Thursday 28 January 1999C 128/92 EN 7.5.1999 Official Journal of the European Communities
8. Environment, security and foreign affairs
A4-0005/99
Resolution on the environment, security and foreign policy
The European Parliament ,
› having regard to the motion for a resolution tabled by Mrs Rehn on the potential use of
military-related resources for environmental strategies (B4-0551/95),
› having regard to the UN study Charting potential uses of resources allocated to military activities for
civilian endeavours to protect the environment, UN (A46/364, 17 September 1991),
› having regard to its resolution of 29 June 1995 on anti-personnel landmines: a murderous impediment
to development (1),
› having regard to its previous resolutions on non-proliferation and the testing of nuclear weapons and
the Canberra Commission report of August 1996 on the abolition of nuclear weapons,
› having regard to the International Courts unanimous ruling on the obligation of the nuclear weapon
states to negotiate for a ban on nuclear weapons (Advisory Opinion No 96/22 of 8 July 1996),
› having regard to its opinion of 19 April 1996 on the proposal for a Council Decision establishing a
Community action programme in the field of civil protection (COM(95)0155 › C4-0221/95 ›95/0098(CNS)) (
2),
› having regard to its earlier resolutions on chemical weapons,› having regard to the outcome of the UN Conferences in Kyoto in 1997 and Rio de Janeiro in 1992,› having regard to the hearing on HAARP and Non-lethal Weapons held by its Foreign Affairs
Subcommitee on Security and Disarmament in Brussels on 5 February 1998,
› having regard to Rule 148 of its Rules of Procedure,› having regard to the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence Policy and the
opinion of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection (A4-0005/99),
A. whereas the end of the Cold War has radically changed the security situation in the world and whereas
the relaxation of military tension has resulted in comprehensive disarmament in the military field ingeneral and in nuclear weapons in particular, resulting in considerable cut-backs in defence budgets,
B. whereas, despite this complete transformation of the geostrategic situation since the end of the Cold
War, the risk of catastrophic damage to the integrity and sustainability of the global environment,notably its bio-diversity, has not significantly diminished, whether from the accidental or unautho-rised firing of nuclear weapons or the authorised use of nuclear weapons based on a perceived butunfounded threat of impending attack,
C. whereas this risk could be very considerably reduced within a very short timeframe by the rapid
implementation by all nuclear weapons states of the six steps contained in the Canberra Commission’sreport concerning, in particular, the removal of all nuclear weapons from the present hair triggeralert readiness and the progressive transfer of all weapons into strategic reserve,
D. whereas Article VI of the 1968 Treaty on the Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) commits all of
its parties to undertake to pursue negotiations in good faith on a treaty on general and completedisarmament and whereas the Principles and Objectives adopted at the 1995 NPT Conferencereaffirmed that the Treaty’s ultimate goal was the complete elimination of nuclear weapons,
(1) OJ C 183, 17.7.1995, p. 47.
(2) OJ C 141, 13.5.1996, p. 258.
Thursday 28 January 19997.5.1999 EN C 128/93 Official Journal of the European Communities
E. whereas threats to the environment, the flow of refugees, ethnic tension, terrorism and international
crime are new and serious threats to security; whereas the ability to deal with various forms of conflictis increasing in importance as the security scene changes,
F. whereas the worlds resources are being exploited as if they were inexhaustible, which has led to
increasingly frequent natural and environmental disasters; whereas such local and regional ecologicalproblems may have considerable impact on international relations; regretting that this has not beenmore clearly reflected in national foreign, security and defence policies,
G. whereas conflicts throughout the world are predominantly at an intra-state rather than inter-state level
and, where inter-state conflicts do arise, they are increasingly concerned with access to or theavailability of basic vital resources, especially water, food and fuel,
H. whereas the access to and availability of such vital natural resources are inherently connected to
environmental degradation and pollution, by both cause and effect, whereas it follows logicallytherefore that conflict prevention must increasingly focus on these issues,
I. whereas all those factors, which affect the poorest and most vulnerable populations of the world most
of all, are constantly increasing the incidence of so-called environmental refugees, resulting both indirect pressure on EU immigration and justice policies, on development assistance and spending onhumanitarian aid and, indirectly, in increased security problems for the EU in the form of regionalinstability in other parts of the world,
J. whereas, according to detailed international research collated and published by the Climate Institute in
Washington, the number of environmental refugees now exceeds the number of traditionalrefugees (25 million compared with 22 million) and whereas this figure is expected to double by 2010and could well rise by substantially more on a worst-case basis,
K. whereas, since the end of the Cold War, although the management of global issues has been largely
stripped of the previously dominant ideological context and is now much less determined by thequestion of military balance, this has yet to be reflected in the UNs system of global governance byemphasising the coherence and effectiveness of both military and non-military components ofsecurity policy,
L. whereas, nonetheless, the emphasis of a growing proportion of the UN’s work on global political and
security issues is essentially non-military, and notably related to the relationship between trade, aid,the environment and sustainable development,
M. whereas there is an urgent need to mobilise adequate resources to meet the environmental challenge
and whereas very limited resources are available for environmental protection, for which reason areappraisal of the use of existing resources is called for,
