EC President to leaders: 'Be prepared to deal with dictators'
International statesmen have to be prepared to deal with dubious dictators their mothers would not approve of, the President of the European Commission said today.
In a dig at Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s refusal to attend a summit because Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe will be there, Jose Manuel Barroso said if everyone had the same attitude, international politicians would take part in far fewer global events.
President Barroso emphasised he fully respected Mr Brown’s decision to boycott the EU Africa summit in Lisbon this weekend.
But he went on: “If international leaders decided not to go to those conferences involving countries which do not have reasonable human rights records, I’m afraid we would not be attending many conferences at all.”
The Commission President cited many events involving Asian and Latin American countries where European leaders sat down alongside the heads of nations with clear violations of human rights.
President Barroso then recalled what he told Gordon Brown during recent talks in Downing Street: “If you are an international leader then you are going to have to be prepared to meet some people your mother would not like you to meet. That is what we have to do from time to time.”
Most EU leaders have backed President Barroso’s insistence that the summit is more important than just relations with Zimbabwe.
“This summit is about the long term relationship between the EU and Africa and there are other countries in Africa where we have concerns about human rights. These are issues we are going to have to broach at this summit and I intend to do that, because this summit, I hope, will not just be a symbolic meeting but something of substance with practical issues on the agenda which will deliver practical results.”
President Barroso referred to an article he had written for a leading Zimbabwean newspaper which included a reference to the country’s “violations of human rights”.
The Commission President said he had just seen a copy of the article, which had been reproduced faithfully and accurately – but with the addition of the word “alleged” in front of the reference to human rights violations.
Gordon Brown is despatching Baroness Amos in his place to represent the UK at the EU Africa talks.
