The biggest story from HRC on Thursday is one that has the potential to create major discomfort within the EU. Our story starts with a claim made by the delegate for Spain that Lithuania had been acting suspiciously, openly stating that they were not in favour of sharing information on the success of stopping human trafficking within their country, with other countries. However, when Lithuania was questioned, they stated that they fully support sharing this information and believe cooperation is very important to the collective effort to stop human trafficking.
We then conducted a short interview with the delegate for France, eager to get a third party perspective, especially from a fellow EU member nation. France backed up Lithuania’s claim that Lithuania was in favour of sharing information, but viewed this in a negative light. The delegate for France was of the belief that this is a question of national security and that Lithuania needed to be more respectful of other countries’ right to their privacy. France did not know what motivation Spain could have for lying about Lithuania’s stance on the topic, and speculated that there had simply been a miscommunication.
Most importantly, we asked the delegate for France what they thought about how this conflict could affect EU relations. They stated that they definitely had concerns but did not think a lack of trust is unusual within the EU - hence why France is not eager to share private information on the tracking of human traffickers with its bordering countries. The delegate for Spain declined further comment beyond their initial statement.