Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-11-16-Speech-2-019"
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"en.20041116.7.2-019"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Romeva Rueda’s report is an especially balanced one, containing plenty of interesting recommendations on how to improve the Code of Conduct on Arms Exports, and it is to be hoped that the Council will take them on board this time. Only then can the Code become an efficient and effective instrument of control, legally binding, and with sanctions for non-compliance. Let me make specific reference to paragraph 20 of the report, which calls for the EU to maintain its embargo on China. Lifting the embargo now would be an especially poor message; it would, I think, be a classic example of hypocrisy and of a selective approach to the defence and protection of human rights around the world. The values and standards by which the EU sets such store would then once again be taking second place to crude mercantilism. The prospect of fat juicy orders for German submarines and French aircraft appears to be reason enough for some to thwart the arms embargo on China. To do so would make the EU look like a horse-trader selling his principles for a handful of pieces of silver, and that, Mr Nicolaï, is just not on under a Dutch presidency.
Europe cannot, indeed, supply weapons to a country seeking to use military force to secure the unity of its territory and now making continual threats of military action in the Straits of Taiwan, where over five hundred rockets have been set up. The idea that the Code of Conduct could impose tight restrictions on arms exports is thus a false excuse. The risk of China passing on weaponry to developing countries has not gone away. No matter what, the lifting of the arms embargo
cannot be an option for our group."@en1
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