Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-02-Speech-2-111"
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"en.20011002.5.2-111"2
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"Mr President, I welcome much of what is in the report, particularly the need for transparency, the issue dealing with the end use of weapons and the illegal trade in arms. As Mr Titley mentioned, the control of small arms is important. It is a major problem, as we have seen from the tragic events in Switzerland.
There needs to be a mechanism to control non-military security and police equipment. But I do not support the idea of a European defence industry and we need to look at getting rid of the defence industry. The recent tragic events in the United States have actually given a shot in the arm to the arms industries. I will mention one in particular because it is relevant to Ireland, and that is Raytheon. This company has seen a 40% jump in share prices as a result of the events of 11 September and thereafter.
We must look at the whole issue of arms production in the first place. I mentioned Raytheon because it is ironic that, in spite of the peace process in Northern Ireland, Nobel peace prize winners stood on a platform welcoming into Derry Raytheon, one of the world's biggest arms manufacturing companies. It is appalling to encourage manufacturers of weapons, or their components, into a place where people are killing each other every day with weapons so that these products can then be transported to other parts of the world to cause havoc and deprivation. We do not want peace here and wars in other parts of the world. We should look at ending the trade in weapons completely and the idea of government support for an industry that is responsible for death and destruction around the world is unacceptable.
As regards torture weapons, we have a situation where these weapons are being sent to certain parts of the world with an EU stamp on them. This is completely unacceptable. In my own country, Ireland, there has in recent times been an increase in the arms industry, mainly involving US-based arms manufacturing. This manufacturing comprises mainly components, but irrespective of whether components or end-use weapons are concerned, we should not accept the production of weapons. There are far more beneficial ways of creating employment for people in a given area than the production of something that is used to kill another human being."@en1
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