Policy Renewal DM Committee [ Policy Renewal Deputy Minister Committee ]

Special Cabinet Committee on Social Policy Renewal

– having regard to the Commission’s Joint Communication to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions of 21 March 2012 entitled ‘Towards a renewed EU-Pacific development partnership’ ,

64. Welcomes the EU’s efforts to include a human rights and democracy clause in all EU political framework agreements, but reiterates its call for all contractual relationships with third countries – both industrialised and developing, and including sectoral agreements, trade and technical or financial aid agreements – to include clearly worded conditionality and clauses on human rights and democracy, without exception; considers that the current threshold in Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) schemes that could trigger action on the human rights clauses is high but should be adjusted to each country concerned; notes the new GSP r ...[+++]eform proposal from 2011 which suggests that the consultation procedure should be widened and which contains provisions to ease investigations of human rights violations in the GSP Committee; expresses, in this regard, deep concern about the deteriorating human rights situation in Cambodia where land grabbing has lead to increasing poverty and to the violation of human rights clauses which are part of agreements in force between EU and Cambodia; warns that the lack of consistency in the implementation of the human rights clause can undermine the credibility and effectiveness of the EU’s conditionality policy;

70. Welcomes the EU’s efforts to include a human rights and democracy clause in all EU political framework agreements, but reiterates its call for all contractual relationships with third countries – both industrialised and developing, and including sectoral agreements, trade and technical or financial aid agreements – to include clearly worded conditionality and clauses on human rights and democracy, without exception; considers that the current threshold in Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) schemes that could trigger action on the human rights clauses is high but should be adjusted to each country concerned; notes the new GSP r ...[+++]eform proposal from 2011 which suggests that the consultation procedure should be widened and which contains provisions to ease investigations of human rights violations in the GSP Committee; expresses, in this regard, deep concern about the deteriorating human rights situation in Cambodia where land grabbing has lead to increasing poverty and to the violation of human rights clauses which are part of agreements in force between EU and Cambodia; warns that the lack of consistency in the implementation of the human rights clause can undermine the credibility and effectiveness of the EU’s conditionality policy;

The Committee reiterates the request it has made several times that those Member States in the European Research Area which at present do not have enough research institutions and innovation developers of excellence should eliminate this disadvantage as quickly as possible with the help of the Structural and Cohesion Funds and should facilitate the development of a sufficient number of outstanding researchers and innovative entrepreneurship through successful support and economic policies.