Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-06-14-Speech-3-244"
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".
Mr President, as our colleagues in the Commission and the Council know — and I thank them for being here today — we take improving the mechanisms for controlling European arms exports and the strengthening and strict implementation of the European Union Code of Conduct on arms exports very seriously, and we are also great enthusiasts and promoters of the idea of one day having an international arms treaty. Let us hope that that day is not too far away.
I also believe that there should be more concrete measures for dealing with the possession of weapons and acquisition and, in any event, that is an issue that I would like us to discuss.
With regard to this final point, although you are well aware of this, I must point out that this Parliament has insisted on many occasions that we would very much like the Union to take the lead, at international level, on the adoption of an international arms treaty. Although it is true that this is not the subject of the conference that we are talking about at the moment, we would like this conference to establish a basis for beginning to move towards that objective as soon as the conference is over.
I would like to remind you that this is a request that has already received masses of support at international level, as confirmed by non-governmental organisations such as Amnesty International, Oxfam or Iansa, the promoters of the initiative.
With regard to the role of parliaments in general, and of parliamentarians in particular, I would like to stress the increasing importance of these institutions in the process, not just as legislators, but also and this is fundamental in terms of controlling the actions of their respective executives.
To this end, the Interparliamentary Forum on Small Arms and Light Weapons is doing extremely important work in terms of increasing the awareness and training of various parliamentarians with an interest in improving the mechanisms for controlling these exports.
If you accept these objectives, representatives of the Council and the Commission, you can count on us to be great allies.
These are all issues that we have had the opportunity to discuss on other occasions and we will continue to deal with them in the future. Nevertheless, today I would like to focus on a rather more specific issue: small arms and light weapons, which are currently the real weapons of mass destruction, to judge from their immense capacity to kill.
I will give just one statistic: every minute, one person falls victim to a firearm somewhere in the world. By the time I finish this speech, therefore, there will have been five more such tragic victims. As far as this issue is concerned, time is not money. It is something much more important. It is life.
You have some questions before you that were presented in writing by my colleagues Mr Brok and Mr von Wogau on behalf of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence, respectively, whom it is my pleasure to represent here today. These questions relate to the next United Nations Conference to assess and review the programme of action on small arms and light weapons that will take place in New York from 26 June to 7 July, and the position that the European Union will take at that conference.
Before getting into the issue itself, I would like to say that I am extremely pleased with the decision to include a representation from the European Parliament as an integral part of the European Union’s official delegation at that conference. This is unprecedented at this level, and it demonstrates the need to strengthen the mechanisms for dialogue amongst the three institutions and offers a perfect opportunity to establish a more coherent and more efficient European policy on arms control.
At the preparatory meetings that we have held so far, we have noted, on the part of the Commission and of the Council – and I have always expressed my desire for institutional cooperation – that there is a great shared interest in what I believe to be a very great and increasingly close cooperation amongst the three institutions.
I would therefore like to focus my questions on the following points: firstly, how does the Commission assess the preparations for the conference and how does it intend to ensure that the European Union’s strategy on light weapons is taken into account within the European Union's foreign policy? And, secondly, how does the Council intend to approach the negotiations and what results does it hope to achieve?
At this point I would also like, naturally, to draw attention to the resolution adopted unanimously in this Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and which will be ratified by plenary tomorrow. It contains the position that we, as the European institution directly elected by the citizens, would like you to take into account.
I would repeat that I am pleased to note that, in the talks we have held, there is a very high level of agreement as to the issues that should be discussed at the conference: the inclusion of ammunition in the scope of the programme, a better definition of the control of transfers, the monitoring and marking of weapons, brokering, the relationship between development and disarmament – something which I know not just we, but also the Commission, are particularly concerned about – and finally the establishment of guidelines for following up the conference."@en1
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