EN E-004532/2019 Answer given by Vice-President Borrell on behalf of the European Commission (9.3.2020) The EU has expressed concern for restrictions on freedom of religion or belief in Tibet and has called on China to respect its national and international obligations and to respect human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These concerns were raised both bilaterally, e.g. on the occasion of the last Human Rights Dialogue on 1-2 April 2019, as well as publicly in international fora, such as the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council1 and UN General Assembly Third Committee2. Former High Representative/Vice-President Mogherini, called on the Chinese authorities for reciprocal access to Tibet, as she stated at the plenary of the European Parliament on 18 April 20193. The Commission will continue to call on the Chinese authorities to allow reciprocal access to Tibet as part of the discussions in the Human Rights dialogue. It is important that the Commission continues engaging with China on human rights matters in a respectful but clear manner. https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/67454/hrc42-eu-statement-item-4humanrights situations-require-councils-attention_en 2 https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/un-new-york/69176/eu-statement-%E2%80%93-united-nations-3rdcommittee-promotion-and-protection-human-rights-fundamental_en 3 https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/61227/speech-high-representativevicepresident-federica-mogherini-european-parliament-urgency-debate_en 1