Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-15-Speech-4-218"
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"en.20011115.12.4-218"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, this problem – the trade and trafficking in small arms – is one of the most serious problems facing the world today.
The first observation I wish to make is that this expression ‘small arms’ is misleading, because small arms include heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, grenade throwers and mortars of less than 100 millimetres. We are talking about devastating weaponry.
To quote the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, speaking at the Conference held in July, we must be fully aware of the terrible effects of the current trade in these arms. It is estimated that there are some 500 million arms in circulation in the world today and that, every day, these arms kill on average more than one thousand people.
This is, therefore, an issue to which States must pay serious attention. It is an area in which the fine line between seriousness and hypocrisy can be most clearly traced. For many years I have called for the issues of the arms industry and trade to be the business of States alone. Applying the market economy to this area can only have disastrous consequences, and instead of complaining about the trafficking and dealing in arms, we should be adopting stricter measures on the state control of the production and trade in these arms.
Unfortunately, however, governments themselves are not always entirely blameless. Currently, in Portugal, a campaign is running, launched by Catholic missionary organisations and supported by the Portuguese section of Amnesty International, to draw attention to this scourge. And why missionaries, you might ask? Because missionaries are, particularly in Africa, those who have most frequent contact with the appalling consequences of this situation.
Unfortunately, my country – it is not only France, the United Kingdom and other often-mentioned European Union countries – is not entirely free of blame in this matter. According to figures that have been released, in 1998, the year in which the European Union code of conduct was signed, Portugal sold around EUR 9 million’s worth of arms to countries that it should feel unable to do so, such as Angola, Algeria, Colombia, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Sri Lanka and Turkey. Portugal also sold around EUR 5 million’s worth of arms to a further eleven countries that should, at the very least, be under strict observation.
We support the resolution that has been tabled. This is a matter on which some progress has been made, but more energetic steps must be taken. Above all, the European Union must set an example in this area. We cannot shed crocodile tears on Thursdays over conflicts that are continually supplied by the legal or illegal trade in these arms."@en1
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