Cluster Munitions Ban
Indiscriminate threat must be prohibited everywhere
The European Parliament today considered the EU's role in relation to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) and voted for a resolution to ban the weapons. Commenting on the vote Ulrike Lunacek, Foreign Affairs Spokesperson of the Greens/EFA said:
"With an overwhelming majority, the European Parliament has sent a strong signal against this perfidious threat to humans in war and crisis areas. Thousands of victims continue to be affected by cluster munitions to this day: almost exclusively civilians and in particular many children who frequently confuse the bomblets with balls and toys. Thus, the European Parliament took the only possible position towards this indiscriminate and inhumane weapon: a united No to cluster munitions in Europe and worldwide!
The European Parliament demand that all those EU member states and candidate countries which have not yet signed or ratified the international treaty to ban cluster munitions should do so as soon as possible, preferably by the end of the year. We Greens were successful in our demand that the countries which have not yet done so be named, allowing civil society to apply pressure where it is needed most. Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Poland, Rumania, Slovakia, and Turkey have yet to sign and ratify this treaty. Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Lithuanian, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden have signed but still have to ratify the treaty in their national parliaments.
Beyond that, we as EU parliamentarians demand that High Representative Catherine Ashton use all of her powers to advocate that the European Union join the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). The CCM anchors advanced and far reaching rules supporting help to victims of cluster munitions. Our resolution in the European Parliament to strengthen and widen the treaty is thus primarily in the interest of the safety of civil society: no humans should be victims anymore to these insidious weapons and past victims must receive the support they need as soon as possible."
