“We preferred that our report has been discussed before any resolution, and what was issued was not sufficiently balanced, as well as contrary to what we inspired,” the Head of the delegation, Inese Vaidere said that in reviewing the report of her delegation in the meeting with the subcommittee for Human Rights in the European Parliament, said.
Inese Vaidere stressed that the members of the delegation considered to a great extent that the situation in Bahrain is much stabilized and there were no mass protests or violence witnessed, but there were individual cases. She also highlighted that all their wishes were fulfilled in meeting whoever they wanted, including the representatives of the opposition, media people, and defenders of human rights and others.
The head of the delegation also welcomed the cooperation of the authorities in the Kingdom of Bahrain, as well as the Kingdom’s delegation in Brussels to arrange for the visits and the several meetings in the Kingdom, which included meeting with all the officials in the government. Those meetings were highly beneficial to the delegation to disclose the facts concerning the developments in Bahrain, valuing the comprehensiveness of the programme of the visit.
Concerning the implementation of Bassiouni’s report, the Head of the delegation stressed that her delegation investigated on the way the recommendations were implemented, and if it was true that most of the those recommendations were implemented on the grounds, where the delegation asked for a deadline to resume implementing those recommendations.
The Head of the delegation also asked the members of the Shura and Representatives Councils about the reason behind not implementing some of the recommendations issued by Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry till now, where they ensured that the Bahraini authorities are fully ready to implement those recommendations in the future. She also stressed that the delegation touched a great awareness of the necessity of implementing those recommendations to achieve stability and welfare in the Kingdom of Bahrain on the long run.
Inese Vaidere highlighted that the opposition’s stances are sometimes intransigent, and the government considers that Iran mostly interferes in the internal affairs of Bahrain, and said that the delegation during their visit contributed in the issuance of HM the King for resuming the dialogue.
Inese Vaidere said that Bahrain welcomed through the Minister of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments any assistance provided by the European Union to develop the Judicial system. She also stressed that she believes that there are a lot of positive steps and developments that have been taken till now, and still there is a lot of work to be achieved, expressing her support to help Kingdom of Bahrain with her experience and efforts for a better future.
Inese Vaidere said that there have been great efforts on the level of the legislative amendments to address the issues of the freedom of expression, define the crimes of torture, reinforce the independence of the legislative authority, protecting the victims and take the required reforms aiming at strengthening human rights.
Inese Vaidere highlighted that the delegation met with a number of prisoners, and spent longer time than the delegation asked for, which is something they appreciate, for they haven’t seen such cooperation provided by the Bahraini authorities compared to many other countries, and they had a direct opportunity to talk with one of the prisoners individually.
Inese Vaidere stressed that the reports submitted by the delegation about their visit to Bahrain included fifteen pages, where the delegation was very objective in addressing the conditions in Bahrain, and the delegation was keen to consider the points of view from all different parties. She pointed out that the press statement issued by the delegation was important and recorded a lot of positive steps, as well as including a great number of comments and recommendations.
In commenting on some of the interventions, Bahrain’s Ambassador stressed that the visit of the European Parliament delegation was aiming at reinforcing the cooperation between the Bahraini Government and the European Parliament, expressing his sorrow that the European Parliament issued a resolution pre-empting the results of the visit of the delegation to Bahrain.
Bahrain’s Ambassador asked about the time of issuing the last resolution by the European Parliament concerning Bahrain before discussing the results of the last visit by the Parliamentary delegation, where the Parliament issued the resolution preceding one step before discussing the report of the delegation. He also highlighted that the only explanation is the attempt of some parties to pre-empt the discussion of the report to shut down the cooperation door between the two sides, stressing on leaving the cooperation door open for all the members of the Parliament without exception.
The Representative of the European Union, Anna Carin Krokstade expressed her happiness with the call of HM the King of Bahrain to resume the National Dialogue, pointing out that the European Parliament kept calling all parties in Bahrain to work on creating the convenient conditions to prepare the required grounds to make the National Dialogue successful and have agreement on the desired reforms.
The Representative of the European Union also said that the European Union is working at the moment on a training programme in cooperation with Bahraini authorities in line with the recommendations of Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry to train the judges.
“The time of issuing the resolution by the European Parliament was inconvenient, and it was important for the resolution not to coincide with the time of discussing the report,” in an intervention with Laszlo Tokes he said.
“Bahrain is a small country which faces a lot of challenges, and it is exerting great efforts to preserve its Constitutional Monarchy, as well as protecting its society which is based on ethnic diversity and ideological pluralism,” MP Charles Tannock also said.
“Kingdom of Bahrain faces outrageous interferences from the neighbouring Iran, which wants to establish a state on the same style like the Islamic Republic, as well as claiming sovereignty over the territory of the Kingdom of Bahrain,” MP Charles stressed in an intervention during the meeting, said.
During the meeting, they also discussed a number of files and presented comments and recommendation concerning them, particularly in the human rights and legal issues, as well as reinforcing cooperation and supporting the efforts of the Kingdom of Bahrain in developing its cadres in some areas.