Members of the European Parliament launch support for total ban of nuclear weapons

July 2, 2008

Pictures here

UPDATE, 29th August 2008: Marianne Thyssen (PPE-DE), new President of the CD&V (Christian Democrats) of Flanders, Belgium, has just lent her support to a Nuclear Weapons Convention by signing the Parliamentary endorsement.

Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign co-organizes the launch of  a "Parliamentary endorsement of the Nuclear Weapons Convention" (NWC) during an International Conference in the European Parliament in Brussels where several of its members are scheduled to speak. A cross-party group of 83 members of the European Parliament from 19 EU member states have signed the statement in support of the NWC. Amongst the first endorsers we find Ms. Frieda Brepoels and Mr. Raymond Langendries (PPE-DE, Belgium). Mr. Langendries is also a Mayor of Tubize and member of Mayors for Peace.

Ms. Frieda Brepoels member of the conservative group declared during the signing ceremony: "After 40 years it is also for the US, Russia, China, Great-Britain and France the highest time to keep their promises and destroy their entire nuclear arsenal. Nuclear weapons add nothing to a better and more secure world. A majority of people all over the world want a total ban on nuclear weapons. The non proliferation Treaty looses its credibility if the Heads of Government of those countries refuse to negotiate. They carry an enormous responsibility for all the following generations."

The significant and growing political support of members of the EP mark the 40th anniversary of the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), and the unfulfilled promise of the official Nuclear Weapon States to move towards total elimination of their nuclear arsenals.

The appeal calls for multilateral negotiations to prevent proliferation and achieve non-discriminatory nuclear disarmament through a Nuclear Weapons Convention. The parliamentary statement was drafted and agreed by the cross-party group of Deputy Chairs of the European Parliament section of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND): Ms. Ana Gomes (PSE - Portugal) and Mr. Girts Kristovskis (UEN - Latvia), both vice-chairs of the EP Security and Defense subcommittee; Ms. Annemie Neyts (ALDE - Belgium); Ms. Angelika Beer (Greens - ALE - Germany) and Mr. Andre Brie (GUE/NGL - Germany).

The events in Brussels marked the 40th anniversary of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. During the public launch of the statement Ms. Adriana Bolanos, Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy of Costa Rica, highlighted the need of the Nuclear Weapons Convention and clarify the role which the government of Costa Rica has been taking within the United Nations disarmament machinery in favor of a convention banning all nuclear weapons (text here).

Last year Costa Rica and Malaysia submitted a Model Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) to the Preparatory Committee of the NPT in Vienna (NPT/CONF.2010/PC.I/WP.17), and at the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN Doc A/62/650). The Model NWC outlines the legal, technical and political elements required to achieve the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons under strict international control.

Mr Theo Kechtermans, the Mayor from Peer (Belgium) where 20 US nuclear bombs are stored, spoke about the need for withdrawal of US tactical weapons, while Dr. Tadatoshi Akiba, President of Mayors for Peace and Mayor of Hiroshima highligted the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol during a video message. Also Senator Patrik Vankrunkelsven, previous Mayor of Laakdal and member of the Board of Directors of the 2020 Vision Campaign will talk about the urgent need to counter nuclear proliferation by respecting the balance and move towards complete nuclear disarmament.

Ana Gomes, PSE (Portugal) and Vice-Chair EP Subcommittee Security and Defense declared "I signed this statement because I think the time has come to break the impasse in the implementation of NPT, both in its non-proliferation and in its disarmament aspects. With a new US administration about to come to power, this is the right moment for parliamentarians and legislators around the world to add their voices to the growing campaign for a world without nuclear weapons. We, in the European Parliament, recognize our responsibility to push the European nuclear weapons states to make real commitments to the implementation of Article VI of the NPT - and we think the NWC is a fundamental step forward in that direction."

The support towards a Nuclear Weapons Convention comes timely according to Mr. Girst Kristovskis (UEN - Latvia). As Vice-Chair of the EP Subcommittee on Security and Defense he stated: "The inability of states to progress with nuclear disarmament; the long term freezing of the Treaty of Non-Proliferation and the growing interest of terrorists to use the possibility of smuggling nuclear weapons brings civilization ever closer to the nightmare scenario becoming a reality. Unfortunately, we are rather passive." .

Every year since 1996 resolutions in favor of a Nuclear Weapons Convention have been adopted in the UN General Assembly with large majorities, including the support of some States that currently possess nuclear weapons – India, Pakistan, China and North Korea. (See UNGA Resolution 62/39 and the voting result). The refusal of the other NWS and some of their allies to engage in multilateral negotiations for a total ban of nuclear weapons, as is required under Article VI of the NPT, has plunged the NPT into a deep crisis.

Angelica Beer, Greens/EFA Germany, member EP Subcommittee on Security and Defence said: "Only a serious commitment to disarmament provides the moral ground for demanding non-proliferation from others"

However, there is a new political opportunity to initiate such negotiations with both US Presidential candidates supporting the vision of a nuclear weapons free world, the recent establishment by Australia of an International Commission on Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, and the re-invigorating of the Seven Nation Initiative for nuclear disarmament by the government of Norway.

It is thus time for the European parliament and European countries to support this bold vision and take action to ensure its enactment, prompted by parliamentarians - the democratic voice of the people.

This event is part of an International Confrence in the EP organized by PNND, Mayors for Peace, Abolition 2000 Europe, International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War, CNAPD and Greenpeace.

As we have been preparing for this conference since late 2007, we notice already some initial results. Please find the Kuhne Report on European Security and Defence Policy and European Security Strategy which was adopted on June 5th in the EP Foreign Affairs Committee. This report on the evolution of the European Security and Defence Policy and the European Security Strategy is produced annually,

On the initiative of the EP Greens a specific paragraph has been adopted  on the need for a global convention to ban nuclear weapons (para 26). According to Ernst Guelcher from the EP Greens this might be the first time for the EP to adopt such a proposal.

Para. 26.    Is of the opinion that the 40th anniversary of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on 1 July 2008 must be seen as an opportunity for the EU to promote the need for nuclear disarmament in its Strategy for Weapons of Mass Destruction, with a view to the Preparatory Committees for the forthcoming NPT review conference; reiterates its view that this includes the need for the "recognized" nuclear weapons powers to put forward disarmament initiatives, to make Europe a nuclear-weapon-free zone, and to conclude a global convention banning nuclear weapons;

For a Briefing Paper on the "Nuclear Weapons Convention and the NPT: is it a diversion or an enabler?", by Alyn Ware
 Click here