of the penal code, including the death penalty, as well as freedom of religion and religious tolerance, including the situation of the adherents of Plum Village. An EU list of persons and prisoners whose situation is of particular cause for concern was given to the Vietnamese Government. In addition to the human rights dialogue, the EU also regularly raises issues of particular concern with the Vietnamese Government.
On 10 November, the Council and the Commission held a long discussion with the members of the Plum Village community. On 26 November, the resolution from the European Parliament concerning the issue was published. The same day, the Commission held high level talks with the authorities in Hanoi and this meeting took place within the framework of the Joint Committee for the negotiation of a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which we hope will be concluded next year. Our main message at the meeting was to express how pressing we consider the human rights situation in Vietnam to be.
We mentioned the expropriation of church property, we mentioned the attacks on campaigners for human rights and blog writers – as brought up by Members previously in this House – and we also mentioned the situation of the adherents of Plum Village. We called upon our counterparts to safeguard and respect human rights and to meet all the commitments set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the international conventions to which Vietnam is party. The Parliamentary resolution made this message particularly forceful, and I would like to thank the European Parliament for that. We also informed Vietnam of the new and important role of the European Parliament, particularly as regards the future Partnership and Cooperation Agreement.
On 8-10 December 2009, an EU delegation visited the Bat Nha monastery and the Phuoc Hue temple, to which nearly 200 remaining members of Plum Village have fled. We spoke to the religious representatives there and the local authorities in order to obtain more information on the current situation. The EU will continue to monitor the situation at the Phuoc Hue temple very closely."@en1
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