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Czech activists to raise human rights issue at EU-China summit

ČTK

Director of Amnesty International in the Czech Republic Dáša van der Horst submitting a memorandum to Minister for Human Rights Michael Kocáb on 18 May 2009. The memorandum asked Prime Minister Jan Fischer to raise human rights issue during the EU-China summit on Wednesday.ČTK/Czech Republic

The Czech Amnesty International (AI) will stage a parallel event during the EU-China summit that will take place in Prague on Wednesday within the Czech EU presidency, AI has said.

The participants in the meeting will talk about victims of lawlessness in China and will point to the question of human rights observance, AI said.

It is not yet clear whether Czech President Vaclav Klaus who will chair the summit will mention the question of human rights at the summit.

Czech Human Rights and Minority Minister Michael Kocab said previously that he would point to human rights observance in China.

New Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer, who is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with the Chinese representatives during the summit, will also consider raising the question.

The global economic crisis, economic relations and environmental topics will be on the programme of the summit.

China intends to ask the EU to lift the restrictions for imports of top technologies to China and it hopes that the EU will recognise its full market economy status.

China is the second most important trade partner for European Union countries after the USA.

The 11th EU-China summit organised by the Czech Republic as the EU president will be attended, among other guests, by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and European Commission president Jose Barroso.

Last year’s EU-China summit held under the French EU presidency was cancelled due to the disputes over the observance of human rights in China.

Beijing was indignant at French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s meeting with the Tibetan Dalai Lama.

Questions linked to the global warming are also expected to be raised at the summit. China is one of the leading polluters in the world and the situation continues to deteriorate.

China is the biggest air polluter. Experts hope that the EU-China summit will provide an opportunity for the two sides to discuss climate change ahead of the Copenhagen conference that is to result in a document on the limitation of green house gas emissions.

The EUobserver server said today that Klaus who will chair the summit and who denies that global warming is a man-made phenomenon may complicate discussions.

The UN conference on climate in Copenhagen to be held in December is to set goals in reducing greenhouse gas emissions after 2012 when the Kyoto Protocol expires.

The EU-China summit will be the second large event within the Czech EU presidency after the interim government of Fischer replaced the cabinet of Mirek Topolanek (Civic Democrats, ODS) on 8 May.

For Klaus, it will be the second summit he will chair as European Union representative.

Copyright © 2009 Neris, s.r.o.

Published in Noviny