‘Room for constructive engagement between EU and SL’
The Report of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with
South Asia following their visit to Sri Lanka from February 22-26, 2011
for the 6th EP/Sri Lanka Inter-Parliamentary Meeting was tabled in
Brussels last week.
The report presented by the Chair of the Delegation Ms. Jean Lambert
(Greens/UK), details the Delegation’s interactions in Sri Lanka with the
Speaker, senior ministers, Members of Parliament, senior officials, EU
country diplomats and INGOs, as well as field visits to Jaffna and
Vavuniya where they also inspected EU funded projects, the Sri Lanka
Embassy in Brussels said in a release.
Colombo city is being transformed into a clean, green and
attractive city, free of garbage, cutouts, banners and
unauthorized structures on the instructions of the Defence
Ministry. |
It went on to add: The ‘conclusions’ contained in the report, which
comments on the aspects of development cooperation, devolution and
reconciliation, practical steps suggested and Inter-Parliamentary
cooperation, state that “the EP South Asia Delegation would like to
underline that it strongly believes there is room for constructive and
principled engagement between the EU and Sri Lanka – despite the
disagreements of the past and the fact that, in some areas, differences
in perceptions still subsist”. It also “calls on the diaspora to play a
positive role in supporting this approach by working constructively with
the elected Tamil leadership in Sri Lanka”.
‘In comments before the South Asia Delegation following the visit,
South Asia Delegation Chair Ms. Lambert noted that “ In a nutshell the
feeling of the EP Delegation was that this visit was productive and the
EP Delegation heard about detailed plans of the Government to rebuild
the North and felt that there certainly have been very positive moves”.
She made a special reference to the Interim Recommendations of the
Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission and said “these were
generally judged as positive ones: the Delegation would therefore call
for their swift implementation, and expects that the final report of the
LLRC will be public”. She also highlighted that the EP Delegation was
especially encouraged by the creation in the Sri Lanka Parliament of a
formal counterpart body in the form of an ‘EU Parliamentary Friendship
Association’. “The EP Delegation believes this form of engagement is the
way forward,” she added.
Taking the floor, the Quaestor of the European Parliament, Ms.
Geringer de Oedenberg (S&D/ Poland) warmly thanked all that have been
involved in planning the programme of the visit which was “superbly
organized” and provided Members with an “excellent overview” of the
political situation and the challenges faced in Sri Lanka.
‘In observations on the report at the June 15, 2011 session of the
South Asia Delegation, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and
the EU Ravinatha Aryasinha observed that the 6 day visit by the high
powered delegation of the European Parliament was important for several
reasons.
By receiving the delegation and facilitating their travel to areas of
their choice, GOSL had acted with considerable transparency – something
not fully appreciated in some quarters. Welcoming the constructive
attitude visible in the Delegation’s report, he urged MEPs belonging to
all major parties in Parliament who undertook the visit and saw with
their own eyes the difficult but important work that is on-going in Sri
Lanka at present to ensure reconciliation and development, to share
their experience with other fellow MEPs, so as not to allow fringe
elements in Parliament to distort the image of Sri Lanka.
He hoped that the spirit of “mutual respect and mutual cooperation”
which appears to have been the hallmark of both the meetings held in Sri
Lanka, as well as the report of the delegation, should become a template
for future Sri Lanka-EU relations.
‘The Parliamentary delegation to Sri Lanka included Ms. Jean Lambert
(Greens/UK) Chair of the Delegation for Relations with South Asia, Mr.
John Attrad-Montalto (S&D/Malta) 1st Vice Chair of the Delegation and
member of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Thomas Mann (EPP/Germany)
2nd Vice Chair of the Delegation and Vice Chair to the Committee on
Employment and Social Affairs, Ms. Joanna Geringer de Oedenberg
(S&D/Poland) Questor of the European Parliament, Mr. Niccolo Rinaldi (ALDE/Italy)
Vice Chair of the ALDE Group and member of Committee on International
Trade, Mr. Nirj Deva (ECR/UK) Vice Chair of the Committee on Development
and member of Committee on Human Rights and Mr. Slavi Binev (Non
Attached/Bulgaria) member of Committee on Economic and Monitory
Affairs.’ |