Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-07-07-Speech-3-519"
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"en.20100707.33.3-519"2
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"Madam President, this has been a very important debate, and I have taken note of your remarks and, of course, your concern.
Though the hour is late, this has been an extremely important debate and I am very grateful for the contributions that have been made.
Let me begin by saying that the European Union will maintain its engagement to attain a complete ban on cluster munitions through our active political outreach in the framework both of the Convention on Cluster Munitions and of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. We will also continue to provide international cooperation and assistance by mainstreaming our activities against cluster munitions in our development and in our cooperation policies.
If I might address two or three of the key points that have also been raised in this debate. First of all, the decision on accession to the convention by the European Union in the post-Lisbon era, of course, depends on the Member States, because it comes within their remit. Members are absolutely right to raise that as an issue that we will need to consider very carefully.
If I can say, though, that the position, as I understand it, of a number of Member States is that we have 11 Member States who have ratified as well as signed the convention, but we have a further eight Member States who have signed it but not yet ratified it – so that is 19 Member States – and therefore eight Member States who have done neither at this stage. Members have made their positions very clear in wanting to see as many EU Member States as possible continue to take forward both the ratification and the signing.
I also want to address briefly the point that Ms Lynne made about assistance to third countries and, as I said in my earlier remarks, the importance of bringing what we do to support third countries as part of the mainstreaming of our policies – this whole post-Lisbon opportunity – to bring together different policies. We want to continue actively, through the external action instruments that we have, to contribute to the disposal of unexploded ordnances, anti-personnel mines and abandoned ammunition stocks precisely for the reasons, as Ms Lunacek vividly described, of what happens when these brightly coloured bomblets appear on the ground. There are many cases, particularly of children who have been devastated either by the loss of limbs or, occasionally, loss of life as a consequence.
We mostly make use of our geographical instruments in response to the needs that are expressed by our partner countries, and we also make use of the humanitarian aid instruments, for example, in Lebanon or Sri Lanka, and also to make sure that we are dealing with issues on emerging crises as well.
I have mentioned that we spend about EUR 330 million in our commitment to support countries that have been directly affected by mines and cluster munitions. I described Afghanistan, where we have spent EUR 22 million, and Lebanon (EUR 7 million), and future projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Laos and Cambodia are under preparation.
I also want to make the point that, although I have given that figure, it is difficult to quantify the exact figures for our programmes, and the reason is that during operations on the ground, we do not make distinctions between what we clear. The point is that we clear it and that, I hope, will be well understood by Members.
The final point I wanted to make is that we are trying to ensure that we assist and support the timely signature and ratification of the convention by Member States. We have coordination meetings among EU disarmament experts which take place every month, and the issue of the universality of the convention, as well as the state of preparedness of what I described earlier as the first states-party meeting, are regularly discussed. We have decided to contribute to the greatest extent possible to the preparatory committee to be held in September in Geneva, in order to ensure that we get good progress when we have that first states-party meeting."@en1
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