Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-04-22-Speech-4-235"
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"en.20040422.7.4-235"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, often in the political arena there is confirmation that small policies, when applied, produce big results and that big policies, when announced but not applied, produce nothing. In this particular case, the Ottawa Treaty, which was essentially signed seven years ago and has been in application for a very short time, has proven its applicability and efficacy and is therefore a successful policy
. The choice of holding the first conference to review this Treaty in Nairobi is particularly symbolic, because we all know that sub-Sahara is one of the areas which has the biggest concentration of anti-personnel mines, given that mines are considered to be the weapon of the poor.
I should like to take this opportunity to point out that my country, which remained outside this Treaty several years ago, also recently agreed with and ratified the Treaty under the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Georgos Papandreou, and has applied it in connection with its border with Turkey where, for reasons which we all understand, there was a cold front of confrontation.
The ultimate objective of the Ottawa Treaty is to overcome the problem of land mines through coordinated action against mines at international level within the next ten to fifteen years. This objective is considered to constitute a challenge, because over sixty countries have stated that they are facing problems on this issue and 20 of them are very seriously affected. The experience of Europe itself after the cold war, and recent experience in the Balkans, demonstrates that this huge problem even exists on our continent. Of course, in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where hundreds of millions of mines undermine health and economic development every day, the issue is even bigger.
The United Nations plays the central role in organising and coordinating international efforts, while the European Union provides the greatest individual contribution. Since 1992, before the Ottawa Treaty even existed, the sums quoted by the Commission to date are significant but should possibly be increased.
The European Parliament has undertaken a great many initiatives since 1992 in connection with a complete ban on this murder weapon, which exterminates human lives and prevents economic development. However, our greatest contribution has been in implementing these programmes in a great many countries of the world; in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in the Balkans, in dozens of countries in which both non-governmental and governmental organisations are involved in removing anti-personnel mines. Apart from neutralising mines, however, they need to pay greater attention to education, research and more general information in connection with the danger and how to prevent it.
The conference in Nairobi will provide a huge opportunity to apply all aspects of the Ottawa Treaty which have somehow not been applied due to technical shortcomings, to supplement the Treaty, to complete it and to give the world a new Treaty, a highly effective, albeit small-scale Treaty for the peace and security of the developing and, more importantly, the poor areas of the world."@en1
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