Tuesday, 01 December 2015
The regular monthly meeting of the TIG was held on Tuesday 01 December at 17.00h in the European Parliament. It happened to be the last meeting of the year 2015 and was attended as usual by MEPs, members of the TIG, their assistants, representatives of the Office of Tibet and ICT Brussels.
Mr. Thomas Mann, President of the TIG, chaired the meeting. After he reviewed the agenda for the meeting the MEPs Molly Scott Cato and Csaba Sógor, summarized the outcome of the climate conference “Environmental Degradation of the Third Pole: The impact of resource exploitation on the Tibetan Plateau and beyond”, which they had co-hosted on November 16th in the European Parliament. The main objective of the conference was to raise awareness of the importance of the Tibetan plateau being the third largest store of ice and 46,000 glaciers and the impact of resource exploitation for the region, its neighbouring countries and the whole world.
After that, MEP Thomas Mann informed the attendees about the upcoming elections of the Tibetan leadership in exile. On the 20th of March 2016 Tibetan communities around the world will participate in an election process that will determine the next Tibetan leadership in exile – including the Sikyong (Prime Minister) and members of the Tibetan Parliament. Several MEPs are invited to observe the election process.
The next topic on the agenda was the visit of a Chinese delegation to the European Parliament on Thursday 3rd of December 2015. They are expected to speak on Tibet in an extraordinary meeting, hosted by the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with China.
MEP Nathalie Griesbeck shared with everyone in the room her recent visit to China with the LIBE committee where she had had an exchange on the Tibetan issue with the Chinese authorities. The Chinese authorities re-assured her that everything was fine in Tibet.
Mr. Thomas Mann wrapped up the meeting by summarizing the results of the Foreign Affairs’ Committee’s vote on the EU-China relations report that took place on 26 November 2015. He stated that almost all the amendments tabled in favour of Tibet were adopted. The final voting on this report will take place during the plenary session in Strasbourg on 16 December 2015.
