EU disowns mission of Euro lawmakers

The European Union (EU) has distanced itself from the recent visit in Manila of a handful of European parliamentarians who warned the Duterte administration of sanctions over its bloody antidrugs campaign.

The visiting parliamentarians belonging to the Progressive Alliance and the Party of European Socialists said the Philippines risked losing the duty-free status of 6,200 products exported to the EU if it did not immediately stop the extrajudicial killings and the persecution of critics.

The General System of Preferences (GSP+) deal is under review and the EU is expected to make a report in January.

“The European Union had no involvement whatsoever in the visit of the seven-member delegation of the International Delegates of the Progressive Alliance which took place Oct. 8 to 9 in Manila,” the EU delegation to the Philippines said in a statement on Wednesday.

It pointed out that the delegation consisted of a German member of the European Parliament and representatives from Sweden, Germany, Italy, Australia and the United States.

“It is therefore not correct to label the visit an ‘EU mission’ and we kindly ask publications which have done so to rectify this mistake,” the EU delegation to the Philippines stressed.