Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-17-Speech-3-006"
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"en.20010117.1.3-006"2
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".
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I am deeply grateful to you for giving me the opportunity to speak on a matter which I believe, as I am sure you will agree, rightly deserves to be dealt with as a matter of top priority by Parliament. It is only right that we should be concerned for the health of our military personnel, of the citizens of the Balkans and of those working for Community institutions, non-governmental institutions, international organisations and Member State organisations operating in the area. I therefore share the anxiety expressed regarding the health of all these people.
Such openness and transparency must be common to all: they must permeate all the Member States of the European Union, relationships between the Member States of the Union and NATO, and those between NATO and other allies involved in peace-keeping operations in the Balkans. Obviously they must also characterise relationships between governments in the region.
Accordingly, the European Union’s Political and Security Committee dealt with this matter on 9 January. Member States shared their concerns and information on the measures each had taken, as the current presidency stated. There was broad agreement that NATO, as the institution that had assumed responsibility for handling the Balkan crisis, should be charged with assembling information from all those involved regarding the use of depleted uranium, the location of military contingents, and all medical data.
As you are aware, ladies and gentlemen, at that meeting the Commission also explained the measures it intended to take. I am sure that the Commission will today be able to supply information on the measures it has taken, either through Commissioner Wallström or through her representative.
As regards NATO, I have to tell you that as soon as the matter became public, I personally contacted the Secretary-General. We have remained in constant contact ever since. The Secretary-General, his assistants and the Council’s assistants have ensured that we have all kept each other as well-informed and up to date with developments as possible.
Allow me to recall briefly the measures taken by NATO at its meeting on 10 January: first, it convened a meeting of national military medical experts to allow them to make contact with each other and exchange the whole gamut of ideas, background information, objectives, etc. A working group was set up immediately to serve as a forum for exchanging information. I think it is important to highlight that membership of this group was open to all countries who had played some part in peace-keeping operations in the Balkans, not just to NATO members.
It was also agreed to consult more closely with the countries in the region. Hence the matter was raised with the Yugoslav Foreign Minister, Mr Goran Svilanovic, on 10 January. He was assured that all of us, especially NATO, would forward all available information.
In addition, it was agreed to make all information concerning this incident available to the United Nations Environment Programme. Furthermore, as you are aware, NATO members reiterated their view that at that time there was no evidence to suggest that the use of the weapons in question constituted a significant risk for the armed forces of the countries involved, or for the civilian population of the Balkans.
NATO has also made it quite clear that it is by nature a military organisation, not a medical one. It is therefore required to submit all the necessary information to the European Union. It fully intends to do so, to enable better qualified organisations, notably the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Atomic Energy Agency to draw the appropriate conclusions.
As you know ladies and gentlemen, NATO’s Medical Committee held its first meeting on Monday 15 January, and the newly established group for the exchange of information met for the first time yesterday. You are aware of the outcome of that initial discussion, it has been published and placed on the NATO web site, together with the scientific data exchanged at yesterday’s meeting.
I think it is worth emphasising once again that, at NATO’s suggestion, membership of the group dealing with the exchange of information will be open to all fifteen Member States of the European Union, and that maximum transparency is fully guaranteed. As the presidency has correctly stated, the next step will be to review the body of scientific material as it becomes available. Together with Mr Persson, Prime Minister and President of Council, Union Foreign Ministers will also deal with the matter at the first meeting of the General Affairs Council on 22 January.
I should like to begin by expressing my solidarity with all those who are experiencing health problems, who are concerned about their families and who are suffering from illness. The fact is that there are many such individuals and they are entitled to receive the best care available. They have the right to be informed of the cause of their condition without delay, and we shall devote all our energy to doing so. We are all under an obligation to do what is needed to ensure that the relevant information is available to those concerned.
I am convinced that this is a sensible way of proceeding at the moment, to ensure that we assemble all the information required and arrive at conclusions soundly based on facts.
As you may imagine, I have remained in contact with the governments of all Member States, and I must say to you, quite sincerely, that if a report pointing to a possible link does emerge, I will personally see that it is forwarded to the House. I promise you that. I should, however, state that to date, the Council has not received a single scientific report establishing a link between these illnesses and the use of depleted uranium weapons. Let me stress once more, ladies and gentlemen, that if such a report does emerge you will be made aware of it immediately.
