Condemnation of French move to block human rights motion

THE French scuppering of a condemnation EU condemnation of Chinese human rights abuse has escalated into a serious row with implications for the future of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).

A resolution proposing the condemnation of China before the UN Commission on Human Rights, due to be tabled this week, has been blocked by France in a move deplored last night by the Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring in this Dutch coastal resort for an informal meting of foreign ministers.

At least seven EU member states, including Ireland, are now expected individually to back a Danish motion - but the EU will have no common position.

Mr Spring said the French decision was a "very big problem" and setback for CFSP which would be seen as a sign of weakness on the part of the Union. The issue was to be debated over dinner last night.

There are strong suspicions in EU diplomatic circles, publicly expressed by human rights groups, that the French determination to scupper the resolution has much to do with a visit in May by President Chirac to Beijing during which he is expected to wrap up an order for Airbus planes worth $2 billion.

France was joined last week in its opposition to the resolution by Italy, Germany and Spain. Yet at the last meeting of EU Foreign Ministers there was unanimity minus one on the issue.

Outraged by what he sees as a clear volte face on EU human rights policy, the Dutch Foreign Minister, Mr Hans van Mierlo, has now decided to pull six other EU sponsored resolutions before the Commission - those on Iraq, Iran, Zaire, Nigeria, Timor and Burma.

He argues in a letter to fellow ministers circulated last week that the EU should not be seen to have double standards, and the change of policy on China directly affected the European Union's credibility in sponsoring of the resolutions at the Commission.

As a result, the EU, as a body, should refrain from any initiative to obtain comparable condemnations of other countries where human rights are being violated, he said. The French are understood to be furious at the move which they believe goes far beyond the discretionary powers of the Presidency.

The Dutch position has been backed by Ireland, Britain, Portugal, Austria, and the Nordic countries, and the Danes will now, encouraged by the US, put down a series of resolutions with the individual backing of the others.

A spokesman for the Commission President, Mr Nicholas van der Pas, on Friday expressed "concern" at the "complete disarray" being manifested and said the issue highlighted the need for an effective CFSP.

While there might be a last minute effort by a few individual European countries and the US to salvage a resolution, the West's spineless deference to China out of concern for commercial contracts has all but killed the resolution before it is even tabled," Ms Lotte Leicht, director of the Brussels office of Human Rights Watch said.

The row could not come at a worse time for the EU engaged in the Inter Governmental Conference in the process of strengthening the EU's capacity to act on the world stage, the EU is cruelly exposed as unable even to agree a common position for a UN resolution.

And France faces particular criticism as the country that has most vociferously championed a common approach to foreign policy - everyone should march in step, as long, it seems, as it is in step with the French.