We are writing to express our serious concern over the final version of the report on the sustainability impact assessment (SIA) for the EU-Myanmar investment agreement that is currently under negotiation. The document that fails to retain recommendations that would establish human rights safeguards should in consequence be rejected…

In October 2015, the EU launched the SIA for the EU-Myanmar investment agreement. Its terms of reference (ToR) state that the EU should examine the potential impacts of the agreement on human rights, in accordance with the European Commission’s “Better Regulation Package” and the “Guidelines on the analysis of human rights impacts in impact assessments for trade-related policy initiatives.”...

Compared to the “draft” version, the “final report”, was extensively modified. Its conclusions and recommendations on human rights were significantly changed, watered down, or removed altogether. As a result, the “final report”, in its current version, recommends ‘business as usual’ vis-à-vis Myanmar. This approach would result in the application to Myanmar of the EU’s current model of its agreements drafted for Canada, the US (i.e. developed countries that do not face the same human rights challenges as Myanmar), or Vietnam (whose free trade and investment agreement has been negotiated and concluded without carrying out a human rights impact assessment)…