I should mention that since I was called to appear before the House, that is, in the last few days and hours, some countries have submitted scientific reports. I refer for example to the reports submitted by the Committee of the Belgian Federal Nuclear Monitoring Agency. I believe this is a document well worth reading. In connection with the monitoring of radioactivity levels, I ought to say that Portugal and Spain have already submitted what are to all intents and purposes their final measurements.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is what the European Union is doing, wants to go on doing and will continue to do, in that spirit of transparency and good cooperation the Presidency-in-Office mentioned earlier. So much then, for information.
I do not however believe that it would be right, at a formal sitting like today’s, simply to pass on the sum total of information currently available without putting it in the actual context we find ourselves in. As I stand before this House, which represents the people of Europe, I am bound to say that we need to remember our starting point and the fundamental cause underlying today’s debate. We must not shy away from it. The fundamental cause underlying this debate is that there was a problem involving failure to respect human rights in Bosnia, which this very House condemned time and again.
Madam President, I cannot forget how, when serving as Foreign Minister for my country in 1994, I used to study the findings and conclusions arrived at in this House very carefully. Through them, Foreign Ministers of Union countries were being urged to take action and not to allow such violent disregard for human rights in Bosnia Herzegovina to prevail.
I have an even clearer recollection of when I stood before you in this very House in 1995, as President of the Council of Ministers of the European Union, and you pleaded passionately with me, calling for action to prevent a disaster. We did take action, spurred on of course by the good intentions of all democratic countries who wish to defend the rights being violated in others.
That is what we tried to do. And I should like to remind you…
I stand before you today as Secretary-General of the Council, but I am also here in my capacity as the High Representative for the Union’s Foreign and Security Policy. In dealing with the matters which have given rise to concern in the House, I shall endeavour to do so from the Council’s point of view.
with all due respect and in a spirit of fellowship, that the House later adopted important resolutions on the situation in Kosovo.
We must not forget our starting point. I believe we have to find time in this global debate not only for the causes which are the subject of current research, research we are determined to carry through to the end because we represent democratic societies, but also for the underlying cause of the whole problem. That is none other than the serious violation of human rights in the Balkans, part of Europe, our own continent. We tried to put an end to it as best we could with the means available to the countries of the European Union and to NATO members.
As I conclude, I would like to take you back to the last emotive moment we shared together. You will recall that on 5 October, in this very House, seated in this very seat, I was privileged to share a highly emotive moment with you all: the time when the Parliament in Belgrade began to fall to the democrats.
Let us not forget what we have achieved. Let us not forget the positive developments leading up to the Zagreb summit. That was the first time that the fifteen governments of the European Union met with all the governments of the Balkan countries, and that every one of them had been democratically elected.
Finally, ladies and gentlemen, I want to say with some feeling that in recent years I have, as you can imagine, been intensely involved in trying to build a more democratic Europe, a Europe in which human rights are respected. I shall do everything in my power to ensure respect for the qualities I mentioned earlier: the scientific approach, the spirit of transparency, community spirit, since that is what we are. I shall also do my best to ensure that the facts we have available at any given time are forwarded to the House.
As I have said in all sincerity, no link has so far emerged between the facts and the consequences. That is what the scientific committees are saying. I also want to state, however, that we cannot and must not be satisfied with this. Let me reiterate that the Council and I are fully committed to pursuing the investigation of this matter through to the end.
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I have absolutely no doubt that we shall all be true to those guiding principles I referred to: responsibility, transparency and honesty.
Thank you for your attention.
(
I should first like to reiterate my personal commitment and the commitment of all Members of Council to this region, namely the Balkans. I am sure they will make every effort to help clarify the situation.
Our states are democracies, they have nothing to hide, and it is our intention to forward Parliament all the information available at any given time.
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the crucial issue we are confronted with is to establish clearly whether there is a link between the use of these weapons and the illnesses notified by the troops or by those who served in peace-keeping operations in the Balkans, or whether, on the contrary, the incidence of these illnesses is no different from that usually recorded amongst our troops.
This is the question we have to answer.
If we are to provide a clear answer to it, we must proceed in as rational a manner as possible. We should investigate: if this really were a syndrome in the etymological sense of the word, then all those affected would show similar symptoms. In time, those symptoms would develop in a similar way, and the outcome would also be similar. That is what is generally understood by the word syndrome. So these are the indications we must seek and we should deal with them in a fully open and transparent manner.
All of us involved in establishing the truth must base our conclusions on facts and not on mere assumptions. Furthermore, if we are to assess the facts, we must have access to all the information available. We must make a particular point of fostering openness and transparency amongst ourselves. Once we are aware of the facts, we should study them in such a way that all the results we make public generate calm and inspire confidence. Our work is indeed inspired by this spirit."@en1
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