Strasbourg, 13/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has taken a stance in favour of concluding a binding international treaty on small arms, which cause one death per minute and which have killed two million children over the last decade. They are also weapons that are given to child soldiers, one of the most horrible things in existence, Nicolas Schmit, European Affairs Minister, said, promising MEPs that he would send their message to Council. He felt that the European Union must take the initiative of such a treaty and support Kofi Annan in this fight. The EU has confirmed its priorities to the working group composed of diplomat and experts responsible for pursuing negotiation on the identification and traceability of weapons, he said, specifying that these priorities are a binding instrument that completes the UN protocol on firearms (at this point, Mr Schmit regretted the divisions within the EU on the nature of this instrument) and the inclusion of munitions in the future regime (it is necessary to “reduce small arms to silence”, he noted). The President of the Council, who also acknowledged the need to strengthen controls within the EU in order to “trace the weapons”, recalled that: - the 1998 code of conduct on arms exports is being reviewed; - the EU adopted in 2002 a common position on small arms and light weapons and organised specific programmes for the collection and destruction of arms in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Balkans. The European Development Fund (the EDF, intended for ACP countries), it was pointed out by Development Commissioner Louis Michel, finances demilitarisation and the insertion of former fighters into society. In response to the Belgian Green member, Bart States, who denounced the sales of Belgian arms to Nepal, the former Belgian foreign minister exclaimed that it is sometimes extremely difficult to decide whether to export, or not, weapons towards a country which is not perhaps completely democratic but which is confronted by “very dangerous rebels”. In this case, he said, one is forced to choose between “two bad solutions”, and, if he had to, he would take the same decision as before. Louis Michel also exclaimed that one should not give the impression that the EU is the main light weapons exporter to Africa, where such weapons largely come from “unused leftovers of various armed forces” that “I shall not name but that everyone knows”. Mr Michel also took a stance in favour of rather unusual measures in developing countries such as “exchanging a weapon for a bicycle”.
Italy is the second small arms producer in the world and the leading producer in Europe, and between 1999 and 2003 it exported arms worth EUR 36 million to countries in conflict and EUR 128 million worth of arms to countries that violate human rights, Vittorio Emanuele Agnoletto (GUE/NGL, Italy) exclaimed indignantly. In Brazil, Colombia and Salvador, the use of small arms and light weapons caused a loss of 10% GDP, Paul Romera i Rueda (Greens/EFA, Spain) said. British Labour member Richard Howitt asserted that the EU should adopt a disarmament strategy and arms control as a corollary to its security strategy. The EU must strengthen controls, said German Christian Democrat Karl von Wogau, Chairman of the EP sub-committee on security and defence, stressing: Europe, unlike the United States, apply exact constraints. Small arms can be used only by soldiers or police. There are specific rules for hunters, and “each weapon must be registered”.