§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement about the EU's reasons for not co-sponsoring a resolution on China at the 57 UN Commission for Human Rights. [157449]
§ Mr. BattleEU unity is important to make our policy of critical dialogue with China as effective as possible. We have placed high importance on achieving such unity since the US began sponsoring resolutions on China at the Commission on Human Rights in 1999.
EU Foreign Ministers agreed at the General Affairs Council, on 19 March, not to co-sponsor the US resolution on China at the UN Commission on Human Rights, but to strengthen the EU common position by actively lobbying against the expected Chinese no-action motion, for the first time since 1996.
EU Foreign Ministers agreed to actively continue the policy of critical dialogue on human rights issues with China—an approach they believed would have been affected detrimentally by co-sponsoring the resolution. They made it clear, however, that further continuation of the dialogue would depend on progress being achieved on the ground. EU Foreign Ministers agreed to assess the results of the dialogue on a regular basis.