N. whereas as military resources have been released the armed forces have had a unique opportunity and
ample capacity to support the civilian efforts to cope with the increasing environmental problems,
O. whereas military-related resources are by their nature national assets while the environmental
challenge is global; whereas ways must therefore be found for international cooperation in the transferand use of military resources for environmental protection,
P. whereas the short-term costs of environmental protection have to be seen in the light of the long-term
cost of doing nothing in this field, and whereas there is an increasing need for a cost benefit analysis ofvarious environmental strategies,
Q. whereas the common goal of restoring the worlds damaged ecosystems cannot be achieved in
isolation from the question of the fair exploitation of global resources and whereas there is a need tofacilitate international technical cooperation and encourage the transfer of appropriate military-relatedtechnology,
Thursday 28 January 1999C 128/94 EN 7.5.1999 Official Journal of the European Communities
R. whereas, despite the existing conventions, military research is ongoing on environmental manipula-
tion as a weapon, as demonstrated for example by the Alaska-based HAARP system,
S. whereas the general disquiet over ecological decline and environmental crises requires the setting of
priorities in the national decision-making process; whereas the individual countries must pool theirefforts in response to environmental disasters,
1. Calls on the Commission to present to the Council and Parliament a common strategy, as foreseen by
the Amsterdam Treaty, which brings together the CFSP aspects of EU policy with its trade, aid,development and international environmental policies between 2000 and 2010 so as to tackle thefollowing individual issues and the relationships between them:
(a) agricultural and food production and environmental degradation;(b) water shortages and transfrontier water supply;(c) deforestation and restoring carbon sinks;(d) unemployment, underemployment and absolute poverty;(e) sustainable development and climate change;(f) deforestation, desertification and population growth;(g) the link between all of the above and global warming and the humanitarian and environmental impact
of increasingly extreme weather events;
2. Notes that preventive environmental measures are an important instrument of security policy; calls
therefore on the Member States to define environmental and health objectives as part of their long-termdefence and security assessments, military research and action plans;
3. Recognises the important part played by the armed forces in a democratic society, their national
defence role and the fact that peace-keeping and peace-making initiatives can make a substantialcontribution to the prevention of environmental damage;
4. Points out that atmospheric and underground nuclear tests have as a result of nuclear radiation
fall-out distributed large quantities of radioactive cesium 137, strontium 90 and other cancer inducingisotopes over the whole planet and have caused considerable environmental and health damage in the testareas;
5. Calls on the Commission and the Council, given the fact that several parts of the world are threatened
by the uncontrolled, unsafe and unprofessional storage and dumping of nuclear submarines andsurface-vessels, as well as their radioactive fuel and leaking nuclear reactors, to take action, consideringthe high possibility that as a result large regions might soon start to be polluted by the radiation;
6. Demands also that an appropriate solution be found to deal with the chemical and conventional
weapons which have been dumped after both World Wars in many places in the seas around Europe as aneasy’ solution to get rid of these stocks and that up to today nobody knows what might be the ecologicalresults in the long run, in particular for the fish and for beach-life;
7. Calls on the Commission and the Council to contribute towards finding a solution to the problem
that, as result of ongoing warfare in whole regions of Africa, human and agricultural structures have beenruined and therefore the lands are now subject to environmental disaster in particular by deforestation anderosion leading to desertification;
8. Calls on the military to end all activities which contribute to damaging the environment and health
and to undertake all steps necessary to clean up and decontaminate the polluted areas;
Use of military resources for environmental purposes
9. Considers that the resources available to reverse or stem damage to the environment are inadequate
to meet the global challenge; recommends therefore that the Member States seek to utilise military-relatedresources for environmental protection by:
(a) considering which military resources can be made available to the United Nations on a temporary,
long-term or stand-by basis as an instrument for international cooperation in environmental disastersor crises;
Thursday 28 January 19997.5.1999 EN C 128/95 Official Journal of the European Communities
(b) drawing up international and European protection programmes using military personnel, equipment
and facilities made available under the Partnership for Peace for use in environmental emergencies;
(c) incorporating objectives for environmental protection and sustainable development in their security
concepts;
(d) ensuring that their armed forces comply with specific environmental rules and that damage caused by
them to the environment in the past is made good;
(e) including environmental considerations in their military research and development programmes;
10. Urges the Commission, since practical experience in the field is limited, to:
(a) establish the exchange of information on current national experience in environmental applications
for military resources;
(b) take action within the UN to facilitate the global dissemination of environmental data including such
data obtained by the use of military satellites and other information-gathering platforms;
11. Calls on the Member States to apply civil environmental legislation to all military activities and to
assume responsibility for, and pay for, the investigation, clean-up and decontamination of areas damagedby past military activity, so that such areas can be returned to civil use; this is especially important for theextensive chemical and conventional munition dumps along the coastlines of the EU;
