Human rights violations in Myanmar

Question for written answer  E-002905/2022
to the Commission
Rule 138
Gabriel Mato (PPE)

The execution on 23 July 2022 of four activists in Myanmar constitutes an escalation in the violation of human rights by the military junta that took over the country in a coup d’état on 1 February 2021.

Furthermore, the United Nations reports that another 117 people have been sentenced to death and over 11 500 people are still being held in prison. The UN Security Council has condemned the executions unanimously and called for an end to this violence.

Myanmar benefits from the ‘Everything but Arms’ scheme under the EU’s generalised scheme of preferences trade policy instrument, which grants the country duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market for its exports in sectors such as rice, a move that has, moreover, been seriously detrimental to the EU’s own rice sector.

Given this escalation in repressive action:

Is the Commission planning a temporary withdrawal of the tariff preferences Myanmar currently enjoys, in accordance with Article 19 of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 on the generalised tariff preferences scheme?

If not, what justification can the Commission give for allowing Myanmar to continue exporting goods under this preferential tariff scheme, when the country is violating human rights?