Ms Iverna McGowan:

I will respond to questions on the External Action Service and the increasing relevance of EU human rights and foreign policies. I mentioned during my opening statement that we passed around the human rights action plan that was adopted last June. For the first time there is a comprehensive action plan which mainstreams human rights across different policy areas, for example, with the Commission's work on trade. In third country dialogue there is no longer an excuse to limit it to trade, as the action plan mainstreams human rights across all of those areas. That is what I meant by referring to its increasing relevance. There is a tool to ensure its increasing relevance but we are faced with the task of implementing it. That is the reason we have come up with the strategy in which members states have been assigned specific tasks. We have spoken to the Irish officials involved to try to take it forward.

Let me respond to the question on the human rights guidelines of 2004 not being implemented. We have established from conversations with different member states that a general issues in regard to the guidelines is that there was too much discussion on the language of the guidelines and not enough focus on their implementation. We have been working in Brussels to ensure the guidelines are revised not only for the sake of revising them but in consultation with EU delegations and diplomats working on the ground to share best practice. It has been found that in some places the guidelines are being implemented in a better way.

Although I am Irish, I am based in Brussels and have been working on the Cypriot Presidency, the Danish Presidency and the Lithuanian Presidency. These nine cases would be taken forward. I accept that six months is a short time to deal with these cases but we also co-ordinate work with our offices across Europe. These cases are not only being brought to the attention of the Presidency but also have a broader remit.

The European Parliament has committed that when delegations go to third countries, they would in their dealing with that third country specifically raise Amnesty International Presidency cases, irrespective of which country they go to. Although it is specifically in the Presidency documents, these nine cases are part of a broader strategy on the individuals involved.