Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-12-Speech-3-186"
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"en.20030212.5.3-186"2
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"Mr President, as everyone knows, the Portuguese Prime Minister signed the letter from the European heads of state and government because he believes it is crucial to ensure that Iraq disarms and complies with Resolution 1441. The Portuguese Members of the European People’s Party unreservedly support this view because this is a clear position underpinned by the political tradition of the European democracies, based on the transatlantic alliance with the democracy represented by the US and also, it should be remembered, by Canada, Australia and many other democratic countries in the world.
It comes as no surprise that today this approach has the support of the overwhelming majority of European countries, within the European Union, amongst those who will be joining it in the forthcoming round of enlargement, and also amongst other countries on the continent. Nevertheless, recent events that have led to a crisis in NATO and to the danger of a veto in the Security Council by Member States of the Union pose a serious risk to the unity of Europe.
What we are seeing is that there can be no common foreign policy based on anti-American prejudice and on complacency towards the threat from dictators who present a danger to world peace, such as Saddam Hussein. We should, therefore, bear in mind some aspects that should not be forgotten:
firstly, Europe does not have strategic defence capacity against the new forms of international terrorism that are bound up with the States that support them;
secondly, the only strategic defence body of which Europeans countries are members is NATO. If this body goes into crisis, it is Europe that will suffer most at the hands of its enemies, more than the United States, for example, because Europe cannot defend itself. The crisis in NATO will make any common defence policy for the European Union impossible;
thirdly, for the enlargement countries, with their recent experience of totalitarian regimes, security concerns are vital. Provoking a crisis in NATO will be profoundly damaging to these countries and will cause them to have confidence only in bilateral strategic alliances with the United States, outside the framework of the European Union and of NATO. It would be extremely bad if these countries’ freedom to take political decisions suffered because they do not agree with some, and I repeat some, countries of the European Union.
Lastly, the effect of a crisis in NATO will isolate the Europeans, and will reinforce the United States’ tendency to act unilaterally. If the United States and its allies, including the majority of European countries, were to embark on military action in order to ensure compliance with Resolution 1441 without the explicit support of the European Union and with NATO in deadlock, the damage caused to European alliances will be very difficult to resolve. This is my request to the Council and the Commission; please use the little time available to you to prevent action being taken to force Iraq to comply with the Resolution without there being unity amongst the countries of Europe."@en1
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