Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) were surprised to hear from the European Commission on Wednesday 19 March that it did not intend to suspend the Memorandum of Understanding on raw materials with Rwanda. On 13 February, MEPs adopted a resolution calling for this agreement to be suspended (see EUROPE 13579/12). However, the representative of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships, who was present during the exchange, indicated that the Commission wished to maintain the agreement and was going to carry out a review.
This decision was incomprehensible to the overwhelming majority of members, who were united in their call for the protocol to be suspended in view of the many human rights violations currently being committed by Rwanda. The Chair of the Delegation to the Africa-EU Parliamentary Assembly, Hilde Vautmans (Renew Europe, Belgian), spoke out against the Commission’s decision. “What arguments can the Commission put forward for the initial conclusion of the memorandum of understanding? How can Rwanda be a candidate for this kind of partnership?”. And she called, not for a revision of the agreement, but for its suspension.
Her colleagues demanded the same, and some asked what the European Commission meant by a review.
Udo Bullmann (S&D, German) expressed his incomprehension that the EU should persist in working with a partner “that is fuelling an unbelievable war in a neighbouring country, that is clearly supporting armed forces that violate human rights, that commit acts of sexual violence in an incredible number of cases”.
France’s Thierry Mariani (PfE) denied that the Memorandum of Understanding guaranteed the traceability of raw materials.
In response, the European Commission argued that the Memorandum of Understanding offered a lever to work on the traceability of raw materials exported by Rwanda. “If we cancel the MoU, we’ll never get another one”, warned the Commission representative. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)