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Ms. Federica Mogherini, EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, told the Brussels conference of the Progressive Alliance on 18 October that "it took the death many [Eritreans] in Lampedusa for Europe to realize that it is responsible to save lives in the Mediterranean Sea" and that some 400,000 lives have been saved since the Lampedusa tragedy of 3 October 2013.

Speaking on the subject of migration, the EU high official stated that "refugee crisis is not a crisis for us in Europe but it is a crisis to its unfortunate victims" and that it was time for the progressive parties to have the courage and the strength to "speak the truth" and fight reactionary right-wing movements everywhere. According to the Italian Mogherini of PD (Partito Democratico), sustainable solutions can be found by implementing the world Agenda 2030. 

The president of the European Parliament, Mr. Martin Schulz, defined the Progressive Alliance's agenda of peace and justice as "the protection of ordinary citizens in this planet"  and "rewarding those who abide the rule of law and not those who violate it."

The questions of peace, justice and migration were the central themes dwelt on by speaker after speaker in the two-day conference. Professor Geoffrey Sachs of Columbia University told the delegations of the Progressive Alliance: "it is only you in the Progressive Alliance movement that can fix the world; here is no other force to do good to this world." He added that the task can be achieved through promoting Agenda 2030 with its 17 goals for sustainable development as adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015.

On its part, EPDP delegation underlined the fact that Eritreans, like those 368 victims of Lampedusa, still constitute a high percentage of those who die during their flight from home. For Eritreans, the main cause of risky escapes from home continue to be the absence of rule of law in their country.  

The Eritrean delegation also believed that the best solution in addressing peace, justice and migration problems could be worked out through support from democratic forces,  like members of the Progressive Alliance to civil and political actors in Eritrea and similar situations in the world. Through participation in the discourses and distribution of written statement (see below), the EPDP delegation repeatedly hammered on the need of capacity building for democratic alternatives in the less fortunate parts of the world.

Eritrean/EPDP Statement at the PA Conference

To Promote a New Agenda for Peace and Justice

Distinguished Delegations,

We, addressing this message to you, comrades-in-struggle, are representatives of the Eritrean People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), an organization in exile engaged in the struggle for democratic change in Eritrea. Our mainstream democratic party is a founding member and signatory of the PA declaration adopted at the historic Leipzig conference of 24 May 2013. 

We are delighted to note that, in addition to its commitment to respect human rights as the cornerstone of human dignity, peace and justice, this PA Parliamentarian Conference in Brussels is also determined "to take a stand on behalf of people in difficult and precarious conditions" and that its new agenda for peace and justice must "give active support to all those who are at the risk of oppression and persecution."

Dear PA Conference Participants,

The principled commitments and pledges of the PA no doubt give hope to the Eritrean people who have suffered untold oppression and persecution. As many of you in this conference are aware, the repressive regime in Eritrea is the most cruel and abusive dictatorship in today's Africa. Since attaining sovereign statehood over quarter of a century ago, Eritrea remains without enjoying the rule of law:  no constitution, no national elections, no free press, no parties, no free association and  even not the freedom to worship in one's own manner. A rubber stamp parliament composed of selected MPs  met for the last time in February 2002. Those MPs who asked for the rule of law have disappeared in unknown dungeons. 

The regime has forcibly militarized almost the entire society through compulsory  military conscription of all citizens between the age of 18 and 70. An open-ended “national service” or forced labour that literally became modern-day slavery brought life in Eritrea to a standstill and abject poverty. Any opposition to or criticism of the wrong policies of the regime leads to the inevitable risks of detention, cruel torture, disablement and mostly slow death. Well over 10,000 persons languish in over 360 prisons without recourse to legal procedures. No wonder that the Eritrean society is now at a state of breaking down. And this breakdown of a highly militarized society is also very likely to cause havoc in the region and much beyond it. No wonder that the arrival of refugees to Europe from this 'African North Korea' stands next to that of war-torn Syria. The suffering of hundreds of thousands of Eritrean refugees has remained a disturbing development for years. The tragedies faced by a large number of Eritreans in the Sinai, the Libyan desert and the Mediterranean Sea are only tips of an iceberg  - of much bigger problem at home.

As the UN Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea concluded last June, crimes against humanity have been committed at an alarming scale in the country since 1991. 

PA Friends and Comrades,

The New Agenda for Peace and Justice being adopted at this conference stipulates that the PA "need to take action to promote [PA's] democratic values, especially in the face of authoritarian regimes"  and that it is time for all progressive forces "to give active support" to peoples suffering under extreme forms of repression. We are also rightly concluding that progressive parties need to win political power  "in order to ensure that our progressive agenda becomes a reality."

Based on these PA commitments and pledges, this Eritrean delegation is renewing its call to you, fraternal member parties and organizations, to start giving adequate and serious attention to peoples languishing under unbearable political situations that can inevitably lead to tragic conflicts likely to affect everybody else. These calls from us in EPDP, a non-state actor struggling for change in Eritrea, include the following:

1. On the part of PA parties in democratic countries, there is an urgent need of considering an agenda that has not yet been seriously considered: i.e. giving solid support for capacity building of non-state civil and political actors like us, Eritrean justice seekers, who are struggling from exile  because we cannot do it at home. If PA parties fail to support the growth of alternative democratic forces, how can progressives challenge repressive and highly authoritarian regimes that stand on the way of multi-party democracy and adversely affect peace and justice? 
2. This conference to boldly initiate a special PA conference to discuss the situation of progressive movements working from exile and see how they can be promoted and empowered to become democratic alternatives to existing dictatorships in several countries. 
3. Eritrea and the entire Horn of Africa basin being a fragile region for peace, this PA Conference to recommend to MPs of member parties to form special Horn of Africa groups in their respective country parliaments. 

The EPDP Delegation,

Parliamentarian Conference of the Progressive Alliance,

Brussels, 17-18 October 2016.