Resolution on the disaster in Cermis (Italy) and the verdict of the United States court-martial
Date: 1999-03-11
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: Autonomous Province of Trento, Italy, United States, aircraft, military court, vocational guidance

C 175/250

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

21.6.1999

Thursday 11 March 1999

Asks  to  be  consulted  again  should  the  Council  intend  to  make  substantial  modifications  to  the

3.
Commission proposal;

4.

Instructs its President to forward this opinion to the Council and Commission.

5.  Cermis disaster in Italy

B4-0272, 0295 and 0317/99

Resolution on the disaster in Cermis (Italy) and the verdict of the United States court-martial

The European Parliament,

−  having regard to its resolution of 19 February 1998 on the tragedy at Monte Cermis (1) caused by the
severing on 3 February 1998 of the cables of a ski-lift by a US military aircraft, killing 20 people of
Italian, Belgian, German, Austrian, Dutch and Polish nationality,

A.  whereas, in a verdict delivered by the court-martial in Camp Lejeune in the United States, the pilot of

the aircraft was cleared of the charges levelled against him,

B.  whereas the inquiry by the Italian judicial authorities had clearly shown that the rules of aviation had

been violated, causing the disaster,

C.  whereas the pilot and crew of the US military aircraft were tried by an American court-martial on the
basis of the 1951 London Convention between the NATO member states on the status of their armed
forces,  enabling  the  country  to  which  the  military  personnel  belong  to  have  full  jurisdiction  in
criminal and disciplinary proceedings,

D.  whereas the President of the United States had personally pledged to ensure that responsibility was

assigned and compensation paid to the families of the victims,

1.
Expresses its concern at a judgment which, in the way that it was formulated, has failed to assign any
responsibility for a disaster that claimed 20 civilian lives and has been judged unacceptable by the victims’
families;

2.
Calls  for  the  United  States  authorities  to  make  use  of  all  available  judicial  and  administrative
procedures to continue and complete the inquiry into the disaster in order to assign direct and indirect
responsibility for it and ensure that the families of the victims are fairly compensated;

Notes the statement by the President of the United States on the judgment clearing the pilot of all
3.
charges and calls for the United States Administration to provide the victims’ families with compensation
without further delay;

4.
Calls on the EU Member States that are members of NATO to encourage the taking of coordinated
measures to revise the London Convention in order to ensure that responsibility for incidents or violations
of the law brought about by NATO armed forces stationed in various countries is properly determined;

5.
Calls on the Council and Commission, in conjunction with the governments of the Member States
concerned, to promote the adoption of a Joint Action aimed at improving the safety conditions governing
military training activities in the air or on the ground in areas inhabited by civilian populations;

6.
Instructs  its  President  to  forward  this  resolution  to  the  Council,  the  Commission  and  the
governments and parliaments of Austria, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Italy and Poland, the President of
the United States and the Secretary-General of NATO.

(1)  OJ C 80, 16.3.1998, p. 247.