The EU will abolish 20-year sanctions against Myanmar and include the country into its generalized system of preferences, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Wednesday.
The official decision on sanctions against Myanmar (formerly Burma), which the EU and the United States had introduced over human rights violations, is expected at a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council on April 23.
Speaking at a European Parliament session in Strasbourg, Ashton said she would visit the country later this month and invited Myanmar’s foreign minister to Brussels.
Myanmar was ruled by military dictators in 1962-2011, which brought about Western economic sanctions in the 1990s. However, the opposition party National League for Democracy led by Nobel prize winner Aung Sun Suu Kyi was openly elected to parliament and hailed in the EU.
Although parliament remains controlled by the military, a civil government was formed in March 2011 and the military delegated their powers to its members.
