Second EU-Pakistan Summit — Joint Statement

The EU appre­ci­at­ed Pakistan’s efforts to realise the con­sol­i­da­tion of demo­c­ra­t­ic insti­tu­tions, the rule of law and achiev­ing eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment in the spir­it of the Con­sti­tu­tion. It wel­comed con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ments which rein­force the role of Pakistan’s elect­ed assem­blies and plans for fur­ther elec­toral reforms. Both sides acknowl­edged the role played by the Feb­ru­ary 2008 Elec­tion Obser­va­tion Mission. 

The EU wel­comed Pakistan’s achieve­ments towards insti­tu­tion­al progress in the human rights field, in par­tic­u­lar the estab­lish­ment of a Min­istry for Human Rights, a Min­istry for Minori­ties and moves towards the estab­lish­ment of an inde­pen­dent Nation­al Human Rights Com­mis­sion. It viewed pos­i­tive­ly the sign­ing by Pak­istan of the instru­ments of rat­i­fi­ca­tion of the UN Inter­na­tion­al Covenant on Civ­il and Polit­i­cal Rights (ICCPR) and the Con­ven­tion against Tor­ture (CAT).

The EU appre­ci­at­ed the steps tak­en by the Gov­ern­ment of Pak­istan for empow­er­ment of women as well as for pro­tect­ing the rights of reli­gious minori­ties as equal cit­i­zens. The EU and Pak­istan will inten­si­fy their dia­logue in a spir­it of equal­i­ty and mutu­al respect. Both sides stressed the impor­tance of the imple­men­ta­tion of the rel­e­vant Inter­na­tion­al Con­ven­tions in the Human Rights field.

Cli­mate Change

The EU and Pak­istan agreed to ini­ti­ate dia­logue on cli­mate change in the con­text of UNFCCC nego­ti­a­tion fol­low­ing the 15th Con­fer­ence of Par­ties at Copen­hagen in Decem­ber 2009, includ­ing on build­ing Pakistan’s capac­i­ty to com­bat the effects of cli­mate change.

Oth­er issues

Pak­istan wel­comed the offer by the High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Union for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy to host the next Min­is­te­r­i­al meet­ing of the Friends of Demo­c­ra­t­ic Pak­istan in Brus­sels. Lead­ers rec­om­mend­ed that the focus of this meet­ing should be on ener­gy issues, imple­men­ta­tion of the Malakand Devel­op­ment Strat­e­gy, devel­op­ing a com­pre­hen­sive plan on sta­bil­i­sa­tion and recon­struc­tion in the affect­ed areas, and pro­mot­ing investment.

It was agreed to con­vene a Min­is­te­r­i­al meet­ing in the sec­ond half of 2010 as part of the EU-Pak­istan Strate­gic Dia­logue process. Lead­ers will mon­i­tor the process with a view to assess progress at a future summit. 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union