Strasbourg, 26/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - One of the first decisions that I took in my role as Governor of Hong Kong was to eliminate the death penalty from the statute books: with this phrase, Chris Patten explained his position that coincides with that of the Commission, on the death penalty, which still exists in 90 countries and is practices in 30 (and, in one or two countries, in "industrial quantities", he said). The Union is against the death penalty and in favour of its universal abolition: in the meantime, it carried out a campaign in favour of a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, notably through "human rights/democracy" budgetary lines. This issue is periodically raised by the Union in its bilateral relations; Chris Patten explained to the Parliament that the Union had finally preferred to withdraw its accession to the United Nations Assembly's resolution from last November, as the text did not reflect its position.
Emma Bonino, the Italian Radical, felt that this refusal to accept a compromise that plays into the hands of others (which Mr Patten challenged: if we had accepted this text, we would have asserted the contrary of what we think, namely that what other counties do in this field does not concern us). Mrs Bonino recalled the initiative that the Italian Radical Adelaide Aglietta, who recently died, had made eight years ago for a moratorium. The principals that inspired the association she created "Nessuno tocchi Caino" still remain valid, said Monica Frassoni, from the Italian Green group. Francesco Rutelli (I Democratici, Italian) made a specific suggestion, by calling for the organisation of a European day against the death penalty, suggestion that was supported by Chris Patten. Lucio Manisco (PCI, Italian) regretted that the EUR 700,000 allocated to the campaign in favour of a moratorium in practice only concerns two organisations that are carrying out an action in the Caribbean and the Philippines: it is the United States and China that must be targeted, for example, by calling for tourists and European companies not to travel or not to invest in States that, such as Texas, practising the death penalty. 1999 was a "dark year", recalled the Spanish Socialist Rosa Diez Gonzalez: 2,000 people have been executed in 73 countries, and 4,000 new death penalties have been ruled. The abolition of the death penalty, announced Concepcio Ferrer (EPP, Spain), must be one of the Union's demands in its relations with all third countries, in agreement with nearly all the MEPs. Roberts Angelilli (Alleanza Nazionale) would like (with a little bit too much ingenuity, I admit, she said) that the EU refuse to have trade relations with all the countries that have not abolished the death penalty.
"We are all on the same side", noted Chris Patten at the end of the debate, but maybe, beyond these walls, everyone does not think as we do, even here in Europe, maybe we should also have a campaign within the Union itself.
By finally adopting the EPP/DE, Socialist, Liberal, Green and United Left resolution, the European Parliament: i) recalled that no candidate country where the death penalty remains applicable can accede to the EU and invites the Commission to take into account the attitude concerning the abolition of the death penalty and a universal moratorium on executions during the concluding of agreements with third countries; ii) invites the Commission to fully use, in the 2000 budget, posts covering democracy and Human Rights, in order to support any initiative likely of contributing to the abolition of the death penalty or of encouraging a universal moratorium on death penalties, by associating civil society and religious authorities to the execution of these budgetary lines; iii) calls on the EU to adopt in the United Nations a common and coordinated approach in this matter, in order to achieve the abolition of the death penalty.