Pakistan's implementation of the fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO)

4.10.2018

Question for written answer E-005070-18
to the Commission
Rule 130
Emilian Pavel (S&D)

In response to my written question of February 2018 on human rights in Pakistan, Commissioner Malmström asserted that the Commission was ‘aware of the issues in relation to Pakistan’s implementation of the fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which are regularly raised with Pakistan as part of the monitoring process under the Generalised System of Preferences Plus (GSP+)’. She also acknowledged that much more still needed to be done.

However, neither the GSP+ scorecards, nor the questionnaires to which she referred in her answer, are available for review by European and Pakistani civil society. Moreover, the monitoring missions are known to be conducted only in major cities, and without visits to contentious areas or consultation with free and independent NGOs.

In view of the above:

Will the Commission abide by the pledge that it made in the wake of its president’s State of the Union Address from September 2017 and ‘move to make the EU’s trade policy the most transparent and inclusive in the world’, by releasing the GSP+ scorecards?

Will it support calls made by civil society and some Member States for transparent monitoring and the launching of an investigation into the multiple violations of ILO core conventions by Pakistan?