Italian MEP Vincenzo Sofo joins the ECR Group

Ahead of this week’s debate and votes on the European Parliament’s Resolution on the People’s Republic of China’s national security law for Hong Kong, the ECR has invited Wong Yik Mo, member of the pro-democracy political party Demosisto and Benedict Rogers, co-founder and Chair of Hong Kong Watch and human rights activist, to remotely take part in the Group Meeting today (17 June) and to exchange views with MEPs.

Both initiators of the exchange of views, Swedish MEP Charlie Weimers, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Polish MEP Anna Fotyga, ECR Foreign Affairs Coordinator, expressed the Group’s serious concerns about the unilateral introduction of national security legislation as representing a grave assault on Hong Kong’s autonomy, rule of law, and fundamental freedoms.

Ahead of the meeting, MEP Charlie Weimers said: “The meeting will serve as a useful interaction and moment of engagement to shed light on the troubling developments from Hong Kong, and China’s continued and deliberate attempts to renege on its agreement of ‘one country, two systems’.

“China has reneged on its agreement of ‘one country, two systems’. The EU must stand for the right of the Hong Kong people to self-determination and self-governance, and as long as the pressure exerted on Hong Kong’s institutions remain EU-China relations will suffer. Europe must never kow-tow to the Chinese Communist Party.”

MEP Anna Fotyga added: “Hong Kong’s success was built on its freedoms. The ECR is deeply concerned by Beijing’s plan to impose national security legislation on Hong Kong, which is in direct conflict with Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law and China’s international obligations under the Joint Declaration, a treaty agreed by the UK and China and registered with the United Nations. That’s why we stood firmly behind the people of Hong Kong.

“I welcome the joint text of the Parliament’s Resolution we were able to successfully negotiate on Friday. Its adoption will send a clear message as to what the EU should stand for – international law and the people of Hong Kong.”