Human Rights and Democracy - Official Documents

The European Union
The EU’s economic size, including its role as the world’s biggest aid donor, means
that the EU has considerable influence to encourage respect for and implementation
of human rights and democracy standards. The EU already has a wide range of
mechanisms at its disposal to promote human rights, including more than 40 human
rights dialogues with third countries; human rights clauses in political and economic
agreements with third countries; sanctions; and project funding and development aid.
With the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in December 2009, the EU has a
range of new structures through which it can pursue its human rights objectives. The
High Representative has also spoken forcefully of the EU’s commitment to promoting
human rights and democracy in its external action.
We want the EU to have an effective and lasting impact in promoting human rights
globally. This means that human rights must be integrated across the whole
spectrum of the EU’s foreign policy agenda. By assessing existing EU policies and
tools, ensuring greater coherence between EU instruments and policies and
increasing transparency, we believe the EU can improve its human rights work. We
therefore engaged energetically with the EU in 2010, including through the strategic
review of the EU’s external action on human rights in October where we pushed for
the EU to be more efficient and visible.
We work with the EU to make a difference to the human rights enjoyed by people
across the globe. Through focused EU’s policies and use of its levers, the EU can
exert its influence and work with third countries to help them to respect and uphold
their international human rights obligations. For example, trade with the EU is very
attractive to third countries, and provides a key lever for the EU to encourage third
countries to respect the international human rights treaties which they have signed or
ratified. Among the various trade options within the EU, the Generalised System of
Preferences Plus (GSP+) offers incentive arrangements to vulnerable countries that
have ratified and implemented 27 conventions on human rights, labour rights,
environment and good governance principles. GSP+ privileges may be withdrawn
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