24/08/2004 (Agence Europe) - According to a press statement, Hans-Gert Pöttering, president of the EPP-ED group at the European Parliament, has protested in a letter to the Chinese Ambassador to the European Union, Guan Chnegyuan, about the arrest of eight Catholic priests and more than a hundred protestants and call demanded their immediate release. Pöttering warned of the "human rights situation in China, which had to be significantly improved before the Olympic Games" in Peking planned for 2008.