Brussels, 22/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - MEPs have called for a consistent policy towards authoritarian regimes, against which the European Union must apply restrictive measures.
With its adoption, by 53 votes to two, with one abstention, of the report by Graham Watson (ALDE, UK), the European Parliament (EP) foreign affairs committee said that EU member states must act as one when imposing sanctions on leaders of repressive regimes and not have double standards with regard to their keeping money, owning property, doing business or travelling within the EU. These leaders' frozen and confiscated assets should be repatriated, MEPs add. The plenary session vote will take place in February.
Watson's report gives examples of authoritarian leaders who have assets in the EU: - $150 billion have left the countries of North Africa (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) over the last two decades; - in Egypt, Hosni Mubarak and his family have a personal fortune of between $50 and $70 billion; - the Gaddafi regime had assets worth billions in the EU; - Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, is suspected of siphoning off $9 billion from his country's oil revenues.
MEPs argue that disagreement among member states when applying sanctions undermines the EU's transparency and credibility and uncoordinated sanctions can be ineffective or even counterproductive. To prevent this, the Council should develop clear criteria for applying restrictive measures and be more rigorous in selecting regimes upon which to impose sanctions, they say. Member states should also endeavour as soon as possible to repatriate frozen and confiscated assets of authoritarian leaders to their respective countries, so that they can benefit the population.
Restrictive measures should target only the leaders of repressive regimes and not penalise their populations. On the contrary, sanctions should be combined with support for civil society. Member states should not allow academic institutions to accept funding or donations from leaders upon whom sanctions have been imposed and their natural and legal associates, say MEPs. They cite the scandal that shook the London School of Economics in spring 2011, when it was revealed that it had accepted more than £2 million to train Libyan civil servants. (LC/transl.rt)