The European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights yesterday voiced concern over Taiwan's recent execution of four convicts, saying it could impact on relations with the EU.
Taiwan's ending of a moratorium on the death penalty “will certainly not help improve EU-Taiwan relations and will not help Taiwan in its strive towards greater international recognition,” said a statement issued by subcommittee president Heidi Hautala and subcommittee vice president Laima Andrikiene MEP, who also serves as the vice chairperson of the European Parliament Taiwan Friendship Group.
Over the years, the European Parliament has been supportive of Taiwan's bid to join various international organizations, including a resolution in March backing the nation's participation as an observer in the International Civil Aviation Organization and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
However, Taiwan's execution of four inmates on death row on April 30 — the first time the death penalty had been carried out in the country since December 2005 — has aroused concerns in the EU over what some have described as a setback for efforts the nation has made to abolish capital punishment.
On Saturday, Catherine Ashton, the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy of the EU and the first vice president of the European Commission, issued a statement condemning the executions.
Yesterday's statement by the parliament's subcommittee added that the resumption of executions “acts strongly” against Taiwan's aspirations to join the UN and other international organizations.
Hautala and Andrikiene said Taiwanese officials had said on numerous occasions that they would continue the process of constitutional review of capital punishment, exhaust all other possible remedies for the 44 prisoners on death row and refrain from hastily resuming executions.
However, they “did not keep their pledges,” Hautala and Andrikiene said.
“Nor has the current ruling Kuomintang party made sufficient steps to seek for a cross-party consensus on the abolition of death penalty inside Taiwan,” they said.
Human rights are at the core of EU's value system and the EU places great significance on the defense of human rights, including the right to life, in its external policies, the statement said, adding that the principle of defending human rights worldwide is enshrined in all major EU documents devoted to external policy.
In an e-mail to the Taipei Times on possible fallout of the executions on Taiwan's bid to gain visa-waiver status from the EU, Andrikiene said: “The opponents of Taiwan will exploit every issue that speaks against your country.”
“There is no direct relationship between the visa issue and the death penalty, but when Taiwan's visa-waiver case is discussed in the European Parliament, all issues will become important, especially everything related to human rights,” Andrikiene said.
On March 25, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡) told the legislature's Foreign and National Defense Committee that he expected Taiwan's request for visa-waiver status to be presented to the European Commission for deliberation within a few weeks, but voiced concern that the death penalty issue could weigh against Taiwan's case.
The ministry said on Tuesday that Taiwan's visa case had not been presented to the commission.
Javier Hou (侯清山), another vice minister of foreign affairs, yesterday told lawmakers that the ministry had not seen any impact from the executions and Taiwan's visa request.
“I don't dare say that is no corelation between the two matters. We can't rule out the possibility, but we hope that it will not happen,” he said.
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