Non proliferation and nuclear disarmament

Tabled by Angelika Beer, Caroline Lucas, Jill Evans, Jean Lambert and Gisela Kallenbach
on behalf of the Greens/EFA Group

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the overwhelming consensus within the EU on reviving and strengthening the NPT between now and the forthcoming 2010 NPT Review Conference,

– having regard to, and reiterating, its previous resolutions on the NPT, in particular its wide-ranging resolution adopted on 10 March 2005 on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference of May 2005,

– having regard to Rule 103(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. having regard to the growing international consensus on the urgent need for nuclear disarmament, as promoted by the New Agenda Coalition and in the Rome Declaration of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Winners (convened by Mikhail Gorbachev and the Mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni) of 30 November 2006,

B. having regard to the appeal made by DrHenry Kissinger, among others, on 5 January 2007 (published in The Wall Street Journal) to the effect that the world is on the "precipice of a new and dangerous nuclear era" and that the only way to prevent us from falling into it is to build a global consensus that reasserts the "vision of a world free of nuclear weapons" and to work "energetically" to that end,

C. having regard to the statement, made by the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 28 November 2006 (at Princeton University) that the retention of nuclear weapons by some might motivate others to acquire such arms: "by clinging to and modernising their own arsenals ... nuclear-weapon states encourage others ... to regard nuclear weapons as essential, both to their security and to their status"; concerned, against this background, that the credibility of the EU in promoting the NPT is undermined by the plans of both France and the UK to modernise their nuclear weapon arsenals,

D. noting with satisfaction that the Mayors for Peace Campaign, supported by the European Parliament, continues to gather strength, with over 1 000 cities participating in the EU alone (around 1 600 worldwide), through its advocacy of the '2020 Vision' of a world free of nuclear weapons by the year 2020,

E. highlighting the role of parliaments and parliamentarians in promoting nuclear non?proliferation and disarmament and, against this background, welcoming the efforts of the global Parliamentary Network on Nuclear Disarmament (PNND),

1. Urges the Presidency, on behalf of the EU, to present a coordinated, positive and visible contribution to the Vienna NPT PrepCom;

2. Invites both the Council and the Commission to clarify which steps they envisage undertaking to strengthen the Non-Proliferation Treaty and to pursue effective multilateralism, as set out in the December 2003 EU Strategy against the Proliferation of Materials and Weapons of Mass Destruction;

3. Affirms that, for multilateral efforts to be effective, they must be set within a well?developed vision of achieving a nuclear-weapon-free world at the earliest possible date;

4. Urges the Presidency to present annual progress reports in the years leading up to the 2010 Review Conference on the implementation of each of the 43 measures adopted in the 2005 EU Common Position on the NPT;

5. Urges the Presidency to promote at the PrepCom a number of disarmament initiatives, based on the 'Statement of Principles and Objectives' agreed upon at the end of the 1995 NPT Review Conference and the '13 Practical Steps' agreed unanimously at the Year 2000 NPT Review Conference, which must improved upon and implemented in order to make progress (to avoid regress or standstill);

6. Urges the Presidency, in particular, to break the deadlock on establishing a verifiable Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty, to speed up the signing and ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) by all countries, especially those required for it to enter into force, and to advocate a full stop on all nuclear weapons testing pending the entry into force of the CTBT, the lowering of nuclear weapons operating status from Launch-on-Warning, a diminishing role for nuclear weapons in security doctrines and negative security assurances to non-nuclear-armed states, and continued reduction of nuclear weapons numbers in the US, Russia, China and the other nuclear-weapon states;

7. Reiterates its demand to the US to withdraw its nuclear weapons from European territory; also urges France and the UK to stop, respectively, the development of the missile M51 programme and the modernisation of the Trident nuclear weapon submarine programme;

8. Invites the German EU Presidency, in the framework of EU-US relations, to raise the issue of the US-India nuclear agreement and its consequences for the IAEA and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and to make an effective request within the NSG for a veto on adjusting agreed guidelines prohibiting the supply of nuclear equipment, material, or technology to any state not accepting comprehensive IAEA safeguards on all its nuclear facilities;

9. Recommends that the European Parliament send a delegation to Vienna to participate in the NPT PrepCom events; asks the Presidency to include representatives of the European Parliament in the EU delegation (a precedent set by the delegation to the UN Program of Action Review Conference in New York in 2006);

10. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the UN Secretary-General, the governments and parliaments of the member states of the UN, the Parliamentary Network on Nuclear Disarmament, Mayors for Peace, and the other organisers of the international conference on nuclear disarmament in the EP scheduled for 19 april 2007.