Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-01-17-Speech-3-122"
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"en.20070117.8.3-122"2
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"Mr President, Mr Romeva i Rueda, honourable Members, the responsibility for controlling and monitoring the sale of arms obviously lies primarily with the Member States. The Commission is involved in this matter, however, through its role in the Common Foreign and Security Policy.
I shall sum up, Mr President, by saying that this report really must be taken seriously by all those European officials with responsibility for monitoring arms exports. We must work together to improve our performance in this area. A consistent approach requires the use of a broad range of tools, from international diplomacy and political influence to the control of exports and development aid. For the sake of effectiveness, these tools must be used in a complementary fashion. The overriding issue that your report highlights very well, Mr Romeva i Rueda, is that there can be no real human or socio-economic development without this vital security, and your report highlights – if there were any need to highlight it – our responsibility regarding worldwide arms exports.
Your rapporteur, Mr Romeva i Rueda, has once again drafted an excellent report, which calls on the Member States to do more and better in terms of applying a rigorous, harmonised and transparent approach to controlling and monitoring the EU’s arms exports. The improvements made to the European controls can and must encourage other regions of the world to start by adopting, as a minimum, good practices, and to apply them. We must make sure that perfectly legitimate exports do not end up in the wrong hands, as they would help to provoke armed conflicts or human rights violations.
While having been drafted primarily for the Member States, your report, Mr Romeva i Rueda, includes some elements that the Commission supports. On behalf of Mrs Ferrero-Waldner, I am therefore going to inform you of the comments and our remarks on these elements.
Firstly, the Commission welcomes the new focus given by your report to the issue of private security companies, and it is in favour of the development of a mechanism for regulating their activities. This issue is in some ways linked to that of the reform of the security sector, within which private companies, just like State institutions, must work in accordance with the principles of democratic control, of responsibility, of respect for human rights and of respect for the rule of law. The European Community actively supports all activities aimed at reforming the security sector in many regions of the world. Effective controls in the field of arms exports are part of this effort.
Furthermore, the Commission is playing an active role in the fight against the illicit distribution of small arms and light weapons. We share the view that improved control and monitoring of arms exports and its associated activities, such as brokering, can help reduce the illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons, as their distribution contributes to armed violence and human insecurity and sustains regional and internal conflicts.
As part of the Common Foreign and Security Policy, we are also working with the Member States with the aim of implementing the EU strategy to combat illicit accumulation and trafficking of small arms and light weapons, which was adopted by the Council in December 2005. For some time now, the Commission has been working with international and regional organisations, research centres, NGOs and civil society to prevent the consequences of the inappropriate or illicit sale of arms. We need to be aware of these challenges and to be able to respond to them. In a number of regions of the world, this trafficking may be linked to the trafficking in drugs or in raw materials such as tropical wood, minerals or diamonds.
In 2007, the Commission will take advantage of its chairmanship of the Kimberley Process to help improve the implementation of the controls. We must prevent diamonds from being trafficked for the purposes of allowing rebel groups to buy weapons. We must also closely monitor the illicit trafficking in arms by air. I am aware that this mode of transport is used for many trafficking operations – particularly in the case of aircraft bound for the African continent – and we must make use of all the customs authorities in order to prevent this.
It is true that the international framework is not in favour of negotiation and of the adoption of legally binding multilateral disarmament instruments, but that must not stop us from strengthening the controls on arms exports. We support the Member States’ efforts to establish a treaty on the arms trade, even though it will take time to negotiate it. In the meantime, it is crucial for the European Union to work at national and regional level to improve and strengthen the existing measures.
Finally, the Commission is active in helping to implement international instruments and to enforce them in the various countries. The implementation of the United Nations action programme to combat the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons and the Ottawa Treaty prohibiting anti-personnel mines are actively helping to safeguard human lives."@en1
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