Photo by Yu Kato on Unsplash A senior MEP says that China supplying weapons to Moscow “would be a slap in Europe’s face.” Reinhard Bütikofer was speaking as Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen met Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday. The two leaders sent a message of unity – even as China is said by some…
“Europe – The Fates at Work”, a painting by the late Heidelberg painter Wassili Lepanto (also Dr. phil. Vasilios Loukopoulos), has been unveiled at the European Parliament. The artist had dedicated it to the European Parliament shortly before his death in 2018. The painting depicts his vision of a peaceful Europe and radiates calm and…
Commenting on today’s Foreign Affairs Council as well as tomorrow’s General Affairs Council, German MEP Reinhard Bütikofer, Foreign Policy Coordinator of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, has backed a diplomatic boycott of the winter Olympics in China. He said: “The Foreign Affairs Council and the General Affairs Council of the EU must prove…
The situation at the Belarus border and the gas crisis are very much on the EU agenda. German MEP Reinhard Bütikofer, AFET coordinator for the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, has commented on the crisis. “The European leaders at their summit are challenged to deal with two blackmailing efforts against the EU which they must…
MEPs debated and voted on a resolution last week on forced labour and the situation of the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The Parliament vote, strongly pushed for by the Greens/EFA group, is in response to ongoing human rights violations, internment and forced labour of more than one million Uyghurs in China’s autonomous…
On September 14, the same day of the EU-China leaders’ meeting, Nathalie Loiseau, Chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defense, and Reinhard Bütikofer, Chair of the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China, together with seven other prominent European political leaders, scholars, and experts, wrote to mainstream newspapers…
EU relations with China have deteriorated over the years, mainly because of China´s aggressive policies and unfulfilled promises, said MEPs during a meeting with China’s EU Ambassador. China accepts well intended criticism, but it does not accept malicious attacks, nor does it allow anyone to meddle in its internal affairs. This was one of the…
The Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament have condemned the adoption by China of a highly controversial national security law, a move that undermines the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ principle that followed the end of British rule in 1997, leading to further escalations and endangering the status of the city. Once again, the S&Ds strongly condemn the mass…
Reinhard Bütikofer, Chair of the China-Delegation in the European Parliament and foreign affairs spokesperson for the Greens/EFA group, comments on the National Security Law: “By imposing unilaterally the so-called National Security Law on Hong Kong, the leadership of the PRC is destroying Hong Kong’s autonomy. The promise of “One country, two systems” has been broken…
