Members of the European Parliament's Committee on Development denounced, on Monday 15 June, the continued cooperation with Eritrea, in the absence of progress on human rights in a country which, in particular, continues to subject the majority of its population to indefinite national service, civil or military, notably by working for State construction companies (see EUROPE 12401/5).
All of them deplored the fact that the Commission remains deaf to the Parliament's concerns.
The representatives of the Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) agreed on the need to evaluate the effectiveness of cooperation. But, according to them, the political dialogue with the Eritrean government is “bearing fruit”, bringing “gradual change”, and blackmail does not “work” in a country where “there are no jobs”.
They denied that the money paid out would go to enrich the Eritrean elite and pointed out that €50 million out of the €80 million of support for the disputed motorway project had been refused because of forced labour.
Michèle Rivasi (Greens/EFA, France) criticised them for “stonewalling” while “the dictatorship” has made no progress, according to the May 2019 report by the UN human rights rapporteur.
“Four new projects focus on governance and the rule of law” and “the type of programme we will finance will be different”, the Commission stressed. The assessment of these initiatives will be made before any programming in the framework of the EU budget 2021-2027. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)