Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-09-Speech-3-059"
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"en.20021009.5.3-059"2
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"Mr President, over the last few days the European Union has faced – indeed it is still facing – two crucial political questions which bear on its common foreign and security policy. The question of the International Criminal Court on War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity did not, I think, receive the best attentions of the Council of the European Union.
Now we have the crisis in Iraq, which really must be given the Council's best attentions. And just what does that mean? The UN and its decision-taking procedures have underpinned the international legal order for the last 50 or 60 years and have been used to resolve the most serious of political issues. We must not rock this boat under any circumstances, because finding a new legal order to underpin international relations will not be an easy or straightforward matter.
This being so, when faced with varying opinions on how to deal with the problem of Iraq, the European Union must not under any circumstances go beyond the bounds set by UN Security Council resolutions. Secondly, it must lay down limits, down to the last detail, on how far we can go in controlling Saddam Hussein's arsenal. However, if it turns out that he has no weapons of mass destruction or the facilities to produce them, it must have a ready, unconditional answer to the question of the embargo, while monitoring developments to ensure that Saddam Hussein or anyone else in Iraq does not revert to procedures involving weapons of mass destruction.
Nonetheless, we must admit that, as the European Union, we ought to be independent when it comes to certain decisions with crucial international implications. We cannot just fall in with whoever happens to be in power in America at the time, with the Clinton administration taking one tack and the Bush administration taking another. And, the investigation to find out if Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction should extend to anyone who has provided materials or know-how. They too must take their share of the blame.
Finally, let us not forget the millions who are suffering, let us not forget the children who are dying and let us not forget that we, the European Union, must not be inhumane."@en1
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