Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-14-Speech-2-151"
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"en.19991214.7.2-151"2
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"The Commission does not accept the statement that no substantial initiatives are being taken to tackle the problems of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons smuggling. A good deal has in fact been done. But the Commission's legal powers have been limited to civilian aspects of nuclear accounting and control under the Euratom Treaty. This means that the Commission does not have any mandate to deal with the accounting and control of weapons of mass destruction per se. It is only under the evolving CFSP that Member States are considering expanding EU action to include some initiatives to reduce stocks of weapons of mass destruction. Member States and the Commission are currently discussing a joint action due for adoption before the end of this year to implement the security and non-proliferation aspects of the common strategy on Russia. In this joint action, which includes concrete action to destroy stocks of chemical weapons, the Commission has been asked to coordinate European Union action. We stand ready to take this important additional task on board in consultation with the Member States and Mr Solana and working closely, we hope, with the Russian authorities. The Commission is heavily engaged in efforts to combat smuggling of nuclear material and radioactive substances. The Commission initiated a series of special actions to support national authorities involved in combating illicit nuclear traffic from both EU Member States and candidate States, including seminars, training programmes and technical assistance.
The Euratom safeguards office in Luxembourg, in addition to its specific control tasks on the territory of the European Union, has undertaken a series of related outreach activities since 1992. There is close coordination under the auspices of the G8 and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Preventative actions in the form of cooperation programmes have been carried out since 1992 with central and east European countries, including Russia. There are areas such as training and strengthening national nuclear material accounting and control systems.
As regards our cooperation with EU candidate countries, cooperation with customs, border control and police institutions is well established under the PHARE horizontal programme on justice and home affairs. These measures help to reduce the dangers stemming from uncontrolled nuclear weapons material. However, the Commission recognises the formidable and rapidly-evolving challenge in this field and hopes to be able to address the issue more comprehensively once we have been given the appropriate legal mandates."@en1
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