Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-05-10-Speech-2-199"
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"en.20050510.23.2-199"2
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".
Mr President, I would like to begin by thanking both the Commission and the Council and all the other Members of this House for having accepted the invitation to deal once again with this issue — the scourge of small arms in the world. Because today, as has been pointed out, these are the real weapons of mass destruction, not just because of the millions of victims they cause every year, but because of their social and political consequences.
The lack of control of pistols, revolvers, assault rifles, grenades, machine guns and similar weapons has had dramatic consequences for the security and integrity of millions of people throughout the world. In some countries, such as Brazil, Colombia or El Salvador, it is estimated that violence involving this type of weapon is responsible for the loss of 10% of gross domestic product.
At the request of civil society and in particular the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), in July 2001 the United Nations held a conference in New York during which an action programme was adopted to prevent, combat and eliminate every aspect of the illegal trade in small and light arms. Next July, the governments of the Member States of the United Nations will meet again in New York for the bi-annual meeting on the implementation of this action plan, and the review conference is scheduled for a year later.
The action programme urges the governments to control the production and sale of this type of weapon, to mark pistols in order to facilitate their identification once they have been sold, to penalise the production and possession of illegal weapons, to identify and destroy surplus weapons and to establish final use certificates for export and transit, amongst other measures.
Since 2001, considerable progress has been made, particularly in the field of national legislations. It is still necessary, however, to develop and implement general recommendations. Within this context, the European Union and its Member States must continue to lead the debate. The current process of reviewing the code of conduct offers a good opportunity to do so.
I must say that, in general terms, I am optimistic, especially since the Presidency-in-Office of the Council, not just today, but on other occasions, has insisted on the need to go further and urge the governments to produce a legally binding text on brokering and transfers of small arms. Nevertheless, other data makes me a little more wary, such as, for example, the fact that few European Union countries have expressed support for the establishment of an international treaty on the arms trade. So far, only Finland and the United Kingdom have expressed firm support for the idea, although Spain has also made comments in this regard, and we would therefore like more details to be provided.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is urgent that we provide real impetus for the establishment of an international treaty on the trade in weapons which should be possible immediately after the review conference on the United Nations action plan in July 2006. This is not just necessary, but clearly of vital importance."@en1
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