Lack of political balance in an MEP delegation to Kashmir / Controversial visit to Kashmir
21.1.2020
Question for written answer E-000290/2020
to the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Rule 138
Julie Ward (S&D)
On 28 October 2019, an unofficial delegation of 27 MEPs met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was the first international delegation allowed to visit Kashmir since the recent crisis began, with UN special rapporteurs, journalists and Indian opposition MPs having been denied access to the region.
Although these 27 MEPs were in India in a private capacity and not part of an official EU delegation, I would nonetheless like to draw attention to the disproportionate representation of MEPs from right-wing political parties (22 out of 27 MEPs).
There were parliamentarians in this group that have openly backed the Indian Government’s abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.
Last December, the BBC and NGO EU DisinfoLab revealed that this visit was directly linked to a global disinformation network managed by Indian stakeholders, including a fake media outlet named EP Today, which regularly published opinion pieces from MEPs and members of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on this specific topic.
- 1.Will the High Representative call on the relevant EU institutions to work together to organise an official fact-finding delegation to visit Kashmir?
- 2.Does the High Representative plan to further investigate these findings? What measures does the High Representative envisage to prevent such situations from reoccuring?