12. Calls on all Member States to formulate environmental and health objectives and action plans so as
to enhance the measures taken by their armed forces to protect the environment and health;
13. Calls on the governments of the Member States gradually to improve the protection of the
environment by the armed forces by means of training and technical development and by giving all regularand conscript personnel basic training in environmental matters;
14. Considers that environmental strategies should be able to include monitoring the world
environment, assessing the data thus collected, coordinating scientific work and disseminating informa-tion, exploiting relevant data from national observation and monitoring systems to give a continuous andcomprehensive picture of the state of the environment;
15. Notes that the drastic fall in military expenditure could result in substantial problems in certain
regions and calls on the Member States to step up their efforts to convert military production facilities andtechnologies to produce civil goods, and for civil applications, using national programmes andCommunity initiatives such as the Konver programme;
16. Stresses the importance of stepping up preventive environmental work with a view to combating
environmental and natural disasters;
17. Calls on the Council to do more to ensure that the USA, Russia, India and China sign the 1997
Ottawa Treaty, banning anti-personnel mines, without delay;
18. Believes that the EU should do more to help the victims of landmines and to support the
development of mine clearance techniques, and that the development of mine clearance methods shouldbe accelerated;
19. Calls on the Member States to develop environmentally-sound technology for the destruction of
weapons;
20. Notes that one of the potentially most serious threats that exist on the EUs doorstep lies in the
inadequate monitoring of waste from nuclear arms processing and of biological and chemical weaponsstores and in the need for decontamination following military activity; stresses that it is important that theMember States actively promote increased international cooperation, for instance within the UN and thePartnership for Peace, with the aim of destroying such weapons in as environment-friendly a way aspossible;
21. Takes the view that all further negotiations on the reduction and the eventual elimination of nuclear
weapons must be based on the principles of mutual and balanced reduction commitments;
Thursday 28 January 1999C 128/96 EN 7.5.1999 Official Journal of the European Communities
22. Takes the view that, given the particularly difficult circumstances afflicting the countries of the
former Soviet Union, the threat to the global as well as local environment posed by the degradation of thecondition of nuclear weapons and materials still held in those countries makes it an even more urgentpriority to reach agreement on the further gradual elimination of nuclear weapons;
Legal aspects of military activities
23. Calls on the European Union to seek to have the new non-lethal weapons technology and the
development of new arms strategies also covered and regulated by international conventions;
24. Considers HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project) by virtue of its far-reaching
impact on the environment to be a global concern and calls for its legal, ecological and ethical implicationsto be examined by an international independent body before any further research and testing; regrets therepeated refusal of the United States Administration to send anyone in person to give evidence to thepublic hearing or any subsequent meeting held by its competent committee into the environmental andpublic risks connected with the HAARP programme currently being funded in Alaska;
25. Requests the Scientific and Technological Options Assessment (STOA) Panel to agree to examine
the scientific and technical evidence provided in all existing research findings on HAARP to assess theexact nature and degree of risk that HAARP poses both to the local and global environment and to publichealth generally;
26. Calls on the Commission to examine if there are environmental and public health implications of
the HAARP programme for Arctic Europe and to report back to Parliament with its findings;
27. Calls for an international convention introducing a global ban on all developments and
deployments of weapons which might enable any form of manipulation of human beings;
28. Calls on the Commission and the Council to work for the conclusion of international treaties to
protect the environment from unnecessary destruction in the event of war;
29. Calls on the Commission and the Council to work towards the establishment of international
standards for the environmental impact of peacetime military activities;
30. Calls on the Council to play an active part in the implementation of the proposals of the Canberra
Commission and Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty on nuclear disarmament;
31. Calls on the Council, and the British and French Governments in particular, to take the lead within
the framework of the NPT and the Conference on Disarmament with regard to the further negotiationstowards full implementation of the commitments on nuclear weapons reductions and elimination asrapidly as possible to a level where, in the interim, the global stock of remaining weapons poses no threatto the integrity and sustainability of the global environment;
32. Calls on the Council, the Commission and the governments of the Member States to advocate the
approach taken in this resolution in all further United Nations meetings held under the auspices of or inrelation to the NPT and the Conference on Disarmament;
33. Calls on the Council and the Commission, in accordance with Article J.7 of the Treaty on European
Union, to report to it on the Union’s position concerning the specific points contained in this resolutionwithin the context of forthcoming meetings of the United Nations, its agencies and bodies, notably the1999 Preparatory Committee of the NPT, the Conference on Disarmament and all other relevantinternational fora;
*
**
34. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments
of the Member States of the European Union and to the United Nations.