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Can the EU behave with its own member states the way it just behaved with Ukraine? Can it recognise the need to respect human rights over there and also here within the EU?

Do you think that one day we will read the following from EU decision makers?  “Those responsible for grave human rights violations should be brought to justice (…)We call for (…) full respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms, (…) and for urgent independent investigations into Human Rights violations, notably through the Council of Europe International Advisory Panel”. This is what was published 5 days ago by the European Council about …. the situation in Ukraine.

If the Council is so keen on combatting human rights violations and on involving the Council of Europe in this external matter, then why, I wonder, doesn’t it look at what the Council of Europe is saying about human rights violations “IN” Europe?

Yes, you heard me! Last November the Council of Europe publicly stated that austerity measures in member states have violated the European Social Charter. “The economic crisis and austerity policies have clearly had a negative impact on social and economic rights across Europe. The increase in violations of the charter is increasingly linked to inadequate levels of social benefits – disproportionately affecting the poor, the unemployed, the elderly and the sick – and to unequal treatment of migrants under the guise of combating “benefit tourism”.

Why the double standards? The EU is fighting for human rights in Ukraine and that is welcomed by the people there. Because they perceive the EU as a human rights supporter, some of them rise to be part of it.  

I don’t know about you but I don’t feel the same support for the EU in the EU. Particularly in those countries under the “Troika” programme and in all the other member states handcuffed with the Pact for the Euro, the “Six Pack” and the “Two Pack”.

I’m just dreaming that the EU might have more support internally if it applied the same human rights standards across the board.

If the EU were to fight to protect the human rights of those people living within the EU then maybe things would be different. Perhaps then people in the EU would do the same as in Ukraine, they would rise for the EU and not against it.

Let’s engage

Pierre Baussand – Director