Introducing the meeting, committee chair Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (EPP-ED, PL) said that although the plenary debate had exposed differing views regarding a boycott of the Olympic Games, it had shown "how deeply we are concerned". What was needed now was "not a gesture but a policy".
Mr Chophel set out the position of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile (TGE). To defuse the situation it has asked the Chinese government to "stop the repression, release political prisoners, allow independent medical teams to treat the injured demonstrators and allow an independent investigating team into Tibet" to ascertain the causes of the troubles (since China has blamed the exiled Tibetans for "instigating" the crisis whereas the real cause, according to Mr Chophel, is Chinese repression). He urged the EU to press China to act on these demands.
Autonomy within China?
Turning to the TGE's broad objectives, he described its core goal of the "Middle Way Approach", demanding not independence but a large degree of autonomy within China, and argued that "the ongoing crisis in Tibet makes it necessary for China to accept this solution".
On the general question of sanctions, Mr Chophel emphasised the TGE's view that "China should not be marginalised". It was thus against a boycott of the Olympic Games and against economic sanctions, its broad line being "the more China is involved in the world, the more it will have to respect international norms".
While Members were broadly supportive, some, including committee vice-chairs Michael Gahler (EPP-ED, DE) and Ioan Mircea Pascu (PES, RO), stressed the need to hear the official Chinese view of the crisis, an idea warmly endorsed by Mr Chophel himself, who said "you can then judge for yourselves". He also welcomed a suggestion that the Dalai Lama be invited to the European Parliament in the near future.
Marco Cappato (ALDE, IT) criticised EU foreign policy representative Javier Solana for not awaiting the EP's position before taking his own stance. A more severe note came from Vittorio Agnoletto (GUE/NGL, IT), who asked "why not include a human rights clause in trade agreements with China?", saying "until then, it's just words and we're acting in the service of the multinationals".
China and the Olympics
Winding up the meeting, Mr Saryusz-Wolski pointedly quoted Parliament's resolution of July 2001 on China's bid to host the Olympic Games, in which the EP "invites the International Olympic Committee to establish guidelines to include respect for human rights and democratic principles to be applied as a general rule to host countries of Olympic Games" and "regrets that [China] clearly fails to uphold universal human, civil and political rights, including freedom of religion; believes therefore that this negative record and the repression in Tibet, in Uighuristan and South Mongolia, make it inappropriate to award the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing".
Among next steps, he first pointed to the forthcoming EP resolution on Tibet to be adopted at the plenary session on 10 April in Brussels. He backed the idea of inviting the Dalai Lama and Chinese representatives to speak to the EP. But finally he underlined the key "dilemma" already identified by EP President Pöttering: "should we go to the games or not?"
