"The European Union's Myanmar policy has been paved with good intentions. The intention has been to help establish a legitimate, democratically elected civilian government in Myanmar. This would end repression, violation of fundamental freedoms and lead to prosperity. These are no small objectives and they are all published in the Council Conclusions and Presidency Statements. In addition to this, the personal interest of political leaders and the impact of European advocacy groups have lead to the perception that they are on "the right side of history"... One part of the positively-intended EU policy has been the imposition of sanctions. The existing ar-ray of sanctions are 1) unilaterally imposed as a result of the EU Common Policy; 2) unilaterally imposed by the EU through statutory regulations; and 3) informal sanctions applied by individual EU countries. All EU sanc-tions against Myanmar are autonomous measures, i.e. not endorsed by the UN. Apart from the US and Canada, whose sanctions are similar, there is no state or region that has the same comprehensive sanctions regime as the EU. EU sanctions against Myanmar have been a long line of failures, as most sanctions are. What we see today in Myanmar is not a weakened government and political change, but stronger governmental control of resources and people, and increased interaction with, and influence of primarily China, but also India, Thailand, Russia and other actors, with the marginalization of European inter-action and influence. This was not what the EU sought. An open-minded analysis needs to be made by the EU regarding the continuation of the its sanctions policy..."