European Parliament’s Friends of Sri Lanka say:

Support Sri Lanka to obtain GSP+ concession

by Ananth PALAKIDNAR

Friends of Sri Lanka Group of the European Parliament Dr. Charles Tannock MEP has called for support to Sri Lanka to get the GSP+ concession.

He said, “We should give Sri Lanka a helping hand and not punish and beat it down and we must support Sri Lanka to get the GSP+ concession”.

Dr. Charles Tannock was speaking on behalf of the ‘Friends of Sri Lanka’ group of the European Parliament at the opening ceremony of the photographic exhibition inaugurated at the European parliament on Wednesday.

Chairman of the Northern Task Force for Resettlement, Development and Security in the Northern Province and Senior Advisor to the President, Basil Rajapaksa, MP, together with the Vice-President of the European Parliament Dr. Libor Roucek, inaugurated the photographic exhibition titled ‘Sri Lanka Facets of Post-conflict Development’ in the European Parliament premises in Brussels on Wednesday.

The exhibition was organised by the Sri Lanka Embassy in Brussels, with the sponsorship of Mrs. Elisabetta Gardini, MEP and the ‘Friends of Sri Lanka’ group in the European Parliament.

Members of the European Parliament, members of the diplomatic Corps from EU member countries and SAARC, officials of the European institutions and a representative gathering of Sri Lankans living in Belgium and friends of Sri Lanka participated.

The exhibition consisted of 34 photo panels in five sub categories - the Impact of terrorism in Sri Lanka, Humanitarian operation and ensuring the welfare of those displaced, Re-settlement of the displaced, Livelihood and infrastructure development and the Way forward.

MEP Gardini who belongs to the European People’s Party (EPP) said the aim of the exhibition was to demonstrate the success of Sri Lanka’s advancement in its path to peaceful development and well-being of the people.

She said at this juncture the close cooperation between the European Parliament and the Government of Sri Lanka would be extremely important.

Recalling the memories of his visit to Sri Lanka more than 25 years ago, Vice President Roucek, a member of the Socialist and Democrats Group (S&D) said, “In this exhibition you can see pain and suffering on one hand and hope on the other”. He said that in Europe after a bloody conflict during the second World War the people demonstrated that they could rebuild lives and rebuild their future. He said he spoke about hope, “because in the pictures here you will see hope”. He said that since peace prevails in Sri Lanka, the reconstruction could be done without any hindrance and the EU and the European Parliament could help in this process.

In his keynote address, Basil Rajapaksa outlined the work being done in relation to the resettlement of those displaced and to rebuild the areas affected by the conflict which had been neglected for 30 years. He said Sri Lanka’s development agenda is based on President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s election manifesto - the Mahinda Chintana and demilitarization, democracy and development will be the cornerstones of Northern development and political solutions will bring lasting peace.

Speaking on behalf of the ‘Friends of Sri Lanka’ Group, Dr. Charles Tannock MEP, an European Conservative and Reformist (ECR), recalled the inception of the Friends of Sri Lanka Group of the European Parliament as a cross party, cross nationality group, “to avert the propaganda which particularly came from the UK, shamefully by the apologists for the Tamil Tiger Terrorists”.

He said, “We should give Sri Lanka a helping hand and not punish it and beat it down”, and “we must support Sri Lanka to get the GSP+ concession”.

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the EU Ravinatha Aryasinha said that among those invited, cutting across party lines in the European Parliament were “some of Sri Lanka’s staunchest supporters, as well as her harshest critics”. He said, “Based on one’s pre-disposition towards Sri Lanka, each will view the panels in this exhibition differently. Some may view it as a glass half full.

Others may view it as a glass half empty. But, so long as we can appreciate that much has been done, that the remaining challenges are real, and that they have and will require considerable effort to overcome - we can commence the journey of restoring normalcy to the lives of these people”.

During his stay in Brussels, Basil Rajapaksa also met European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.