Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-03-Speech-3-173"
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"en.20020703.5.3-173"2
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"Mr President, in my view, it is quite apparent that there is a large majority in this House in favour of a very critical position towards US policy on this issue. Let me make it clear that I am very gratified by the role played by the European Union in bringing the Statute to fruition and enabling the International Criminal Court to begin work. However, if this is to continue, this approach must be rigorously upheld.
Mr President-in-Office, I think you have trivialised the problems in some respects, especially by painting an overly positive picture of transatlantic relations and Europe's ability to assert its position vis-à-vis the USA. This may well be true of the bananas issue, but if we look at the complexity of the trend over recent months – the attacks on the Chemical Weapons Convention, the obstructing of a monitoring organisation for biological weapons, the withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, the threat of withdrawal from the Outer Space Treaty and of renunciation of the Test Ban Treaty, the threat to the non-proliferation regime, the failure to support the Landmine Convention, and Kyoto, to name just a few – it is apparent that there are major problems and that issues of principle are at stake here.
I think that the International Criminal Court is an even more fundamental issue in some respects. Mrs van der Laan has just said that American troops fought for freedom in Europe in the First and Second World Wars. I do not want to generalise here – for there are other examples in American history – but I do not entirely agree with her view. What is at stake here is a fundamental principle which is also enshrined in American history, namely the principle of common values, which has been underlined here and is now being called into question. Jean-Jacques Rousseau described the role of the law as follows: "In the relationship between the weak and the strong, it is liberty that oppresses and the law that liberates." A law which does not apply to the strong is extremely problematical. I therefore fully endorse the draft resolution on behalf of my group and would ask the Members of this House to vote for our amendment as well."@en1
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