Brussels, 10/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - by adopting a resolution on the conference for reviewing the Treaty of Non-Proliferation (TNP) next May and on the developments in North Korea and Iran, Parliament effectively called for the “total elimination of nuclear weapons as an objective of the EU”. It also called on EU Member States to be united at the conference and take new initiatives for nuclear disarmament. Parliament says that it is convinced that nuclear disarmament helps international security and reduces the risk of theft of plutonium or enriched uranium by terrorists. It underlines the urgency of ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and calls on the USA to sign and ratify it (it also calls on the US to stop developing new generations of nuclear weapons). By adopting an amendment by Tobias Pflüger (GUE, Germany), Parliament calls on Israel, India and Pakistan to sign the TNP.
Parliament is calling on Iran and North Korea to respect the TNP, and demands that Tehran “makes its decision on suspending the enrichment of uranium, permanent”. It reaffirmed its support for the diplomatic approach of the EU-3 and calls on Washington to support it. Parliament is at the same time calls for negotiations on a trade and cooperation agreement with Tehran to be planned in parallel with a satisfactory solution to the nuclear question. In the context of the recent nuclear agreement signed between Iran and Russia (which opens the way to getting the first Iranian nuclear reactor up and running: EUROPE 1 March p 7), the EP calls on the IAEA to closely monitor fuel transfers between the two countries. It hopes that North Korea will go back to the negotiation table with the six on its nuclear programme which it recently decided to suspend for an indefinite period.
During the debate, several MEPs sad that they were afraid of a new arms race. Annemie Neyts (Belgium, ALDE) pointed out that the situation in the Union was no homogenous and that there were two nuclear powers France and the United Kingdom, while the others were not. Caroline Lucas (Britain, Greens) denounced the hypocrisy of her government and that of the USA. She said that the treaty was a “bargain” and if a country did not respect it, it could not claim that others had to. “Who's going to throw the first stone”, asked Vittorio Emanuele Agnoletto (GUE, Italy). He explained that in Italy they had discovered that some NATO bases had nuclear weapons containing US properties when they were not stationed on Italian soil. Paraphrasing the German minister for defence and NATO Secretary General Manfred Wörner, the president of the foreign affairs committee, German Christian Democrat Elmar Brok pointed out that it was impossible to get rid of certain technical knowledge (even if they presented dangers to humanity. He stated that this was rather pessimistic but that they had to give the review conference a chance and support negotiations in general, which was preferable to a “pre-emptive strike”. Brok said that Iran should not do any blackmailing but that they also had to tell the country that if it agreed to the Union's demands there was a genuine possibility for establishing better relations. This applied to North Korea as well. He said that they had to clearly help the Korean people who had been deprived of everything. Alexander Lambsdorff (ALDE, Germany) said that negotiations were the best way but that they had to talk about that in Brussels and not in Strasbourg. Lambsdorff is one of the MEPs campaigning for Parliament to be based in Brussels.
The president of the sub committee for security and defence, CDU MEP Karl von Wogau was keen to point out that the ultimate aim of the TNOP was the definitive abolition of nuclear weapons and therefore called on all countries that possessed them (whether they were recognised or not) make a contribution to a gradual reduction until they were eliminated. As for the situation in North Korea, Von Wogau exhorted the Council and Commission to take the initiative to enable the EU to take part in the negotiations with the six.
- - - - - - - - - - - -