Brussels, 22/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - Faced with US opposition and threats of trade reprisals by the US Congress and following the adoption by the National Assembly of the People's Republic of China of an anti-secessionist law, reawakening the threat of a conflict with Taiwan (EUROPE 16 March p 6), the United Kingdom is seeking, according to the Financial Times, a delay in the lifting of the arms embargo on China. It is also seeking the support of other European governments to postpone the EU decision until 2006. France and Germany support the lifting of the arms embargo and would like to see a decision made before the end of June. They are still resisting the but some EU Member State governments that are closer to Washington (particularly those that are participating in the coalition in Iraq, such as the United Kingdom and Italy) are more sympathetic to a postponement of the decision to a date after the end of the Luxembourg presidency, as planned at the General Affairs Council of December 2004 (EUROPE 21 December). Diplomatic sources quoted by the Financial Times said that last week the British foreign minister Jack Straw tried to convince his Italian counterpart, Gianfranco Fini, to postpone the lifting of the arms embargo. The United Kingdom is also in discussions with Sweden, which will itself attempt to put pressure on other EU members.
The main opposition party in Germany, the CDU called on Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to stop defending the lifting of the arms embargo at the Spring Summit on Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as at the June European Council. According to the CDU, lifting the arms embargo would send out an “alarming signal”, following Peking's adoption of an anti-secessionist law on Taiwan.
The European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party called on Heads of State and governments in the EU to not pursue the lifting of the arming embargo on China, as long as the human rights situation and the democratisation process was not progressing and that threats still existed against the territorial integrity of Taiwan. Party president, Werner Hoyer, pointed to the consensus at the European Parliament against lifting the embargo and warned president Chirac and Chancellor Schröder against making such a decision, which would unnecessarily undermine Trans-Atlantic relations.
This week Graham Watson, president of the ALDE group at the EP, is currently in China at the invitation of the Communist Party, together with members of the group (Marielle De Sarnez, Lapo Pistelli, Dirck Sterckx and Ona Jukneviciehe. MEPs posed the problem of the anti-secessionist law regarding Taiwan.