| Promoting democracy and human rights |
Edward McMillan-Scott was a regular visitor to dissidents behind the Iron Curtain. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 he persuaded the EU to set up a fund to promote democratic reform. Today, his European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights has a budget of over £100M and worldwide scope. Recently, Edward has been focussing on the world's remaining 'hard cases', like China, Cuba and the Arab world. He chairs the European Parliament's all-party Democracy CaucusThe China AgendaChina is the world's largest country, with 1.3 billion people. Edward McMillan-Scott was asked by the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee to prepare a report on a new EU-China strategy in 1996. Ten years later, he visited Beijing to meet dissidents and ex-prisoners. All he had contact with were arrested, some imprisoned, at least two are still being tortured.
Ten years ago when he visited China, Tibet and Hong Kong on several occasions he sought to start a political dialogue with the Beijing regime with the line, "Not just business as usual, but also politics as usual". His report provoked front page negative response in the People's Daily, which he regarded as a step in the right direction. In 2006, following reports of organ harvesting of prisoners from the Falun Gong Buddhist spiritual school (selecting live prisoners for their body parts, instead of simply using those of executed prisoners), he accepted an invitation for a speaking tour in Hong Kong and Taiwan, part-financed by practitioners, preceded by a three day visit to Beijing (21-24 May 2006). While in the Chinese capital, he met two former prisoners of conscience, Mr Cao Dong (36) and Mr Niu Jinping (52), whose wife remains in the Beijing Woman's prison and who is regularly tortured (below, pictured in the prison hospital)  During this visit, he was also planning to meet Mr Gao Zhisheng, a Christian attorney, noted for his work on human rights and investigations into religious repression (especially in the post 1999 repression of the Falun Gong practitioners, resulting so far in at least 3000 recorded deaths under torture). However the head of the EU Mission in Beijing and several other ambassadors advised against this meeting, for Gao's safety.
Gao Zhisheng was arrested on 15 August, convicted of "subversion" and is now under house arrest. On 23 September 2007 he was forcefully removed from his home by the Chinese authorities and his current whereabouts are unknown. McMillan-Scott is very concerned about the wellbeing of Gao Zhisheng and has appealed to top EU officials, President of the Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso and EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, to intervene. McMillan-Scott remains in contact with other noted reformists, such as Mr Hu Jia, by email and telephone. Since this tour, McMillan-Scott has repeatedly raised the issue of persecution and religious freedoms in China with various authorities, including the UN, and organised a hearing in Brussels at which Wei Jingsheng (Sakharov prize-winner, 1998) spoke.  Edward talks to a victim of China's torture camps opn YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh0xifZVFvE The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, was established in December 1988 by the European Parliament as a means to honour individuals or organizations who had dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedoms. On 15 August 2007, McMillan-Scott held a press conference on the anniversary of Gao Zhisheng's arrest at the EU Delegation office in London, featuring Hu Jia- a 2007 Sakharov prize nominee- on the telephone, via interpretation from the United States. Religious freedom in China Edward made a tour through Asia in September 2007 speaking on religious freedom, In Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand he stressed the message "try and kill faith - and it will kill you" citing the precedent of the downfall of the Communist system in East-Central Europe. His visit coincided with the upsurge of activism in Burma and protests from Lhasa to Tiananmen Square by Buddhist monks 
From a Catholic background, McMillan-Scott is not practising, but is a strong believer in individual freedom. In September 2007, McMillan-Scott visited Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand, as a guest of the Taiwanese Government. He gave a keynote speech at the "2007 International Symposium on human rights in Tibet" in Taipei. He spoke of crackdown on religious beliefs across China and declared his support for Taiwan's application for full membership to the UN.  Listen to extracts of the speech... concluding personal remarks,calling for UN status for Taiwan, in Taipei on 9 September 2007.
 In Hong Kong he gave a press conference on boycotting the 2008 Beijing Olympics should the human rights situation in China not improve by the end of the year . Edward McMillan-Scott in Hong Kong with LegCo member and human rights activist Emily Lau For more information on boycotting Beijing Olympics, click here. He met with political figures in Bangkok and discussed the December elections and restoring democracy in Thailand. He also spoke at a seminar on "Democracy and Human "Human Rights and Democracy in Asia", organized by Satthiarakoses Nagapratipa Foundation at Chulalongkorn University, where he met many Chinese asylum seekers.
The European Parliament's Democracy Caucus Edward Millan-Scott has been chairman of the Democracy Caucus, set up on an all-party basis, since 2005. 
The European Democracy Caucus was set up in 2005 as an informal, all-party group of Members of the European Parliament, committed to the promotion of democracy worldwide, but primarily in the EU's "Neighbourhood".
The Neighbourhood is a formal definition of the arc of countries from Russia to Morocco which are now identified as a strategic priority for the EU after its enlargement in May 2004 to the eight ex-Soviet bloc countries, Cyprus and Malta.
The MEPs have chosen, as a definition of democracy, the first of the Copenhagen Criteria - themselves modelled on the experience of the European Democracy Initiative set up by Edward McMillan-Scott in 1992 - embraced for enlargement by EU leaders in 1993:
stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities The Democracy Caucus also believes that Europe needs a "European Endowment for Democracy" , modelled on the US National Endowment for Democracy, to operate as a deniable, expert amd flexible agency at arms-length from the EU, although partly funded by it - see proposal at europeandemocracy.org  Here, Vaclav Havel makes the proposal at a Brussels press conference
| | Working for democracy worldwide
Edward believes that China and Russia are organising a democracy backlash - a response to the 'colour' revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine and Lebanon. In recent months he has visited Africa, China. Cuba, amd many countries in the Arab world to meet reformists and dissidents. -------------------------------
Edward sees polls rigged in Nigeria 
------------------------------Edward chairs two largest Palestine MEP poll missions
Edward was twice elected to chair the European Parliament observer missions to the Palestine presidential and parliamentary polls in January 2005 and 2006. With 30 MEPs, the missions pronounced both elections technically perfect. Edward also met Hamas in 2005 to encorage them to take part in the parliamentary poll. Cuba missionIn autumn 2006 Edward secretly visited Cuba to meet opposition figures like Osvaldo Paya - winner of numerous prizes worldwide for his 2003 citizens' protest,  and the more rightwing Martha Caballo. He also met the Ladies in White, who weekly parade to highlight their husbands' continued imprisonment.Egypt protestAyman Nour set up the first post-war liberal and lay party in Egypt. In 2005 he was imprisoned, but a team of MEPs led by Edward protested in Cairo and in March 2005 he was released. Below Edward is pictured with Nour and family at a party held for the MEPs to celebrate Nour's release 
He then fought Mubarak in the rigged 2005 presidential poll. His party El Ghad (the Future) received no media support and its activists were intimidated by the regime's thugs: Edward chaired the European Parliament's small informal observer mission. Nour was then imprisoned again and remains in a Cairo jail: in January 2007 Edward tried to visit him but was refused (below) 
Lebanon hopeShortly after the 'cedar' revolution Edward met the key players in Lebanon's political scene, including Saad Hariri, son of assassinated PM Rafik Hariri. Russian despair
A regular visitor to Russia before and after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, Edward was the only western European speaker - apart from the UK ambassador - at Gary Kasparov's "Other Russia" event in July 2005. Here Edward waits to be interviewed by the BBC. The millionnaire chess champ and political acivist is Russia's only hope against the Putin mafia, Edward believes.
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