Dear Friend,

On 6 July last the European Parliament passed a resolution that "calls on the Council, the Commission and the Member States to do all they can to start up negotiations between the Government of the Peoples Republic of China and the Dalai Lama on a new status for Tibet which guarantees full Tibetan autonomy in all areas of political, economic, social and cultural life, the only exceptions being defence and foreign policy".

The resolution also:

"Calls on the governments of the Member States to seriously take into consideration the possibility of recognising the Tibetan government in exile as the legitimate representative of Tibet if, within three years, the Beijing authorities and the Tibetan government in exile have not, through negotiations organised under the aegis of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, signed an agreement on a new Statute for Tibet".

This goal, which was originally taken up in the final document of the Berlin Conference held last May by the Tibet support Groups, could constitute an excellent platform for a co-ordinated action targeting national parliaments and other European representative institutions, which could later be extended to all the countries of the free world.

I am proposing, therefore, that we meet at the European Parliament in Brussels on 7 and 8 December, in order to discuss and to define the mechanics of such an action.

About two hundred people are expected to attend the Seminar, with participants hailing mainly from France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, but also from the U.K., Albania, Macedonia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, the Netherlands and Poland. Some of our Tibetan friends from India will also be coming.

Thanks to a contribution from the seven Radical Party MEPs we are able to pay travel and hotel expenses.

For organizational purposes, we would be extremely grateful if you would confirm that you will be present at the two-day Seminar dedicated to Tibet.

I sincerely hope that we can count on your participation.

Best regards,

Olivier Dupuis

P.S. Confirm your attendance by contacting Paolo Atzori or Martin Schulthes, either by phone (+32-2-284.71.98, fax (+32-2-284.91.98) or email HYPERLINK "mail to:odupuis@europarl.eu.int" o dupuis@europarl.eu.int

P.S. 2 The expulsion of the Transnational Radical Party from the United Nations. Although the NGO Committee of the UN confirmed our expulsion last week, the fact that a number of countries, including France, the United States and Germany, voted against that verdict, makes us more hopeful about the final vote that will be cast by the Assembly of the ECOSOC on 18 October. Further information can be obtained from our website: : H YPERLINK "http://www.radicalparty.org/" w ww.radicalparty.org

P.S. 3 The Sakharov Prize.

The candidature of Ngawang Sangdrol, which was supported by 130 MEPs, has been selected from the Committee for Foreign Affairs togheter with other 3 candidats. Now the difficult part begins...