Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-28-Speech-4-146"
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"en.20041028.11.4-146"2
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"Mr President, the Commission shares your concern about the humanitarian, economic and social problems posed by the presence of a whole series of unexploded ordnance, such as cluster munitions, which are left behind after conflicts. We are also concerned about the particular difficulties involved in clearing areas contaminated by this specific type of active munitions. As you are aware, the European Union has always been an ardent supporter of the Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War to the United Nations Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons. We now need all of the Member States to ratify this protocol so that it can enter into force as soon as possible, which, as you know, is not yet the case.
As far as the Commission is concerned, we are doing our best to solve the problems posed by cluster munitions by working in two main areas. The first that I will mention is mine clearance operations. These operations, like our initiatives to raise awareness of the risks and help victims, are carried out by virtue of Community instruments, in particular the Parliament and the Council regulation on anti-personnel landmines, and in practice often involve the removal of other unexploded ordnance. This is what we are doing in Laos, Cambodia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, to mention just a few countries. These efforts are clearly far from adequate. Although this debate gives me the opportunity, on behalf of the Commission, to thank Parliament for its unstinting support for the regulation on anti-personnel landmines, I must nevertheless remind you that the budget for mine clearance and hiring experts in this field is not enough to tackle the problems posed by all of the explosives that still need to be made safe, including cluster munitions and anti-vehicle mines. From the point of view of the Commission, the priority remains achieving the objectives set out in the Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines, with its deadline of 2010.
The second aspect of our work has just been launched: it is to implement the pilot project on small arms and explosive remnants of war. Here too, I should like to thank Parliament for making it possible for the Commission to examine closely all of the issues and problems associated with both the explosive remnants of war and the dissemination of small arms. This pilot project should enable the Commission to propose measures that will give the Union a level of expertise, knowledge and authority in the field of small arms and the explosive remnants of war that is comparable with what it has acquired thanks to the regulation on anti-personnel mines.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, you have heard the Commission’s reaction. We will collaborate with all of the stakeholders to guarantee that an integrated and comprehensive humanitarian approach is adopted to all of the problems posed by what we by convention call the remnants of war, but which it would perhaps be more appropriate to call the trash of war."@en1
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