Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-27-Speech-3-174"
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"en.19991027.6.3-174"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, my group had requested the inclusion of this point in the agenda. Allow me first of all to welcome the fact that there is virtual unanimity between the Council, the Commission and, hopefully, the Parliament, concerning such a crucial issue at a time when we have to take decisive steps in the development of the common foreign and security policy. Since we are always so self-critical, I believe that we should welcome this step.
And, having said this, I believe that rather than debating amongst ourselves, what we have to do is address the American Senate, and especially its Republican majority, because this is not a debate against the United States, but a debate in which we specifically support President Clinton. What we profoundly criticise is that attitude of the Republican majority in the Senate which corresponds more to the former doctrine of the “clear destiny” of the United States, much more than to the moral, as well as military, leadership which they currently hold. I must confess – with some experience of relations between this Parliament and the Congress of the United States – that in the Congress of the United States we have many friends and connections but that we have at no time been able to timetable a positive debate with Senator Helms, who does not even seem to have an American passport and who considers, not only with regard to this issue but also with regard to many others, that it is his job to impose his laws on the world. Think also of the slow and delayed attitude of the United States with regard to UN funding.
We have to point out to our American friends and partners the risk involved in this decision, because it encourages States such as Pakistan and India – with the risk of all-out war – to continue with their nuclear tests. It disturbs our relations with Russia and creates a situation which encourages those States which are on the threshold of having a nuclear capability to start again. I believe that this a blatant display of total irresponsibility. And in the Union, where we have all ratified the Test Ban Treaty, we have political and moral arguments to address to our American partners so that we can remind them that they have a serious responsibility to try to stabilise the world and that they can rely on our help if it is really possible to cooperate with them. This type of unilateral measure, which ignores the lessons of history, which puts a dramatic halt to the process which has taken many years and still needs to be promoted, is the exact opposite of what we should be doing.
Mr President, I hope that our colleagues in the Delegation for Relations with the United States will remind our American friends of this as soon as possible."@en1
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