WRITTEN QUESTION E-1256/00 by Armando Cossutta (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Radioactive bombs in Kosovo.
Date: 2000-04-14
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Commission, Kosovo, common foreign and security policy, creation of nuclear-free zones, nuclear weapon, powers of the institutions (EU), radioactive pollution

C 72 E/32

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

6.3.2001

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(23 May 2000)

The Commission is not currently planning measures to ensure judicial cooperation with regard to the
international abduction of minors.

With regard to the harmonisation of the provisions of the Member States relating to the recognition of
child custody arrangements, the Commission(cid:146)s scoreboard includes measures on mutual recognition in civil
matters, including family matters. Moreover, a seminar, to be attended by the Commission, will be held in
Paris on 3 and 4 July 2000 in order to discuss mutual recognition. The French Presidency will be giving
priority to an initiative to launch a European enforcement order in respect of family matters (visiting
rights).

The Commission has no powers top constrain the Member States to apply the Hague Convention in the
appropriate manner.

(2001/C 72 E/036)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1256/00

by Armando Cossutta (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(14 April 2000)

Subject: Radioactive bombs in Kosovo

During last eleven weeks of the war in Kosovo, NATO aircraft dropped depleted uranium bombs in
quantities amounting to hundreds of kilos of radioactive material.

The bombs, devised as anti-tank weapons, are fairly cheap since depleted uranium is a by-product of other
processes. They release a very fine uranium oxide powder (the diameter of each particle is 400 times
smaller that that of a grain of sand), which is dispersed over tens of kilometres by the wind or carried in
surface water. The radioactivity produced in this way is extremely dangerous if inhaled or ingested as it
causes internal contamination. The uranium particles are easily soluble in body fluids and lodge in the
victim(cid:146)s organs, such as kidneys, liver and bones.

People in the contaminated area thus suffer serious damage to their organism, as a result of radiation or
direct contamination.

From the experience of the Gulf War, when similar bombs were used and hundreds of US soldiers are still
suffering the effects, it has emerged that the most immediate effects on human beings include cancer,
leukaemia, miscarriages and congenital malformations and diseases of the liver and nervous system. Then
there are the long-term effects on the environment.

Does the Commission:

1. Not consider that it is necessary to adopt measures to ascertain the extent of the radioactive pollution

in Kosovo?

2. Not think it should encourage decontamination measures?

3. Not think it should introduce a specific screening programme for high risk groups, such as pregnant

women and children?

4. Not consider it necessary to promote an international campaign to ban depleted uranium bombs?

6.3.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 72 E/33

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(14 June 2000)

The Commission would refer the Honourable Member to the replies which it has already given to Oral
Questions H-429/99 by Mr Alavanos and H-431/99 by Mr Papayannakis during question time at
Parliament(cid:146)s September 1999 part-session (1) and to Written Question E-1481/99 by Mr Manisco (2).

In response to the first question raised by the Honourable Member, two studies have been carried out to
ascertain, inter alia, whether there was radioactive pollution as a result of the use of depleted uranium
bombs in Kosovo. The first assessment, financed by the Commission, was a preliminary assessment of the
environmental impact of the Kosovo conflict, and was carried out by the Regional environment centre for
Central and Eastern Europe. This report is available on their website: www.rec.org. A more detailed
assessment was then carried out by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Balkans Task
Force (cid:129) the report of which is available on their website: www.grid.unep.ch. Both of these reports
concluded that the Kosovo conflict did not cause an environmental catastrophe for the region.

In light of this, it was not felt necessary to introduce measures such as suggested in the next two questions
posed by the Honourable Member. Nonetheless, the Commission, through its humanitarian office (ECHO)
and through its Task Force Kosovo, now replaced by the Reconstruction Agency, has taken a leading role
in the broader international effort to address other identified issues, particularly in the field of water
treatment. It is also supporting a regional environmental reconstruction programme, within the framework
of the Stability Pact, which will assist in environmental reconstruction throughout the wider Balkans
region.

The Commission has not been able to consider the wider issue of whether depleted uranium bombs should
be banned because it has no competencies in the field of weapons.

(1) Debates of the European Parliament (September 1999).
(2) OJ C 203 E, 18.7.2000, p. 2.

(2001/C 72 E/037)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1261/00

by Camilo Nogueira RomÆn (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(19 April 2000)

Subject: Relocating the Empresa Nacional de Celulosa-Electroqu(cid:237)mica del Noroeste (ENCE-ELNOSA) indus-

trial complex, located in the town of Pontevedra on the estuary of the same name in Galicia

The industrial complex comprising the public undertakings ENCE, which produces paper pulp, and Elnosa,
which produces chlorine, is located a few hundred yards from the town centre of Pontevedra, on the banks
of the estuary of that name, and close to the town and port of Mar(cid:237)n. At the present time the complex is a
contributory factor to the steady deterioration of the shellfish and fish-rich waters of the estuary, and
spoils living conditions in the towns concerned thanks to the air pollution it produces, seriously hindering
both towns(cid:146) urban development. If the chemical plant did not exist, Pontevedra and Mar(cid:237)n would form a
single town planning area. The space occupied by the factories and by a vast lagoon into which their waste
water is discharged, is on the coast, in one of the most richly endowed natural areas in Galicia.

The industrial complex stands on land held under an administrative concession, which is legally bound to
run out in the year 2018, under Article 62(2) of the Spanish law on coastlines. Furthermore, the complex
is illegal. In 1989 the threat it represents, and unremitting protests by local people, forced the Galician
Government to sign an agreement with ENCE on limits for discharges into the sea, as a pre-condition for
using a drainage channel to take the waste waters to the middle of the estuary, and in 1991 the
government ruled that Elnosa was to be temporarily closed down. ENCE failed to meet the terms of the
agreement signed, with the result that as late as 1998, the Galician Government was still refusing to allow