Correspondence
Email sent to two media contacts at the European Parliament.
The email said: "We’re contacting you in light of our latest investigation which concerns the use of forced labor in China’s seafood processing industry, specifically North Korean workers in Chinese plants.
We have investigators on the ground in China who have been engaging with labor brokers directly involved with the transfer of North Korean workers to factories in China. Through this and other investigative means, including collecting online footage from the plants and interviews with workers recently returned to North Korea from China, we’ve found large numbers of North Korean workers at a range of seafood processing plants in Liaoning province, on China’s border with North Korea, including at one called Dalian Haiqing Food. We have information that as recently as December 2023, there were 50-70 workers at Dalian Haiqing Food Co. Ltd. in Liaoning.
The use of overseas North Korean workers was prohibited by the United Nations Security Council in 2017, with Resolution 2397 setting a deadline of December 2019 for the repatriation of all such workers to North Korea.
According to trade records, Pittman Seafoods was the consignee for multiple shipments of seafood from Dalian Haiqing between January 2020 and August 2022. Documentation on Pittman Seafoods’ website says the company has been a supplier to Compass Group Belgium since 2010. Compass Group Belgium was awarded a contract with the European Parliament in 2019 to provide catering services for both staff and visitors. In light of this, we have some questions for the European Parliament:
- While we understand that you may not be aware of the above issues, we want to ask if the European Parliament has any comment to make in response to this email?
- Can you confirm or deny if Compass Group has supplied any product from Dalian Haiqing to the European Parliament’s catering services?"
Delphine Colard, Head of Spokesperson’s Unit and Deputy Spokesperson for the European Parliament, replied: "When would be your deadline? We will look into your request."
Delphine Colard, Head of Spokesperson’s Unit and Deputy Spokesperson for the European Parliament, replied: "Thank you for your interest in the European Parliament.
Hereby the elements attributable to EP press services:
In accordance with the Regulation on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the European Union (Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 2018/1046 (Financial Regulation)), the European Parliament issues invitations to tender in order to purchase goods, services and works.
The various principles governing public procurement procedures include the principle of transparency, which necessitates adequate advance publicity when such procedures are launched. More information here.
All subcontractors have to comply with applicable obligations in the fields of environmental, social and labour legislation of the country in which the services are to be supplied.
Since 2016, Parliament has gradually placed corporate social responsibility at the core of its public procurement, for instance in the cleaning and catering contracts. This trend culminated in 2021 in the court case of Sophia Group v European Parliament (Judgment of the General Court of 10 February 2021, case T-578/19, ECLI:EU:T:2021:77) where the General Court of the European Union handed down a landmark decision in favour of the Parliament and held that EP Directorate general for Infrastructure and logistics was within its rights in requiring its service providers to adhere to higher social responsibility criteria. This ruling is now seen as a landmark case setting a precedent in EU public procurement law.
The Parliament is not aware of any link between Compass Group Belgium and the mentioned company as Compass operates on Parliament's premises within the framework of a concession contract. The responsibility to comply with the terms of the framework contract in all its dimension relies with the contracting party, and that includes sourcing and purchasing of food supplies and ingredients.
The European Parliament has asked its contracting party to provide with elements of proof of the absence of any links with the mentioned company. It is awaiting a full reporting. That reporting has not been received yet."
The Outlaw Ocean Project replied: "Thank you for following up on our query and providing this statement from the European Parliament. Do you have any projected timeline for receiving the full reporting requested of Compass?"
Delphine Colard, Head of Spokesperson’s Unit and Deputy Spokesperson for the European Parliament, emailed: "To complement our response, attributable to EP press services: Having asked for a full reporting, the European Parliament received all clarifications requested and was ensured of the absence of any links with the mentioned company in its assortment by the contracting party."