EU wants more reforms on labour, other issues

During the meeting the TUs had asked for increased information on access to the EU which the relevant officials said was already available and which would be provided to them.

The delegation also met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and other civil society officials as well to assess the ground situation concerning progress on key areas based on the condi- tions attached to obtaining GSP+ to Sri Lanka.

Mr. Godfrey further noted that the government still needs to work on the issues of torture and the Prevention of Terrorism Act which is not in line with international standards.

The EU hopes there would be a replacement of the legislation and that under the Code of Criminal Procedure the right of suspects to have access to a lawyer would be allowed. Moreover, the visiting delegation had raised concerns about the pace of the return of lands; unaccounted persons; legal discrimination against women and girls regarding early marriage, marital rape and rights of abortion. Clear benchmarks would be stated within the next two years by the EU regarding the progress and the report on the outcome of these assessments would be submitted in a report to the EU Parliament and the Council of Ministers in January 2018, he said.