EU/Burma/Myanmar — Council conclusions on Burma/Myanmar

3009th FOREIGN AFFAIRS Coun­cil meet­ing, Lux­em­bourg, 26 April 2010
The Coun­cil adopt­ed the fol­low­ing con­clu­sions:
“1. The Coun­cil reaf­firms the EU’s unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to the peo­ple of Burma/Myanmar. The EU remains a major donor to the coun­try and stands ready to increase its assis­tance to the peo­ple of Burma/Myanmar, in order to improve their social and eco­nom­ic con­di­tions.

2. The Coun­cil calls upon the author­i­ties of Burma/Myanmar to take steps to bring about a peace­ful tran­si­tion to a demo­c­ra­t­ic, civil­ian and inclu­sive sys­tem of gov­ern­ment. The Coun­cil under­lines that the polit­i­cal and socio-eco­nom­ic chal­lenges fac­ing the coun­try can only be addressed through gen­uine dia­logue between all stake­hold­ers, includ­ing the eth­nic groups and the opposition.

3. The Coun­cil express­es its seri­ous con­cerns that elec­tion laws as pub­lished in ear­ly March do not pro­vide for free and fair elec­tions and notes that the author­i­ties of Burma/Myanmar still have to take the steps nec­es­sary to make the planned elec­tions lat­er this year a cred­i­ble, trans­par­ent and inclu­sive process. The Coun­cil reit­er­ates its call for the release of the polit­i­cal pris­on­ers and detainees, includ­ing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

4. The Coun­cil deems it nec­es­sary to extend the restric­tive mea­sures pro­vid­ed for in the cur­rent EU Deci­sion by anoth­er year. The Coun­cil under­lines its readi­ness to revise, amend or rein­force the mea­sures it has already adopt­ed in light of devel­op­ments on the ground. The EU stands ready to respond pos­i­tive­ly to gen­uine progress in Burma/Myanmar.

5. To help achieve the progress need­ed, the EU is ready to con­tin­ue its dia­logue with the author­i­ties of Burma/Myanmar and all oth­er rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers. It intends to send an explorato­ry mis­sion to the coun­try, in order to hold high lev­el talks, in the hope of build­ing trust and help­ing the polit­i­cal process to move towards the intend­ed goals.

6. The Coun­cil express­es its strong sup­port for the con­tin­ued work of EU Spe­cial Envoy Piero Fassi­no and invites the Burma/Myanmar author­i­ties to coop­er­ate ful­ly with him.

7. The Coun­cil urges the gov­ern­ment of Burma/Myanmar to engage more with the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, to work towards a peace­ful tran­si­tion to democ­ra­cy. It reaf­firms the EU’s sup­port for the Good Offices Mis­sion of the UN Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al and wel­comes his con­tin­ued per­son­al com­mit­ment to fur­ther the polit­i­cal process, and calls upon the author­i­ties of Burma/Myanmar to engage with the UN in a mean­ing­ful man­ner. The EU will con­tin­ue to active­ly sup­port the group of friends of the UNSG and raise the sit­u­a­tion in the coun­try, and its pos­si­ble impli­ca­tions for region­al sta­bil­i­ty, with key actors, includ­ing ASEAN and its Mem­ber States, the Unit­ed States, Aus­tralia, Chi­na, India, Japan and Russia.

8. The Coun­cil wel­comes the ASEAN Chairman’s state­ment of 9 April 2010 from the 16th Sum­mit, which under­scored the impor­tance of nation­al rec­on­cil­i­a­tion in Myan­mar and the hold­ing of the gen­er­al elec­tion in a free, fair and inclu­sive man­ner. The Coun­cil also wel­comes state­ments from indi­vid­ual ASEAN mem­bers, as well as Japan, on the need for release of all polit­i­cal pris­on­ers and detainees, includ­ing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The EU looks for­ward to a con­tin­ued close dia­logue with our ASEAN part­ners on the issue — next time at the upcom­ing EU/ASEAN min­is­te­r­i­al in May in Madrid.

9. The Coun­cil wel­comes the adop­tion of Res­o­lu­tion 13/25 of the UN Human Rights Coun­cil, and endors­es the Progress report by the UN Spe­cial Rap­por­teur, Mr Quin­tana. It calls upon the author­i­ties of Burma/Myanmar to coop­er­ate with him in a con­struc­tive man­ner and com­ply in full with the UN’s rec­om­men­da­tions, by tak­ing urgent mea­sures to put an end to vio­la­tions of inter­na­tion­al human rights and human­i­tar­i­an law.” 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union