fundamental and universal freedom; commends the practice adopted by the EEAS and the Council of reviewing and revising older guidelines; encourages the EEAS to adopt a more rigorous review process involving thorough consultation of stakeholders in order to adapt to changing circumstances; 21. Urges the EEAS and the Council to pay particular attention to the issue of proper implementation plans for the Guidelines; recommends further training and awarenessraising among EEAS and EU Delegation staff, as well as among Member State diplomats; expresses its particular concern regarding the implementation of the Guidelines on international humanitarian law and the Guidelines on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; Human rights dialogues with third countries 22. Notes the continued difficulties in achieving concrete progress in several of the EU’s human rights dialogues and consultations; encourages the EU to seek new ways of making the dialogues with countries of concern more meaningful; underlines the need to pursue determined, ambitious, and transparent human rights policy in these dialogues; calls, therefore, on the EU to draw clear political conclusions when the human rights dialogue is not constructive and, in such cases or in cases of persistent human rights violations, put more emphasis on political dialogue, démarches and public diplomacy; warns, furthermore, against diverting human rights discussions away from high-level political dialogues; 23. Believes that human rights dialogues and consultations should be strengthening and supporting civil society, human rights defenders, trade unions, journalists, lawyers and parliamentarians who stand up and challenge abuses at home and demand that their rights be respected; calls on the EU to ensure that human rights dialogues and consultations are ambitious and accompanied by clear public benchmarks on the basis of which their success can be objectively measured; 24. Recalls the fact that corruption in the public and private sectors perpetuates and aggravates inequalities and discrimination when it comes to equal enjoyment of civil, political, economic or social and cultural rights, and underlines the fact that it is proven that acts of corruption and human rights violations involve the misuse of power, lack of accountability and various forms of discrimination; requests the highest level of accountability and transparency of external aid and public budgets in relation to the EU budget and external aid; Human rights country strategies and human rights focal points 25. Notes the efforts made by the EEAS to finalise the first cycle of EU human rights country strategies; reiterates its support for the objective of giving ownership of the country strategy to the EU Delegation and Member States‘ embassies on the ground, while ensuring quality control at headquarters level; regrets, however, the lack of transparency regarding the contents of the country strategies; reiterates its call for public disclosure of, at least, the key priorities of each country strategy, and for Parliament to have access to the strategies so as to allow a proper degree of scrutiny; encourages the EU to produce a public assessment of the lessons learnt during the first cycle of EU human rights country strategies and to identify best practices for the next cycle;