EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton named former Greek Foreign Minister Stavros Lambrinidis as the European Union's special representative for human rights.
The European Parliament has been calling for this mandate for years and the nomination of Stravros Lambridinis raises our hopes for a strong and united voice for a European human rights policy and Stavros Lambrinidis is a good choice, a longstanding MEP, and also Vice-President of the EP, is very familiar with EU structures and has experience in foreign policy and human rights.
The Parliament said that the Special Representative must be a reliable voice for the people who suffer human rights violations. He should keep an eye on the bilateral and multilateral relations of the EU and monitor the implementation of human rights with international partners, he must have a strong, independent, flexible and sufficiently broad mandate.
The assignment will start formally in September and will have' a term of two years.
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