Legislative resolution embodying Parliament's opinion on the environment, security and foreign policy
Date: 1999-01-28
Institutions: Committee on Foreign Affairs, European Parliament
Subjects: common foreign and security policy, defence policy, development aid, environmental protection, sustainable development

C 128/92

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Official Journal of the European Communities

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Thursday 28 January 1999

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 (cid:145)Charting potential uses of resources allocated to military activities for

civilian endeavours to protect the environment(cid:146), 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(cid:146)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 in
general 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 but
unfounded 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’s
report  concerning,  in  particular,  the  removal  of  all  nuclear  weapons  from  the  present  (cid:145)hair  trigger
alert(cid:146) 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  (cid:145)to  pursue  negotiations  in  good  faith  on  a  treaty  on  general  and  complete
disarmament(cid:146)  and  whereas  the  Principles  and  Objectives  adopted  at  the  1995  NPT  Conference
reaffirmed 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.

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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 conflict
is increasing in importance as the security scene changes,

F.  whereas  the  world(cid:146)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 ecological
problems may have considerable impact on international relations; regretting that this has not been
more 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  the
availability 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  logically
therefore 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 (cid:145)environmental refugees(cid:146), resulting both in
direct pressure on EU immigration and justice policies, on development assistance and spending on
humanitarian aid and, indirectly, in increased security problems for the EU in the form of regional
instability 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  (cid:145)environmental  refugees(cid:146)  now  exceeds  the  number  of  (cid:145)traditional
refugees(cid:146) (25 million compared with 22 million) and whereas this figure is expected to double by 2010
and 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  the
question of military balance, this has yet to be reflected in the UN(cid:146)s system of global governance by
emphasising  the  coherence  and  effectiveness  of  both  military  and  non-military  components  of
security 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 a
reappraisal 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 transfer
and 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 of
various environmental strategies,

Q.  whereas  the  common  goal  of  restoring  the  world(cid:146)s  damaged  ecosystems  cannot  be  achieved  in
isolation from the question of the fair exploitation of global resources and whereas there is a need to
facilitate international technical cooperation and encourage the transfer of appropriate military-related
technology,

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Thursday 28 January 1999

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 their
efforts 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  the
following 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-term
defence 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  substantial
contribution 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  inducing
isotopes over the whole planet and have caused considerable environmental and health damage in the test
areas;

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  and
surface-vessels, as well as their radioactive fuel and leaking nuclear reactors, to take action, considering
the 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
(cid:145)easy’ solution to get rid of these stocks and that up to today nobody knows what might be the ecological
results 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 been
ruined and therefore the lands are now subject to environmental disaster in particular by deforestation and
erosion leading to desertification;

Calls on the military to end all activities which contribute to damaging the environment and health

8.
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-related
resources 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 disasters
or crises;

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Thursday 28 January 1999

(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 damaged
by past military activity, so that such areas can be returned to civil use; this is especially important for the
extensive chemical and conventional munition dumps along the coastlines of the EU;

Calls on all Member States to formulate environmental and health objectives and action plans so as

12.
to enhance the measures taken by their armed forces to protect the environment and health;

Calls  on  the  governments  of  the  Member  States  gradually  to  improve  the  protection  of  the
13.
environment by the armed forces by means of training and technical development and by giving all regular
and 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 and
comprehensive picture of the state of the environment;

Notes that the drastic fall in military expenditure could result in substantial problems in certain
15.
regions and calls on the Member States to step up their efforts to convert military production facilities and
technologies  to  produce  civil  goods,  and  for  civil  applications,  using  national  programmes  and
Community initiatives such as the Konver programme;

Stresses the importance of stepping up preventive environmental work with a view to combating

16.
environmental and natural disasters;

Calls on the Council to do more to ensure that the USA, Russia, India and China sign the 1997

17.
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 should
be accelerated;

Calls on the Member States to develop environmentally-sound technology for the destruction of

19.
weapons;

Notes that one of the potentially most serious threats that exist on the EU(cid:146)s doorstep lies in the
20.
inadequate monitoring of waste from nuclear arms processing and of biological and chemical weapons
stores and in the need for decontamination following military activity; stresses that it is important that the
Member States actively promote increased international cooperation, for instance within the UN and the
Partnership  for  Peace,  with  the  aim  of  destroying  such  weapons  in  as  environment-friendly  a  way  as
possible;

Takes the view that all further negotiations on the reduction and the eventual elimination of nuclear

21.
weapons must be based on the principles of mutual and balanced reduction commitments;

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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 the
condition of nuclear weapons and materials still held in those countries makes it an even more urgent
priority to reach agreement on the further gradual elimination of nuclear weapons;

Legal aspects of military activities

Calls  on  the  European  Union  to  seek  to  have  the  new  (cid:145)non-lethal(cid:146)  weapons  technology  and  the

23.
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 implications
to be examined by an international independent body before any further research and testing; regrets the
repeated  refusal  of  the  United  States  Administration  to  send  anyone  in  person  to  give  evidence  to  the
public hearing or any subsequent meeting held by its competent committee into the environmental and
public 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 the
exact nature and degree of risk that HAARP poses both to the local and global environment and to public
health generally;

Calls on the Commission to examine if there are environmental and public health implications of

26.
the HAARP programme for Arctic Europe and to report back to Parliament with its findings;

Calls  for  an  international  convention  introducing  a  global  ban  on  all  developments  and

27.
deployments of weapons which might enable any form of manipulation of human beings;

Calls on the Commission and the Council to work for the conclusion of international treaties to

28.
protect the environment from unnecessary destruction in the event of war;

Calls  on  the  Commission  and  the  Council  to  work  towards  the  establishment  of  international

29.
standards for the environmental impact of peacetime military activities;

Calls on the Council to play an active part in the implementation of the proposals of the Canberra

30.
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 negotiations
towards  full  implementation  of  the  commitments  on  nuclear  weapons  reductions  and  elimination  as
rapidly as possible to a level where, in the interim, the global stock of remaining weapons poses no threat
to 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 in
relation 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 resolution
within the context of forthcoming meetings of the United Nations, its agencies and bodies, notably the
1999  Preparatory  Committee  of  the  NPT,  the  Conference  on  Disarmament  and  all  other  relevant
international fora;

*

*

*

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments

34.
of the Member States of the European Union and to the United Nations.