Strasbourg, 19/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - Adopting a report by Raul Romeva i Rueda (Green/EFA, Spain) on Thursday 18 January by an overwhelming majority (504 to 24 with 34 abstentions), the European Parliament called for tighter controls on European arms exports, and repeated its call for a truly binding arms export scheme.
The European Parliament regrets that no common positions have been adopted by Member States to set up a binding arms export system to prevent EU countries from exporting arms to countries involved in armed conflict, countries to which arms exports are banned in theory. The EP wants the Code of Conduct decided upon by the Council in 1998 to be made binding in law and for a clear, effective and harmonised arms export policy to be carried out. It asks Member States to use the same criteria when assessing non-EU states for the purposes of reducing arms exports or issuing an arms embargo, and argues that the arms embargo on China should not be lifted without clear and sustained improvement of the human rights and political freedoms situation in China. It calls on Member States to implement tighter controls when granting licences for building arms abroad and calls for regulation of private arms companies.
Presenting his report, Rovera said the Council had pledged in 2005 to ensure the code of conduct was made legally binding, but the Member States have not managed to reach unanimous agreement on this and unanimity is required for approving the draft legislation, which their representatives on the Working Group on Conventional Arms Exports (COARM) agreed upon in 2005.
The President of the European Parliament's security and defence subcommittee, German Christian Democrat Karl von Wogau, highlighted the huge differences of interpretation that prevail at present. On the arms embargo on China, for example, he said that 27 different interpretations existed, plus the United States' interpretation, of what arms can actually be exported. Von Wogau called for a common position to be decided upon. Echoing his viewpoint, Portuguese Socialist Ana Gomes wanted to see the introduction of a special transitory scheme for countries emerging from an arms embargo and for a more coherent and effective arms export policy in general. Belgian Liberal Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck called for further information about the situation in arms importing countries, pointing out that her political party opposed the lifting of the arms embargo on China. For the UEN group, Irish MEP Liam Aylward slammed the United States and EU Member States for having supplied the arms that fuelled conflict in the Middle East, and called for a more binding code of conduct. German PDS MEP Tobias Pflueger said arms exports had to be halted. He called for an EU Disarmament Agency. British Conservative MEP Geoffrey van Orden said an EU export system could not work because China would continue to export arms. He called for an international treaty and stressed the importance of the arms industry in the UK. Belgian Green Bart Staes backed Raul Rovera's report and called for a binding code of conduct. He said that any lifting of the arms embargo on China would be 'immoral'.