The EU needs a strategic approach to its dealings with China.
This opinion piece was written by ICT’s EU Policy Director Vincent Metten and published by Politico on 1 December 2010.
Dominique Moïsi last week urged all EU ambassadors to Norway to attend the Nobel prize ceremony for Liu Xiaobo, this year’s peace laureate. It was, Moïsi said, simply a matter of self-respect (“The closing of the European mind,” 25 November-2 December).
By Moïsi’s measure, Europe has little self-respect. It also clearly has a long way to go before it emulates Moïsi’s valuable understanding – that Europe can (and should) open up its mind to Asia without compromising its own core values. For instance, only three political groups within the European Parliament have adopted a position: the liberals (ALDE), the centre-right (EPP) and the Greens (Greens/EFA). The Parliament’s president, Jerzy Buzek, and the chairwoman of the subcommittee on human rights have; the chairman of the foreign-affairs committee has been silent.
It is still unclear how many EU member states’ ambassadors to Norway will attend the event on 10 December. Press reports suggest only nine countries have confirmed their attendance: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden and the UK.
Olivier Chastel, secretary of state for European affairs for Belgium, holder of the rotating presidency of the Council of Ministers, told the Parliament on 23 November that the EU would be present “at a level at least identical to that of the past year” – a statement that, of course, does not indicate whether all member states will be represented.
With the Lisbon treaty, the EU now has a voice capable of speaking on behalf of its 27 member states: Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign affairs chief. Her office says that the EU’s ambassador in Oslo, Janos Herman, will attend. That suggests Ashton, who in October expressed the hope that Liu Xiaobo “will be able to receive his prize in person”, will not be present
Is this enough? Would this amount to the common defence of core European values that Moïsi suggested was necessary? To show Europe’s unity in the face of Chinese pressure, Ashton should attend, as the Greens recommended on 23 November. Indeed, why not institute a policy that the EU’s foreign policy chief will attend the ceremony each year, regardless of the laureate’s identity and his or her country of origin?
Instead, the EU is likely to continue a pattern evident in its dealings with Beijing on human-rights issues: it will act without unity and without a strategic approach. That is how it approaches, for example, the issue of Tibet and meetings with the Dalai Lama, the Nobel peace prize laureate in 1989.
Yang Jianli, a friend of Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia, who is acting as a go-between in preparations for the award ceremony in Oslo, has described the award “as a golden opportunity for the political opening up of China”. It would be nice to think Europe would be present at that opportunity.
It seems more probable that this will be another occasion when, as Moïsi implied, Europe closes its mind at a critical point for Asia, and, rather than engage Asia, opts for fear.
(Source: Politico)