Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-28-Speech-4-137"
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"en.20041028.11.4-137"2
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"Mr President, the Socialist Group, to which I belong, urges that the production of, and trade in, cluster bombs be frozen until such time as the problems surrounding these weapons have been solved. Personally, I would prefer to see a ban on cluster bombs, but the cluster munitions coalition, which comprises a reasonably large group of NGOs and probably has a realistic idea of the state of play with regard to negotiations about a protocol at international level, has argued in favour of a temporary moratorium because that appears to be the most likely course of action. In the final analysis, as we have seen over the past few days, that is what politics is about, namely the threat to create a real power base by means of a majority. Needless to say, if this is to succeed –and here we can count on the broad support of this Parliament – it does require commitment on the part of the Council, the Commission and the Member States. We need a new protocol that addresses all the humanitarian problems associated with cluster munitions, such as have once again been raised quite specifically during a hearing of the Committee on Development. We have seen how a good deal of those munitions end up in precisely the world’s poorest countries, from Afghanistan to the Falkland Islands, and also closer to home, in Serbia and Montenegro. To this day, 78 countries have some 400 million anti-personnel mines and anti-vehicle mines in stock, which demonstrates that a vast quantity is still available even in our Fifteen Member States; indeed, they are still being manufactured in ten of them. It is obvious that international agreements are the only means left of tackling this. We need a protocol, so tough and intensive negotiations are required, and this is where Europe can speak with one voice. Speaking with one voice is something of which we are very much in favour. The Red Cross and the UN are on our side. Actually, this is where I would like to ask the Members belonging to the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats to take a step closer to us. I cannot imagine that we do not have any common ground here; we may well not have any where Mr Buttiglione is concerned, but on cluster bombs we should be able to see eye to eye."@en1
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