BRUSSELS: The first Tibet Interest Group meeting of 2017 was held in the European Parliament yesterday. The meeting was chaired by the Tibet Interest Group President Mr. Thomas Mann MEP, and was attended by Members of European Parliaments (MEPs) Csaba Sógor, László Tőkés, Nathalie Griesbeck, Tunne Kelam along with around 16 Parliamentary assistants.

The main item on the agenda was a follow-up on the Larung Gar Urgency Resolution adopted by the European Parliament in December.

Mr. Mann greeted the first TIG meeting of the year 2017 and said that a large majority of MEPs had voted in favor of the resolution, which sent a clear signal to China.

Mr. Tőkés, who was among the initiators of the resolution, said that the topic is very close to his heart, and that friends of Tibet should continue to fight against the totalitarian regime in China.

Mr. Kelam spoke in detail about the European Parliament’s activities on Tibet, and stressed that the European Parliament role is to ensure the balance between values and economic interests and set the condition so that Tibetan identity can survive.

Secretary Thutop Namgyal and Under Secretary Tenzin Rabga from Bureau du Tibet, Brussels attended the meeting. Mr. Thutop Namgyal expressed his gratitude to the MEPs for their support in the recent resolution.  He gave a brief note on Representative Tashi Phuntsok’s weeklong tour to France where he visited French National Assembly and urged the French lawmakers to adopt a similar resolution in the French parliament.

All these meetings in due course would facilitate in implementation of calendar of activities in the European Parliament.

– Report filed by Bureau du Tibet, Brussels –