26.10.2007
EU leaders must take tough stance on human rights
at EU-Russia Summit
The Spokespersons of the European Green Party have outlined
what they considered to be the key areas where significant progress has to be
made if today’s EU-Russia Summit in the Portuguese town of Mafra is to be
considered a success. The spokespersons stressed the importance of the relationship
between the EU and Russia,
ahead of EGP Co-Spokesperson Ulrike Lunacek’s visit to Moscow next week as part
of a delegation of the Greens-EFA
Group in the European Parliament.
.
EGP Co-Spokesperson Philippe
Lamberts said: “The EU leaders must use
the opportunity that this summit provides to press for progress on a number of
key issues including human rights and democracy, energy supply, Chechyna,
Kosovo and nuclear weapons. While we understand that the EU representatives are
keen to further economic co-operation between the EU and Russia and to agree to a new rapid
alert mechanism to deal with energy supply and demand crises: it is imperative
that this is not done at the expense of the key issues of human rights and
democracy. At the last EU-Russia summit in the Russian city of Samara, the EU took a firm stance on human rights
violations in Russia
and they must maintain this pressure. Specifically, the EU must urge the
Russian Federation to ratify Additional Protocol 14 to the European Convention
for Human Rights; to respect the freedom of _expression_ and of assembly and
press freedoms in the run-up to the forthcoming parliamentary and presidential
elections and to guarantee that urgent measures will be taken to improve the
increasingly difficult situation faced by human rights activists and NGOs in
Russia.”
EGP Co-Spokesperson Ulrike Lunacek
continued: “The EU must continue to firmly condemn the continuing
violations of human rights in Chechnya,
including torture and extra-judicial killings. Both the EU and Russia
must also make every effort to resolve the stand-off over Kosovo so that a workable
agreement on the final status of Kosovo can be reached as soon as possible, as
this is vital to the security of the region.
While we in the EGP appreciate that Russia has serious concerns about plans by the US administration to install missile defences in
Poland and the Czech Republic,
we urge Russia not to
exacerbate the situation by halting compliance with the Treaty on Conventional
Arms in Europe. The EU leaders must also raise
President Putin’s recent statements about Russian plans for a new
generation of nuclear weapons as such plans would greatly increase the
possibility of a new nuclear arms race.
The relationship between the EU and Russia is of vital importance to the security
and wellbeing of the whole of Europe and
indeed the world. That is why I am very pleased that next week I will be joining
a delegation of the Greens-EFA group in the European Parliament to Moscow. During this visit,
we will be holding many meetings with politicians, human rights and
environmental NGOs, focusing on human rights and democracy in Russia and environmental issues. We
will also be holding a commemoration at the grave of the murdered journalist Anna
Politkovskaya. It is shameful that the investigation into her murder has
brought no results and it is clear that the Russian police and judiciary are
unable or unwilling to find those responsible for the murder of Anna and
several other journalists.”
EDITOR’s
NOTE: A press release regarding Ulrike Lunacek’s
activities in Russia
as part of the Greens/EFA delegation will follow next week (week beginning 28th
October)
Graham Burgess
Communications Officer
European Green Party
Tel no :+32 2 626 0724
Mobile:+32 477 902
023
email:graham.burgess@europeangreens.org
www.europeangreens.org