President Ma Ying-jeou met with the European Parliament's Taiwan Friendship Group Chairman Georg Jarzembowski on the morning of May 21 at the Presidential Office. The president, on behalf of the government and people of the ROC (Taiwan), extended a cordial welcome and appreciation to Mr. Jarzembowski on making another visit to Taiwan.
The president remarked that the European Parliament's Taiwan Friendship Group was founded in 1991 and the organization is quite active. In recent years, the European Parliament has reached consensus on a number of issues with Taiwan, and has demonstrated its staunch support for the ROC (Taiwan) by opposing the lifting of a ban on the sale of arms by European Union (EU) member nations to mainland China, and also by opposing mainland China's passage of the Anti-Separation Law. Meanwhile, it has supported observer status for the ROC (Taiwan) in the World Health Assembly and in February of this year passed resolutions welcoming the interaction and dialogue between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. President Ma noted that Chairman Jarzembowski just forwarded to him a letter signed by 208 members of the European Parliament expressing support for the ROC (Taiwan) and congratulating him on the anniversary of his inauguration. The president expressed how much this gesture meant to him.
The president furthermore said that last week he attended the Europe Day dinner hosted by the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei. In an address to the gathering, the president said he thanked European nations for their support. The EU, he said, is responsible for the largest amount of foreign investment in Taiwan, and the Taipei European School is the only such school in the world jointly operated by France, the U.K. and Germany. The Taipei European School is the second largest school for foreigners in Taiwan and provides top quality education for the children of foreign businesspersons residing here. The president added that the school is a reassuring presence for foreigners working here, for it guarantees that their children will receive a good education. He also noted that it plays an important role in fostering the development of bilateral relations.
President Ma commented that in April he signed and promulgated a statute governing implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This is highly significant for Taiwan, both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and the entire world, he said. The president commented that Europe has long been in the forefront of the movement to promote human rights. Back in 1950 it passed the European Convention on Human Rights and at the same time established the European Court of Human Rights. President Ma said that Taiwan has now incorporated these two covenants into ROC law and that over the next two years a sweeping review of existing laws and regulations will be carried out and amendments made where needed to ensure that domestic law conforms to the spirit of the two covenants. He said that this will raise the standard of human rights in Taiwan and bring it in step with the international community.
President Ma also expressed his desire for the EU to provide visa-free courtesies to visitors from Taiwan. He said that the U.K. already offers these privileges and he hopes that other European countries will follow. This would without a doubt encourage Taiwan tourists to travel to Europe and would be an enormous benefit to promoting interaction between the two sides, he said.